A Frugal Frozen Party (for under $20!)

Hi all! Long time no post! I took the summer off to be with my kids and then September came and I had to get a birthday party put together for my daughter! Speaking of which, every little girl's obsession for the past year has been Frozen~ am I right?  So of course, K chose that as her party theme and I decided to make all the decor for it instead of using store-bought stuff. Why did I make so much work for myself? Mostly because I wanted her party to be unique and special to her. I wanted to give her something not seen everywhere else. And I think I accomplished my goal!

Just FYI: I spent around $20 for decorations only by using what I had in my craft supplies and Christmas decorations! I reused a lot of cardboard from last year's My Little Pony party too and I loved the new results! I also printed a few Frozen-themed things off the Internet. I'll include links when I talk about them below.

Get ready to scroll through a lot of photos and be inspired! I'll provide as much info as I can without rambling, I promise!

Our Frozen food table and backdrop was simple but impactful. I reused a trifold cardboard (think science project) that I used in last year's MLP party to create Elsa's ice castle. My kiddos then glued and glittered it and I added the balcony so we could put the paper Elsa and Anna on there. Ultra adorable, right? 

You can find the paper craft Elsa and Anna here.

Then you see that banner above? Super cute and free printable from Bakingdom. To give it more oomph, I layered glitter paper behind each banner in Elsa and Anna's colors. I'll post close ups of the banner in a later post. 

Then the blue and white streamers were created by sewing three layers of crepe paper and then pulling on the strings to create the ruffles. They're super pretty and so easy to make. I only wish I had more patience to make a ton more!

I have to apologize for the poor quality of the above picture! I didn't even think to photograph our table decorations so this is the only "good" photo I have of what I created! I made silver snowflake wands with dowels and snowflakes from my Xmas stash then made tulle pompoms in blue and white. I stuck them inside recycled Starbucks frappucino bottles that were wrapped in more glitter paper and Frozen stickers. The snowflake "runner" is from my Xmas stash too~ they're felt snowflakes strung on fish wire so they can hang on the wall or from the ceiling. I also used them in the backdrop of our food table as seen in the top photo!

Initially, I had no idea how I wanted to design the favor bags. I just knew I didn't want them to be like anything else I'd seen on Pinterest or Google. Then as I was looking at the Arendelle sisters' pretty dresses, inspiration struck and I designed these patterns to fit the bag size. I especially love the Anna bag! I debated about adding a cape to the back of Elsa's bag but ultimately decided not to do it. 

The cake was a last minute design too. I wanted to keep it simple like the rest of the party so I created snowflakes using blue candy melts and pressed them into the sides of the cake. Follow this tutorial if you wanna try your hand at them too! 

I then cut a snowflake out of parchment paper, laid it lightly on top of the cake then sprinkled on some blue sugar. My favorite scene from the movie is when Elsa stomps on the ground and the shape of a snowflake is created as the base of her ice castle. See the connection here? The white frosting kind of looks like the North mountain, right? 

The cake is a blue velvet tie-dye cake with whipped cream cheese frosting. I also made snowy French vanilla cupcakes as well. 

One of my only expenses came from the poster book and frames. I bought the Frozen 8x10 poster book from Michaels for $3 after using a coupon. Then the white frames are from Ikea and they are only $2 each. Total= $11! I could've added snowflakes to the frames but since I wanted to reuse them in the future, I left them plain. Good thinking, frugal mama!

I've been wanting to make one of these big block letters forever (and they're all over Pinterest too, right?) but I was intimidated by how difficult it looked. Then I pushed myself to do it and whaddya know?! It's. So. Easy! 

I reused another trifold board from last year's party and used almost every inch of it to make the K. I then wrapped it in yards and yards of blue tulle which I had in my fabric stockpile (from making countless Elsa dresses) and added silver snowflakes from my Xmas decorations. What's super cool about this is that it went straight to her bedroom after the party as a decoration and she loves it!

I saved everyone's favorite for last: our Olaf pinata! I had help from some fabulously creative friends with this one and that's why it turned out as great as it did! They created the forms for me and I taped it together and decorated it to look like Olaf. All the kids loved him and even the adults. I almost didn't want to destroy him but realized I could always make more if needed. =) 

Papier-mache is so fun but it requires patience due to drying time. It took us three days from start to finish for this project! Well worth it though, wouldn't you say? 

And that's it for our Frozen party! Well, except for the food~ sandwiches obviously! And I was even able to use the leftovers for school lunches for the next three days~ so frugal and fab! =) 

A couple of tips from me to you on how to keep party costs low: lots of elbow grease and free printables! I think it is also worth mentioning that it teaches your children to use their imagination to create things they want rather than relying on the stores to provide it for them. My kids definitely enjoyed helping with the ice castle! They are looking forward to the next birthday party already because they love to DIY with me!