Celebrating my little girl is one of my favorite ways to use my creative skills. Creating a magical birthday is so much fun, and honestly, I enjoy it as much as she does. This year she requested an Elsa birthday party, and I think it turned out so well. My favorite project, by far, was the balloon arch. There are lots of DIYs included in this party, and I plan to share all the details in this post. I’ll be sharing step-by-step decor ideas, dessert recipes, party favors, and more. I can’t wait to share all the details with you.
Here are links to help you navigate this post. Skip to video, balloon arch, silhouette, table decor, guest book, party favors, snowflake cookies, cake, or Elsa outfit.
Interested in more party decor ideas? I also have posts for a Baby Shark party and a Wonderland Themed Tea Party.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase, which allows me to provide all of this content to you for free.
DIY Disney’s Frozen Inspired Decor
Walkthrough the party with me below. This video will show you the placement of decor and how we had everything laid out for a party in our home.
I’ve also created an Amazon shopping list with lots of ideas and inspiration for you party planning.
Balloon Arch
I have wanted to do a balloon arch for a while, but I always talked myself out of it because I assumed it would be expensive and complicated. I’m happy to tell you that it is neither of those things, and I hate I waited so long to give it a try myself. Here a few supplies that will make the arch a breeze for you.
- balloon arch kit
- electric air pump
- balloon tie tool
The plastic balloon strip helps the garland come together quickly. Below is a video of adding a balloon to the strip. You thread it through the larger hole and move it over to the smaller hole to lock the knot in place.
There were times when some balloons popped off, and I had to put them back, but it wasn’t a big problem. I was using a lot of the same sized balloons, so I think varying the sizes more may help with the issue of the balloons popping off.
A couple of things I will improve upon for my next balloon garland is to add more varying sizes of balloons. There are some gaps in the arch I could have covered with small balloons. I’ll also be buying a tie tool. I thought our kit came with one, but it didn’t. My hubby’s fingers were bleeding from tying all of the balloons. Oops.
You can add so many more things to your garland as well to dress it up even more. I added a couple of colored balloons with glue dots, but everything else was from the kit I purchased. I was pleased with it overall, but I will be changing up those couple of things next time.
It took a little less than two hours for one person to complete the arch. My husband inflated over 100 balloons with the electric pump in about thirty minutes. Then, it took me about an hour and a half to put them all on the garland strip. I was watching Netflix, though. Ha!
To secure the arch in place around the backdrop, I screwed hooks into the wall at the corners (see photo below) and loosely tied the ribbon around the arch and hung it on the hook. I did the same on the bottom but secured it to the table legs.
The balloon arch is my favorite project from this party. It added so much impact, and she was so excited about all the balloons. This DIY is something anyone can do with the right tools.
Shadow Silhouette Art and Dessert Table
In some of the inspiration posts for party decor, I saw several parties using the silhouette of Elsa. It was so pretty and classy, which I loved, but I decided to personalize it for Elia and use her little face. Honestly, I love how it turned out so much that I plan to keep it in her bedroom, but I want to put it on something more permanent. If you can believe it, this one is on foam board.
For this project, you will need the following supplies.
- poster board or large paper for tracing
- foam board
- embroidery hoop/frame
- paint
- garland
The pictures below show you the steps I took to make the silhouette. I bribed her with some candy to sit still for a few minutes while I shined my phone light to cast her shadow onto the poster I taped to the wall. It was a rough sketch.
I cleaned up the sketch and decided what things I wanted to smooth out to make cutting easy, and then I cut it out.
I hot glued the inner part of an embroidery hoop onto the foam board, then cut the excess off with a box cutter. This step gave me the perfect framed shape.
Next, I used the poster cutout to trace the image onto the foam board and lengthened the bodice. Then, I started painting around the silhouette. I wanted her image to be white and the negative space to be blue, so I carefully painted around her profile.
I also painted the wood frame, which was a personal preference. You could leave the wood. Finally, I decided to add the garland around the frame to add a little extra. I think it looked perfect for the winter-themed party.
To finish it, I added a twine hanger on the back with hot glue. Since it’s foam board, it’s lightweight, so the twine hanging on a pushpin held it up great.
The silhouette was the center of the table with the arch around it, and I wanted to use this table for the desserts and party favors. Behind the framed silhouette, I used an iridescent table cloth hanging on the wall. I love the colors it gives off in the light. I used plastic table cloths in a light purple color on all of the tables.
To give off a little bit of twinkle under the snow on the table, I put down three strings of twinkle lights, then added the snow blanket, which was similar to quilt batting. On top of the snow fabric, I added fake snow and piled it up in different places. The snow made the table look frosty and magical.
Most of the snow and snowflakes throughout the party were purchased during after Christmas sales, which helped me save money on the party decor. The party favors and desserts finished dressing up the table.
Frozen Inspired Table Decor
Many of the Frozen items were purchased on clearance, which made me even more excited about doing this theme. Since the movie came out last year, lots of things are on sale currently or were in January. I got the plates and napkins for less than a dollar.
For the two food tables, I used snowflake gift wrap over the top of the purple table cloths. It added something extra to the tables, which I loved. The blue snowflakes came with the balloon arch kit, and I purchased a character poster set to use around the rooms for the kids to enjoy.
I added some of the posters to her playroom too. It made everything look festive.
For this frosty centerpiece, I spray painted sticks from outside with white paint and fake snow. Then I hung snowflakes and ornaments from some of them. I added fake snow to the vase and stuck the sticks inside.
We used cotton balls to add falling snow over the kid’s table. Matt, my hubby, threaded fishing line through the cotton balls then hung them from the ceiling. I added snowflakes and more ornaments to some of the strands of snow. The hanging decorations reminded me of the first movie when Anna and Kristoff first meet Olaf.
Birthday Memories & Guest Book
I love adding special touches to the party as well. I always try to think of something I can keep for Elia from her parties. Starting last year at her Baby Shark party, I had everyone sign a book. This year we signed Anna’s birthday celebration book, The Best Birthday Ever. I also had an updated photo for our family to take home with them.
The photos hanging in front of the windows are photos from her last birthday party in February 2019 until January 2020- a picture for each month. This display was a fun way to see how much she has changed over the last year.
Party Favors
She couldn’t wait to hand out the wands to her friends. These were an easy DIY for the kids to play with at the party, or you can purchase some here.
Here’s a simple supply list to help you finish these quick favors.
- wooden dowels
- ribbon
- plastic snowflakes
- foam snowflake stickers
First, I hot glued the large plastic snowflake onto the dowel, and then I added a foam sticker on each side of the plastic snowflake. To finish the wand, I added several strands of ribbon tied in a knot and secured with some hot glue.
To display the wands and add them to the decor, I used a floral foam block in a glass baking dish covered in fake snow. Once it was snow-covered, it looked like the wands were sticking out of a snow mound.
The final favors included a goodie back and a cookie set to take home. All of the items, except the gummies, were purchased on clearance after Christmas. They were stocking stuffer items but made the perfect goodie bag items. Everything was less than $.75 per piece. I even found the goody bags on clearance for fifty-nine cents at the grocery store.
The coloring books didn’t fit inside the bags, so I hot glued them to the back of the bags. Then, I bagged a snowflake and number “3” cookie for each kid to take home, since we had cupcakes as well. These little details are some of my favorite parts of party planning.
Frozen Inspired Cookies, Cake, and Cupcakes
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
If you follow me on social media, you know I am obsessed with sugar cookies and royal icing. Making them for holidays and parties is tons of fun for me. I have also hosted local cookie classes. For this party, I decided to try a new cookie recipe, and oh my. It is now my go-to recipe, and my entire family said they were so much better than the previous ones I made.
For recipes and cookie tutorials, I have a blog post dedicated to all things cookies. You can find it here. The cream cheese cookies are the new recipe, and it so delicious. I want some right now.
I used royal icing to decorate these cookies, and the recipe is at the link above. I used colored frosted for some cookies, and a painting technique for the white frosting snowflakes. After adding a tiny bit of water to gel food coloring, I painted each color onto the snowflakes. Once the “paint” was dry, I piped white details on top and covered them with white sanding sugar to add sparkle. I used purple sanding sugar on a few of them. I love the twinkle the sugar gives off.
Sour Cream White Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
Initially, I thought I might have overdone it with all the desserts, but everything was almost gone after the party. There was only some cake leftover, which was great! Baking probably comes in second to decorating as a favorite thing to do for parties, which is why we had a small cake, cupcakes, and cookies-lots of baking.
The cake and cupcake recipe is a semi-homemade easy recipe from one of my favorite baking cookbooks. The sour cream makes the cake nice and moist. I added gel food coloring to each cake mix to create the three different colors and colored the frosting with the same three colors. Cupcake toppers finished off the simple cupcakes.
The buttercream icing is also a new recipe I tried, and once again, my family was approving. It wasn’t too sweet, and it was light. Honestly, it’s the best buttercream I have ever made, and I’ve been making buttercream for over ten years. I decided to do a simple design for the cake, and I added two small characters into the top. I made it look like the swirls on top were their skirts. The video cuts off the top, but it gives you a glimpse of what I did to mix the colors.
Frozen Birthday Outfit
Her outfit was perfect for the party and was a gift from her great aunt and uncle. I didn’t think she would wear it the whole time, but it’s not itchy, and she seemed comfortable the entire party. The dress came with all the accessories, even the long hair braid. I think she made the perfect little Elsa.
Her bestie wore an Anna costume. They both have the perfect hair for the characters too. Such cuties!
The party was a great success, and she got some special gifts from our friends and family. She is a blessed little girl, and we are so thankful she is ours. Celebrating her is easy and so much fun. I hope this inspires some DIYs for your little one’s party.
I have created an easy Amazon shopping list for you as well. I know it can be hard to make it to the store to search for all the things. Let me know if you have any questions about the party DIYs. I have enjoyed sharing this party with you.
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