Skylanders Party Planning - Part 1, Dollar Store Finds and Paper Straws

So my youngest is turning 7 in a few months and has asked for a Skylanders theme for his party.  My reply - "Awesome!  What's a Skylander?"  You see, he doesn't actually HAVE the Skylanders game or anything.  Chalk it up to the magic of school friends with more video gaming privileges...  Anyway, I am not one to back down from a challenge, so I took to the internet to learn about the Skylanders and hopefully find some ideas that I could translate into a fun, affordable party without too much video game violence.

I was pleased to learn that Skylanders seems like a pretty cute and creative game - yes there is fighting and battle and stuff, but it's pretty mild.  The game boasts lots of bright colors and tons of characters and details to pick from and incorporate into a party.  On the inspiration front, while there are no Skylanders mass market party pieces yet, there are a few great blogs featuring real parties with really creative ideas.  I've used them for inspiration.  Please check them out - they are amazing:

Plucking Daisies
Great creative game ideas and tutorials
Wine and Glue
Clever ideas for a sweet table / candy buffet / candy party favors
Amy's Party Ideas
Beautiful design elements and creative use of printables

It's still early days for me, but I am deep in the planning process.  My kids and I worked together and came up with some great activities - some from the blogs above and some we made up ourselves, each one based on a different element.  Here's our plan...

ELEMENT CRYSTAL CHALLENGE

Collect crystals from each element by completing the challenges at each station.  We may make collection of crystals the key to "unlock" a treasure hunt.  The treasure would be the favor bags.  Still not sure about this. 

AIR

Jet-Vac’s Air Lift:  Keep the balloons in the air by blowing.  No hands.  

LIFE

Zook’s Bamboo Rocket Launch:   Launch foam rockets.  Try to surpass a minimum distance.  Since Zook likes to speak in Haiku, try to write the game sign blurb in Haiku.

MAGIC

Wrecking Ball’s Tongue Grabber:  Snag crystals with sticky hands. 

WATER

Slam Bam’s Ice Crystal Smash:  Freeze crystals in ice balloons.  Remove balloons before party.  Have guests smash ice orbs to release the crystals.

TECH

Trigger Happy’s Target Practice:  Toss coins into a gold bin.

UNDEAD  (Do they have to call it "Undead"?  Wouldn't "Ghost" or "Spirit" be better?)

Chop Chop's Shield Fling:  Try to toss shield (Frisbees) through a wall (crepe paper streamer curtain - will serve as a backdrop for the food table later.

FIRE

Flameslinger’s Fire Arrows:  Try to hit a suspended target (large round disc) with flame arrows.

EARTH

Dino-rang’s Boomerang Toss:  Try to get boomerang to come back to you

 

With these details in place, I have started buying supplies when I see them and let me tell you - I hit the jackpot at the Dollar Trees.  And I say "Trees" plural because I have gone to several different ones in my area and each one had something different / awesome / perfect for this party.  Details below...

Pink sticky hands to look like tongues!

Green rocket launchers to look like bamboo!

We can paint to rockets red to match Zook's!

Boomerangs!  May paint them brown to look more like Dino-Rang's...

Frisbees to use for a shield toss - will mod-podge on an image or Skylanders logo...

Coins to Trigger Happy's coin toss - will paint them shiny gold!

Archery sets for Flameslinger's Arrows - will affix red and gold cello shreds to make the arrow look like shooting flames!

Green balloons for the Chompie stomp - the exact approach is to be determined...  And white and blue balloons for the balloon blow!  These actually came from Five Below.

So as of right now, I have almost all of the supplies needed for 7 of our 8 games, and I've only spent about $40.  Score!

And lastly - this was found at Target - they are catching on to the paper straws and pennants party trends.  I love the color assortment here, although I will swap out the pink for lime green.

Stay tuned for more details as the party comes together!

Making a Princess Theme Work for Girls and Boys

For my daughter's 4th birthday, she asked for a Princess-themed party, which is lovely and all, but what about her little boy friends?  I tried to think of a way to make that theme work for both genders and came up with...  A Royal Ball!  Instead of girly pinks, we went with a jewel tone palette to please the princess and her princes.  Vibrant blues and purples and golds struck just the right regal tone.

All the little lords and ladies adorned themselves with handmade capes (thanks, mom!).

We had a station set up to decorate foam crowns and tiaras.  When ordering the supplies, I found a set at Oriental Trading Company that contained blue, green, and yellow to work for boys.  Also found some great self-adhesive jewels at OTC - it was nice to not have to fiddle with glue and drying time.

Guests were allowed to select their very own magic wands.  The boys used them to duel and the girls used them when they danced about to baroque music.

The centerpiece of the whole event was a cardboard castle that I made and painted myself.  I loosely followed the tutorial here:  Mr. McGroovys's Fantastic Cardboard Rivets  Unfortunately, I found Mr. McGroovy too late and I didn't have time to order the rivets, so I modified the design so that I didn't need them or any other fasteners (I did take his advice for painting it and it was amazing - definitely check it out- it's so easy).  The center arch of the castle is held in place by slits that I cut into each tower.  One advantage to this approach is that I was able to break it down and fold it flat before and after the party.  We kept it to play with for a long while after the party and the kids loved it.  We wouldn't have been able to do that if it wasn't collapsible.

My mom had the brilliant idea to fancy it up with the Dollar Store shield, silk flowers and ferns, and curtains for the windows and entry.  The kids had so much fun bursting through the curtain to dance or fight or whatever else they were pretending to do.

We decorated a plain white arch to serve as the entry to the yard - hot glued flowers and ribbons.  And mom whipped up a game of pin the tail on the unicorn out of felt and silky fringe (she is so talented). 

She also made the felt banners you see here and there in the yard.  All in our jewel tone palette and featuring images specific to my daughter's interests at the time.  We mounted them on bamboo tiki torch poles that she had painted gold.  (In retrospect, an awl might have been helpful to dig the poles a little deeper into the ground.  By the end of the day, they were listing dangerously.)

Mom also revamped a thrift store chair with teal velvet and rhinestones - Voila!  A throne for gift opening or photo ops!  Mental note:  Next time do not put photo op throne in direct sun...

This was also the party with the infamous Sacked-By-The-Huns-Castle-Cake.  Good times!

Pennants and Picture Display

Yep, I hoped on the pennant bandwagon.  There is something so cheery and fun about them, so I decided to make some for our playroom. 

I used a quick and dirty method with minimal sewing.  I made a template by cutting a triangle out of a cereal box.  I then parked my butt in front of the TV with said triangle, my scrap fabric bin, and a pair of pinking shears from Joann's (coupon!) and pinked my way through a stack of colorful calicos.  Once that was done, I laid out a few lengths of ribbon and pinned the triangles at fairly even intervals.  I then ran the whole thing through the sewing machine.  I didn't even take the time to match the thread to the ribbon.  I kind of like the contrast.  The whole process took me an episode of True Blood.  Once done sewing, I mounted a few clear small Command hooks and swagged my banner around the playroom.  I love them in the playroom and I also love that I can use them for parties as well.

Under the pennant banner, I mounted a wire for displaying artwork.  I don't know why it took me so long to do this - I guess I was nervous about putting a hole in the window trim and then not liking the wire.  No worries now - it was well worth the risk.  I bought a picture hanging kit at Lowe's.  The kit consists of a spool of thin wire and some tiny brass hook screws.  There's other stuff in the kit, but I haven't used that part.  I simply screwed the hooks in by hand, threaded a length of wire through each end and wrapped the tails around a few times.  Easy peasy.  Add a couple colorful plastic clothes pins from the Dollar Store and Voila!  Instant extra art display area does double duty as playroom decor.  And because our playroom was an addition and still has the windows that look into the family room, we can put artwork facing into both room for double the display space. 

Craft Room Organization - Ribbons

I am a very lucky gal, because I have my very own craft room.  (At this point my daughter would chime in that WE have a craft room.  It's the FAMILY'S craft room.  That's nice and all, but we all know that the craft room is my domain.) 

I love my craft room so much.  It's so nice to have a space that can get messy and have paint drips and beads and sequins and glitter eddying around on the floor.  I find that it really helps me to be more creative when I don't have to worry about being neat.  With that said, however, I do think it's important to be organized, because it's no fun to waste time searching for things or worse, buying duplicates of something because you can't find it when you need it.  Waste is unacceptable to me.  So I'm always on the lookout for ways to organize my craft supplies for optimal usage.  Here are some of my craft room organization solutions specifically for ribbons.

I have a bajillion spools of ribbon - satin ribbon, chiffon ribbon, curling ribbon, you name it.  I store all fabric ribbon on spools in wooden clementine boxes.  The boxes are sturdy and basically free and happen to fit perfectly 4 across and 2 high on one of my shelves.  Each box is assigned to hold a different color family.  Spools are nestled together in the boxes and then stacked 2-high on a shelf.  It's a simple solution that has worked really well for me.  One day I will paint the boxes or label them to make it easy to see what color family is in what box.  Maybe I will paste paint swatches to the front...

For curling ribbon, I decided to keep that near my gift wrap holder.  (A tall laundry basket was perfect to hold those rolls of paper upright.  I keep the paper from unrolling by slitting empty toilet paper rolls and cupping them around the roll.)  I found a clever solution on Pinterest - but I can't find the original post that I got the idea from.  Basically, you thread the curling ribbon spools onto a pants hanger.  Simple, right?  So easy to load the spools and you can see at a glance what colors you have - I clearly have too much yellow.  You don't even need to unload the spools to use - just pull out what you need and snip.

So this is all great for spools of ribbon, but what about ribbon scraps or bits of ribbon that come with wrapped around things you might buy, like pajama sets or a new blanket, or even ribbon that you harvest from things like gift bag handles?  (Yes, I keep all of that stuff.  Don't judge me.)  I have two approaches for those situations.  For longish bits of ribbon, I reuse those clear plastic circles that they sell scarves on in stores.  I just double the ribbon over the rings and hang them on a 3-hook towel rack that I found on clearance at Joann's a few years ago.  Voila!  The ribbon is out in plain sight as a reminder of what I have, is not taking up any storage space (love vertical storage!), AND does double duty as colorful craft room decor, AND does triple duty sometimes when my kids dance and spin and wave the ribbon rings around like little May Day sprites. 

Bits that aren't long enough to hang get rolled up and secured with straight pins and grouped in empty glass jars.  The jars go on  shelf with hooks that I bought from Hobby Lobby (with a coupon!) and painted.  More ribbon rings go on the hooks.

And because you can sort of see my Laundry Room quilted door hanging in one of the pictures, I'll conclude with a pic of the whole thing.  My mommy made it for me and I LOVE it and I love showing off her skills.  She is mega-talented.  Thanks, mom!  It's so cheery, it almost makes me want to do laundry.  Almost.

Girl Scout Sweets Table

I volunteered to do the snacks for my daughter’s Girl Scout troop as they bridged from Brownies to Juniors.  I supplemented some of my own ideas with some Pinterest finds and was very pleased with the results!  One thing that I really need to improve on is photos.  I didn't get one picture of the assembled table - boo!  I hope that you find the text helpful anyway and I promise to try to do better with pictures.

I invested in a great folding table at my daughter’s last birthday.  It was a Craigslist find for $25 and it was worth every penny.  The legs fold up and the table folds in half AND it has a carrying handle, so it’s perfect for setting up on the go.  It fits right in the trunk of my sedan.  Rather than relying on the picnic tables at the park, I used my folding table and it was a good thing that I did.  It was a very hot, sunny day and all the picnic tables were getting full sun.  My chocolate-y treats would have melted away!  Instead, I was able to set up under a nice big tree and take advantage of the shade.

I put a lot of thought into how I was going to set up my treats in advance, even going so far as to draw a diagram.  It really helped me to understand what I needed in terms of serving pieces and supplies.  This proved to be very helpful since the event was not at my home and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything else after I reached the park.

The table was covered with a large white plastic tablecloth and topped with iridescent green cellophane tissue paper.  (I could have used fabric, but I knew that after the ceremony was done I would be tired and would just want to wrap up the trash and go.  It worked out really well.)  I scattered glass gems in different shades of green plus green and white starlight mints all over the table for fun / visual interest / added weight to fight the breeze.  I also came prepared with tape, which I used to attach the table coverings to the table legs - also a good idea because of the breeze.  All of these items came from the Dollar Store - $5!

I went with green and rainbow colors (green is the color of the Junior vests and rainbows are on the bridging patch) and tried to work in scouting references wherever possible.  Here’s what I made:

Water bottles with custom labels:  I did it myself to save money using a great tutorial that I found here – DIY Water Bottle Labels.  I found mini water bottles at Big Lots for $2.50 a case.

S’Mores Snack Mix:  So easy and yummy and scout-y.  Golden Grahams cereal mixed with jumbo chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.  Served this in a wooden salad bowl and provided a plastic scoop and tiny white Dixie cups to hold it.

Thin Mint Truffles:  I confess that I cheated here since we didn’t actually have any Thin Mints left from last year’s cookie sale and wouldn’t see any new boxes until November.  So I used Keebler Grasshopper cookies.  Don’t tell!  The recipe is basically Oreo Balls or Oreo Truffles, but made with mint cookies instead.  1 box cookies, 1 brick cream cheese, green candy melts.  Pulse cookies in food processor until you have crumbs.  Mix in softened cream cheese.  Pop in fridge to chill a bit or it will be difficult to roll the balls.  Melt your candy melts (I use a mug) and thin with Crisco if needed.  Roll cookie-cream cheese mixture into small balls and dip into candy melts.  Place on wax paper-covered plate and sprinkle with white sprinkles.  Place in fridge until candy melts are hardened.  To serve, I went fancy and put them in gold mini-muffin cups grouped on a platter.

S’Mores on a Stick:  Melt some chocolate, dip a lollipop stick in about a ¼”, stick into a marshmallow, dip the marshmallow into the chocolate, roll in graham cracker crumbs.  Once hardened, bag the marshmallow in a clear cello bag and tie.  I was very proud of how I served these.  I bought 2 small tin buckets at a thrift shop and 2 styrofoam balls at the Dollar Store.  The night before, I used a spare lollipop stick and punched enough holes on the top of each ball to hold the S’Mores sticks.  On the day, I put the balls in the tins, put the sticks in the balls, and covered the balls with green and white starlight mints, also from the Dollar Store.  I saved both the tins and the balls to use again.

Chocolate-covered pretzel sticks:  This was more of a filler / height-adder.  I used green and white sprinkles for these and served wrapped in cello bags and standing up in more tin buckets.

Green apples:  I placed a single apple on each platform of a many-armed cupcake holder.  Again, I did it for filler/height, but was pleasantly surprised that many of the girls did eat an apple.

 

For a “favor” of sorts, I found boxes of movie-sized Junior Mints at Wal-Mart, which I gussied up with kraft and scrapbook paper personalized labels and my floral punch.

Thrift Store Tea Party

This was a tea party that I threw for my daughter’s 5th birthday party.  As with most things I do, my mother helped immensely with the planning and decor – thanks, Mom!  We heavily utilized thrift store finds with this party to keep costs down and impact high.

We really wanted the little girls to feel grown up, so we scoured thrift stores for real china cups, saucers, and teapots.  Some of the cups got broken in transit from mom’s house to mine, so I super glued them back together and turned them into little vases for the centerpieces on the tea tables.  Filled with colorful silk flowers, you couldn’t tell that they had ever been broken.  And they were just the right size to not overwhelm the tiny tables.

Table covers were thrift store lace curtain panels over thrift store sheets.  We gathered and swagged them to make it easier for the girls to get in and out of the tables.  I found some lovely embroidered fabric napkins (which I have used several times since for nice dinners and other parties) that we rolled up and tied with ribbon to add some extra fancy to the tables.

In lieu of tea, each teapot was filled with pink lemonade.  The girls enjoyed serving themselves and having a separate teapot on each table was a big hit and very practical - I didn't have to go around refilling 12 tiny cups!  It felt a little excessive at the time to invest in china for a one-time event, but I have to say that I’ve been surprised at how much additional use they’ve gotten over the years.  I’ve enjoyed them for holidays, special dinners, and a shabby chic bridal shower for a coworker.  I also have plans to use them for a Girl Scout event to earn the manners and etiquette badge.  Not to mention that I’ve offered them out to friends and family for THEIR little ones to have a tea party. 

For food, we made finger sandwiches cut into fun shapes with sturdy metal cookie cutters, petit fours made from frozen pound cake squares glazed and topped with purchased sugar flowers, and cupcakes topped with marshmallow flowers.  The marshmallow flowers were so easy and so high-impact.  Just cut marshmallows in quarters, pinch and pull the ends of the pieces to reshape into petals, and arrange around a candy center (jellybeans here) to form a flower on top of a frosted cupcake.  You could also dip the cut side in colored sugar if you want AND you can even make your own colored sugar for very little money and trouble.  Pour some sugar into a snack-size Ziploc bag, dab in some gel food coloring (I’ve never tried anything but gel), zip the bag and squeeze the sugar to mix in the color.  Adjust with more color if needed.  Voila - free sanding sugar.

I tried to include my son in the festivities as well.  He looked quite handsome in his top hat and vest.  Vest from the thrift store, top hat from Oriental Trading company.  The hats came in a pack of 12, so I offered the rest to a friend for her daughter's magic party.  She cleverly used top hats as receptacles for chips and other snacks.

For games, my mother found a carriage-shaped plastic teapot at a thrift store and painted it in party colors.  It was the perfect receptacle for a game of Toss the Teabag.  I made the large teabags by filling organza favor bags with dried kidney beans and stapling them closed with a ribbon and tag – the tags were personalized with the guest’s names.  We also played musical chairs and Pass the Teapot.  To eliminate hurt feelings, when the girls were tagged “out” in games, that was their turn to pick some fancy jewelry or to select their favor bags.  I highly recommend that if you want a no-crying-kids-zone at your parties.  Favors were Dollar Store purses stuffed with candy necklaces and rings.

We also had a teapot pull-string pinata – one of my best Oriental Trading finds ever – and stations where the girls could make their own fancy necklaces using pony beads and boondoggle (or gimp depending on what part of the country you hail from).  I wanted to have the girls decorate their own hats, but we just couldn’t come up with a safe and effective adhesive that they could use (glue gun burns / toxic fumes and 5 year olds don’t mix).  My mom ended up decorating thrift and Dollar Store hats in advance and the girls were able to pick their favorite.  Worked out fine and no medical emergencies - yay!

We had also spent several months stocking up on fun jewelry, fancy gloves, and thrift store dresses.  The girls loved getting all dressed up.  And I have to say that lilac bushes in bloom are the absolute best backdrop ever.  This was at our old house and boy, do I ever miss those bushes.  They always bloomed for my daughter’s birthday.  It was like magic.

I wish that I had a close-up picture of the hat garland my mother made.  She found a bag of doll-sized straw hats at a thrift store, decorated them with ribbons and flowers, mounted them on a long ribbon, and used that to adorn the archway into the yard.  I love them so much.  I save them and put them out with my Easter decorations every year.

This sort of thing is my favorite part of party planning - finding something ho-hum or unexpected and turning it into something that's just-right.

Cake Fails and Triumphs

I love to bake and I love fancy party cakes, but I'm sort of "freewheeling" about it.  I've never had any formal training or classes, although I have TRIED to take the local Wilton classes.  (They always seem to get cancelled on me.)  So I've found my own way and it works for me.

Let your cakes cool exposed to the air:  I was always under the impression that if I left my cakes uncovered while cooling that they would dry out.  Not so!  I always bake my cakes at least a day in advance and leave them out for at least 12 hours uncovered to cool.  If you cover them, condensed steam will make the exterior too moist and your layers and frosting will be slip-slidin' away.  Leaving them uncovered also seems to let the cake itself settle and strengthen.  It is less likely to crumble and break.

Level your cakes:  There is a nifty tool you can buy at the craft store (use a coupon!) that yields perfectly level layers every time.  Buy it and use it!  Irregular layers, domed or concave tops, and the like will yield lumpy, misshapen cakes prone to falling apart.  Wilton Ultimate Cake Leveler

Don't overextend yourself:  All cake really needs to be is yummy.  You don't have to make something elaborate for it to work.  And almost any idea can be distilled into a simpler version - just be creative.  Check out the Backyardigans cake below for more on this.

Do a test run if at all possible:  This may be hard for us thrifty people, but it is a very, very good idea.  The last thing you want is to end up with no cake on the day of your event because you ran into a logistical problem.  It may not be feasible in all situations, but I definitely recommend demo'ing what you can.  Some of my fails below...

Lego Cupcakes Fail
This was a demo fail, thank goodness.  I decided to make cupcakes from scratch and tried new cupcake recipes - the yellow one was delicious and beautiful just out of the oven but upon cooling, the size reduced considerably.  Who wants to eat a cupcake 1/2" high?  The chocolate recipe had an inexplicable fishy aftertaste.  Fish cupcakes?  Yuck.  I also tried a cooked frosting recipe.  I followed the directions to the letter, but it never whipped up and ended up being a gloppy glaze instead.  And my chocolate Lego toppers, while the idea was cute, it looked ridiculous in reality, given the dimished size of the cupcakes and the flat frosting.  So glad I didn't have to serve these to people...

Castle Cake Fail
I went wrong here by not fully cooling and leveling the cakes.  After assembly, the turrets immediately started to collapse and my poor castle looked like it was sacked by the Huns.  My husband suggested that we try to buttress the turrets by threading wooden kebab skewers through the cake.  Because everyone loves a cake full of splinters!  Yum!  There was no demo cake in this instance, so picture me frantically calling bakeries the day of the party looking for ANYTHING to replace it.  Don't let this be you!

Between you and me, in retrospect, I wasn't that sad that it fell apart.  It was a supremely ugly cake.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Those jellybeans - ugh!  If you look closely at the front on your left, you will see a kebab hole.  Fancy!  Again, a dmo would have shown me that these colors and embellishments weren't going to work.

I am proud to say that I have learned from my mistakes and here are some of my triumphs.  Disclaimer - these are MY triumphs, which will likely seem underwhelming to a good baker.  This is because as you see from my fails, my personal bar is set very low.  After several baking debacles, my family is super proud of anything I make that remains intact and doesn't taste like fish or is otherwise inedible.  I don't have time to go into my other fails - the cookies that accidentally tasted like peanut butter and black licorice or the slug cookies.  (As in, they were so bad that no creature that walks, flies, or crawls would eat them - not even slugs.  Literally.  They were passed up by seagulls, feral cats, and slugs - all came, sniffed, and left.  Can slugs even smell?)

Backyardigans Cake Triumph!
I was envisioning a 5 layer cake with each one representing a different Backyardigan.  I wisely realized that 1)  this was too much cake for our little shindig and 2) no way could I pull that off.  This is what I came up with instead.  I printed the characters on card stock, cut them out, mounted on popsicle sticks, and popped them on top of the cake.  It cost no money (unlike if I had special ordered cake toppers - which by the way I find are generally off-putting when you look closely at them) and was cute and festive!

Rose Cake Triumph!
This was for a Paris in Pearls party for my 9-year-old.  I wanted an Eiffel Tower cake, but knew that was out of my wheelhouse, so I opted to reflect the theme in a different way - with a fancy rose cake.  I was planning to buy one from a local baker, but couldn't justify the $60 price tag.  Yes, $60.  They are out of their minds.  So I tried to make it myself (did a demo 1st) and it was a showstopper.  There are many tutorials out there on this cake.  Here's the one I like:  Rose Cake Tutorial
It really is that easy.  And the impact is very high.  Two things I did learn.  When I did the demo, I used a Crisco frosting and switched to a butter frosting for the real cake for better flavor.  I should have stuck with Crisco.  It was less sickly sweet and the roses were bigger and more beautiful.  You'll note that I added edible pearls to the roses.  They turned out bee-yoo-tee-full!!!