How to Host a Cookies and Canvas Party on a Budget

Can you handle one more party post?? I decided to do this post, because you do not even begin to know HOW MANY HOURS I spent researching putting together a cookies and canvas party, and I thought maybe it might be helpful to have all this information in one place for someone else.

{And in all fairness, when I say "researching," I mean "playing on Pinterest," which really isn't all that much of a sacrifice.}

As I told you earlier this week, we decided to have a Cookies and Canvas Party for our mom, to celebrate her 80th birthday. We wanted to do something fun and different, not just for her, but for her friends as well. Having said that, my sisters and I are not independently wealthy, so while we wanted to put on a NICE party, we also wanted to be mindful of a budget. I think, in the end, we pulled off a really nice party without spending a ton of money.

I learned a few things along the way, so today I offer to you what I learned about hosting a cookies and canvas party on a budget.

1. Keep all your ideas {and receipts!} in one spot. I created a {previously} secret Pinterest board to keep track of all the ideas I found for the party. I could let my sisters see/contribute to the board, and whenever I wanted to find something, from a recipe to a decorating idea, I knew exactly where to find my inspirations. {If you don't have Pinterest, and you like good, old-fashioned paper gathering, make a folder.} I also kept every single receipt for what we purchased so we could return whatever we didn't use and so I could present my spending to my sisters if they wanted to see it. Knowing where all those receipts were housed was very helpful when it came time to take back items. Here is a link to my Pinterest board if you'd like to delve more into the elements of the party - and see a few we didn't use.

2. Dollar stores are your friend. There are many versions of dollar stores, but for our paper products and decorations, I shopped almost exclusively at The Dollar Tree, where all items actually are one dollar each. I bought the paper plates, napkins, paper straws, balloons, streamers, plastic tablecloths, take-home bags for cookies, ALL of that kind of thing at the dollar store. I priced items out at an actual party store in town, and they were much more expensive there. I think the quality of dollar store products is just fine, and the price was unbeatable.

3. Reuse color themes. If you like to host parties, {cookies and canvas themes aside}, I think it is really helpful to come up with 3-4 color schemes and always build from those so you can reuse decorations. For example, I've told Ryan that our party colors from now on are going to be red, hot pink, and turquoise. I'll just keep buying reusable decorations in those colors and recycle them as appropriate. I can accent with different colors as needed, but those will be the main ones. It keeps me from having way too much stored in our house to accommodate every color scheme under the sun, and it helps keep decorating costs down as parties go along.

4. Coupons, coupons, coupons. We elected to purchase our own art supplies for the canvas portion of the party {more on this in a moment}, so Ryan and I made more trips to Hobby Lobby than any two people should ever make in a month. We both have the Hobby Lobby app on our phones, and we would buy one supply at a time, each of us using our 40% off coupon from the app so we could maximize our funds. This saved us over $40.00 in art supplies. We also used RetailMeNot {another app/website} to get coupons for Jo-Ann Fabrics, where we purchased supplies we couldn't find at Hobby Lobby. And I used coupon codes from RetailMeNot to get a discount at Wal-Greens, where I printed off photos to use for signs for cookies.

5. Make whatever you can yourself. I designed my own invitations using an online template. I did pay to have them printed out {to save color ink in our printer...it was more cost-effective that way}, but I didn't have to buy the invitations. I also designed all my own signs for games and food, using the PicMonkey website. I also made all my own cookies, which had a cost element, because I did have to buy the ingredients, but it was still WAY cheaper than purchasing all those cookies from a store or bakery. {We served 8 kinds of cookies and had several dozen of each.}I looked up prices on a local bakery's website, and I actually spent about $20 more on supplies than I would have spent on 3 dozen cookies purchased from them. And we had over 24 dozen cookies. I also made Mom's cake and saved a bundle from what I would have paid to purchase a cake. It wasn't decorated with fancy frosting roses or any writing, but really, when you have 80 candles on a cake, who misses the writing?

6. Let the cookies serve multiple purposes. The main purpose of the cookies was for our guests to take home a favor from the party. Something to enjoy a bit later. But we also had the cookies out on display throughout the entire party and guests munched on them from the time they arrived until they left. Using the cookies as part of the menu and the favor meant that we didn't have to have another huge menu to feed guests the day of the party, AND we didn't have to mess with other party favors. {PS - they LOVED snacking on cookies throughout the party and they loved taking some home. I even had requests for recipes after the fact.}

7. Do the option that works best for your crowd for the canvas portion of the party. I know you can find painting tutorials online, so if you really want to go cost-effective, hook up a computer to a TV and let the online tutorial run the show! And I also know there are entire shops that will let you come to them for the party, and they'll do all the work. We fell into the middle between these categories. We could not afford to pay $25 or more per guest to take them to a canvas shop for a traditional party. And because none of us are artists, I didn't want to make people uncomfortable by showing a video and setting them loose with paints. So I hired a friend who teaches canvas parties to come to our house and walk us through the process, but she came for a reduced rate because we purchased all our own supplies. All she had to do was teach. This worked best for us, and everyone seemed to appreciate having her there to help, and we appreciated the lower cost!

8. Nothing wrong with paper plates! Rather than purchasing plastic paint palettes for 17 people, we put a disposable plate and cup at each station for paint and brush-washing. I found a tutorial on Pinterest to make my own easels from recycled boxes {which we snagged from the recycle bin at Ryan's work}, although Sarah said later it would have been possible to paint with just the canvas flat on the table. Still, the easels were nice to keep everything up in full view, and we didn't have to pay to rent or buy them!

9. Borrow, borrow, borrow - and shop your house. We held the party at our own home, so we could save money on venue rental. We held the games and eating portion of the party in our living room so people could sit comfortably, and we held the art portion in the garage, where spills could be easily cleaned up. We borrowed tables and chairs so we didn't incur rental fees, and I shopped my own house for containers to put the cookies in, and other party decorations. That saved a lot of money, too!

10. Support local business where you can! Though we did a lot of DIY to save money, we did spend where we needed to, and we tried to support our friends in the process. Sarah, who taught the canvas class, is a friend of mine, and we were happy to pay her fairly to spend the day with us. I loved knowing we could help her family financially while she helped ours make memories. The shirt we got for Mom to wear was inspired by Pinterest, but was crafted by a little shop in my sister's town. I'm glad to know we could help support her locally-owned shop!

In the end, the party was a hit, I loved the way everything looked, and it was worth every bit of DIY work to surprise Mom!

Linking up with Tamar today, too!