The scene of our Book Club birthday party was set by surrounding our literary enthusiasts with books and words at every angle.
Our kitchen island was transformed into a temporary library–it’s shelves lined with our heroine’s favorite books (that would have been more meticulously styled, if I had had time to rearrange them all, rather than have the kids quickly stash them there).
A bookshelf from my bedroom, placed atop the granite counter, created a centerpiece of epic proportions.
Shelves were adorned with handmade banners, cut from the pages of dollar store books, and strung from purple striped bakers’ twine. With the assistance of my Silhouette machine, black card stock letters were cut to spell the birthday girl’s name and wish for happy birthday.
My daughter has been enamored with the color purple for sometime now, so to capture her personality, splashes of purple were incorporated through out the party. Purple crepe paper rosettes embellished each pennant and backed the letters forming her birthday banner.
The food and favors that adorned our display will be described in full descriptive detail in a subsequent chapter.
A couple of vases of flowers (one freshly spray-painted for the occasion) finished the display by adding splashes of color and femininity.
The backdrop of our library was comprised of paper fans crafted by taking several pages from a book, taping them together, folding them accordion-style, attaching the edges, and then pressing the center of the circle together with hot glue. Each fan dangled from a length of bakers twine and intermingled with purple paper fans that had been purchased for our heroine’s birthday party 5 previous. (Perhaps the purple penchant is an advantage!)
On another table with favors and activities, the theme of the party was spelled out–quite clearly–in case, any of the guests were still uncertain.
*I referenced this party in my talk at SNAP! about party planning on a budget. I only spent a couple of dollars on books at the dollar store and about $5 on the flowers for this display. Everything else came from things I had on hand. (I did purchase the paper plates and napkins). The moral of this story: Shop your house first! (I’ll be posting my entire SNAP! presentation here soon!)*
For more of the Book Club Birthday Party, return to the Table of Contents!
We just had a book party at our house too!
I really like that you took her own books and used them for decorations! 🙂 The fans are so pretty and the book pages made the perfect crafting paper for this party!!
Giving a decent amount of notice to your invitees willl give the party a
better chance of success. It is also important that you inspect the quality of the party supplies you will be buying.
It is sometimes better to have plastic or disposable cutlery aas
then once the party is over all you have to so be discard them all and you can
clean up much easily.
I like reading through a post that can make men and women think. Also, thank you for allowing me to comment!