DIY Party Decorations

The possibilities are endless and in these types of events, you get to let out your creativity to the maximum. However, we understand if creating a perfect atmosphere can be troublesome in an ocean of vast ideas. That is why we have taken the time to create a list of ideas to help you organize the best birthday party ever.

Do you want to spice up a loved one’s birthday party with some fun decorations that your guests will love? No matter the age, from your 20’s to your 60’s, we’ve got you covered! Check out our list of DIY search Party Decorations:

Adult DIY Party Decorations

1. Cut-Out

Order a life-size cardboard cut-out of the birthday person. This is a fun way to welcome your guests to the party. It’s also a great souvenir for the birthday person to have.

2. Sign-In Item

The guest book is a classic memento to have for any party. This can be switched up and made into a unique idea by signing a shirt instead. You can do this with anything. Some people have stamp ink and leave their thumbprints on a canvas. There are many unique ways to try this.

3. Tabletop Décor

Create some unique centerpieces, confetti, and napkin holders. If the honoree loves skiing, have ski paraphernalia around the room or on the table. If your honoree loves the occasional gamble, try making a centerpiece out of lottery tickets. Go to your local antique shop for an easy hack for a centerpiece. This can be vintage candles or a nice silver platter. Either way, a centerpiece adds a nice touch to the party.

4. Personalized Decorations

With so many free computer programs out now, it’s easy to edit and print any design to fit your party’s decorations. Some examples of personalized decor would be printing out pictures of the birthday person to put on party favors or even t-shirts. You can even have a picture of them printed on the cake!

5. Wine Bottles

Spray paint wine bottles with shimmery paint to spice them up. Insert a candle inside them to turn them into a candle holder. This adds a classy touch and you help the environment by reusing old bottles! You can use them year-round as well.

6. Adult Piñata

Who doesn’t like pinatas? No matter the age, pinatas are a fun touch to any party. Fill a piñata with some adult gifts such as small bottles of liquor, plastic shot glasses, candles, etc. If you have kids at your party, go for treats or little toys!

7. Mismatched Candlesticks

For a party that falls around the holidays, set different sizes and colors of candles on the mantle for a unique look. You can go to a thrift store for these or any antique shop.

8. Globe Lights

Find some inexpensive globe lights and hang them low around the room to give the party a glamorous feel. These can be found online or at any party store. They come in various colors and sizes. Mismatching size and color create a great contrast.

9. Lights

Use Christmas lights or rope lights for special effect lighting. They come in plenty of colors, so you can match them to your theme! Drape these around curtains or doorways or even on the table itself.

10. Scrapbook

Before the party, create a scrapbook with important moments in the birthday person’s life and display it for all of the guests to look at. For an added activity, place the pictures in chronological order and have guests chime in with what they remember from those events.

11. Edible Bouquets

Why not create a yummy centerpiece too? Try a lollipop bouquet, cake pop bouquet, or a bouquet of chocolate-covered strawberries.

12. Chocolate Fountain Centerpiece

For an interactive centerpiece great for all ages, buy or rent a chocolate fountain. Make sure you have fruits and treats to dip!

13. Birthday Person’s Memorabilia

Set out the honoree’s awards, trophies, certificates, or yearbooks for everyone to enjoy and let them reminisce.

14. String Chandelier

One way to utilize traditional birthday balloons is to create a stunning string chandelier piece. Start by wrapping a balloon in assorted colored string or yarn, using colors that match the overall theme of your party. Fix the string to the balloon with clear fabric glue then wait for it to dry. Once everything is dried, pop the balloon and you have a beautiful decoration!

15. A Pop of Color

Streamers are also classic party decorations, but instead of just stringing them up all around the room, try something a little different. Take some assorted colored streamers and hang them vertically from the floor to ceiling against a wall.

They’ll end up looking like whimsical stripe pattern wallpaper and add a very festive vibe to your birthday party. You can also use this idea for baby showers by hanging up different shades of blue or pink.

16. All About the Theme

You can get a number of creative ideas from the theme of your party—it’s what ties everything together! Once you decide on a theme, you can base many of your decorations around it. For example, you can use vases filled with sand and shells for beach-theme centerpieces. For a grayscale color-coded party, you can use old black and white photographs to create a unique collage to place on your dessert table.

17. Candy Cones

If you have candy, popcorn, pretzels, or any other kind of finger food that can be placed inside a paper container, then check out this idea! Create cone shapes out of scrapbook paper and make sure the ends are secured with tape. Then fill them with whatever treats you are providing. Guests can even use these to take some treats home with them as a party favor.

18. Canopy

Whether you’re hosting the party indoors or outdoors, you can try this innovative décor choice. Hang a large piece of fabric from your ceiling (or poles or trees if you’re outside) to create a colorful backdrop for your party as to either decoration or a photo background!

DIY Party Decorations: Balloon Inspired

Easy Event Planning has come up with five new crafty ideas that will wow all your guests at your next party. So get your birthday balloons and creativity ready to make these five balloon decorations right at home! Place small surprises in balloons and attach them to a wall. Guests can throw darts at them to pop them and receive the gifts inside, making for a perfect game! Some great prizes for an adult party are money, gift cards, or lottery tickets.

19. Balloons in Bloom

Whether your event is in springtime or in the midst of winter, balloon flowers are always a great decoration to impress your guests! This decoration is surprisingly simple; all you have to do is find four latex balloons of the same color, and find one balloon of a contrasting color. Next, inflate the balloons of the same color with helium to about 8 inches. Tie two of the balloons together at the necks, and then do the same with the remaining pair.

Once you have your two pairs, twist them all together at the necks to create the petals of the flower balloon. Finally, inflate the balloon of the contrasting color with helium about 4 inches and tie it to the center of the balloon flower. These decorations can be used as topiaries, centerpieces, or even as a garland to hang above the entrance way to your party. Whichever way you decide to use these flowers, your guests will be convinced balloon artists made these springy decorations for you.

20. A Memorable Chandelier

Want to add a personal touch to your balloon decorations? Make a photo balloon chandelier! This decoration can be used with either latex or mylar birthday balloons, the choice is yours! Simply inflate a bouquet of mylar or latex balloons with helium, and tie a 12-inch ribbon that’s within the color scheme of the party to each balloon. Next, gather the photos you want to display and staple a photo to the end of each ribbon. This balloon chandelier is a great decoration to put over your buffet table, and take your guests down memory lane, as they adore this innovative decoration!

21. Balloon Wall

Want to make a quick and easy backdrop for your party? Instead of going through the process of putting together balloon towers and arches, simply inflate enough latex balloons to cover a wall. Make sure they are all about the same size, and then tape the necks of the balloons against the wall and voila, you have a balloon wall that all your guests will rave about.

There’s a lot of room for creativity for this idea, such as using multiple colors of balloons instead of one, or even creating your own design in the balloons. Another option for this decoration is to tie a ribbon of the same size to each balloon and hang them from the ceiling! Whatever you decide to do, prepare to amaze your guests when they walk into your party!

22. Lit from Within

If you’re planning on having a nighttime event, then electrify your guests with illuminated balloons, minus the electricity! Squeeze a cracked glow stick into a latex balloon and simply inflate. Whether you decide to inflate your balloons with helium or not, your guests will be astonished with the rows of glow stick balloons that are lighting up your party!

23. Floating on Air

Whether you use mylar balloons or latex balloons, helium will make both party supplies float. However, you can add a little pizzazz to your helium balloons by stringing them all together with fishing wire- and you don’t need to be an artist to do this! Place your stringed decoration above a pool and make your guests think your balloons are floating on air.

DIY Party Decorations for Kids Party

If you are hosting a party for your kid, it would be most fitting to have decorations and some tasty treats. But what if you were to combine both? That’s right, edible party decorations would give your party a tasty look. When serving these treats, make sure you make them in portions so that not everybody is snacking off one giant piece of decoration.

This is to ensure that no germs are being spread around due to the pandemic of COVID-19 happening. As always, make sure everybody has a mask and is standing at a safe distance from each other.

24. Chocolate Chip Or Oatmeal

Believe it or not, you can use cookies to decorate your child’s birthday party. You can either bake the cookies yourself or purchase a couple packages of premade cookies from the grocery store. There is one more option in cookie décor. You can purchase one enormous cookie from a shop that specializes in “cookie cakes.” Once you figure out which type of cookie you will be using, prominently display it on the dessert table.

The individual cookies that don’t have icing on them have the ability to be stacked to create a cookie pyramid. If they are iced, stacking isn’t a brilliant idea because it may cause the icing to chip or smear. With the iced cookies, you can use two different colors of icing and arrange them in a pattern.

25. Small Cakes

Cupcakes can be decorated to fit your theme and or color scheme. Craft and kitchen stores sell cupcake towers in all shapes and sizes. These towers allow the party planner to arrange their cupcakes in an organized manner, but also make the cupcakes look unique.

26. Atop The Cake

The traditional desert item for any kid’s birthday is cake. Due to its significance, cake is placed by itself on a table to be admired. What’s on the cake is often based on your theme. You can decorate your cake using edible items like icing, fondant shapes, candy, or sprinkles or you can use non-edible items like little figurines or smaller toys.

27. Pop, Pop, And Pop

Popcorn is not just for the movie theater anymore, but it can be used as a party decoration. If you are throwing a movie themed party, you can place it in popcorn tubs and place it around the room. If your party is far from a movie theme, another fun way to use popcorn to decorate is to make popcorn garland. All you need is a needle, string, and a couple bags of popcorn. Children will love this delicious treat.

28. Sweets

Candy may not be beneficial for your teeth, but it makes a sweet decoration. Most hard candies consist of a number of different flavors. The different flavors produce different colors like red, green, yellow, blue, and pink. Lollipops have all these colors swirled into one, so if you want to switch things up, incorporate these into your design. These candy ideas are sure to satisfy any child’s sweet tooth.

29. Healthy Stuff

You don’t have to use a ton of sugar to make delicious edible kid’s party decorations, fruits and vegetables fulfill the same requirement. You have a plethora of colors to choose from. It won’t be hard to find something to use as the centerpiece.

30. Cupcake Towers

Purchase cupcakes and cupcake stands to match your theme and color scheme. Bake or buy the cupcakes in an assortment of shapes and sizes. Layer them neatly on the stand to create a cupcake tower that looks not only scrumptious, but stylish as well.

31. Furnish With Fruit

Fruit makes for a sweet and healthy edible decoration. Fill a large glass bowl with a variety of colorful fruit and let it serve as one of your centerpieces.

32. Trendy Toppings

Decorate your cake to make it even more appetizing and ravishing! Top the cake with edible items based on your theme. Edible flowers make for a beautiful topping, as well as consumable chocolate pearls, nonpareils, sugar crystals, and shimmer sprinkles. Write or draw symbols with colorful icing and add edible glitter for a touch of shine.

33. Color With Candy

All kids love candy, so why not incorporate candy into your decorating? String lifesavers on a ribbon or wire and hang along the sides of tables or around the doorway. You can also fill clear bowls or vases with colorful jelly beans, skittles, or M&M’s.

34. Lollipop Bouquets

Takea bunch of large, rainbow-swirl pops and tie them together to make lollipop bouquets. You can let guests take these flower treats home with them as party favors too.

35. Cookie Embellishments

Cookies can make for a yummy decoration. Bake them yourself or buy them from a great local bakery. Garnish your dessert table with cookie pyramids, made by stacking the cookies on top of one another in a triangular shape. You could also buy one giant cookie and use it as the centerpiece for your dessert table.

36. Paper Plate Flowers

For a fun, floral DIY banner, grab some plain paper plates and colorful cupcake liners. Simply write a message on the liners and tape them onto the plates however you’d like. The plates can be stapled together or you can use a hole punch and string/tie them together. Then, string them up like you would a normal banner, and you are good to go!

37. Candy Necklace Trim

This simple but fun decoration is one your little guests will certainly love. To make this, take candy necklaces and cut the elastic to make a candy string. After cutting a few necklaces, tie the them into one long strand. Secure the strand with safety pins to the gift table or cake table for a festive and tasty decoration.

38. Miniature Toys

These make great decorations for the party or even for a cake. Children also love to find them in their goody bags. Add a DIY touch by using building blocks toys or ones that require decoration such as paint by number or plain figures that can be decorated like these.

39. Decorate Plain Items

A quick and simple DIY idea is to decorate plain napkins, table cloths, and plastic ware. These can be plain white or you can choose colors that complement the theme. To decorate, you can use permanent markers, stickers, crayons, or rubber stamps on plates, cups, party hats, napkins, balloons wrapping paper, table cloths, or goodie bags. Just be sure to keep the decorations away from food surfaces.

40. Repurpose Other Items

You don’t have to take a trip to the party store since all of these supplies can be found at the grocery store. Try rolling up a piece of scratch paper or construction paper into a cone so that one end is pointed. Put a rubber band around the bottom and use it to guide your pen to draw an even line.

Once you have your line, unroll the paper and cut along the line so that it will sit comfortably on your head, adjusting the size to fit how you’d like. Punch a hole in each side of the cone and tie a piece of stretchy string in the holes, and you have the perfect little hat! Decorate however you like, or even have your little guests decorate them on their own with markers and stickers.

Repurposing items can help save money and add keep the decorations to a budget. We have created party planning money worksheets to make it as easy as possible to plan your event.

41. Fabric

To make basic white walls less boring, just hang up some bright fabrics as tapestries or curtains to make the perfect photo background. Eye-catching colors and patterns will certainly help to put you in a party mood, and you might even have the supplies you need tucked away in your linen closet.

For those who don’t have a plentiful supply of sheets or other such textiles, make a quick trip to the fabric store to find plenty of clearance racks of fabric spools. If you look far enough in advance, you’re sure to find a patterned or bright-colored fabric that will suit your theme. After the party, this fabric can be stored for next year or repurposed into something new.

42. Decorative Napkins

This can be helpful if you want to take a different track from colorful decorations. Using decorative napkins can be as simple as taking scalloped scissors to the edges of a napkin or as complex as creating ornately folded napkin decorations. Check out this tutorial to learn how to fold napkins.

43. Focal Point

Your attention will immediately gravitate towards any centerpiece on the table. These do-it-yourself centerpieces can be constructed using tissue paper and pipe cleaners. If you’re decorating with a more floral theme, you might want to try using a bouquet of handmade flowers. The finishing touch to this centerpiece idea would be to place the flowers in a vase and add clear glass beads. This will give the flowers the appearance of being submerged in water.

44. Canvas

If you’re looking to have a one-of-a-kind DIY piece for your child's party, give them a blank canvas. Using a giant roll of paper, lay out some paper, and cut it to fit each table. Place some art tools like crayons, markers, or paints on the table and let the kids take control. When the kids are finished, you will end up with a completely unique masterpiece.

45. Find Your Name

If your party involves assigned seating, you will need to use place cards. Your place cards don’t have to be extravagant since they just let your guests know where to sit, so try making one with plain white or colored paper. Place cards can be created out of a folded piece of cardstock or a shape cut from construction paper. They are simple and easy to make, even if you are crunched for time.

DIY Party Decorations: Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed these DIY party decorations for both adults and kids parties. A lot of them can be used for one party and can be easily done with supplies around the house which is the goal!

Written by Brittany Schmidt, Chelsea Muzar and Elisabeth Blair; Contributors: Courtney Ludwig, Charlotte Corbo, Nicole Carabajal, Marianne Vanderbeke, Anna Wertman, Amy Chiang, Sarah Ellingson Oliver and Annie Replogle

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