DIY Dinosaur Birthday Party Decorations - This Grateful Mama (2024)

Dinosaurs.

Theperfect theme for a 4-year-old boy’s first-ever birthday party with his little friends.

A gold mine of birthday decor ideas.

My ideas, combined with thosegathered onmy Birthday Boy Pinterest board, and I was soon alittle overwhelmed!

Limited by both time and budget, I couldn’t do it all…so I picked four decorations I could make myselfusing common and inexpensive materials that, for the most part, I already had on hand.The party was a big hit with both kids and parents.

Today’s post is all about decorations you can make yourself, with materials you probablyalready have. Using simple materials like paper, tape, string, markers, stencils, and chalk, your house can be Dino-party ready!

Each of the following ideas were completed during nap time, and each took an hour or less.Here is a little tour of the decorations people saw as they arrived for the party.Best of all, when my son saw it all, he was just delighted. It made every effort completely worth it.

DIY Dinosaur Birthday Party Decor

1.DIY ChalkDinosaur CrossingSign and Paper Footprints

• We actually forgot to put these two decorations out before our party began – Whoops! I’m postingthem anyway – since they were made inadvance TO use!
• Walking up to the house these construction paper dinosaur footprints would guide you to the front door and into the party

• This DinoCrossing Chalk Sign wascreatedon our Ikea Easel
  • A diamond with rounded corners was drawn, and asecond borderwas traced
  • Adino-stencil was made by tracing a toy dinosaur onto paper and cutting it out
  • Thestencil was placed in the center of the triangle andtraced, then the rest of the inner diamond was filled in
  • Colored areas were blended with fingersto give a solid-looking finish
  • A diaper wipe andmy pointer finger wereused to remove chalk and ‘write’ black letters
    • After each stroke, a fresh piece of the wipewas used
    • Once the letters were dry, any smeary spots were ‘touched up’ with a wipe
    • Any letters that got too thick were colored in with fresh chalk
    • My kids smeared it right away – No problem! I just cleaned the smeary areas with a wipe and colored with chalk as necessary

2. “ROAR means Happy 4th Birthday in Dinosaur” Entryway Sign

• When guests walked in the door, the paper footprints led them by this sign in our entryway. They placed gifts on the table below it
  • Inspiration for the wording of this signwas foundhere.
  • Pre-cut flags like these were bought on clearance at Target in the party section ($1.20 each for pack of 10 flags and string – I bought 1 blue, 1 green)
  • Lettering was done with these alphabetstencilsthat I already ownedanda black sharpie
  • Flags were hung from 2 orange shoe strings I already had, and the white strings that came with the pre-cut flags
  • Banners were suspended from 3M command hooks to save the wall from pin holes
  • Additional lettering was created using one pack of vinyl wall alphabet decals from the dollar store($1 for a pack containing 2 of each letter in the alphabet – I had to cut and ‘create’ one additionalletter“N” from other letters to write these words on the wall)

3. Homemade Paper 2-Inch Circle Garland

• Stung on a window and across two large walls, guests saw our 2-inch circle garland, made from bright construction paper
  • Using a 2 Inch Craft LeverPunch (Hobby Lobby – $6 on sale), holes were cutusingseveral colors of construction paper (4 sheets at a time – different colors stacked in the order they’ll be strung)
  • Circles were strung using a needle and thread.
    • The needle was pushed up through the paper, then down and up again so they would lay FLAT on the string
    • Keep the thread attached to the spool until you’ve strung half of the punched holes
    • Then let out at least the same length from the spool and cut the thread
    • String the rest from the other side
  • Garland was suspended using 3m Command hooks
  • Three 8 to 10 foot long strings of garland took about 45 minutes total, which included punching them, stringing them and hanging them

4.“Happy 4th Birthday Aiden-a-saurus”Flag Banner

• This banner was the focal point of the main party area of our home
  • This banner was made using patterned 12″ x 12″ scrapbook paper I already had
    • 12″x12″ sheets were cut in half. This sign used 14 pages to create 28 flags
    • A triangle was cut from bottom to create the flag shape; I used the first as the template for the rest
  • Tip: Buyscrapbook paper at a craft store when on sale or use standard solid color construction paper. Hobby Lobby runs a 50% off scrapbook supplies often. Something likethiswill work great; and with assorted patterns and 80 pages, you could make ABUNCHof banners for $7.
  • Letters were made on white medium weight art paper using these alphabet stencilsthat I already owned and a black sharpie
  • The flags were hung on a string; fold 1 inch over the string and secure with tape to the back of the flag
  • The banner was suspended on 3M command hooks overthe entryway between ourkitchen to dining room

Check out the dinosaur birthday party food and decorations in these posts:

DIY Dinosaur Tails, Dinosaur Spike Party Hats and Favors

Related