Skylanders Party Planning - Part 7, THE PARTY!

At long last – I present to you... the summary of our Skylanders party. 

Yes, it has been over two months since said party took place, but better late than never, eh?

The activities went over really well.  The kids loved moving from station to station and acquiring crystals and gems to fill their customized pouches (tutorials on how to sew them and stencil them with fabric paint here).

The archery targets looked great and the flame arrows were really fun as well. 

Next time I would trim the flames down a bit to make it easier to nock the arrows.

The treasure hunt to find the treasure rocks went well.  And I was really pleased with how the treasure rocks turned out.  I used this tutorial:  Treasure Rocks.

The kids loved the ice orb smash and the tongue grabber game.

The wall of streamers was meh.  I ran out of time and wasn't able to put up as much as I wanted.  If it had been finished, I think it would have been fab.  Even incomplete, it added a nice pop to the yard.

I was very pleased with the rest of the décor. 

Streamers behind the food table provided a colorful focal point.

I was happy with my goofy centerpieces.  I used my elixir bottles and filled them with colorful beads for ballast.

I have to say that tissue tassels are definitely my new favorite thing.  After the party, I snipped the tassels off of the string, sorted by color, strung them on pipe cleaners, and hung them in the craft room to use for another time.

Sadly, the portal punch was a fail – I forgot that the pumpkin lights really only work in the dark.  Boo.  But the punch was good and the portal cardboard surround I made had a strong presence on the table.

We had too much food, as usual, but I don’t care – I love having the variety available.  Pizza, chips, water melon, and pineapple for lunch. 

The sweets table turned out really well, although we did end up moving it indoors to escape the oppressive humidity and voracious mosquitoes.  We made marshmallow pops dipped in pop rocks.  I displayed them in a diner-style shaker filled with pom-poms.

We also had chocolate dipped pretzels, a mini-cake with a simple buttercream stripe pattern topped with the logo on strwas, cupcakes with character and logo toppers, and my personal favorite - the Chompie Truffles.  I thought the red fangs made from candy cane jimmies (sorry – showing my Delaware roots – jimmies are sprinkles) were fun.

I was also excited to serve pre-scooped ice cream.  I bought mini-mason jars and put a scoop of vanilla bean in each the night before.  It was so easy to pull them out and stack them up on the sweets table.  I have a thing about sticky hands and drippy sticky containers, so I will be doing this from now on.  This little step easily reduced my stress level by several clicks.

For favors, we gave out silver take-out treat boxes.

They were filled with the same red and gold cello used for the flame arrows, which was very frugal of me, I think.

Inside we put:
Trigger Happy Chocolate Coins

Double Trouble Gumball Orbs (still leftover from Easter - will we never be done with these freaking gumballs?!?)

 Pop Fizz Pop Rocks (Dollar Tree)

 Zap's Sea Slime (Target Dollar Section)

 And Hex's Bone Erasers (no pic of those, unfortunately.  They were in the Target Dollar section with the grilling-themed stuff.)

Skylanders Party Planning - Part 6, Flame Arrows

The Skylanders party planning continues!  I made the flame arrows for the Flameslinger Fire Element game mentioned here.  These were super easy, super fast, and I think the kids will LOVE them.

First, I assembled my supplies - 12 Dollar Tree suction-cup arrows and packs of metallic cellophane shreds in gold and red.  Then it was time to fire up the glue gun.  For each arrow, I used 4 gold and 4 red shreds and draped them over my fingers.  I fiddled with the shreds to get it so that they were all different lengths and then pinched in the center and twisted a bit. 

I wedged an arrow between the edge of the counter and my fancy and not at all unsightly "glue gun tray" and dispensed a blob of hot glue onto the arrow near the suction cup. 

Working quickly, I applied the center of the twisted shreds to the glue and wrapped one side over and the other side on top and pulled them taut.  Once the glue sets you are done.

They are stored in a bundle with a plastic bag on top to keep them from getting dusty.  It took me about 10 minutes from start to finish.  Not too shabby!

Skylanders Party Planning - Part 5, Mod-Podge Woes, Faux Leather Treasure Chest, Neon Balls, and a Portal Punch Possibility

I'm chunking through my Skylanders Party to-do list - whoo hoo!  The party isn't until July, but we have big vacation out West planned for June, so I'm trying to be proactive.  Next up...

Treasure Chest
This chest was a thrift store find.  It was originally cream with grapevines and a bit of a crackle finish.  I just attacked it with some brown spray paint. 

I LOVE that the crackle finish is still visible but now looks like textured, pebbly leather.  I will pretend that I knew all along that this was how to make spray paint look like leather.  It will be our little secret.  Kay?

Next step is to rub the nail heads and clasp with some dull gold glaze.  Once done, this will hold the party favors and the kids will need to do a treasure hunt to find it.  I all ready wrote and printed the clues.  Sample clue:  Find your way to a very tall tree, around the trunk you'll find clue #3. 

I wrote all the clues in verse 

could anything be worse?

Than someone who thinks she's a poet

and doesn't really know it

that she's not?

For the Wrecking Ball Tongue Grab Magic Element Challenge, I found 2 large flat platters at the Dollar Tree.  I thought that these would work to hold the gems to be grabbed and the shallowness of the lip wouldn't interfere with the game.

To make them more fun, I mod-podged on pictures of Wrecking Ball with 2 different catchphrases. 

I'm having a lot of trouble with my mod-podge lately - lots of wrinkling.  I think that I need to switch to card stock instead of regular copy paper.  So be forewarned - these are not perfect.  I just have to accept this with a sigh and move on.

For Trigger Happy's Coin Toss Tech Element Challenge, I found some red and gold bins at Dollar Tree and hit them with some mod-podge as well.

Wrinkled again!  Doh!  The kids won't mind, right?

And finally, I modified and gussied up the Dollar Tree boomerangs originally shown here with some brown paint and mod-podge.  You can see one in the front here:

Meh.  Not my best work.  But I think that the kids will get a kick out of these more so than a plain old tray, bin, or boomerang.  Note that the boomerangs are meant to fly with a helicopter attached, but the kids tested them and they work just as well sans copter.

While I had the drop cloth out for the treasure chest, I also took some time to paint some foam balls found at Dollar Tree (again with the Dollar Tree!).  The idea is to use my frosted glass bottles and make funky centerpieces.  I used bright green, orange, aqua, and purple to turn these plain balls into...

...these bright balls.  Aren't they fun?

I might do this again and make a wreath - I love how colorful they are.

And finally, at a store you might have heard of called Dollar Tree, I found this little foam ring, which doesn't look like much, but will hopefully work for my vision of a Portal Punch. 

The color changing pumpkin light fits PERFECTLY in the middle and my punch bowl will be supported on top.  If this works, if will be fabulous!

Skylanders Party Planning - Part 4, Mod-Podged Shields and Elixir Bottles

One advantage to having a late, freezing-cold spring like this one is that I haven't been distracted by nice weather and have instead been holed up in the craft room, diligently working on projects for upcoming parties.  Here are the latest projects for the Skylanders party... gussied up Dollar Tree Frisbees for the Undead element challeng and the 1st step to transform Orangina bottles into Healing Elixir bottle centerpieces.

Chop-Chop's Shields
As mentioned in this post, I bought some blue Frisbees with plans to turn them into "shields" for the Undead element challenge.  Chop-Chop has a shield that he flings at his enemies - at the party, the guests will fling the Frisbees at an as-yet-to-be-determined target and hopefully not at each other.  Anyhoo, I found an image of Chop-Chop that I modified in Photoshop Elements.  (I subtracted the background - that is all that I know how to do in Photoshop.  Pathetic, I know.)  I then pasted the image into PowerPoint, fiddled with the size a bit, and printed on cardstock.  Traced a circle with a cereal bowl, cut it out, and got out the mod-podge.  This is how it looked just after mod-podging.

This always happens with mod-podge and I always get panicky ("OMG - this looks terrible!  I've ruined it!"), which is silly, because it always ends up fine.  The Frisbees ended up looking like this...

Perfect and beautiful.  Thank you, mod-podge.  I am pleased.  I will work on my panic issues.

Elixir Bottle Transformation, Step 1
As mentioned here, I was originally going to fill the Orangina bottles with blue fluid and serve them as drinks.

This was before I served said Orangina at my egg hunt and nearly everyone took a bottle home with them.  I thought about starting over and buying more, but Orangina is kind of expensive and, let's be honest here, I really don't need those calories, soooo I modified my approach.  Instead of serving drinks, the 4 bottles that didn't walk will become centerpieces.  I plan to fill them with a funky arrangement of colorful balls on pipe cleaner stems (more on that later).  For the 1st step - turning the bottle blue - I found a cool idea on Pinterest to use diluted glue and food coloring "paint" to make glass look like sea glass.  Note, this treatment will not be waterproof!  It was, however, very easy.

Place 1 part glue and 1 part water in a small cup.  You don't need a lot.  Add liquid food coloring until desired shade is achieved.  Mix well with a paint brush that you won't mind throwing away.  Using the paint brush to paint on an even coat of the glue mixture.  It will look a little blotchy, but don't panic - it will dry to a nice even frosted look.

Love it!  Next step is to make a label that looks like an Ankh for each one.  Photoshop, here I come.  In about 10 hours, I should have figured out how to make a label.  Hopefully.  Probably not, though.  (Seriously, am I an idiot?  Is Photoshop hard for anyone else?)

Skylanders Party Planning - Part 3, Flameslinger Archery Targets

I'm plugging along on the Skylanders party - now three months away.  I try to do a little bit every week in the hopes that I won't be crazed and overwhelmed in July.  My latest accomplishment was finishing the archery targets for the Flameslinger Archery Game that I mentioned in the 1st party post:  Skylanders Part 1

I was initially thinking that I'd just alternate red and white like a regaular target, but then I realized that these targets present a great opportunity to bring in some more of the party color pallette of purple, orange, lime, teal, and aqua.  I love having elements at a party do double-duty and here's a great example - games also serving as decor.

I plan to suspend these targets from trees in our yard - will punch holes on either side and thread fishing line through - holes on each side will keep them from spinning... I hope.  I love how bright and colorful they are!

Skylanders Party Planning - Part 2, Elixir Inspiration, Portal Punch, and Archery Targets (in progress)

The planning continues for the Skylanders Party, albeit slooooowly.  (My attention has been focused on our upcoming neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.  More on that later...)  But I have had some cool finds and ideas that I'd like to share.  Firstly, while enjoying a nice bottle of Orangina, it occurred to me...

 ...that an Orangina bottle sure does look a lot like the Healing Elixir bottles found in the game.

Emptied of Orangina, labels removed, and filled with blue liquid (dyed water, Kool Aid?  Do kids still drink Kool Aid these days?  Will I be shunned by the other mothers for serving dyed sugar water?) with an ankh sticker slapped on the front - this is going to look amazing!  It will be a sacrifice to have to drink 16 bottles of delicious, sweet Organina, but I will do it.  Because I love my son THAT much.  Hold your applause.

Next, my son recently accumulated enough stars for good behavior to earn Spyro's Adventure.  While looking at the Portal of Power in action, I realized that it cycles through different colors...

...which you can NOT see in this picture, but trust me.  It does.  You know what else cycles through different colors AND we have at least 4 of in our basement?  The color-changing lights we put in our Halloween pumpkins.

Color Changing Pumpkin Light

I'm going to try to mount my punch bowl over the pumpkin light and have the colors illuminate the punch.  I'm thinking that a sherbet punch might be the right mix of cloudy and translucent and will allow the light to shine through in the same milky, mystical manner as the portal.  I will also try to fashion a cardboard surround painted to look like the portal and wrap the whole contraption.

I also started construction on some archery targets.  I found huge sheets of cardboard at BJ's (they put out little boxes all the time, but they do have big sheets of cardboard in the back - just ask) and did the pushpin-with-string-tied-to-a-pencil trick to get nice big concentric circles.  I have 4 cut out and will start painting soon.

It doesn't look like much YET, but wait until I paint it!  Then it will have STRIPES!  In ALTERNATING COLORS!!  Boom.  Amazing.  (OK, fine.  It will be like any other archery target you've ever seen, but I worked so hard cutting 4 of these bad boys out that I felt they deserved a mention...  and...  OK, fine.  So I only cut out 2 and I made my husband cut out the rest.  But in my defense, it was REALLY HARD cardboard.  BJ's cardboard is legit.  It don't play.)

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!