Jungle-Themed Birthday Party

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I had wanted to throw a jungle-themed birthday party for my son for a long time, and this year I finally had the time to make it happen. I started preparing well in advance and began researching ideas on how to make our home look and feel like a real jungle.

The first idea that came to mind was a suspension bridge. But of course, we would also need water for that… so why not add a waterfall as well? :-)

So, let’s start with the ingredients.

What you'll need

• Lots of brown packaging paper / kraft paper (for stones, the cliff face, and vines)

• Green and brown crepe paper

• Artificial leaves and plants

• A leafy garland

• Brown paper cups and plates + animal and leaf stickers

• A jungle-themed table runner and napkins

• Self-adhesive wall stickers (cut up for the bridge planks)

• Long cardboard rolls

• 4 shoe boxes

• Blue crepe paper

• White tulle

• Blue silk organza

• Blue foil fringe curtain

The Process

We started with the paper cups and plates, since that was the simplest part and my son could easily get involved as well. I couldn’t find any tableware in the shops that I liked — everything looked too cartoony for my taste. So I thought: why not make our own?

All you need are some stickers, and my son really enjoyed decorating them.

After that we moved on to the stones. He had a lot of fun crumpling the brown packaging paper, while I stuffed the stones with leftover plastic packaging material I summoned from the cellar.

Not only did it work well for the look, it was also a nice way to reuse materials we already had at home.

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Next, I worked on the two large pieces that form the waterfall. I attached them to the back of our TV using masking tape. I placed the blue crepe paper in the middle and added the foil fringe curtain on top to create the falling water effect.

At the base of the waterfall I used white tulle, and then layered blue silk organza on top to create soft, flowing “waves”. I also added some artificial greenery to make it pop.

Then came the suspension bridge. Thank goodness I found an unused wall sticker from two years ago, because I had really been racking my brain trying to figure out what to use for the bridge planks. I didn’t want to use wooden pallets because they wouldn’t have been very clean indoors.

So I simply cut the wall sticker into plank shapes, connected them with jute string, and the bridge was ready.

I had four unused rolls of self-adhesive vinyl wrap, which I covered with kraft paper, and

placed them into shoe boxes (covered with kraft paper as well) so they could stand upright.

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Once that was done, I started making vines out of kraft paper, hung them from the ceiling and the stairs, and added crepe paper and artificial tropical leaves to complete the wild jungle look.

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One finishing touch it needed: I tucked three of my son's plush toys into the scene — his snake, his crocodile, and his giraffe — peeking out from behind the waterfall and among the rocks. It made the jungle feel truly alive, and he spotted each one with such delight.

My son loved the final result so much that he insisted I put some vines in his own room as well.

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Tips for creating This Jungle Party

If you’d like to try something similar, here are a few things that worked especially well for us:

• Use what you already have. Packaging paper, boxes, and leftover materials can work perfectly here.

• Layer different fabrics. Tulle, crepe paper and organza together create a much more natural “water” effect.

• Let your kid(s) participate (unless you want it to be an absolute surprise ;-) )

• Use stuffed animals. Placing a few of your child's favourite plush animals into the scene makes it even more exciting :-)

Happy creating!