Budget-friendly Backyard Carnival

Three years ago I threw an epic carnival party for my two boys, but I got busy, forgot about it, and never posted about it on this blog. The party was full of fun DIY details and ideas... so I'm sharing it today. Take a look at this budget-friendly backyard carnival, and let me know what you think. (I've even included a three minute video highlighted some of my favourite parts of the party!)

GAMES -- Carnival parties are all about the games, and I made a bunch of simple games using things I had around the house and a few purchases from the dollar store.

One game I made was "Straw Draw". I put little bits paper inside short pieces of straws. Some of the papers were blank and others said "small", "medium", or "large". The kids picked out straws, opened up the papers, and claimed their prizes.

I also set up a little "guessing booth". I set a couple of dollar store jars in a cardboard box, and filled them with candy. Then, the guests guessed the number of candies in each jar and wrote their guesses on the clipboard. The closest guess won the candy!

I also made a ring toss from an empty paper towel roll and duct tape. I made rings for it with pipe cleaners. Simple and fun!

And I made a bean bag toss from plastic bowls I had in my cupboard.

And I made a ball toss from an old skate box.

PHOTO BOOTH -- In this age of social media and selfies, I love a photo booth at a party, and they are easy and inexpensive to make.

For the carnival party, I filled a dollar store jar with foam clown noses.

And I filled a basket with photo props from the dollar store.

And I covered foam boards with wrapping paper to make a photo back drop.

Check out how cute my little clowns were using the photo booth. 😁

FOOD -- Every party needs good food, and carnival food is really fun to serve. Of course, you'll need carnival staples like popcorn, cotton candy, and chips. 

You can also add fun elements like this "kissing booth" (chocolate kisses in a jar).

And this "pick a pop" treat... where one sucker stem has a hidden coloured stem... and the person that picks that sucker gets a special prize.

And I love displaying small bags of chips on a piece of twine with clothes pins. Get creative with the food and have some fun!

CAKE -- Every party needs a cake. It's simple to make, it looks great on a table, and everyone loves dessert!

Cakes don't need to be elaborate to be festive. For my boys, I made plain cakes and decorated them with sprinkles and their favourite colourful candies. Then, I finished them off with a little banner I made using paper straws.

PARTY FAVOURS -- Everyone loves a free gift to take home, and my favourite party favours are simple, inexpensive, useful, and fun. For our carnival party, I added cute notes to bags of microwave popcorn. The notes said, "Thanks for POPPING by!" 

I made the labels 4x6 so I could print them like regular pictures. They were cheap and easy!

For a closer look at our budget-friendly backyard carnival, take a look at the three minute video I made here.

What do you think of this fun little party? I absolutely love all the easy and inexpensive DIY party details.

♥

Gina Bell (aka East Coast Mommy)

You might also be interested in the fun DIY party ideas here.

Carnival Signage

Recently, I shared my boys' easy and inexpensive DIY Carnival Party, and I've had a lot of positive feedback about the party. Everyone loves the little DIY details, and many readers have been asking me about the signs I used. So, today I am sharing all the carnival signage I designed FOR FREE!

Below, please find a blank version of my carnival sign (in case you want to add your own games), and several of my other signs, which are available to download for free. I would love to have you download and print any of these signs for your personal use, but please don't use them for commercial purposes, and don't post or reprint them without permission from me. If you want to share them with friends, please provide them with the link to this post. Thank you so much!

To download any of the signs: click on the design you like, right-click, save it to your computer, and print it like a regular 8X10 photo.

Blank sign:

Tattoo sign:

Face painting sign:

Guessing booth sign:

Straw draw sign:

Ball toss sign:

Bean bag toss sign:

Knock down sign:

Ring Toss sign:

Prize booth sign:

Concession stand sign:

Clown Nose Sign:

Frisbee Toss Sign:

Photo Booth:

Pick a Pop:

If you want to see all the fun ways I used these signs, take a look at our DIY Carnival Party here. It was a lot of fun, and it is an easy and inexpensive party theme that appeals to all ages!

♥
Gina Bell (aka East Coast Mommy)

MORE DIY Carnival Party Ideas

The Ultimate DIY Carnival Party

A carnival is perfect party theme for all ages. Everyone loves carnival games and treats. Today I am sharing the details of the simple and fabulous DIY Carnival party I threw for my boys on their 6th and 8th birthdays.

I set the mood by creating a simple carnival themed invite. I used a picture of my boys and added some info using Picmonkey.com. I printed the 4X6 photo invites for just $0.19 each at my local photo developer.

We also thought it would be fun for my boys to make their own carnival t-shirts to wear to the party. They used fabric markers and white t-shirts. I think the shirts turned out really cute, and my boys were really proud of their creations.

Cute, right?

On the day of the party, we had the party guest decorate bags as they arrived. The bags were used to collect tickets and prizes.

Of course, we also had some fantastic carnival food at our "concession stand". We ordered pizza, but we also had lots of popcorn, chips, cotton candy, and treats. 

And the cakes were colourful and cute too. You can read all about our Skittles cakes here.

I also put together a bunch of simple carnival games and activities. I used Picmonkey.com to make some signs and purchased a lot of my supplies from the dollar store. You can read about all our carnival games and activities here.

The kids won tickets when they played the games, and at the end of the party, they were able to trade their tickets in for inexpensive carnival prizes.

In order to save money, I crafted some prizes, purchased things at the dollar store, and repackaged items that I purchased in bulk. You can read about all our carnival prizes here.

The kids put all their prizes into the bags they had decorated and we added clown noses to create seriously cute loot bags/ party favours.

I think a carnival party is a perfect party theme. It is fantastic for a birthday, but you could adapt my ideas for a carnival fundraiser too. Have you ever thrown a carnival party? I'd love to hear about it.

♥ 
Gina Bell (aka East Coast Mommy)

Carnival Games and Activities

Last weekend I hosted a Carnival party for my boys, and we had a ton of easy games that all the kids loved. Today I am sharing all the awesome carnival games and activities I put together for our little party guests.

As the guests arrived, they made a couple of guesses at our guessing booth. The person that guessed the correct number of candies was given the jar full of goodies to take home.

Our carnival prize punch was a big hit with the guests. They threw small rubber balls at the foam core boards until they were able to break through the tissue paper. When the child succeeded, he/she was able to reach inside the cup and claim his/her prize. You can find the full step-by-step tutorial for the carnival prize punch here. 

Every guests was also given access to our giant tattoo board. I cut out dollar store tattoos and taped them to a piece of foam core. Then, guests were able to easily select a tattoo for me to apply. Fun, right?

The party also had a basic face painting station. I bought some inexpensive face paint, and drew out a few simple designs. I am not an artist so I kept things pretty basic, but it was still fun.

The straw draw was requested by my middle son, and it was a huge hit with the party guests. I cut up bits of paper, and then I left some blank and marked some with an "X". Then, I rolled up the bits of paper and inserted them inside one-inch pieces of paper straws. The party guests chose straws, and the ones that found "X"s exchanged them for prizes.

Carnival party games don't get much easier than knock down. All you need to do is: stack cups, throw a ball, and knock them down.

I found colorful bowls at Walmart for $1 each, and I knew they would be perfect for a bean bag toss. The kids loved trying to get points and get higher scores than their friends. 

Every child loves the simplicity of a ball toss game, and this one was inexpensively made from an old box. You can find the full tutorial for our ball toss here.

Our final game was a basic ring toss that I made from a recycled paper towel roll. I wrapped the paper towel roll in red and white duct tape, and then I hot glued it to piece of canvas. I made rings from several pipe cleaners wrapped together.

All of our carnival games were easy and inexpensive... but they were also awesome and lots of fun! You can download all the red and white carnival signs that I designed here. Which carnival games would your kids enjoy?

♥
Gina Bell (aka East Coast Mommy)

PS (Here is the link to all the other DIY carnival party details.)

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