5 perfect, prickly, personalized ideas for your next party

This post was created in partnership with Shutterfly. 

1.) Just when you thought cacti couldn’t get any cuter, they get housed in mason jars and are hooked up with ombre pink sand. I know. It’s almost unbearable. Personalize the jars on Shutterfly with names of friends, and they become perfect place cards/party favors for birthdays or showers, or add your business name for a memorable bit of swag for your next business event.

2. Instead of giving your friends readymade terrariums, or in our case, cactariums, let them get in on the fun and have a cactarium-making station at your next shindig. Let your friends get all creative and have fun picking sand colors and picking up the cacti with humungous tweezers to keep the pricklys at arms length.

To make the terrariums, you’ll need:

Mason jar mugs
Small rocks
Sand in a variety of colors
Small cacti/succulents, removed from most of the soil they came planted in
Long tweezers or chopsticks to handle cacti

Start with an inch of rocks in the bottom of the jar to ensure your cacti’s roots don’t get soggy. Next add a layer or two of sand, then use a spoon to make space for the cacti or succulent to go. Use the tweezers or chopsticks to place the plant(s) in the sand, then add another layer or two of sand. Be sure to place the plants so that they don’t touch each other or the sides of the glass.

To care for the cacti, keep them in a spot that gets lots of bright, indirect light, but avoid placing your cactarium in a bright window- the heat coming off the glass can fry the plants. Wait a week before your first watering, then water about once every 2 weeks, once you can see that all the water has evaporated from the rock layer. Avoid using too much water- once you see water in the rock layer, you can stop.

3.) Spike your beer! When I was a teenager I lived in Europe for a couple of years. I travelled to Belgium with a choir and drank flavored beer. It was one of my favorite things ever — not just because I was 17 and drinking beer at a pub (OK maybe that is why) but I loved adding fruity flavors to my beer and tasting all of the different concoctions. Here’s how we made this SPIKED beer (please tell me you got our pun):

Start with a light colored beer, like a Belgian Blonde, Witbier, or Pale Ale. Pour beer into a pilsner glass. Next add real juice in your preferred flavor and color- we used pure cherry juice here, and added less and less juice to each glass to achieve the ombre effect. If you like your beer sweeter, try using a natural fruit flavored syrup instead.

4.) Personalize your Pilsner. Get initials printed on your glassware and never lose track of your drink again! Or print out one word “Cheers!” “Grad!” “Dad” “Mom” to add some fun to your kitchen cupboard.

5.) Heading to a pot luck? Personalize your dishes for yourself (and never lose them again!), or have them personalized for the hostess and leave the dish/cheeseboard with them as a perfect hostess gift.

So now you know all of our secrets. Now you can be part of The Jungalow Cactus Club. ;P

Framed Prints also C/O Shutterfly
Photography & styling by Danae Horst for The Jungalow. 

This post is sponsored by Shutterfly. Awaken your space with your vision. Shop Shutterfly Home Décor for personalized home accents that are uniquely you.

**Please note The Jungalow blog will be on vacation next week. We will be back with regular posting Monday, August 29th! Hope you’re enjoying the final days of summer!**