DIY Mermaid Birthday Party Decorations Plus a Free Printable

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I can’t believe my oldest daughter just turned 7! I know it’s totally cliche, but time really does fly. One minute they’re snuggling with you in the rocking chair and the next they’re telling you they’re too old to ride the carousel on their birthday!

Even though Elena is outgrowing a lot of her childhood toys, she’s definitely still into all things magical…mermaids, unicorns, and fairies! So it was only natural that she wanted to have a mermaid birthday party this year and I was happy to oblige.

I absolutely love making party decorations. It’s so fun to peruse Pinterest to find inspiration and then put my own spin on the project. And now that Elena is older, she likes to brainstorm ideas and help create the decorations, so it’s a fun activity we can do together.

One of my greatest assets when it comes to party planning is my Silhouette Cameo. Before I bought mine, I would cut out letters and shapes by hand to create my own banners and cupcake toppers. I would literally spend hours working on these projects and my hands would absolutely ache from using the scissors for that long!

Now I simply load my design into my Silhouette and let it do all the work. It’s so simple and such a time-saver! I may or may not have done a full-on happy dance the first time I used it to create party decorations.

And yes, I could just buy a store-bought banner and cupcake toppers, but I really like to create my own and have the ability to personalize them.

DIY Mermaid Birthday Party Banner

So first up for the party was this nautical birthday banner. I absolutely love this scrapbook paper pack I found! It had so many patterns and designs that I was able to use for several different party decorations. I let Elena go through and pick out her favorite patterns. Then we arranged them in the order that we wanted them to appear on the banner.

I determined how many letters we needed and wrote the letters that would be cut out of each pattern on the backside of the paper.

Using the default cut settings for regular scrapbook paper, I  used my Silhouette to cut out each letter. Since I had written the corresponding letters on the back of each pattern, it was easy to know which letters to load on my workspace.

If you are planning on threading your letters onto string, you can add 2 small cut circles to the top of each letter. I wasn’t sure how I was going to hang mine when I cut it out, so I didn’t add the circles. I ended up using a hole punch to create the slits for adding string. To complement the nautical look, I used twine to string my letters.

I always use Command Hooks to hang my party decorations.

Once I hung up the banner, I felt like there was too much blank space on the wall. To jazz it up a bit more, I cut out fun ocean shapes using Oracal 631 vinyl and applied it with Oracal Clear Transfer Tape.

This mermaid design I found in the Silhouette store (Design ID #206777) was perfect! I hung it all up the night before Elena’s birthday and she was so excited when came downstairs on her birthday!

 

DIY Mermaid Birthday Party Centerpieces

Next up on my party to-do list was creating centerpieces. One of my go-to items for centerpieces is vases from the Dollar Store. They have a really good selection of shapes and sizes that I can easily work into my design ideas. These small round vases remind me of fish bowls and were perfect for creating a little beach scene.

I picked up sand, seashells, and sea glass from Michaels. After pouring a bit of sand into each vase, I let Elena select the seashells to put in and she arranged the sea glass. She also had the great idea to add pearls (a little party planner in the making?!). These turned out really cute!

I love to personalize vases as part of my party tablescapes. It’s a quick and easy way to customize party decorations. I used Oracal 631 vinyl, which I cut with my Silhouette, to add a starfish and Elena’s name to a tall cylinder vase from the Dollar Store. Since this is removable vinyl, I will be able to reuse the vases for future parties.

Next I filled the vase with paper shreds and topped it off with some beautiful faux flowers. I have found that party straws function well as accessories in my decorations. I found these starfish and shell straws in the party section at Target. They made the perfect finishing touch to my centerpiece.

 

DIY Mermaid Cupcake Toppers

I used to be more ambitious (or possibly crazy?!) and always made my own cupcakes for my girls’ birthday parties. I actually like to bake and enjoy piping frosting, but I don’t enjoy rushing around like a mad woman trying to finish decorating the cupcakes before the guests start arriving! So for the sake of my sanity, and the safety of those around me during party prep, I started opting to order cupcakes from a local bakery. But just because I’m not personally baking the cupcakes, doesn’t mean I can’t decorate them!

Paper cupcake toppers are really easy to make and add a fun twist to store-bought cupcakes. For these mermaid tail cupcake toppers, I used 2 sheets of scale pattern scrapbook paper from the same scrapbook paper pack I used to make the birthday banner.

I already owned a cute mermaid design from the Silhouette store (Design ID #140537). The cut file is set up for layering, so the mermaid tail was already a separate piece. I simply deleted the rest of the design and made 12 copies of the mermaid tail. Then I loaded my scrapbook paper onto my cutting mat and cut out 12 shapes from each piece of paper.

In order to put the toppers in the cupcakes, I taped a toothpick to the backside of the mermaid tails. Since my cupcake stand goes against a wall, I didn’t have to worry about making double-sided toppers. If both sides of your toppers will be visible, you would just need to make sure you cut mirrored images and then use double-sided tape to secure both shapes to the toothpick.

 

 

DIY Mermaid Party Decorations

Not only did the scrapbook paper pack have cute patterns, it also had a few pages with designs on them that I was able to cut out and use as party decor. As you can see above, by simply adding a hole punch to the designs, you can quickly string them together to create a fun little banner.

And I was able to put some of the smaller designs into little frames I picked up at Ikea. Now that the party is over, I’m thinking of putting them in different frames to put in Elena’s room.

I also cut out some of the pattern strips to wrap around square vases from the Dollar Store. I filled the vases with paper shreds leftover from the centerpieces and topped them off with some of the starfish straws.

The finishing touch was 3 starfish I picked up from Michaels. They were originally pale blue, but we decided to paint them brighter colors and add gold glitter. Elena did all the painting and was excited to get to pick all the colors.

Mermaid Birthday Party Favors

Elena’s mermaid party was only for our local family. I wanted to give her cousins something related to the party theme, but also something useful that they’ll hang onto. Beach towels were the perfect solution! Instead of creating goody bags, I rolled the towels up and tied them with curling ribbon. I designed a “Thanks for coming to my birthday shellebration” printable to attach to the ribbon and wrote each child’s name on the back. I’m sharing this design in my free printables library. Sign up below to get your access to this free design!

 

This Mermaid Party Thank You Tag printable is available in my free printables library which you can access by signing up here:

 

Mermaid Party Supplies

Of course no party is complete without paper products and a table cloth. Target for the win! About 2 weeks before Elena’s party they changed out their party decor section and added mermaid party supplies. The mermaid scale tablecloth was absolutely perfect! And check out the Shellabration plates and napkins. So cute!

 

 

I had so much fun creating decorations with Elena for her mermaid birthday party and most importantly, she felt so special on her birthday and party day!

How do you decorate for birthdays? What are your favorite birthday party themes? Share your bday inspirations in the comments.

xoxo,

Stephanie