For my son, Holland's, 3rd birthday, we had a Carnival theme.  I thought this worked out great for the parent on a budget, and we did not want to go overboard.  Even when you make a lot of the items yourself, you can still spend too much.  Here is what we did while still staying within our budget.    We made invites on my computer, they were enlarged red fair Tickets, with old fashion writing on the front with details about the event. I found a cute GIF of one online, I saved it onto a PAINT document, so no special software required, anyone could do this. I changed all the writing.  In the middle it said ADMITT ONE.  Holland's 3rd Birthday. A Carnival of Fun!"  It also had the date and time.  On the side where the ticket number goes we put our contact number on the other said it said Please R.S.V.P. We had them printed and cut them out to shape on stock paper so they were not flimsy and looked like real tickets.  It costs about 3 or 4 dollars total. We hand delivered the ones in town and the rest we sent via email since the ticket was made on the computer. It was in March in Washington we knew it could rain so we turned the whole garage into the Carnival (which luckily had been painted red and carpeted since we were using it as an extra game room before hand). When you first walked in we had a ticket booth -- we used our coffee table and put red and white striped fabric (JoAnne Fabrics cost about 3 dollars) around the side using duct tape underneath it to make it stick and made a sign that said "Tickets."   Kids could get as many tickets as they wanted to go to different areas ( we bought a cheap roll of red tickets from Oriental Trading).  We had a tattoo area where they could pick form an assortment of rub on tattoos. We had a small claw candy machine we bought for cheap online where kids could try to win candy out of the machine kids were here at all times and even adults they all loved it!  We had the "Ring of Fire" station were we used a hula hoop and put "flames" (construction paper of red and yellow we cute into flame shapes and taped around.  It was very cute and colorful and took about 20 minutes to make) and kids could throw a stuffed lion threw the flames for prizes (which was my son's favorite stuffed animal in the house so we did not have to buy one). We also had a Balloon animal station. My husband bought a cheap balloon pump with a large bag of balloons and directions on how to make animals for about $7 on Oriental Trading.  It was a huge hit with the kids and the adults too as we all made silly hats for kids and everyone attempted to make funny items.  This was probably the most popular part.  We also gave out clown noses and had clown wigs (again a few dollars from Oriental Trading) which lots of the adults loved too and were hilarious on the kids.  We decorated using yellow red and white streamers and balloons.  We had borrowed a giant a popcorn machine and purchased cute popcorn bags which added the perfect touch. The weather was pretty nice so we kept the garage door open and we BBQed hotdogs right outside for everyone. We had cotton candy to hand out to the kids which was a special treat for everyone. We also had chips and soda and juice for everyone which we bought in bulk at the Cash n Carry (which is where we bought our popcorn seeds that cost about 2 dollars and we still have pounds of seeds left). Our cups and plates were circus themed which the kids loved we bought these from Oriental Trading as well.  My mother-in-law brought a cupcake cake so each kid could walk around at the Carnival and eat their treats and play their games.   This party was a huge hit and did not stress us out too much!  I really recommend not going over board and staying within your budget because your kids will still have a great time without a year of planning and hundreds and hundreds of dollars going into to it.  Be creative and look for the sales! And relax! Have fun!  "