Hey, guess what? The countdown is on! Every second, the BID day (see what we did there?) is getting closer, and we’re so excited for all your new sisters to join in on the fun and friendship. Every year, you pin, you insta, and you FB stalk to find the cutest bid day themes for your chapters. Other than picking the theme, we’ve found another equally hard challenge most chapters face on bid day: BUDGET. Ordering shirts, buying bid day gifts for your new members (and admittedly for the active sisters too), and decking everyone out in glitter can get expensive. But there is a way you can save! Your bid day signs can be completely DIY—and inexpensive too! We’ve experimented here and there and here were our top themes and crafts, perfect to strike a pose with.
BID DAY THEME #1: WE’VE STRUCK GOLD
Gold is the hottest accent right now (think Olympics, think California coast). Normally reserved for the holidays and in high supply during New Year’s Eve celebrations, metallic tattoos, gold glitter nails, and gold foil has maintained gold’s presence throughout the year.
The easiest way to incorporate gold into your bid day? The classic sign-on-a-stick. We grabbed some of these glitter foam sheets and used an easy, printable Alpha Phi stencil to trace the shape on the back of the sheet. Carefully cut it out (the adhesive might stick to your scissors and create choppy lines so go slow!) Rip the backing of the adhesive off, down the center, just enough to hot glue the stick on the back and voilà! Sign-on-a stick! Best part?: Each sign costs about $2 to make.
We easily recreated a mini photo frame using gold poster board and used the same sticks to brace the borders and make it sturdier. With some glitter glue and rhinestones, our make shift photo frame rung in at about $4-5 per sign.
Clearly, we were obsessed with sparkle so we couldn’t help but use a gold sharpie we had laying around and snag a few sheets of white poster board. Whether you free hand it or use a stencil, be sure to space your letters so that it’s easily readable in pictures! Emphasize and substitute some of the letters for your Greek letters with gold glitter, and you’ll be spending about $10 out-the-door but you can use the glitter and sharpies for many, many, many signs to come.
BID DAY THEME #2: TIFFANY’S LOVE
It’s no secret that we love us some Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast at Tiffany’s so we were obsessed with the Tiffany’s themed bid days we saw last year. Again, since we love taking pics with our sistas, we made a photo frame that matched the Tiffany’s theme. This time around we used some standard foam board, and with an Exacto knife, cut out the center. Admittedly, this sign was more time intensive than the rest but came out oh so cute! With some Tiffany blue paint, hot glue, and white ribbon, we replicated the famous Tiffany’s box.
Okay when we say this next Tiffany’s themed craft was a breeze, we’re not exaggerating. We stumbled across this wooden/metal heart shaped ornament (similar here) at a craft store and snagged it without hesitation. With just a sharpie and steady handwriting, we mimicked the classic Tiffany’s heart, chain necklace (á la Lizzie McGuire) with a new member’s name. Though this sign will cost you about $6 each, it is the easiest and quickest bid day craft to make.
BID DAY THEME #3: CALL ME, TWEET ME
Okay, okay…want REALLY inexpensive and REALLY easy? This social media theme had us cooing at how cute it was! We grabbed some bargain scrapbook paper and again, with the help of a steady hand and a large sharpie, we incorporated a Twitter handle and hashtag for all of our bid day needs. We touched our sign up with a little matching glitter (the finer the glitter, the smoother the look) to make it pop. You can replicate this sign with just about any other social media platform; a status sign for Facebook, a photo frame for Instagram…the possibilities are endless.