My 4 year old daughter had been asking for months to have a “Frozen” princess party at our house for her birthday. Since she will be going into kindergarten next year and will likely be losing interest in princesses after that, I went for it. I didn’t want to go buy tons of licensed Frozen items, so I’m sharing with you how I threw a DIY Frozen birthday party on a budget!
Frozen Food Table with Backdrop
I turned the bay window area of our kitchen into the focal point of the party.
I closed the blinds on my windows, then put blue plastic tablecloths
The finishing touch was tissue pom poms. You can DIY from scratch, which I’ve done before. But I prefer to save myself some of the work by buying ready-to-fluff pom poms from Dollar Tree. I got a variety including small light blue ones, large dark blue poms, and white & silver extra-large poms (not on their website but I found them in-store).
On the table, I layered a lace plastic tablecloth over the same light blue tablecloths as I used on the windows above. Frozen figures from Party City along with blue plates and napkins completed the table.
DIY Frozen Birthday Party Decorations
In the living room, we prepared a royal place for our visiting Snow Queen, Elsa, to sit.
A silver and blue tassel garland really made the mantel pop. I bought the tassel garland kits from Dollar Tree and then assembled them. I combined 1.5 of the kits on to one garland string to make it more dense. Here’s a similar garland from Dollar Tree.
On the mantel itself, I taped a “5” balloon to the ledge. I printed off pictures and scenes from Frozen in a 4″ x 6″ size and displayed them in coordinating frames I already owned. Budget decorations for sure!
Otherwise, I just added small touches throughout the house using items I already owned. I wrote “Let it Go” in dry erase marker on my hanging platter in the kitchen, and I cut a paper Frozen placemat (from a Dollar Tree pack) and displayed it on my wooden clipboard.
Frozen Birthday Snowflake Wands
As something to play with at the party and a fun party favor, I made Frozen snowflake wands.
I was inspired by this Pinterest post and feeling crafty, plus I knew my daughter would love helping me paint them. I gathered the snowflakes, dowel rods, and ribbons from Hobby Lobby, and otherwise I just used craft supplies I already had on hand. Here’s what you need:
- Wood snowflakes
- Wood dowel rods
- Turquoise acrylic paint
- White acrylic paint
- Mod Podge coating in matte
- Extra fine glitter in “Crystal”
- Hot glue gun
- Assorted blue, white, and silver ribbons
To create the snowflake wands…
- Paint dowel rods white. Let these dry leaning up against something slightly elevated.
- Paint one side and edges of snowflakes turquoise. Let dry and paint other side.
- Hot glue snowflakes to dowel rods. I used a fair amount of glue on the back of the snowflake and rolled the dowel rod in it to make it extra secure.
- Brush mod podge on front of snowflake and dust with glitter.
- Once dry, mod podge the back of the snowflake and dust with glitter.
- Cut ribbons to similar lengths, knot in the middle, and hot glue to the front of the dowel rod.
I displayed the wands in vases I had on hand. They looked so cute, and the girls loved them!
Elsa Frozen Bracelet Craft
As an activity before Elsa arrived, the girls made Elsa-colored bracelets. But before I get into that, didn’t this table turn out cute?! I snagged a package of 12 Frozen paper placemats for $1 at Dollar Tree. The black tablecloth and blue sequin runner were very affordable from Amazon, and I’ll reuse in the future.
Six different types of beads in clear plastic cups were lined up down the table, so all the girls would be able to reach some. I bought the beads at Hobby Lobby when their beads were 50% off, and it made this activity so affordable! Sparkly stretch beading cord made any part of the bracelet not covered by beads still cute. But it was doozy to knot and only my husband could get it tied tight enough. Just a fair warning!
Here’s the bracelet my daughter made. Really cute and a fun item for each girl to take home!
Elsa Ice Castle Cake
As the final touch to the DIY Frozen birthday party, I made a 4-layer birthday cake using 2 – 9″ cake pans and 2 – 6″ cake pans. I don’t normally make layer cakes but love the taste of homemade icing so much more than store-made! It may have been a little uneven despite my best trimming efforts, but I was pleased with my homemade approach.
To decorate the cake, I used blue and clear rock candies, white sixlets, and sparkling white sprinkles on the top of the cake. The silver sparkle “5” is from Hobby Lobby.
I made the Frozen cut-outs myself. I saved Anna, Elsa, and Olaf images from online and copy/pasted a mirror image (you can do this in Microsoft Paint). Then I print them on cardstock, carefully cut them out, and used to double-stick tape to mount both “sides” of the image to trimmed wooden skewers. It wasn’t too time-consuming and was another budget-saver!
What are your tricks for throwing birthday parties on a budget?
P.S. If you’d like to just place a big Amazon order and not go to multiple stores, check out this shopping list!