Frugalista Fourth of July Ice Cream Buffet

Grab everything you've got in red, white and blue, and use it to set your buffet and 4th of July table. Nothing has to match-anything you have in patriotic colors will go together. You can mix patterns all you want...it will look great together. Once you start pulling your stuff, you will be amazed how much you can use.

I promised to put together a budget 4th of July Ice Cream Buffet so here it is....boy did I pick a hot day for this! It was 114 degrees today so I really showed some love today for my peeps. So did Maddy....she helped mommy. We got all of the Italian Ice, Red, White and Blue Pops, and Chocolate ice cream from Dollar Tree....yes $ Tree! The vanilla ice cream~ we already had.

Picked up the blue plastic buckets from Dollar Tree. Have used the red and white polka dot fabric covered boxes on a few projects... remember here and here??

Put the Red, White, and Blue pops in star cups I already owned (from $ Tree). Simple tags to display flavors. Just wrapped the cones with red scrapbook paper. Used already owned cake plate with ribbon stuck with double sided tape. The ice cream is in the large red bucket. I love this bucket. I got it at Big Lots last year for $12. I have used it for so many things. I love to buy solid red party accessories because I use it for Valentine's Day, Christmas, Memorial, Back to School and 4th of July. Of course, being a retired Marine Officer...it's great because red and gold are Marine Corps colors!!

If you don't like the ice cream brand showing, you can always cover it up with scrapbook paper. I already had the star cups and red plastic spoons...used this vice bowls for the ice cream. It works.....so use it...no need to always use an item the way it was intended...shake things up. You can find these boxes at many stores...they hold lollipops. This particular one is from Walmart. I bought a few lollipops and kept them in the box and took to the register. I always ask if it's okay to keep the box....in my case...the answer has always been yes. You can use these boxes by just adding ribbon around to cover the $1 or cover completely with fabric, wrapping or scrapbook paper. These add great height to your serving pieces on your buffet tables. In this tablescape we aren't using the box so open the box and pull out the Styrofoam inside to use. Styrofoam can be expensive...why not free? I use a very specialized tool for cutting the Styrofoam...a steak knife. Boy, I'm classy! Just cut and glue the patriotic garland around foam. No worries about covering the top...it will be covered with the ramekins holding the toppings. However, if you wanted to cover the top~ I would either use scrapbook paper, sprinkle some confetti or matching small candies on top.

For the topping labels I used drink stirrers that I found at Dollar Tree ~ 8 in a package.

Got the ramekin sauce cups ~ 3 for a dollar at $ Tree. They are really a great size for putting your toppings in. Just used permanent black marker and hand wrote items and stuck in Styrofoam.Since I celebrate the 4th every year in some way...I always purchase patriotic napkins, plates and items when I see them go on sale after Memorial Day and the July 4th. I just put them away. I end up getting these napkins last year for 20 cents a package. I used things I already had. I bought the ramekins, ice cream, Italian Ice, drink stirrers and the 2 blue buckets. So total cost for this ice cream buffet was $13.52. Hope this gave you some muses. Please share your creations!