Day 315: Harry Potter Birthday Party

Today we hosted a super fun Harry Potter Themed birthday party for my youngest dude, who turned six and is completely cuckoo for all things Hogwarts. We made pretty much everything for the party using my printer, a hot glue gun, and acrylic paints. If you missed it, here's a link to our OWL party invites, which were as much fun to deliver as they were to make.

When the guests arrived the first stop was Diagon Alley to pick up their supplies. Each child got to choose a wand (bamboo chopstick, glue gun, plus acrylic paints from my stash). Each one was slightly different and it was a difficult choice for the Hogwarts students. They also grabbed some Harry Potter glasses, but we made them wait to visit Honeydukes until they were leaving the party. You can find the printables I used (plus much more Harry Potter goodness) on my Partytime Pinterest board. You can also see where we added signs to my unfinished wall projects to let the guests know it's ok - Muggles can't see those photos. 

Next stop was the Azkaban photo booth where we took these cute Have You Seen This Wizard? photos of each of the party guests. I'm planning to use their photos on thank you cards soon, and the kids' faces were priceless. We presented two mini Hogwarts classes. One was a potions class (where we made balloons magically inflate using chemistry and slime to take home). The other was a charms class (with a Hogwarts themed freeze dance that included a spell to make everyone dance uncontrollably) and the classic Wingardium Leviosa charm to make balloons stay in the air with our wands. Then we repaired to the Great Hall to feast!

Max specifically requested Hagrid's birthday cake for Harry in the first novel. He helped me bake three layers of our favorite Quinoa Chocolate cake, which we adapted to be gluten free and dairy free to make sure all our guests could have some cake. I know the writing was supposed to be green, but I didn't have any green coloring agents, and Max was okay with the white writing, done with a ziploc baggie. I cannot tell you how hard it was to stack up that cake so nice and tall and then squish it down and cover it with the messiest frosting job ever...but it did make the job quick since it was supposed to look like someone sat on it! Behind the cake you can see the Indoor Quidditch ping pong ball game we built for the kids, since there currently snow up your knees in the backyard, so my hula hoop Quidditch plan got shut down. That was a huge hit with the party goers! 

Almost every surface in my house had a bit of Hogwarts magic: notices from Filch to the packing paper Devil's Snare we built onto the stair case, paper spiders the boys helped me craft (requiring a ton of wiggly eyes) to show the way to Aragog's lair, and even signs pointing the way to the Ministry of Magic...if you know what I mean. My fussy cutting skills came in handy, as you can see here in my selfie with Moaning Myrtle. The party was a hit, and now I'm gonna hit the hay!

Day 288: Harry Potter Party Owl Invites

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that my youngest little is obsessed with all things Harry Potter. So, of course, we are planning him a Harry Potter party for his upcoming 6th birthday party. 

This week we delivered the invitations to his party via balloon "owls" after finding this pin on Pinterest originally from One Creative Mommy. Instead of a parchment roll I decided to go with a faux Hogwarts acceptance letter. I printed these onto a nice heavy resume type paper.

I found a Hogwarts Logo and a signature for Professor McGonagall, and added them to the letter I wrote. Then we carefully folded the letters in half and inserted them into large shimmery cream paper envelopes. On the front we addressed them to each person's name at Harry Potter's Cupboard Under the Stairs address from Book One.  

I printed out extra Hogwarts crests to fussy cut and apply to the envelopes, which did not take to direct printing due to the shimmer factor. Then I used red glitter hot glue to make "wax seals". First I laid a nice, fat puddle of  hot glue onto the envelope. Then I let it cool until it was less sticky but still warm before pressing an inked H circle font stamp into the slightly warm glue and let it finish cooling before peeling the stamp out of the glue.

I can't wait to have this party - it's going to be magical!

Day 46: Minecraft Party Invite

This week I made these super simple Minecraft Creeper birthday invites for Gabe's upcoming birthday party.

If you don't have a small elementary school age kiddo residing in your home you may not have encountered the joy of Minecraft. However, this game is what makes my kid's heart beat fast, so this is the party we are having. I used Cricut Design Space to weld together simple shapes from the Art Philosophy Cartridge to create a passable resemblance to a creeper face. Yes, that's really what they look like. I welded the shapes together, made the cuts, and glued them to 5 inch squares of Topiary Cardstock. 

For the back I used PicMonkey to alter a free printable I found HERE. I had to alter it because I was making a square creeper face invite and this was a 4x6 printable. I cropped the file into a square, then created little green squares in different shades to cover up the 2 rows of black creeper face that didn't get cropped off. I added my text right in PicMonkey and printed out our invite info. Easy peasy and Gabe was thrilled, so mission accomplished. 

Here's the link to my Cricut Explore file. If you have the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge, you too can easily cut creeper faces. I'm planning to cut more in different sizes to turn our front door, water bottles, kitchen cabinets, etc.. into creepers for the party with the help of some green tissue paper leftover from Christmas.  

Stamping Rules Minecraft Creeper Face Cricut Cut File

Day 23: A Perfectly Wonderful Peter Pan Party

This weekend we did a fun at home Peter Pan themed party for my first grader, Ben. Ben loved Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and he's seen Hook, but he'd never actually seen the original Disney Peter Pan movie when he requested this party theme. I hit Pinterest for some inspiration and got to crafting.

First step was to get out an invite ASAP. I did a blog post on how I made these simple panel cards here.

My sister came up from California and she helped me shop for and craft all the goodies and decorations. We made these Peter Pan hats for all the "lost boys" at the party. It was so simple - just one seam to sew using these instructions. They were probably the easiest project we made!

Less easy and way more time consuming was making 6 pairs of fairy wings for the little girls in attendance. I read a bunch of pins on it, then I figured we'd just wing it. I bought a few yards of green tulle, some inexpensive wire hangers, and a bunch of flowers from the dollar store. Heidi shaped the wing shapes out of two hangers, using duct tape to secure the two sings in the center. I used hot glue to stretch the tulle across the wings and gather it to the center - it took about a half yard per set of wings. Heidi wrapped the tulle center with duct tape, then we attached stretchy headbands we'd found in a six pack at the Dollar tree to hold on the wings with hot glue and more duct tape. We hot glued on the flower centers and added lots of glitter gel. When we were done the wings were sturdy and the fairies loved them! We had one extra set and Max has been wearing his "special wings" around the house with his Batman feety jammies. One lesson I learned making these...hot glue is HOT! 

We organized a few games, using the Neverland map from the invite to lead the groups of kids through the game stations. In Skull Rock we set up a treasure dig, where the kids donned pirate eye patches and dug for jewels and mardi gras necklaces.  At the Mermaid Lagoon we had them walk the plank (balance beam). In Cannibal Cove we had the kiddos explode Hook's cannonball stash (black balloons). We also had a Crocodile Creek where the kids played with this Inflatable Alligator Ring Toss Game. My boys are still playing with this - too much fun. Indian Camp was where we had them congregate around a paper campfire for instructions and then again for cupcakes and gifts. We used kitchen towels as "woven mats" to help the kids spread out in the Indian camp...as an added bonus now I've got new kitchen towels! At the end of the party we sent all the lost boys and fairies home with Treasure Chest Treat Boxes filled with pirate booty and space to take home their treasure that they dug up at Skull Rock and the gold doubloons they earned at each game station.

We even found a Tink doll to decorate the cake table, tucked into her house filled with leftover tulle and flowers from the wings. We gave her to a sweet little neighbor girl to take home at the end of the party.

This is my sweet birthday boy, Ben, my happy thought, who was a whirlwind of activity and so hard to get a picture of the whole party. He's wearing his Peter Pan hat and a size small men's shirt that I cut into a peter pan tunic and tied with some white rope. We had originally planned all of this to happen outdoors, but it rained, so we did everything in the small main level of our house...with over a dozen kids...it was quite the noisy band of Neverlanders. Ben just loved his party and everyone went home happy. 

Until next time, Think Happy Thoughts, Stampin' Friends!

Day 11: Peter Pan Party Invite

So we are coming up on Ben's 7th birthday and he's randomly decided that he must have a Peter Pan party. Now, he's a fan of Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and he's seen Hook, but this party must be Peter Pan themed. Until a day or so ago he's never even seen the actual Peter Pan movie (thank you Sarah!), but he's a boy who knows what he likes. Even if he's never seen it.

So the invites must be going out, and since I'm crunched for time they needed to be simple. And since I'm me...they needed glitter. And Fussy cutting. I do not have a Peter Pan cricut cartridge, so I went off to Pinterest to find some downloadable help. I pulled this cute Neverland Map and a Peter Pan Shadow (pinned to my Partytime board if you need them).

I edited the map with PicMonkey. I added a swoopy shape over the bottom half, turned it green and took the transparency down to 50%. Then I added in the text. I did the title first in White, and then a duplicate text in Black so I could stack them. Then I typed in the party details. I mounted the whole thing onto Desert Sand CS and added a band of Gold Shimmer trim. I fussy cut the Pan shadows and glued them onto the invite. Finally I added some stardust glitter gel (for Tink's sake). 

Ben was thrilled, friends will be invited, and now I'm moving on to researching gluten free, dairy free cupcake options. And cupcake toppers!

Happy birthday, Max!

So my littlest dude is turning 5 this morning, and we had his party a bit early ('cause who's available to attend a New Year's Eve b-day party...for a 5 year old?). Nothing would do for the munchkin but a Man-Batman themed party. What? You've never heard of Man-Batman? 

Man-Batman is none other than Adam West, as in the original Batman movie, which is Max's favorite thing ever. More beloved than Ninja Turtles. Cooler than Chima Legos. Better than Wii games. When he watches the movie (for the eleventy billionth time), he has been known to announce, "That is a great movie!" at the end. It inspired his love of tuxedos (check out his hashtag #maxlovestuxedos on Instagram for a giggle), and unfortunately for poor ol' Adam West, he actually loves Burt Ward's Robin just a wee bit more than Batman... He calls them Man-Batman because they are not cartoons, dig?

The thing is, no one really makes Man-Batman anything anymore, at least not for kids parties. Collectors items and such yes, but Party City does not have a selection of Man-Batman items. In fact, their entire Batman area in general was pretty sad. So I whipped up this quick little panel invite using a long retired superhero set and a photo of Adam and Burt doing their thing. Max could not have been more pleased, and I was happy to use up my stash of retired colors like Sunny Yellow. Win-Win!

Here's the backside of the panel, with a little fussy cut bat signal (the lamplight leading up to the signal is colored with an alcohol marker), and a bit of identifying info so-very-neatly removed. It was so fast and easy I still had time to make Man-Batman themed goodie bag toppers, cricut cut some cupcake wrappers, and whip out some Batman themed food labels. Max even insisted that we paint eyebrows and nose lines onto a bunch of plain blue fabric masks we found so everyone at the party could be Man-Batman, whether they knew who he was or not.

I'm linking this up to the Heart 2 Heart Challenges favorite holiday challenge. While I love all holidays, I really try to go all out to make the boys' birthdays special. They get to choose all the food and activities  for their actual birthday day, the theme for their party, and even push all the elevator buttons on that special day. For our brood of boys, it's great to be king for at least one day a year!

If you want to see more of the Man Bat-man themed party goodies, let me know in the comments below. They aren't super fancy with lots of glitter and roses...'cause, you know, he's five...but I think they turned out pretty cute, for party goods focused on a large man who only works in black or very, very dark gray and his holiday themed sidekick. Later on New Year's Eve we'll be back to my regularly scheduled glitter and hearts!