My Little Pony Party

This My Little Pony Party is courtesy of our contributor Chantelle of Dolled Up Design…There is a good chance the theme of your child’s last birthday party was based on their favorite cartoon or movie character. There is also a good chance that, like me, you spent a lot of time in the party store or online overwhelmed by the selection of character printed party supplies available.

I love that there are so many party supplies available for my children’s favorite characters, but it is hard to know where to start or stop when buying supplies to carry out your party theme. First instinct is to just load up your cart with all the items to match your theme, but I have found it better to do a mix of branded and non-branded party items to help save a bit of money and make my party unique.

For my daughter’s recent 4th birthday party, she chose a My Little Party theme. Here’s a look at how I used a mix of character printed items, solid colored party supplies and DIY projects to create the perfect Pony party.

My Little Pony Party:

For decorations, I bought these ready to hang My Little Pony Swirl Decorations but added my own twist by gluing them to the center of DIY paper fans. I loved the extra pop of color the fans gave for the table backdrop, and the hanging decorations saved me from having to find and print off Pony images to glue to each.

For the main plates and napkins, I was happy to find these colorful polka dotted plates and striped napkins on clearance at Walmart. They were cheaper than the My Little Pony printed plates and I knew the bright colors would work well with the My Little Pony theme.

Instead of buying the My Little Pony Table Cover, I kept things clean and simple with a basic white plastic tablecloth and matching table skirt. To dress it up, the striped napkins served double duty to make a great last minute DIY tassel banner I strung across the front of the party table.

I did still want some Pony printed tableware, so I let my birthday girl pick out My Little Pony dessert plates for the cake and paper cups for the punch.

For the cake, I made a rainbow colored ruffle cake. I was considering these My Little Pony themed birthday candles for the top, but decided to print out the same Pony image I used on the invitation for a DIY topper. The sparkly purple “4” candle from the dollar store then only cost me $0.50.

Since I didn’t buy the pony printed table cover, I decided to bring the characters to life on my food table by creating cut-outs of each pony to put beside their related food item. These were made by sticking inexpensive wall decals to sheets of foamcore and carefully cutting them out with an exacto knife. I had originally planned to use my daughter’s toys in a similar way, but preferred the clean simple look of the cut-outs. If you can’t find decals, you could do similar with printed colored images mounted to the foamcore with rubber cement.

I have no desires to try and attempt to make a DIY Pinata, so I was more than happy to find and buy this readily available Pinkie Pie version. My birthday girl was really set on having a piñata and I knew the large cardboard figure could serve double duty as a table decoration until it was time for the kids to destroy it. Money well spent!

To collect the piñata candy and favors, I did look at the plastic character printed bags but decided to go with small basic colored gift bags I personalized with name labels. I was even more delighted with the choice of loot bags when I made the last minute decision to string them up on a line for the party. The bright rainbow of colors made the perfect backdrop to our drink and favor table outside.

In between the colorful treat bags was a very basic “Happy Birthday” Banner I bought at Michael’s. It was cheaper than the My Little Pony branded banner, matched my color scheme, and was easily dressed up to match the party theme with a sheet of sparkly stickers.

Finally, for favors, there are all kinds of My Little Pony branded trinkets and treasures available at the party store, but I decided to stick with the piñata candy plus have the kids make their own bracelets and necklaces. The kids had a great time with the activity and the lack of character branding on these favors meant I didn’t have to worry about offending any of the little boys by giving them My Little Pony merchandise.

Kids love a party themed after their favorite character(s), but that doesn’t mean everything at the party has to have that character emblazoned on it to carry out the theme. I hope this party has shown you that you can look beyond the character branded aisles and mix and match with some more basic party supplies and DIY projects to still create a memorable party for your child. There is no right or wrong way to do it, so have fun seeing what you can come up with!

We’d like to thank Chantelle for sharing this creative party with us. For even more My Little Pony Party ideas like food ideas, party activities, favors and more visit the My Little Pony Party post on Dolled Up Design. Her parties are always easy to recreate and kids love them! Be sure to follow her on Facebook to stay updated on all her fabulous ideas.