Crafts DIY and health blog: How to throw an amazing Minnie Mouse birthday party on a budget and DIY crafts

As most mums know, since the day you bring your bundle of joy home from the hospital you will be in competition with other mums. It is the unspoken rule of parenthood -even if you don’t think you are in competition with other mums, you most likely will be.

Competition can range from who has the best pram, to who’s baby is wearing the most expensive clothes, or who is throwing the most lavish birthday parties.

For me, I was first introduced into the world of competitive mums when I took my little girl, Grace to her first baby group meeting when she was 6 weeks old. As a first time mum I was totally naive and clueless to what a baby club was (but was persuaded to go as a companion for a friend of a friend). At first I thought it would be a place where we would all sit in a circle and sing nursery rhymes and shake rattles and talk goo goo gaga to each other’s babies… I was soo wrong!!

When I first walked into baby group; I was like a gizel walking into a lions den. There were a dozen mums sitting in a circle – however nursery rhymes and pleasantries were swapped for bitching and moaning (I felt sorry for all the poor mother in laws who were usually the butt of cruel jokes and stories). As soon as I entered I was pinned into a corner (literally) whilst getting a hundred questions thrown at me. I was quizzed on everything. From ‘what kind if nappies I was using?’, ‘did I have a natural birth or a c-section?’ ‘What pain relief did you use?’, ‘was I breast feeding?’, ‘when was planning on starting weaning?’, ‘what type of pram did I have?’ ‘What make of clothes is your baby wearing’…The list was endless and I came out feeling like I was doing everything wrong. But the one question out of the many that were thrown at me that day that stuck into my mind was ‘have you booked Graces first birthday party yet?’.

Most of these babies hadn’t mastered holding their heads up on their own yet and their mothers were already planning their first birthday parties.

Personally, I didn’t know what I was cooking for dinner that evening far less if I had already planned my six week olds first birthday party.

Competition was rife, each mum was trying to outdo the other by ordering the biggest cake,buying the most expensive birthday presents, hiring the best venue, hiring bouncy castles and petting zoos. I couldn’t believe it!!

When I did get round to thinking about planning Grace’s first birthday party (probably about 8 months later) I decided I didn’t want to go to a huge expense but wanted to throw a nice party with close family and friends (and a selected few friends from baby group) at our house. And since Grace really loved Minnie Mouse I decided to use that as my theme.

I found that Minnie Mouse was a popular theme chosen by a lot of other mums and I felt like every one was buying the same range of minne partyware (banners, balloons, cakes etc) so I decided to make my own. Not only did this save me a fortune, (because I found the minute you pick up disney products in a store the price automatically jumps sky high!), But it also made grace’s party unique and different from all her friends parties (which were all happening around the same time) and I had a lot of fun creating and making her birthday party decorations.

So here it is, a Minnie Mouse first birthday party on a budget that can beat any competitive mums party Anyday!!

(See photos below)

1. Minnie Mouse party invites – these were really simple to make all you need is black card to make the invite, wrapping paper or patterned paper to cut the bows out of (I chose red polka dot to fit my theme) and an insert. I chose to print mine off on the computer using word processor but they would look just as good if you were to handwrite the invite. I printed out a ‘mickey mouse head’ from google and used this as a stencil to cut the card out if. I then cut out the inserts in circle shapes and glued them down on the black card then glued the cut out now shapes. They are really effective and were really cheap to make

2.Minnie Mouse birthday banner-

I found that there was only two types of Minnie Mouse birthday banners on the market and thought most of the other mums would have probably already bought them so I decided to scour Pinterest for some ideas and came up with this. It was really simple and easy to do. All you need is black and white card (doesn’t have to be good quality- the cheap stuff will do), and another colour or style of card or paper to make the bows (I used red and white wrapping paper), a paper punch and string. I printed off a Mickey Mouse head template from the computer (you can also do this using the outline of 3 circular cups) and cut out the black card in that shape. I then cut out letters in white card and cut out bow shapes from the wrapping paper. I then used the paper punch and put two holes in each card and tied them together with string. The finished product looked amazing and hardly cost me a thing to make.

3. Minnie Mouse cake pops. I used a cake pop machine to make these cake pops (basic cake pop recipe can be found here) and used chocolate buttons to make the Minnie Mouse ears then covered them all in melted milk chocolate. I then used a bow cutter I bought from eBay and some red fondant to make the bows (you can also buy fondant bows from shops or eBay but this works out more expensive). These were a great centrepiece and I put one cake pop in each favour bag. These were a great success and you can’t buy anything like it from the shops. To display the cake pops I got a bit of polestirine (you could use – block of oasis instead) and covered it in wrapping paper to make the base to put the cake pops in. It made a beautiful centrepiece and they tasted so good!!

4. Favour boxes. I liked the idea of the boxes instead of the bags as I found you can for more in the boxes. I kept these simple and just printed a little label off with graces name on and a picture of Minnie Mouse and stuck them on the side of the boxes. I filled these with healthy snacks like fruit and raisins, some bubbles, a slice of birthday cake and a Minnie Mouse cake pop. I bought blue for the boys and pink for the girls.

5. Minnie Mouse shaped sandwiches and party food. I kept food really simple and made Minnie Mouse sandwiches using at ‘mickey mouse cookie cutter’ I bought from eBay and used tomatoes cut into bow shapes to make minnie mouse’s bow. I filled these with simple sandwich fillings such as ham salad, tuna and cheese. For other party food I made cupcakes, meringues and filled rolls. I printed and laminated some pictures of Minnie Mouse and stuck these to cocktail sticks to make little flags to put on top of the good to keep it in with the Minnie Mouse theme

6. Minnie Mouse piñata –

This was simple to make and all you need is some card board (I cut up a box one of Grace’s birthday presents came in), celloptape and wrapping paper. I chose a red polka for wrapping paper I bought from the supermarket to fit in with my theme. The first thing I did was cut two ‘mickey mouse’ shapes from cardboard and used another piece of cardboard and stick them both together (i used this helpful tutorial to make it), cut a hole for the sweeties to come out and cut two holes at the top to add the string to tie it up with. Then cover it in wrapping paper. It was simple, fun to make and really effective. And the kids loved it!!

For other decorations for the party I bought polka dot bunting from a party shop (much cheaper than buying Minnie Mouse bunting) and first birthday printed balloons. I managed to pick up some red Minnie Mouse plastic table cloths and cups on sale in a local supermarket so we used those too. I also was lucky enough to know someone who owned a Minnie Mouse mascot outfit who was happy to turn up at the party dressed as minnie.

Look below for the photos. We pulled off a great first birthday party – for a fraction of the cost – that could rival any of the other mums any day!