Our boys Jack and Peter share the same birthday month, so we figured what better way to celebrate than a joint birthday party with our friends and family!
THE THEME!
The boys are into all things on the go, especially construction vehicles. I knew I wanted to make a little backdrop (turned out a little larger, with no surprise there lol!) They get a birthday party once a year so I’ve decided I’m going to make it memorable!
CONSTRUCTION VESTS/HATS
I was super excited to put this together for the kids. The party favors where safety vests and construction hats… and of course I had to personalize them! I ordered this construction worker set off Amazon which worked out great! I used the “stencil” font to make the kids’ names in HTV (heat transfer vinyl) for the vests and permanent vinyl (oracle 651) for the hats. Low and slow for the HTV was key to getting the names to fully adhere to the vests without over heating and burning. I had two casualties trying to rush this process! 1q
BUILD STATION
The kids had a blast at the “build” station using these cardboard building blocks. They came flat so Jack and I constructed the set of 40 blocks, which he loved, and it was fun to watch the kids build all kinds of structures!
DECORATIONS
DIY PARTY BACKDROP
I purchased this 3 Pack of arched backdrop frames. I thought about making arches out of plywood but ultimately decided it would be significantly cheaper and easier to store this set. I tried coming up with alternative ways to cover these arches, but purchasing black spandex fabric and using clips/ clamps on the backside to pull the material tight ended up being the easiest and looking the best.
Sticking with the construction theme, I purchased two sheets of 4ft. X 8 ft. Sheathing Panel (rough unfinished plywood) at $20 board, knowing that I’d use them in a future project.
I used my Cricut to cut out the lettering “Happy Birthday Jack & Peter” in oracle 651 vinyl. I then used my laser level to project a straight line so I could place the lettering level on the arched backdrop. The vinyl is sticky enough to place (and reposition as needed,) but not permanent so I am able to use the fabric for the next party!
DIY BALLOON ARCH
If you’re overwhelmed when you see a balloon arch, don’t be! As long as you have a few basic materials and a little confidence you’ll be good to go!
For me this balloon pump is a no brainer! Best twenty bucks I spent on amazon that week lol!
Balloon tape strips and glue dots are a must have! Once the balloons are blown just them in the tape strip and then hang/drape the strip along the backdrop! Glue dots can be used to add smaller balloons as fillers.
DIY LARGE (ACTUALLY, HUGE) CUTOUTS
I searched high and low for ideas on how to make really big (actually massive,) cutouts and couldn’t find anything. Even printing off poster size would have been very expensive and not big enough for the scale I was hoping, so here’s what I came up with!
I purchased foam board insulation which comes in 4×8′ sheets. These are lightweight but I felt sturdy enough for what I needed. I purchased PNG downloads from this shop on Etsy. The important part of this process is to make sure the file can be printed in large scale. If you try to use a random picture from, say google images, it’ll likely be very blurry if you try to print largescale. Once downloaded, I opened the file in Microsoft Paint. I clicked Print, then Page Setup where the scaling needed to be adjusted. For reference, I scaled the dump truck at 170% and it printed out at roughly 5’x 4′ in size. Once printed (on standard computer paper), I cut the unprinted edges, used Elmers glue stick and glued them together on the foam board. Then I used my X-Acto knife to cut the vehicles out. I found it easiest to cut out the small inside negative spaces first (like the windows) then move to the outside border. And there you have it… Super cool huge cutouts!
I placed recycled packing material from amazon orders along the bottom of the backdrop around the vehicles to sort of look like dirt and add a little texture to the display. These construction vehicles are now in Jack’s room as wall decor and he loves them!
Here’s the video tutorial below on how to make these DIY Huge Cutouts!
This “Under Construction” streamer comes in a 95′ length and was the perfect simple, but so on-theme addition to the decorations. We have textured walls and I found that clear glue dots worked great and also came off without ruining my walls!
Asking guests to take their shoes is always a little awkward. I put this sign right behind this cute little wheel barrow we’d already had. It looked cute and worked great!
DESSERT TABLE
Who doesn’t like a little sugar?!! We had some fun construction themed desserts like “dirt,” rice crispy “paintbrushes,” and construction shaped sugar cookies.
The “dirt” is super simple to make (just look up any number of recipes on pinterest. I used this one here.) A super fun addition to this little dessert are these shovel shaped spoons!
We also made these rice crispy treats put on a popsicle stick (I used short rounded wide ones,) dipped in colored chocolate to look like paint. So easy and so fun! we made these on the smaller side (about 2×1.5″) and packaged in cellophane bags for freshness.
The dessert table was complete with small construction shaped sugar cookies, my favorite pizzelles, chocolate covered pretzel rods, mini cupcakes with construction vehicle toppers and small 1st birthday smash cake. Too funny… we didn’t even get to the smash cake lol! I literally threw this cake together 20 minutes before the party started. I used one of the boys’ toy trucks and added these really cool and tasty chocolate rocks I found at Hobby Lobby!
We did have other food too lol! With a summer party in TX I decided to keep it super easy and fresh. We had pizza, veggies, fruit, kids food pouches and individual chip bags!
We had so much fun celebrating Jack and Peter’s birthdays! I had a blast planning and putting together this construction themed party. I can’t wait to plan more birthday parties in the future and try some more DIYs. I’d love to hear if you’ve done this theme or plan to do it!