Thrifty Blues Clues Party

My son just turned 3, and he's a big Blue's Clues fan! The official licensed party supplies are expensive though. An 8 pack of plates alone costs $2.99, and I was expecting about 24 guests at his party--the cost for plates, napkins and cups would've been about $33! We also had food for our guests, so our costs would've been pretty out of control if we had bought all the licensed products!

We're on a tight budget, so what I did was make a lot of my own party supplies. This is an example of one of the items for the treat, or goody bags. I just printed labels with a picture of Blue and my son's name on a sheet of regular blank address labels, then put them on the front of mini Hershey's bars. I did something similar for bottles of bubbles. I also bought regular paper cups in shades of blue, added Blue's Clues stickers to the fronts, and ta-da! Blue's Clues cups at a fraction of the cost!

NickJr.com also has free printables, so I printed off pictures of Blue, big pawprints and other characters for decorating. Streamers and balloons in shades of blue helped complete the theme, and my mom made a homemade Blue's Clues cake. All in all, the only "real" licensed products I used were a package of small plates, a package of small napkins (about $6), and a couple of mylar balloons with Blue on them (a steal at only $1.08 each!). The rest of his Blue's Clues party was "homemade"--at a great savings to us!

By Lisa from WI from Kenosha, WI