Handmade Birthday - Prepwork

As I mentioned in a previous post, I want to keep things simple (inexpensive, uncomplicated) for my little guy's birthday. But I do want to make it special with some handmade items. I love handmade things, but I also like to reuse things and try to avoid waste (and consuming/buying stuff).  I guess that's the theme for this birthday. (I hadn't planned on a theme, but this is as close to one as I got.)

For example: I had saved a bunch of fabric triangles I had cut from free remnant fabric my mom gave me when I was pregnant with Delicious. I had planned to make bunting for my baby shower, but decided to just forget it. But I saved them. And this weekend, I hot glued them on to twine. Instant bunting decoration for baby's first birthday! Cost: $2 for the twine. We'll use these year after year!

Me cutting the fabric triangles, ostensibly, for the baby shower over a year ago. Now they'll finally be put to use for Delicious' 1 year birthday.

I also made a few hats for the wee little ones. I found the pattern for the paper hat online and then designed the labels and added the tuft at the top using bakers twine (I'll try to do a tutorial later). I had everything on hand, and just tried to be creative with what I had: Kraft card stock, bakers twine and my printer. As luck would also have it, we went to an estate sale the previous weekend, and I purchased a giant box of ribbon for $10. In the box, was this awesome red cording. Perfect! I estimate that the cost of the cording for this project was about $0.20

Simple party hats I designed from stuff I had on hand

Speaking of the estate sale, we also got these GREAT bamboo party trays. We got 24 of them for $12. They're perfect for when you don't have enough table space. Guests can eat off their laps! We'll get a lot of use out of these. (G's mom has these as well, and you see them in use in my baby shower post.)

Bamboo party trays

 We had a ton of candy left over from Halloween, so I thought they'd be great as party favors. I cut up some grocery bags with pinking sheers, sewed them into a pocket and printed out some labels I designed to match the party hats. Cost: $0. Again, I did it with whatever I had on hand.

Recycled grocery bag party favor envelope

All for this little guy!

I feel good about recycling, repurposing, and reusing (bonus that some of the things are unique and made just for Delicious)! Honestly, we could probably buy a bunch of stuff and throw it away. But that just really bothers me. I'm no hippy, but there's just something about waste that is kind of ridiculous. Creative conservation (and limiting consumption) is something I want to instill Delicious as he grows older!