Fossil or Dinosaur Birthday Party Ideas on a Frugal Budget
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All week we’ve been showcasing awesome Fossil & Dinosaur birthday party ideas, tutorials, recipes, products and gift ideas. I wanted to recap everything into one post for those of you that would like to pin it which contains links to everything we made this week.
My entire birthday party cost under $30. That includes the cake, party favors, and decorations. I made all of the decorations myself the month before the party.
I bought white poster board and green poster board. I drew dinosaur footprints into the green poster board and dinosaur bones into the white poster board and cut out as many as I could possibly handle.
Then I used Glue Dots to attach them all over the walls, doors, and windows of my house. I paired them together to look like a dinosaur had been walking across the wall.
As I had time over a few weeks before the party I created these paper mache dinosaur bones.
I also found 4 different species of inflatable dinosaurs at the Dollar Tree which I used for decoration at the party. For $1 each they were a fantastic addition! This one here sat on the floor to play with following a trail of dinosaur footprints. I also had stuck several to the wall using Glue Dots and one sat on the party table.
The night before the party I made these awesome eggs. They were SO incredibly easy to make. Then I gathered sticks from outside and created a “dinosaur nest” which sat on the party table.
I also found safari hats at the Dollar Tree for $1. You can also order them from Oriental Trading. Since I couldn’t afford to purchase one for all of the kids I bought one for the birthday boy to wear.
I also had an art station set up with a set of Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Rubbing Stencils. I absolutely LOVE these and had actually purchased them for my boys for Christmas one year. Melissa & Doug also makes a Sea Life Textured Stencil and a Insects Textured Stencils. Totally worth it.
Outside we had a “digging dinosaur” sand pit. You can easily do this in small shoe boxes, large cardboard boxes, or plastic storage tubs if you don’t have a sand table. Buried in the sand we had Safari Ltd.’s Dinosaur Skulls and Ancient Fossils which were sent to us for a separate review.
They are totally worth it if you have any fossil theme to your party. They were absolutely superb and really made the party special.
I also made these “DIY Dino Egg Dig Kits” for both party favors and for fun to crack open at the party. I found the toy dinosaurs in packs of 8 at the Dollar Tree. You can find my recipe and tutorial for these here.
I also made an awesome volcano cake instead of purchasing one which was a HUGE hit with the kids! We even used the fireworks sparklers instead of candles when we sang the Happy Birthday song! I used my leftover toy dinosaurs from the Dollar Tree to decorate around the volcano.
Here is a photo of part of our party table. Inflatable dinosaur and safari hat from the Dollar Tree. Paper mache dinosaur bones and crackled dinosaur eggs I made myself. And then of course the cake.
Party favors were placed in brown paper bags which totally fit the theme and I bought the awesome table cloth with matching napkins from Oriental Trading. I waited for a free shipping deal and paid around $4 for both the table cloth and the napkins. I had a lot of other ideas but life sort of got in the way!
Check out my Pinterest board with even MORE fossil & dinosaur ideas! Plus here’s a huge collection of FREE printable dinosaur coloring pages and FREE printable fossil coloring pages!