Happy Birthday Party

I just turned another year older.  I don't know how old, but one more than last year.
I decided to do a much smaller theme this year to make it a bit simpler for me, after all it is my birthday.  I also could not think of a particular theme I would like.  I always tease PB and Mr. Husband and say I am going to just buy a set of corresponding party goods at a party store (Shirt Tales, He-Man, Pound Puppies...etc.  It's been a while since I have been to those stores! Ha!) and be done with it.

Then that gave me the idea to have a vintage themed birthday party like one from the mid century.  I am sure there were some party supplies with famous kiddy cartoon characters but not as overly abundant as today.  I searched on ebay for a bit until I came across this partially used set (only 6) of party napkins.  I absolutely love the illustrations so I decided to make them my theme.

I scanned the image and made my own decorated paper cups and banners along with using the colors of the napkin in the paper products.  I stuck the images to the cups using  double sided tape.
Since the vintage napkin shows bits of square confetti, I made my own by cutting up crepe paper streamers.

I bought a yellow bed sheet from a thrift and used it as a table cloth.  Next I laid out the vintage napkins, opened, and some confetti sprinkled about, on top of the fabric.  I then covered everything with a clear vinyl table covering, which I also picked up new in it's package at a thrift.

For party hats, we made our own from newspaper, like the kiddies on the napkin.  Mr. Husband also wrapped my gifts in newspaper.

I made the cake topper from printed images of the cutie birthday kids and laminated them for icing protection and stability.  I made the cat and dog "balloons" like the ones they carry on the napkin from bits of crepe paper streamer and the wire "string" is from bread ties with the paper stripped off.  I also did some DIY on the cake sprinkles.  I already had some orange sprinkles in my stash but not yellow or blue.  I knew that I would not use these colors in the future so best not to buy them.  I made my own by dying some white sprinkles I had the two colors.  I did it the same way you dye coconut.  I placed some of the white sprinkles in a little glass jar with a lid and dripped in a bit of food coloring such as the type used for dying Easter eggs and then gave it some shakes to distribute the color.  I then poured the sprinkles out onto a cookie sheet to let them air dry.  They worked really well I thought, cheap too!

I only decorated the dining room table instead of my norm of removing everything in sight such as wall hangings, plants, lamps, and nick knacks.  This did help with simplifying matters for myself.

It was fun finding a cute vintage birthday piece to use as inspiration.  I think I may do this for my future birthdays, then when I have a decent sized collection, showcase all of them together for my birthday decor, there on out.

Here are the scans from the napkin, all four sides, if anyone would like to use them in their own birthday ornamentation!