Easy Table Decorations

I thought I might do a couple posts on some cheap and easy party decorations. One of the things I did last year since I couldn't afford to get Gwen's pictures taken I decided to take some myself and at least see how they would turn out. They turned out good, so last year at her birthday party I just put some of them in a collage frame I had and hung it on the wall. It's actually hanging in her room now.
I really liked how it turned out and people got to look at them, so I wanted to do a variation of that again and it would be perfect and easy decoration for the tables and something for the guests to look at. I took her pictures this year at the Botanical Gardens and got a few good ones to use. For a birthday party or if you don't have time or feel comfortable taking your children's pictures you could use photos from throughout the year. Or if it's their first birthday, maybe a picture from each month.

 

Sorry I don't have any before photos.

For the picture frame project all I did was hit up Goodwill and picked up all $1 frames and bought spray paint in colors I liked/wanted. If you have extra paint on hand, even better! But I think my favorite one is the light blue one is this photo. It was a horribly chintzy chrome frame with etching and now it is too, too cute! This would also be a perfect project for any type of photo collage, or instead of photos use coordinating scrapbook paper for a bathroom or use them photo-less like I did in my bedroom. If you want to do it cheaper and have more color options you can buy the little bottles of acrylic paint at Joanns or where ever for a buck and paint them by hand (which I've done) it just takes a lot longer and a lot more coats. With the spray paint I was able to do it in a morning.

For centerpieces I always like to have some height. And since I always have vases floating throughout my house, and these flowers I have gobs of them so to keep it easy (and free) I just used a couple of those and I had some lanterns from last years party that I wanted to use somehow that would go color wise. For fillers I really like using beans in vases. Their solid, not very heavy, cheap, you can get them in different colors and super easy peasy. I also had some leftover painted twigs from another project and as you can see I just play around till I get something that works. So they are definitely not uniform by any means, but very....organic.

 Table decorations are something I feel you can be very free and creative with, you don't have to be super literal with a vase of flowers or a candle. Mix it up, have fun, be creative! Anything goes. I had planned on incorporating some of Gwen's stuffed monkeys in there but I didn't have the space, so use things that maybe aren't meant to be used that way. That's the crazy fun part!