When I was pregnant with Ryder, and planning Lucky's Halloween Housewarming Birthday Party, I decided that I was going to go big for my kids' first birthday party and after that I will do fewer DIY projects. Lucky got a big second birthday party because I knew I could re-use Halloween decorations every year. Plus, we moved back to Massachusetts so we were able to have a large party with a lot of our family.
In the run down to the final post on Rowdy's first birthday party, I wanted to share the other Dinosaur non-edible crafts I did for this party. (Check out my dinosaur themed party food!) Many of the projects got their own posts, but the ones here are simpler to execute.
In the run down to the final post on Rowdy's first birthday party, I wanted to share the other Dinosaur non-edible crafts I did for this party. (Check out my dinosaur themed party food!) Many of the projects got their own posts, but the ones here are simpler to execute.
Dinosaur Foot Tissue Box
Sometimes when I find a project I need to try it right away. I knew that decorating a tissue box to be a dinosaur foot would be super fast and make people smile. (Remember when I made pumpkin toilet paper roll covers?)
I covered a tissue box in two pieces of green construction paper. The width of the paper was the exact length of the tissue box. I glued paper to the small ends and then the big ends. I folded the pieces over the top and glued them down.
I covered a tissue box in two pieces of green construction paper. The width of the paper was the exact length of the tissue box. I glued paper to the small ends and then the big ends. I folded the pieces over the top and glued them down.
Next, I cut out 3 yellow triangles and glued them to the top of the box to make a dinosaur foot. This is way cuter than I could have imagined! Looking at the tissue box it made me think of a costume a kid could wear, which brought me into my next project.
Foam Dinosaur Feet
How cut would it be to be to hand out dinosaur foot covers for the guests at the party? Of course, it would depend on how durable the food covers were, but I wanted to give it a try.
You could freehand cutting out the dinosaur, but since I found a free printable template for the dinosaur foot I figured why not follow it?
The template itself was a little short for my feet, but it would probably work nicely for kids. (I have big feet!)
I elongated the shape and got nice foot coverage. Unfortunately, the foam felt like it could rip at any moment. I think I would try to find a way to incorporate these into my decor that doesn't involve wearing them. Rowdy would rip these off of my feet and destroy them in about 45 seconds of me walking into a room.
I made three different colors of feet and I rotated the toe nail color between them. They were super fast and easy to make. maybe if I made them out of a stiff felt they would have been sturdier to wear around a bunch of toddlers and preschoolers.
Dinosaur Egg Favors
To share my DIY rainbow dinosaur crayons with our guests, I filled some clear Easter eggs with tissue paper confetti and place one dinosaur so it would be visible in each clear half. I couldn't decide if I should include these in favor bags, have a decorate your own favor bag station and let kids fill them up, or if I should have these near the crafting area for kids to open up and use.
To share my DIY rainbow dinosaur crayons with our guests, I filled some clear Easter eggs with tissue paper confetti and place one dinosaur so it would be visible in each clear half. I couldn't decide if I should include these in favor bags, have a decorate your own favor bag station and let kids fill them up, or if I should have these near the crafting area for kids to open up and use.
It would have been nice to give each kid multiple crayons, but if I put more than one dinosaur inside the egg you couldn't really tell what was inside. It is hard to photograph these favors because of the glare, but when you pick them up you can really see the little dino crayon peaking out.
Hopefully no one will mistake these crayons for candy!
When I went to order plates and other party supplies, I realized that Oriental Trading company sold dinosaur crayons. What was funny is that these crayons (which were solid colors) are the EXACT SAME SHAPE as the ones that I made myself. Isn't that hilarious?
Dinosaur Food Labels
I found some packages of flat wooden dinosaurs at Dollar Tree leading up to the party. I got a few packages because I knew that I would find some way to incorporate them into the party decor. Why not use them as food labels? I painted the wood pieces green and then wrote the different dinosaur party food names on them.
I wanted to make the labels stand up because it would look better for pictures. I cut some paper straws into quarters and then glued part of the straw to the back of the dinosaur with a hot glue gun.
I thought I might need to do something a bit more complicated to get these to stand up, but the simple straw post worked great. I could have trimmed the top and bottom of the straws to make it look a bit cleaner, but this was super functional so I was happy.
I think that I've finally made it through all of the major crafts and projects I did for Rowdy's first birthday party. My final party project is to edit the pictures and write up a post for you! (I haven't yet shared Rowdy's smash cake photoshoot, but that is a separate event from the party itself.) Someday I'll be all caught up on my writing again, right?
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