So last week was our daughter’s 22nd birthday. Which reminded me of her 21st birthday we celebrated in lockdown last year (how time flies!!), but as it was pre-blog I never shared it with you guys. She had big plans to celebrate with her friends of course, but unfortunately this was 2020 and Corona had other plans!
And so there’s nothing like a pandemic to get you to be creative!! It just meant we had to improvise .. what to do to make it a special day with the 4 of us in lock down (as well as 2 grandparents in complete isolation over the road ..). Well, if she can’t be with her friends, we’ll bring FRIENDS to her ๐ .. a FRIENDS themed party it is!
For all you FRIENDS lovers out there .. there’s SOOO much you can make on a budget with a little bit of creativity (and a printer!).
the one with the big friends banner:
The focal point had to be this massive banner (I think I went a bit BIG with this one but you know .. go BIG or go home!!). It took a bit of time making it, but it’s super easy to do – here’s what you need:
- Black A4 cardstock
- White copy paper
- Glue stick
- String
- Scissors
- The Friends Themed font, available to download for personal use for free here
And that’s all you need! – I cut the A4 cardstock in half and created a shallow dovetail at the bottom to add a bit of interest. I used the Silhouette machine to cut out the white letters, but you can totally do this on Word by downloading the Gabriel Weiss font, printing the letters in white with a black outline and then cutting around the letters. Stick the letters down and you’re half way there.
Make a small hole in the top corner of each of the pieces of cardboard. On the left hand side, pull the string through from front to back, hiding the string behind the card. Tie a small knot to secure. Next, pull the string through from the back to the front in the hole on the right hand side. Tie a knot to secure. Repeat this process until you’ve tied all of the letters together. It’s a bit time consuming and fiddly, but really worth the effort.
For the coloured dots it got really technical .. Only kidding! I used a circle shaped object to make the “dot” and used some acrylic paint to colour it in. Again, you can just print off a coloured dot of your choice, cut it out and stick it into place – easy peasy!
So this was the banner after it was all painted and put together … (I told you I went BIG ..)
the one with the friends party food!
For the Friends food theme I took to Pinterest for inspiration and created some labels. You can download them for yourself here. Just print them, cut and glue to some cocktail sticks. Get your favourite FRIENDS foods and place the tag with them.
As it was a coffee and cake party (OK .. maybe with a bit of wine thrown in too ๐ .. and the “If I had to I’d pee on any one of you” orange squash of course!!), we kinda had to make a decision of what food to limit ourselves to (unfortunately!!). BUT the list of what you can do is endless!! Check out Pinterest for some more FRIENDS food inspiration if you’re extending it to a whole buffet or evening party!!
For the cups, I picked up some very basic take-away coffee cups (I think I paid ยฃ1 for 10 or something like that), and printed off the Central Perk label. Just cut and stick! (I’d happily share them with you here, but I’m not sure where I stand on “Central Perk” copyright when sharing! ..)
FRIENDS themed shirts
I ordered our shirts from Etsy. The shop I bought them from is not longer available, but there are LOTS of other companies that do FRIENDS themed shirts with customised option! Check them out HERE and find the one that you want! And as it happens my shirt has been very well worn over the last year or so during isolation!!
And of course, we couldn’t let leave the (grand)parents out!! Although they couldn’t spend the day with us, they both got their very own shirt too!! Not THE best photo but you can just about make out both of them ๐
Smelly dogs!!
And finally, here’s our terrible two .. with a cheeky play on the whole Smelly Cat theme .. If you’ve got dogs, you can get them involved by heading over to the earlier printables as the Smelly Dog tags are in there too!
And here’s one final picture of all of us together in the front garden of my husband’s parents. They took the photo through the window but it gives you another good look at the t-shirts and our crazy little family ๐
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