Do It Yourself Parties: Neutral Birthday Party

Showing posts with label Neutral Birthday Party. Show all posts

For my daughter's 8th birthday we did a Puss in Boots Theme. Because the movie is still in theaters, there wasn't any sort of party supplies for this birthday party theme. So after searching Google Images and Blog stalking party sites we came up with a few adapted ideas and a few originals. So here are some Puss in Boots Birthday Party Ideas...

THE INVITATION:

I decided to make a movie ticket style invitation since I had planned to take the kids to the theater to see the movie.I found a similar invitation on ETSY.COM by YourPartyDesigns but I made this one for our party. Buy from them if you don't know how to do these projects yourself.

THE DECOR:

Since we are in the midst of moving house, I could not host an actual party... however, I have looked at a bunch of sites and collected a variety of ideas for a party in this particular theme.

The only party supply item I could find for this theme was a foil balloon but I'm sure over time there will be more.

Mexican Bunting is used throughout the film. You can find very beautifully made bunting on ETSY.COM pictured below. I found this made by CApow. I loved it immediately! However, I tend to make all my own decorations to save a buck. The second picture below is how I would go about doing it. I would either make flags from different colored material and spray paint lace over the top with black spray paint OR I would just take rectangle paper doilies and paint them multicolor and hang them. Also, any type of Mexican Fiesta type decor would work... there are just a few of my thoughts.

Movie Scene

Jack and the beanstalk is a great reference point to search for ideas when you watch this movie. I found this pool noodle beanstalk that I love! The noodles were tied together at one end with raffia then weaved together like a braid. Very creative. Kudos to Piggy Bank Parties on creativity!

Movie Scene

When the movie comes out on video it would be fun to have a "drive-in" viewing of the movie too! I found this picture on pinterest.

For centerpieces I would put something like this rubber ducky display on the table... however I would get styrofoam eggs (instead of balls) and paint them gold and put them on a diy terracotta cake stand with a rubber ducky on top... something like that. (example below)

Another Idea is to have a Terracotta drip tray with a few green lima beans or Kiwi Jelly Bellys on them.

movie scene

I would also hang a few of these posters around the room.

THE FAVORS:

For the Party Hats, I would have probably bought some cheap pirate hats at the Dollar Tree and added a feather (as pictured). There are also hats for sale already made at CarnivalSource.com (pictured) or... you can go a step more and add cat ears like this girl did (pictured).

The Goodie Bags had lots of little things in it. I made a coloring book, added ferrero rochers as "golden eggs" and a few kiwi jelly bellies wrapped up as "magic beans".

THE FOOD:

What we actually did was go out to lunch and then a movie. But here are some food thoughts...


Mexican Food

Leche/Milk in a jug or shot glasses. This is in the film a few times.

However, I would maybe have this kind of decoration... a green straw with a cloud on it so it looks like a beanstalk.

Decorate

Or how about a gold colored punch or Sparkling Cider with Vanilla Ice Cream Clouds decorated like this?

Original Recipe

How about some Humpty Dumpty Deviled Egg Sandwiches and even green licorice Bean Stalks!

Piggy Bank Parties has some good ideas

THE CAKE:

Because we were at a restaurant, we got a piece of complimentary cake! However, I did make a cupcake pics for the cake.

Print Cupcake Pics here

GAMES:

Upon arrival you can have the kids make cat masks (Print Template here) or Face Painting.

My original thought was to do a relay race since its for an 8 year old's birthday party. As they do each challenge they would get a coin and the first to get all their coins wins.

1. Egg Race: Balancing eggs across the finish line with Golden Eggs.

2. A "Big Boot Race": Using big boots instead of flippers to race in.

3. "Hatch a Golden Egg": Popping a gold balloon with a coin in it.

4. The Skilled Swordsman: Pick up a pool ring with a sword and put it on the neck of a rubber ducky. Maybe the coin could be taped to the bottom of the ducky.

Take all your coins to the collector and the winning team gets a prize. But I tend to give all the kids a prize... just so no one feels left out.

Also, a classic game of pin the tail on the donkey... very fitting for the theme.

Another thought is a pinata... you can NEVER go wrong with that!

So, that was our Puss in Boots Party... Happy Partying to you!

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SOME PINTEREST IDEAS

When my oldest daughter turned 5, she was obsessed with Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. Her birthday is in late November so it wasn't an outrageous idea to have her birthday party with that theme. In fact, it kind of killed two birds with one stone as Christmas was right around the corner and I could decorate in a kid-friendly way instead of saving it for after her party. In Australia this wasn't a very big thing as holidays aren't as commercialized here. However, my family had previously sent her some stuffed animals which was the catalyst for her obsession. Here is what I came up with...

THE INVITATION:
My daughter wanted to do the invitations herself, so we just had her color the pages from her Rudolph Coloring Book and then I wrote the details on the paper.

THE CAKE:
She also colored a page her cake topper/cupcake topper for her classroom party. We cut it out and taped a chopstick to the back and inserted it into the cupcake. I just printed a page with the characters and taped toothpicks on the pack so I can use them as toppers.

For her family party, my sister-in-law made simple chocolate cupcakes that when put together, they formed the shape of Rudolph.

For her actual birthday party, my sister-in-law made individual Rudolph cupcakes. The kids really enjoyed seeing the character on their own cupcake instead of everyone fighting over the nose on 1 big cake. ;)

A good friend of ours also made an ice cream cake for Joy... she had a LOT of cakes that year. ;)

THE DECOR:

Since November in Australia is very close to summer and where we live it is VERY HOT and we had to put on the air conditioning to make it feel "wintery". We painted the windows in our house with basic acrylics, a lot like at a department store. The kids helped too. We also did a lot of paper snow flakes and put up our christmas tree.

GAMES:

We had a pin the nose on Rudolph Game, a Gingerbread Play House out of cardboard and a make your own snowflakes activity. The top activity we did was ice skating. We have wooden floors so we covered them with baby powder and let the kids "skate" with their socks on. This was super fun but it took us about a week to really get the baby powder off our wooden floors. It is VERY slippery but the kids did enjoy it.