a small surprise 50th b-day party

Welcome to my wonderful mother-in-law's very girly surprise 50th birthday party!

I was all about the streamers for this party. Goodbye, standard, plain, old store bought streamers and hello, customized, funky, cutesie ones! I took 3 small spools of streamers in yellow, pink, and red, and cut them by hand to have 3 different looks (fringy, wavy, and skinny).

 

I couldn't go overboard with making lots of banners for this surprise party as I normally do because I had to keep the decorations minimal and tucked away, out of sight from the front door. I didn't want the b-day girl to pick up on any clues upon entering until she caught sight of all of us jumping out, yelling, "surprise!" 

 

I love how this banner turned out! Can you tell I was going for the Chinese lantern look?





How festive are these left-over streamers running down the table, especially with the color coordinating flower arrangements?!? Carnations are the birthday girl's favorite flower and yellow is her favorite color, so of course it had to be a focal color throughout all of the decorations.

I made this birthday princess crown from some of the same scrapbook paper I used in the banner, continuing on with the yellow and pink color scheme. (I removed the temporary bulldog clip as soon as the guest of honor arrived and I was able to staple the crown to fit hear head perfectly.)

I hand-cut pale yellow, pink, and red tissue paper strips in 3 different sizes and edging styles to make this fringe garland for the chandelier and then I swagged thinly cut, bright yellow and pink streamers over it. A little time consuming, but extremely cheap and easy and talk about adorable! The pale pink zigzag strips were my favorite part!

my little balloon wall - another cheap, easy, and super cool scene-setter that just takes a bit of lung power :)

I had intended for this to be my photo booth backdrop for pictures, but once the party got rolling, I forgot all about it! Oh well, it served as an excellent decoration piece none-the-less!

I had to throw in just one cliche, black and white, "over the hill" item.

This was too funny! One of the 50 year old paraphernalia that the b-day girl had waiting for her at the table.