DIM, Did It Myself: Birthday Party Flamingos

Clever, crafty comadres, so glad you are here.  Talking birthday party flamingos today.  Sharing a quick and inexpensive little DIM project I just finished for our grand birthday party celebration this coming week.

You might remember that July is a busy birthday month for us.  My oldest granddaughter Cadence was born on July 28.  My oldest daughter Brennyn Alexis was born on July 30.  And my youngest daughter Lauren Allegra was born on July 31.  A lot of happiness.  A lot of ka-ching!

We try to be together to celebrate every year but with busy lives lived hundreds of miles apart, it isn’t always possible.  This year both of my daughters are coming home for an early birthday pool party.  And because most of our birthday festivities take place on or around water, man-made or otherwise, we often feature a birthday party flamingo theme.  I found this cute little guy on Pinterest, promptly pinned him and then recreated him times 2 yesterday.  Have a look.

Birthday Party Flamingos

This project was more time consuming than expensive!  Took much of an afternoon to add the flowers to the flamingo bodies.  And then there’s that OCD thing that I’ve got going on.  Couldn’t just slap the flowers onto the birds.  Had to add a flower to one birthday party flamingo.  Then had to add the same type flower in as close to exactly the same place on the second birthday party flamingo.  That OCD business can be a pain in the butt.

Birthday Party Flamingo Supplies

My birthday party flamingos only required a few inexpensive supplies.  Pink plastic flamingos are available in a number of online and brick and mortar stores.  I ordered mine through Amazon because they would arrive quicker than I could find time to run to the store to buy them.  Oriental Trading Company also has them and World Market has them online and in-store but not as large as these. Gather these supplies and meet me in my loft.

• Pink plastic flamingos with metal stake legs
• Several bunches of assorted flowers, I used five bunches from Dollar Tree
• Glue gun
• Glue sticks
• Scissors or box cutter/Exacto knife

Step One

Remove flower from stem and cut off the piece by which the flower was attached to the stem. Originally, I planned to use a piece of rolled Scotch tape to put the flowers on the flamingos. Once I liked their placement, I was going to go back and hot glue them in place.  I would still be working on this if I’d stuck with that plan!  Two minutes in, I changed that plan and decided to just go for it.  No one (but I) would care about how the flowers were placed.

I did want the flowers to lay somewhat flat. That little green plastic tip where the flower attached to the stem kept them from doing so.

But it also kept the layers of petals together.  By trimming it even/flat or removing the green tip all together.  The flowers came apart.

With the snip of my scissors, I went from having a single flower to having 3-5 layers of flower to glue onto my flamingo.

Step Two

Attach each layer of petals, one on top of the other, with the glue gun.  Decide where you want to start decorating your flamingo.  I knew I wanted the top to be the prettiest, fullest part of my birds, so I started there.   I picked a larger bloom for that prominent place.

Held the bodies between my knees, one at a time and began gluing the layers of petals of my first flower at the base of the neck of each flamingo.

Use just a few drops of hot glue in the center of the flower.  Want the petals to kind of flutter in the breeze once the flamingos were out in the yard.  Hold the flower in place until the glue cools.  Repeat until all of the layers of one flower are in place.

Then, if your OCD isn’t totally in check, you will want to repeat the steps with the very same flower in the very same place on the second flamingo.

Step Three

Add a medium-sized blossom on either side of this larger flower following the same steps as above. I had about 10 larger flowers in total.  Wanted to spread them around the flamingo so one would appear on each side, the top and the underneath of the birds.  Then I could fill in with medium and smaller sized flowers.

Step Four

Once you have most of each of the flamingos covered in flowers, add smaller blooms to fill in the blank spots.  Had I thought about this completely before jumping in, it would have been a good idea to buy some tiny flowers to use as filler.

And I could even do that now.  Although, I think the flowers on my flamingos are pretty evenly distributed and full.  Could also stick a little of the greenery around in bare spots as filler.

Step Five

Tack down petals randomly around the birds to keep the flowers adhered.  I really want my flowers to move in the breeze so didn’t secure them completely but left some petals and the edges of other petals fluttery and free.

Step Six

Introduce the birthday party flamingos to their new habitat beside the pool.  I just ‘planted’ my birds for a quick picture then brought them back in the house.  We are in the midst of our monsoon season.  Translation:  it is raining here in El Paso.  Rained yesterday shortly after I brought the birds inside.  Rained last night and has rained off and on all day today.  We have rain the forecast for the whole birthday week.  That will only mean an occasional rain storm once or twice between now and next Saturday.

I have a birthday banner with flamingos that I saved from Cady’s first birthday celebration.  We all shared a rented beachside cottage at Galveston that year.  We had flamingos in the yard of the house and the banner hanging between the pillars of the carport under the house.

Now we have baby Lucia in the family and although her birthday is in March, we will be celebrating her, too, this week. It will be Lucia’s happy unbirthday.  So I ordered a second little banner to hang underneath our original one that says just that.

My bff Sharon, who is the most generous soul I know, sent a box full of goodies and gifts for our birthday party.  Birthday party flamingos galore!  Thank you so much, Sharonia!  I love you, friend.

We are going to be in high cotton over here.  A birthday celebration to remember.  Will be sharing more in the next week or so.

Your Turn

Do you have a repeating birthday theme?  Or a fun garden DIM project you have put together for your outdoor space?  Won’t you share in a comment below?  Always looking for cute ideas to try over here. Is there a Pinterest project you are particularly proud of?  Would love to know more!

Thank you, DIYourself-ers and crafters and readers, for spending a few moments here with me.  I am joining up with Carrie and Lauren for The Creative Corner and have a wonderful new group of grandmother bloggers I am hanging out and linking-up with.  Check out all of those great link-up opportunities for Mimis, Mamaws, Minnies and Grandmas, here.

Have a peaceful week, dear ones.  I will be in pig heaven with all of my babies here for most of the week and the weekend.

Hugs and kisses,