How I Planned My Daughter’s Dinosaur Birthday Party: DIYs, Balloons & All the Details
- Aug 20
- 9 min read
I am SO excited with how my daughter’s 4th birthday party turned out!
To be honest, this was probably the least stressful birthday party I have planned so far, which I think has everything to do with how much planning and prep work I did ahead of time. For two of her previous birthdays, we had moved just a month or two before the party, so getting the house ready and unpacked took priority.
This year was also my first year as a stay at home mom, which meant I had plenty of nap times to work on DIY projects, plan the details, and slowly bring everything together.
And trust me, there were a LOT of details.
When I started Cantwell Creates, one of my biggest motivations was being able to use the money I make from the business to throw my kids big, over the top birthday parties every year. I wanted to give them the birthday parties I never had growing up.
So while this party involved a lot of work, it was also a chance for me to have some fun. I got to try new balloon techniques, experiment with new decor, add some new backdrops to my inventory, and basically go all in on a big luxury party setup.
So here is everything that went into it!
Planning the Dinosaur Party
I started where I usually start when planning any part - Pinterest, Instagram Reels and TikTok! I am creative, but I will fully admit that I am much better at taking an idea I love and putting my own spin on it than coming up with an entire concept from scratch. I found a few backdrop ideas that I loved and started combining different pieces from each one. I knew I wanted a greenery wall to be the main part of the backdrop, and I also wanted to add an open arch to my inventory. Originally, I thought I would add even more jungle and safari greenery into the greenery wall, but once everything came together, I realized it really didn't need it.
Then there was the small issue of the birthday girl's opinions. My daughter is VERY particular about what kind of dinosaurs and colors she wanted. She did not want cute watercolor or cartoon dinosaurs - she wanted a real life T-Rex. She also hates pastel colors and kept picking vibrant, bold colors (Definitely not my usual style!)
I saved tons of inspiration photos and color palettes on my phone until we finally found a combination we could both agree on.
Once I had good idea to start, I created a mockup in Canva. The mockup changed as I came up with new ideas and added new DIY projects. I also created an overall layout of the entire party in Canva. I planned where the bounce house would go, where the balloons would be, the table layouts, the look of the entrance, and even the trampoline setup. Having everything planned out ahead of time made the actual party day so much easier because I could delegate through a photo.
The Dinosaur Backdrop
I am so happy with how the backdrop turned out. There were so many little details that went into it, and I ended up DIYing way more than I originally planned. Now that I am a stay at home mom, I had lots of nap times to add more to my to-do list!
I made three wooden signs - One for the backdrop, one for the Dino Dig, and one reminding everyone to take their shoes off before using the bounce house. I had seen a photo on Pinterest that I knew I wanted to recreate, but I needed a pallet. Apparently, finding a free pallet is harder than it sounds. The ones I found on Facebook Marketplace were too far away. Someone told me Home Depot near my house had some, but an employee told me they were no longer allowed to give them away. Luckily, I had an early morning doctor's appointment on trash day on week! Someone in our subdivision had put a pallet out for trash, so my husband grabbed it for me! It was perfect. I bought one long, skinny piece of wood from Lowe's, which I used to make all three signs, and found a stain that was close to the color of the pallet wood.
DIY Dinosaur Eggs
Our neighborhood had a community wide garage sale this summer, and I managed to find three very important things for this party - a $10 sandbox, some large dinosaurs that became centerpieces, and two giant plastic Easter eggs.
The eggs were bright blue and bright pink, and meant to be used as yard decorations. I had seen a TikTok of someone using Rustoleum textured spray paint to turn plastic eggs into dinosaur eggs, and luckily I had remembered it!.
First, I spray painted them with a tan primer to cover the bright colors. Then I used the texture spray. Unfortunately, the spray paint started running out and made the eggs look very streaky. But at $16 a can, I was not buying another one. In the end, I think the streaky finish actually made them look more like real dinosaur eggs. I only had two, but I really wish I had more.
The Dino Dig
I got super lucky and someone was selling a large brown sand box for $10! This was another idea I found on TikTok. I ordered a large pack of dinosaur skeletons and fossils from Amazon and buried them in the sand. Then I found a sandbox kit that came with construction vehicles and dinosaur themed toys to add to the top. I even found little paint brushes for $1 so the kids could clean off their fossils. This was a huge hit and the kids played with it the entire time!!
Actually, the week of the party, the forecast started calling for rain, and I was worried the Dino Dig wouldn't get used! We had gotten a sensory bin table for Christmas the year before, and I had also picked up a large mixed pack of dinosaur toys at the garage sale, including little dinosaurs, rocks, trees, and volcanoes. So I decided to make a mini, indoor Dino Dig as a backup! I bought a 30 lb bag of rice for $6 and dyed half green for grass and half brown for dirt using white vinegar and food coloring. Then I added all of the little dinosaurs and accessories to the sensory table. We never ended up using it at the party, but my kids played with it pretty much the entire week leading up to the party, and I left it out for them to keep playing with afterward.
T-Rex Toss & Tricera-Toss
The more time I had, the more I worried “what if I don’t have enough activities”. Last year, I bought an extra large bounce house thinking it would be the main attraction - it was barely used. The trampoline, on the other hand? Every single kid loved it. So this year I knew the trampoline needed to be the main entertainment. But since I had the time and resources, I decided to add a couple of yard games too.
My grandma had some corn hole boards sitting unused in her garage. My original plan was to paint the boards myself, but I knew that would take forever and I would probably end up hating how they looked anyway. Then a Walgreens 70% off poster sale appeared on my For You Page! I used ChatGPT to help design the posters, including removing the horns from the triceratops and lining up the T Rex's mouth with the existing hole in the cornhole board. I printed two 24 x 36 inch posters for around $10 each. For the tricera-toss board, I put a piece of foam board over the hole so nobody would accidentally put a hole through the poster. I also ordered a yard game kit from Amazon with colorful cones, rings to toss, and bean bags. They weren’t really a hit, but they did get played with!
Continuing with the activities, there was a photo on Pinterest that my daughter immediately pointed out. It was a bunch of plastic safari hats that kids could decorate with stickers. It looked fun, but I knew those little plastic hats would probably be thrown away immediately after the party. So instead, I decided to do make your own explorer hats! I bought plain white bucket hats from Amazon and fabric markers so the kids could decorate them however they wanted. Although they would probably also be thrown away, the cost really was not that much higher!
Dinosaur Coloring Pages
My daughter is also really into coloring right now, so I wanted to include some dinosaur coloring pages. These would have been really easy to make in Canva, I just didn't have the brain power and everything I made looked terrible. I found a pack of five custom dinosaur coloring pages for $1.99 on Etsy and called it a day. I actually had to come back inside during the party and print more because every kid wanted to color more than one.
DIY Birthday Outfits
The next DIY project was our outfits. I had a surprisingly hard time finding dinosaur clothes that I actually liked. I found a really cute safari birthday outfit on Etsy, but it was $60!! I knew I could make it myself. I found a jean jumper at Old Navy on sale for $12 (they actually still have some in stock and they’re still $12!). Originally I planned to use my embroidery machine, but purchasing the files on Etsy was the same price as getting dinosaur patches on Amazon! They were supposed to be iron on patches but they did not stick well, so I needed to hand sew them. I also added letter patches to the back with her name. I absolutely love how it turned out! And considering my daughter is VERY particular about her clothes, the fact that she willingly put it on the morning of her party was a huge win!
I even used the extra dinosaur patches to make myself a matching jean jumper that I found on clearance at our local grocery store (Yes, a grocery store. Apparently I am at the point where all my clothes come from Costco or Meijer).
Dinosaur Cupcake Toppers
I save the cupcake toppers every year in my daughters memory tub, but didn’t get a chance to save one this year, so I need to go back and make another one! I loved the idea of using an oversized head as the cupcake topper. I had seen some dinosaur versions on Etsy, but I couldn't find anything I really loved. Once again, ChatGPT to the rescue. I showed it a few examples and asked it to create a dinosaur with a headless person riding on it. It gave me exactly what I needed. I then used Canva to add photos of my daughter's face onto the bodies, printed two per page as 4x6 photos at Walgreens, and cut them out. The cutting was a little tedious, but I hot glued them onto toothpicks and they fit perfectly into the cupcakes.
The Bubble Machine
Besides all of the DIY projects, the bubble machine was another huge hit. I had seen another family using this bubble machine at our local playground and noticed that it produced A LOT of bubbles and seemed to run forever. The family was nice enough to send me the link, and my mom ended up buying it as part of my daughter's birthday gift. It was perfect for the party and especially fun for photos. One warning - it did leave some marks on the balloons. Luckily, since this was a dinosaur party, the texture actually kind of worked with the theme.
The Balloons & Final Setup
And finally, the part I was probably most excited about - the backdrop balloons. I used WhoopeeParty to print a custom backdrop cover for my 7x4 arch, and I used Tuftex balloons throughout the party.
I blew up A LOT of balloons. There were approximately 24 feet of balloons on the main backdrop, 15 feet around the bounce house, 8 feet at the entrance, and another 4 feet on a small balloon arch above the food bar. I also added balloon clusters around the sides of the trampoline and scattered loose balloons on the trampoline - The kids absolutely loved those.
The dinosaur cutouts were actually a Facebook Marketplace find, which saved me from having to DIY one more thing.
I also used cardboard and dry floral foam to create greenery pieces for the front of the backdrop. Because the party was outside and the yard has a slight hill, we needed quite a few backdrop weights to keep everything secure. The greenery pieces ended up being perfect for hiding the weights while adding another layer to the backdrop.
I also found some ferns and palm trees at Walmart and Lowe's during their end of season clearance, which helped finish off the jungle and filled in some empty spots!
Would I Do It All Again?
DUH! Seeing my daughter’s excitement as we set up her party and be so excited about every little detail made it completely worth it.
If you're planning a dinosaur birthday party of your own, I hope you found some ideas here that you can steal, recreate or put your own spin on! And if you're in the Cleveland or Akron, Ohio area and would rather leave the balloons and backdrops to someone else, Cantwell Creates would love to help bring your vision to life!!
For more party inspiration, behind the scenes, balloon setups, and plenty of mom life mixed in, follow along with @CantwellCreates on Instagram.
Julia Cantwell
(216) 264-3722
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