Disney Up! birthday party

Whew, what a weekend! I have been up to my ears in sprinkles and balloons for the past month, but all the hard work was worth it when I got to see my little girl's smile when she saw her Disney Up!-themed birthday party come to life. I drew a lot of inspiration from across the blogosphere, and I have several tutorials to come later in the week after I recover from all the madness ;)

The Invitation

I used Photoshop and Picnik (while I still can!) to make the party invite. I originally wanted to make an elaborate pop up card design, but it ended up being a simple design with a bunch of balloons. Sometimes simpler is better :)

The Decor

I made my own spin on the balloon wreath for our door (tutorial to come!) to set the theme as soon as people walked up to the house. It was an easy project (love those) and I really love how bright and colorful it was.

And of course, there were balloons everywhere. We bought a small helium tank and blew up as many as we could (about 30) and used them to decorate the house and food table.

The Food

For the table, I made a simple pom pom garland to drape across a blue table cloth, and taped bunches of balloons to the back of the table. Then, I got to have fun making lots of colorful snacks.

1. Skewers of fruit with "cloud dip" - marshmallow fluff and cream cheese whipped together
2. Little cups of cut up carrots and celery with ranch dressing in the bottom
3. Marshmallow pops dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles
4. Paper cones made out of scrapbook paper and filled with popcorn
5. (Not pictured) pigs in a blanket

The Cake

Then, there was the star of the show - the cake! Haley has been asking for strawberry cake this whole time, so I went the simple route and made a Duncan Hines cake mix and frosted it with a cream cheese frosting that I got from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It was delicious!

For the cute cake toppers, I found this idea from Potter and Butler. I used felt and made the poufs, then I hot glued them to skewers to make really adorable cake poms (and check out Potter and Butler's shop, they sell all sorts of fun cake toppers!)

The Giveaways

On the giveaway table, I made a sign with the Up! house design on it asking people to take some goodies home with them. Balloon clusters were taped to this table as well.

For the kids, I made "Ellie Badges," the cute little grape soda bottle cap pins that Ellie and Carl wore in the movie. I designed the labels myself and adhered them to bottle caps that I saved (tutorial soon.) There are several shops on Etsy that sell similar pins, but I knew I could make them myself (and I had a lot of fun doing it too.)

I also designed Wilderness Explorer Badges like Russell wore in the movie. I handed these out for the kids to color and cut out at home. I wanted to also make felt sashes for each of the kids to be able to glue the badges to, but I ran out of time. I'll be sharing these printable badges with you soon too :)

For the adults, I made simple sandwich cookies by purchasing store-bought sugar cookie dough and mixing sprinkles into the dough to make colorful cookies. I then made more cream cheese frosting and sandwiched it between two cookies. Each guest received 2 cookies in each cellophane bag tied with ribbon. Luckily, we had some leftovers :)

The Dress

For the birthday girl, I wanted to make her a dress to wear that would look like something Ellie wore in Up! I bought some yellow gingham and flower buttons and followed this tutorial for The School Girl Jumper by Simple Simon and Company. It turned out really cute! And of course, she wore the Ellie Badge that I made her to complete the look.

I sewed cute flower buttons down the back of the dress to complete it. I also had cute little shoes to wear with the dress, but Haley loves her Crocs and it was her special day, so I wasn't about to push it :)

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I hope you enjoyed all the party details! It was a really fun party to plan, especially since I had so much creative reign since there aren't any commercial Up! party supplies out there. 

I'll be sharing the DIY projects that I made throughout the week in case you're planning an Up! party too.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!