For the month of July, my monthly ladies craft night was a Luau! We channeled those island vibes here in Montana, and enjoyed an evening of yummy food, tiki bar drinks, and of course our craft. The evening started off quite stressful, because I bought cheap tiki torches from Walmart and a couple of them got so hot they melted and then caught on fire ! It was a mess and I am thankful my husband was there to put the fire out. AND when I was filling the tiki torches with the fuel, the container was pressurized and when I opened it up for the first time, it exploded all over me. In my mouth, up my nose, all over my new dress, covered my arms, and in my hair… about 10 minutes before guests were to arrive! Then I cleaned up and then there was a fire. CHAOS! But besides the tiki torch dilemma, it was a really fun night.

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I had a very tight budget for this party, but luckily I had several of the decorations already from other parties in the past. I wanted to go all out on this one, but ah the constraints of finances…

(Links are at the end of this post!)

The “ALOHA” sign is from Dollar Tree

I used fresh pineapples as decor because we can eat them when we are done!

I used tropical looking plants, shells and tealights I already had

I made the Tiki Bar menu sign and put it in a Dollar Tree frame I had. I made an island punch that had pineapple juice, OJ, and guava nectar, then ladies could add coconut rum to their drinks to make a cocktail.

I also made a couple pitchers of Pina Coladas… SO good!

I served mint lime water- so refreshing on this very hot evening!

The exact glass dispenser is currently unavailable, but this is the single version of my dispenser. I use this ALL the time and have had it for years. If you don’t already have one, you should definitely consider investing in one. They’re the best!

The faux leaves that I stuck into my shutters were from my boys’ dinosaur birthday party last year! This is why I always keep things like this, I end up reusing them for years.

I snipped some fern leaves from the side of the road, used my old burlap table runner I have had for years, used a pineapple as a centerpiece, and added sand and tea lights to some coconut shells.

For dessert, I served these delicious, refreshing, and convenient frozen sherbet from Costco! We love these so much, and it actually sparked the idea to have a luau for this month’s party. The sherbert comes in real orange peels, grapefruit, lemons, and coconut shells.

The Craft

I wanted to make something that I had most of the ingredients/supplies already at home. So I set out some jars of dried herbs, a big glass jar of epsom salts, a tray of essential oils, raw sugar, and coconut oil …. we made herbal bath salts and sugar scrubs! On the invites I asked my guests to bring their own jars, so it helped keep the cost down for me. I set out ribbon and blank gift tags so if they wanted to write down what they made or gift it to someone. I also had a bunch of these cotton muslin cinch bags that I gave to each guest so they can use their herbal bath salts without clogging their drains!