DIY Ice Cream Party

This post is sponsored by Crystal Creamery, all opinions are my own.

I was super excited to style this Ice Cream Party for Crystal Creamery after learning about their new line of ice cream with cleaner ingredients! I’ve really tried to be more conscientious about the things that my family has been eating (and what’s in it!) and so has Crystal! Crystal is a California local Creamery where milk is delivered fresh daily from local, family-run farms. Their ice cream now has:

  • No high fructose corn syrup (likely the second ingredient in a store brand ice cream, take a peek next time you’re grocery shopping!)
  • No artificial flavors
  • No artificial colors (this is a big one I’m trying to cut out, especially because it’s so unnecessary!)
  • No artificial sweetners, say whaaa?!
  • No milk from cows treated with rBST (that’s hormones y’all).
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The Theme for our ice cream party was “Treat Yo Self” because if you’re local to California you can really, truly, treat yo self (and your family!) to something special with a Crystal Ice Cream party. Not only because it’s delicious, but also because you can feel good about what’s in it. This would be so fun to set this up for a July 4th gathering, neighborhood get together, birthday party, or just a fun family night if you’re still quarantining. And to make things even more fun, Crystal is running a giveaway to celebrate National Ice Cream Month and their new line of fresh, local ice cream! Enter here for a chance to win up to $250! The grand prize also includes a $250 donation to a local food bank, I love that!

Ice Cream Party Decorations

We had our ice cream party with a few other families to celebrate the last day of school! It was such a blast. We combined it with an outdoor movie night and watched E.T. The awesome thing about an ice cream party is you can throw together some easy (and super cheap) decorations that make a HUGE impact.

make your own ice cream cone out of kraft paper and paper plates!

All you need to recreate these fun ice cream cones is:

  • kraft paper
  • dinner sized paper plates in two colors
  • dessert sized paper plates in red
  • card stock for sprinkles and cherry stem
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I did also draw waffle cone lines on the kraft paper with a ruler and pencil. A sharpie may be better, my pencil ended up not showing up very well. I used my cricut to cut out some sprinkles and just free handed cutting out the cherry stem. What I love about this is you can throw it together for only a few dollars! And you can do as many as your heart desires ;). I cut the drips out of some left over paper plates.

Ice Cream Party Decoration Ideas

I also made a “treat yo self” banner (any Parks & Rec fans out there??) because Crystal Ice Cream is really the epitome of treating yourself. You get something delicious and you can feel good about feeding it to your family because it doesn’t have any of that artificial crap in it! I made mine with my cricut, but I made a free printable version for you! Along with a free printable 8X10 print. Links are at the bottom of the post.

Balloon ice cream cone

The last thing I did, as the main centerpiece of our decorations, is the ice cream cone out of balloons. That one is a bit time consuming, but makes a dramatic effect. I definitely recommend using balloon garland tape if you are going to attempt!

Ice Cream Toppings Bar

To make our Ice Cream Party a little more special than a regular night of ice cream, we had a toppings bar. We included:

  • mini chocolate chips
  • mini m&ms
  • mini reeses pb cups
  • gummy bears (very popular!)
  • gummy sharks (finally found a use for all the sharks left over from the ocean party!)
  • animal cookies
  • crushed oreos
  • crushed chips ahoys
  • and I had strawberries but forgot to put them out- whoops!
Ice Cream Toppings Bar

I put the toppings in mason jars and then set them on a tray that I covered with sprinkles. We also had chocolate syrup, caramel, whipped cream & sprinkles. For cone options we had: cake cones, sugar cones, waffle cones, waffle bowls and regular bowls.

DIY Ice Cream Cone Holder

Make your own ice cream cone holder out of a shoebox!

I wanted a fun way to display the cones, but did not want to spend $15 on a cone holder. So I just cut holes in a shoe box (a bit bigger than a quarter), and covered it in wrapping paper. Then I just stuck the cones through where the holes were and they punched a hole in the wrapping paper through to the pre-cut hole in the box. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Ice Cream Cone Menu Sign

My last finishing touch was to add more kraft paper & paper plate ice cream cones that doubled as a menu listing all of Crystal’s delicious flavors! I added the words with my cricut, but you could easily just write on the kraft paper with some fun chalk pens!

Make a menu out of an ice cream cone!

I had one cone with the ice cream flavors, and one cone with the toppings. If I had room I was going to add the cone options as well.

Ice Cream Party Decorations

Free Printables

And of course I couldn’t leave you without some free printables to help you style your own Ice Cream Party!

Treat Yo Self 8X10 print

Use this fun 8X10 print as part of your toppings bar and/or the banner below! Just click on them to download.

Treat Yo Self Ice Cream Party Banner

And if you haven’t already, make sure you head over and enter the Crystal Ice Cream Giveaway! And next time you’re at the store pick up a carton of their ice cream and try it out- you’ll be supporting local California dairy farmers, and you can taste the freshness, believe me! Happy National Ice Cream Month friends!

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