Pinterest inspired. Micah's woodland birthday party details.

I know, I know. This is an old post, but I am linking up with Kodi for this post because I never got to show off my Woodland Birthday Party for my son! So here ya go!

Caution: this is full of picture overload. It all started with a woodland themed nursery for my son back in 2010. I would probably redo half of it now if I had the funds thanks to Pinterest. That turned into an obsession of sorts of all things woodland, so I started this woodland themed birthday party post to store some of my ideas for this day. Then I finally joined Pinterest, and suffice to say...most of this was Pinterest inspired for sure!

Well, Micah's birthday party crept up on me quite quickly, and before I knew it...my Pinterest board needed to be put into place on a budget! Luckily, I am a teacher so I can craft with the best of them. Give me a little time and inspiration and I can come up with some of my own stuff pretty easily. So I did this post just to show the inspiration and the details of the party. I'll do a separate post for the party itself.

First up, I found this picture for a woodland themed party, and I loved the idea of using paper lanterns instead of lots of balloons. I pinned it, and you can see the post below. Quite the eye candy, but I live in Memphis. There is no beautiful woodland backdrop in the view of my window. I don't even have a formal dining room.

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So I made some changes. First, I used paper lanterns from Dollar Tree & Hobby Lobby. I hung them with links that Micah used to use as a baby. I thought that was a whimsical way to incorporate where he came from to where he is going now. It also allowed me to hang the paper lanterns in different lengths to try to create the effect of the above Pinterest picture. Since it was woodland themed, I kept it simple with white and green.

(Forgive the picture quality. My mother bought me an awesome camera the day before the party, but I had no idea how to use it. Some of the pictures didn't come out like I wanted, so I tried to "edit" them in Picnik.)

Then, I hung up a banner borrowed from my sister from my nephew's first birthday. I had a super skinny pop up table that I got out and covered with another Dollar Tree table cloth find. I made the scrapbook paper tree (more on that later) and the owl goody bags that I put in a basket as a table decoration.

The balloons came from the First Wishes Look Whoo's One line. We bought the plates, the cups, and two balloons to keep the cost down.

The next detail of the party was the cupcake toppers. This was actually not on Pinterest. I found this link (source below) when I googled "free printables woodland party" online one day. I did end up pinning it, and I see it has been repinned countless times now. Maybe I started something! (Yeah, right.)

Here was the internet inspiration for Micah's cupcakes:

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The site had separate "cupcake toppers" that you could print off and cut out, and the site also had free downloadable stickers to use as party favors. I decided to use the stickers as cupcake toppers because I wouldn't have to cut them out. I stuck them to each other, and my mom suggested applique sticks as the topper stick. So that is what we did!

The cupcake table:

Up close, the homemade and hand decorated cupcakes on the cupcake tree.

The site also had printable cupcake wrappers of little woodland trees. My mom graciously cut these out after we printed them, and we taped them together to make cupcake wrappers that matched the theme. She also assembled the cupcake toppers for me while I was at work. Thanks, KayKay!

I think they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! Not too far off the inspiration, and basically we paid for some printing labels ($20, but I'm a teacher so I can use them again for something).

Also on the same website, I found these ideas. I loved the ideas of blueberries, but it didn't top my list. Neither did the straw flags, but I loved the popcorn printables! Especially for all of Micah's little friends (all the ages of 1-5). I liked how they used a very organic basket, and popping popcorn seemed like an easy enough task. So here is the inspiration:

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Here is my version! I had some leftover cupcake toppers that I stuck inside our "popcorn pockets". I placed them inside different organic baskets that we had. My mom (again) graciously cut these out while I was at work. We assembled them at my house, and I filled them with popcorn the day of the party.

They occupied the back part of the food table in between a bird house I set up on an empty candle holder as another centerpiece.

My next Pinterest inspired birthday party idea came in the form of these cute, easy acorns!

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Here's my version. There were a few differences. One major difference is that my mom ran a few errands for me while I was at work. (Are you noticing that I couldn't have done this by myself? Thanks, Mama!) I forgot to tell her to get glazed donut holes, so ours were assorted. No big deal! I think it turned out better since people were saying things like, "I want to try a blueberry one. I want to try a powdered one."

Another difference was she used Nutella, and we used whipped canned frosting. Instead of chocolate sprinkles, we used matching fall sugar sprinkles to coordinate with the cupcakes. I still think they came out great. In fact, I'd say the acorns were the hit of the party. Thanks, Pinterest!

Pinterest inspired party food #2 were these super cute birds' nest cookies!

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Since it is December and not March, I wasn't able to find Cadberry eggs like she used. I thought about using jelly beans (she also used), but in my hurry I forgot to pick them up at the store. In the end, my mom and I whipped these up in about fifteen minutes. Soooo cute and soooo delish!

For extra fun, I added some Chex Mix which I called "Owl Chow" instead. I saw that on some blog somewhere, but I can't find it. So sorry to not give credit where it is due!

Then my friend Morgan made this great smash cake for Micah. (Let me know if you want her contact details in the Memphis area.) I opted out of a big cake for everyone since there is always so much leftover. I wanted to make it myself since I took a cake decorating class, and I ran out of time.

Just a few more.

My Pinspiration for the party favors:

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Owl goody bags turned party decor on the table:

I made these using Dollar Tree party bags and scrapbooking paper.

Then I found this awesome scrapbook paper tree on Pinterest:

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You can read about my version and the details here. This was the finished version below.

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This was on the free printables site I told you about above:

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I decided to do this instead. I made it myself using scrapbook paper. You can read about it here.

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Micah's future birthday plate (which I made at a painting store) and the best wishes sign in table on owl scrapbook paper. (My plan is to make a scrapbook of his first year and place this in the back. Someday! We also had a chili bar, barbeque cocktail sausages, and cheese dip for our main entrees along with lemonade for drink.

Also, party invitations were designed by my friend Amy at Write Designs by Amy. Check her website out if you need something cute. She ships all over the USA.

And I'll leave you with one fun photo of our family pre-birthday party madness (Micah wasn't dressed in his outfit yet). You'll have to come back for the full birthday party play by play post. If you weren't too bored from this one already! Haha!

So there ya go! No excuses! Get out there and become Pinspired! I did it, and I'm a full time working mom. I think it was worth every ounce of my time to make a special day for the little man. He won't ever care about the details, but I loved planning it for him. I loved thinking outside of the box and using creative means to save money. At the same time, I think I got the "expensive" or "one of a kind" party feel I was going for.

You can see more ideas on my Pinterest board here. There are a lot more things I wanted to do (including some super cute ice cream cones used as trees!) but didn't have time. Feel free to go check it out. Become a Twitter follower by looking me up @confidentblog.

Until then, happy pinning!

I linked up with another blog for a chance to win a Kindle Fire. I have to add this to the post. "I am sharing my holiday home decor and cleaning tips for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls and Great Cleaners."