Easy Ice Cream Theme Birthday Party

Before we get lost in the sea of all things autumnal heading our way, I wanted to share our end of summer birthday bonanza - an Ice Cream Themed Birthday Party!

I pulled this together for my 12yr old daughter's big day.  It's been a challenging summer for us, so we wanted a day of celebration and fun for everyone that wouldn't make me stress out trying to over-craft an entire party...which I have done a number of times.  

You can find all my other DIY Parties HERE.

I used some free clip art, fonts and iPiccy editing to make this digital party invitation:

I found the ideal ice cream themed "party paper products in a box" set on Amazon which gave me most of the mainstay items in one fell swoop and was a real bargain at $28.  Of course it's "currently unavailable" now, but the brand was Blue Panda.

Ice cream cone shaped plates, matching napkins, cups and flatware for 24 people:

Dessert plates and plastic tablecloth were included too, plus an ice cream shaped birthday bunting, which was a nice detail for the table.  I reused a hot pink felt cut-out table runner leftover from our previous Sewing Themed Birthday Party.

The paper set even came with balloons and some nice matching gift bags and I also bought this cute little cardboard ice cream truck centerpiece to add a little more decor fun:

I got a pack of foam ice cream poppers to do double duty as party favors & decorations.  These were a big hit with all ages:

 The cake was done by our favorite local bakery, Sorella's.  I saw a round cake online that had ice cream cones on the sides with frosting "scoops" and thought that kind of design would be ideal, just made bigger as a sheet cake.  There's usually squabbling over the cake section with the most frosting, so this way everyone got it!

Fortunately I also had this cute ice cream-themed gift bag in my stash from a previous family birthday (saving party bags = win), to tie into our theme:

 My big DIY party contribution was making this ice cream truck piñata:

 It took a bit of planning to design, but it came together just as I hoped and was really inexpensive to make. We love having birthday piñatas, but I just can't see spending $20+ on a store bought one, only to beat the heck out of it and throw it out.  This one literally cost me $5 plus the candy inside!

I even added some last minute personalization to make it extra special:

To complete our tablescape (and hide a broken window that was being replaced a few days later) I got this ice cream parlor backdrop - also from Amazon.  I figured we could use it for some fun photoshoots and, with a 1yr old daughter added to our now large family birthday list, more parties down the road.  I flanked it with some of the party set balloons, which were a perfect color match:

Overall, we were able to have a fun styled party, but without all the expense and headaches they usually entail to pull together.  That made both mom, and the birthday girl, happy:)

Check out some of my other DIY Parties: