Summer Dinner Party - Life is a Party

Summer Dinner Party: ideas for inexpensive DIY decor like flowers, paper garland, and menu cards with a peach, pink, and lime green colour scheme.

This pretty summer dinner party was fun to put together with some easy DIY decor ideas for a gorgeous summer table.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Last week, after being given some pretty flowers left over after an event, I was inspired by their colour combination of peach, pink, and lime green. I won’t normally think of putting peach and pink together, but seeing it, I thought it was really, really pretty, and a bit different. The free pretty flowers inspired the rest of the table.

Since I didn’t have anything else with the three colours, I thought I could make something to bring it all together. There’s nothing cheaper than paper when it comes to making party decor.

DIY Paper Garland

scrapbook paper
scissors / paper cutter
sewing machine

I went to the craft store and picked up a few sheets of pretty scrapbook paper in the three colours. Then I cut out lots of different sized triangles. The easiest way is to use a paper cutter to cut strips, then cut the strips into squares, and then cut the squares in half to make triangles. I liked the look of them in varying sizes. I cut out larger ones to sew a paper garland together, and small, tiny ones to decorate menu cards.

It’s really easy to make a garland on the sewing machine. Just feed your paper into the machine, and stitch right through it (just like sewing cloth) when you come to the end of it, keep stitching, this will produce a gap. Without cutting the thread, feed in the next triangle.

Keep going with the random sizes and colours, at random intervals to create random sized gaps. Once you have the garland as long as you want it, just snip the thread.

I used a bright pink thread on the top, and white on the bottom, which created a string almost like baker’s twine.

The paper garlands look great hanging over the china cabinet.

DIY Menu Cards

white cardstock
scrapbook paper
scissors / paper cutter
sewing machine
marker

I used a similar method on the menu cards. I cut out smaller triangles, and then stitched them on to card stock menu cards. You simply stitch the paper just like you would fabric, and feed on the tiny paper triangles as you go.

The results were amazing. My guests liked them so much that they took them home after dinner as a souvenir.

I loved how they were all a little different.

For the lettering I just used a thicker sharpie to write “menu” and filled it in with a fine sharpie.

There’s a great little lesson here, if you’re trying to bring together a colour scheme, find something with all the colours in it. If you can’t find it, make it.

Summer Dinner Party Table

I set the table with things I already had, pretty gold cutlery, simple white plates, pink glasses, and pink napkins. The flowers were in simple mason jars.

This table really came together for about $5. Even if you had to buy the flowers, there are really inexpensive mums and carnations, easy to find at a grocery store -and super long lasting too.

For the rest of the table, I just shopped my house. Simple white plates go with everything. I hope you feel inspired to try something different, and see what you can create.