My week has been a little nuts. (How about you?) One of my girls broke her pinkie toe. You know how they say all you can do for a toe break is buddy taping? Not my girl. She actually has to be in a boot for 4-6 weeks.
All that is to say, my “alien life” week has not gone exactly as planned! But, I finally have the finished dessert table to share with you! If you’ve been following along, this is a “use what you have” party. I’ve spent $6 on ribbon and pie tins, $18 on food and $28 for cake pops for a grand total of $52. My inspiration, of course, was the Mars rover landing.
The look is Hollywood B-movie alien flick, which accounts for the low-budget approach. It was fun working with tin foil! (See the banner tutorial here and the backdrop tutorial here.)
Balloons with scrapbook paper eyes became aliens.
The tin foil banner reads, “Take Me To Your Leader.”
The “little green man” concept continued with our cupcake centerpiece. I took a plastic Easter egg, drew on a Martian face with a Sharpie, and poked a hole in the bottom for the lollipop stick. Instant cupcake topper! He sits on top of a spaceship made by gluing two disposable pie plates together.
One of our Easter plates also became an alien friend.
But my favorite aliens are these cakepops by Cakepops by Jen! How perfect are these? A little Martian army, marching across my dessert table. Each one stands in his own “body armor” (tomato paste cans filled with dried black beans).
Other sweets included Galaxy Gorp (peanuts, golden raisins and M&Ms). All the printables are by Green Apple Paperie via Catch My Party.
I made key lime tarts.
And our cupcakes are from Sugar Sugar Cakes. Inspired by the red planet, Roxana whipped up some yummy red velvet cupcakes and I just topped them with red gumballs.
Drinks were Jones Soda green apple soda, wrapped in duct tape. Usually, I would line my platters with scrapbooking paper, but I liked this clean look.
Who knew mums came in green?
I included some Martian trivia. Each card has a different fact about Mars. (Did you know that a Martian year is about two Earth days, but their days are only about 30 minutes longer than ours?) If you wanted to add a party activity, how about saving old cereal and other boxes and letting the kids build their own Curiosity rovers?
Our party favors were green bubbles that I wrapped in more Duct Tape and then added a thank you tag. (Use PicMonkey to personalize your printables: see here.)
I hope you enjoyed my alien life dessert table! It was fun to pull it together quickly and on a budget.
Here are some budget tips for your next bash
- If you have to buy one party serving piece, make it a white cake stand. This one was on clearance at Pier One and I paid $7 for it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used it.
- Ikea, Ikea, Ikea. If you have one nearby, go visit. The green throw was about $3 and the tin pail on my cake stand was about $1.
- Save your party leftovers and repurpose them. There are things on this dessert table from three recent parties.
- Dried black beans are great filler and really cheap.
- Free printables! Mine came from Catch My Party but check out my own Freebies page.
- Duct Tape. Raid your husband’s stash for the original silver or pick up some of new prints at WalMart or your local craft store.
- Balloons. These are left-overs, too, but the original pack cost just over $1.
- Ribbon is a great way to carry your color palette throughout your party.
- And speaking of color palettes, the white, silver, lime and aqua made it easy to look at my stash and see the possibilities for this party.
- Don’t let a holiday define how you see something. Easter played a big role in this alien dessert table. Who would have guessed that back in April?
First let me say, sorry to hear about your daughter’s toe, I hope she won’t have to stay in the boot for long.
Of course you did an amazing with the dessert table! I love this theme and all the clever ideas you had in putting it together. The cupcake stand is brilliant, using the pie tins and cans for the center piece. The food looks great and the play on words is fun like the Key lime Pie Saucers, just to cute. Have a great weekend!
cheers,
Lisa
Thanks Lisa! Grace is really being a good sport about the boot. I’m glad we had it checked out because our first instinct was definitely, “Oh nothing you can do about a toe!”
This table was really fun to put together. Nothing like a self-imposed deadline and budget to spark creativity!
You sure work well under pressure! Wishing Grace a speedy recovery.
I love the challenge of creating a party on a limited budget and using what you already have. It really stretches your creativity and allows you to come up with fantastic ideas that you probably wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. You did an amazing job, Jennifer! I especially love the plastic egg cake topper and the balloon aliens!