I am living in complete denial that this summer is already wrapping up. It has gone by WAY too fast. I love the days of freedom without being tied to a schedule, no homework, no bedtime, just enjoying time spent together as a family and the kids getting a chance to be kids! In order to make the transition back to school a bit easier for us all, I teamed up with Shutterfly to create a fun Back to School Party to celebrate the upcoming school year. I think the hardest part of getting back into a school schedule is getting up early! We try to make that easier by getting up and setting alarms the last week of summer to get back into the swing of things. Make it fun for the kids to start getting up earlier by gathering all the neighborhood kids together and throwing a Back to School Breakfast party to kick off the year.
I had So much fun putting this party together. I went with classic red, white and black as a the color scheme, with a few pops of blue, yellow and green, all coming from classic school supplies like lined paper and pencils.
I made these super fun plates on Shutterfly in minutes using some patterns I came up with and hand drew in photoshop. It would be so cute to customize some plates with old school photos of each of your guests for a party like this too!
Flashcards were a fun, striking and modern looking visual element to build the party around and it was SO easy to make giant versions of the cards on black foam core with white numbers that I cut out of white construction paper. I just taped them on and wa-la! Giant flashcards! I was inspired by a fancy chandelier I had seen on instagram that was made of fabric, and thought it would be awesome if I could re-create the same look with wire hoops and flashcards. I used 18″, 14″ and a 10″ dream catcher hoops to create this chandelier. I simply taped flashcards together, wrapped them around each hoop and secured them to the hoop with more tape. Once all the hoops were covered in flashcards, I connected the biggest hoop to the middle hoop with twine, then the middle hoop to the smaller hoop with twine. It really only took about 30 minutes to make, and it was such a great party decoration! Maybe a tutorial is in order?
The best part of a breakfast party is that food is EASY!! Of course I had to team up with my favorite baker Shana of Society Sweets to make some beautiful handmade pop tarts, (how cute are they with the frosting that looks like a sheet of lined paper?) yummy baked donuts, and some adorable chalkboard cookie favors. I simply added mini pancake stacks, fruit and an assortment of cereals. Each of the kids had a mini milk jug at their place setting to use for their cereal.
I used inexpensive wood rulers to create custom DIY placemats and a table runner. I think they looked super cute and were a fun addition to the table.
The kids loved having the cereal in big jars. It is an inexpensive way to display the cereal and it looks very fun and colorful. They had so much fun serving themselves with the big metal scoop. Some of them even made their own custom cereal mixes. It looked a little crazy to me, but kids like to eat crazy stuff! 😉
I am completely in love with these gorgeous acrylic trays from Shutterfly. They are beautiful and I love that I can make different ones for each party and customize them to match my tabletop decor. They were the perfect place to display the pancakes, cookies and fruit.
Shutterfly has so many fun, completely customized products, I was able to create fun goodies to had out to the kids to help them be prepared for their first day of school. These heavy duty embroidered tote bags would make a great school bag, or a teacher gift. They are HUGE and heavy weight canvas, so they can hold a ton of stuff. I created custom notebooks for each of the kids using the same star pattern from one of the plates, and a custom water bottle for each child to take to school with their name on it. I also turned luggage tags into “this bag belongs to” tags for the kids to put on their backpacks. They can use a sharpie to write their name and mom’s contact info on it, so if they lose it hopefully someone can return it to them. I don’t know about you guys, but we have lost more than one backpack in our family and it is no fun! I also made Shutterfly custom sticker sheets with “this book belongs to” stickers for the kids to use on their books.
The kids love their goodies and I love that they are completely custom. It just makes the party that much more special. I always have such a fun time teaming up with Shutterfly. It is always so fun to be able to dream up any party theme or idea, colors or style and create it just the way I want it. It’s almost like Christmas when the bright orange packages arrive and I can see everything in person for the first time. If you are planning a party I highly recommend you check out the custom options for creating you own party goods over on the Shutterfly website. They make such great gifts too!
Here are a few other fun parties I have created in collaboration with Shutterfly if you are looking for other fun party ideas:
Carnival Themed Engagement Party
If you are planning a party, don’t miss our Entertaining Gallery and DIY Posts, full of helpful tips and useful information for your celebrations.
Do you have a favorite entertaining tip or a party to share? I’d love to know about it! Let me know about it in the comments. You can join me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for more fun ideas about food, design, travel and entertaining. Join Shana over at Society Sweets on Instagram too for mouthwatering posts of all her delicious treats. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of the post) so you don’t miss a thing!
I hope you have a wonderful first week back to school! Happy Entertaining!
Tammy
