Tuesday, March 15, 2011

"Despicable Me" Party Ideas!

For today's Dollar Store Craft I want to share what we did for Buzz's 6th birthday party last weekend. He really wanted a party with a Despicable Me theme. (If you haven't seen the movie yet, I definitely recommend it. It's so much fun!)


Of course we had to have some fun decor -- so I bought a couple posterboards at the dollar store and cut out some minions for the walls. I found a bright yellow disposable plastic tablecloth at Walmart for a little over a buck, which I ended up cutting to fit not only my kitchen table but also two smaller picnic tables we brought in. Also found at the dollar store: bright blue paper plates, bright blue and yellow crepe paper streamers, and....


....SCORE! Scads of bright blue T-shirts in all the kid sizes I needed! I busted out one of my FAVORITE crafty supplies I always keep on hand: Transfer Magic's Ink Jet "Transfer to Dark" heat transfer paper. This stuff is THE BEST. I simply sized some minion images in Photoshop, crammed them all into a 8 1/2" x 11" file, and printed them out on one sheet of transfer paper. I cut them all out while I watched a movie, then ironed them onto the blue t-shirts. Bang! 20 T-shirts for about $22! It was SO FUN to see all the little party-going minions running around in their matching minion t-shirts!

Now for the party games:


First a project-y sort of thing (you know I can't resist throwing in a creative project!): Cookie robots! My sister (thanks, Lol!) and I cooked this one up over the phone just a few hours before the party. When I went to pick up the cake (there IS a very cute Despicable Me cake available, hooray!), I also grabbed a bag of chocolate chip cookies, a box of Dots, a bag of stick pretzels and some cookie frosting. Ba-da-bing, cookie robots! Each partygoer got to come up with his or her own design. Fun and tasty!


Another game: Gru Says!
I whipped this Gru scarf together out of some fleece scraps. The idea is that whoever wears the Gru scarf gets to be in charge of Gru Says (Simon Says, of course!) -- and all the minions must follow. I admit, we never got around to actually playing this game at Buzz's party, because another game took over....


A beanbag-toss-type game: In the movie there is a scene at a carnival where the object of a carnival game is to knock over a spaceship to win a prize. In our modified version, I created a cutout posterboard version of the spaceship, taped it to the wall, and stacked some plastic cups in front of it.


Each boy had a chance to toss Sleepy Kittens (we HAD to get them in there SOMEWHERE!) at the cups. If they knocked the cups over, they won a prize...


...a Shrink Ray! Or, if you rather, a Freeze Ray! Or Piranha Shooter! Or Octopus Launcher! Or any of the other fun and silly inventions from the movie! Buzz spotted these at the dollar store in three-packs, and he knew immediately that he NEEDED to have them as favors at his party. Genius!

I'm happy to report that Buzz's Despicable Me party was a rip-roaring success, with no less than 17 minions running around and having a grand old time. Not too shabby for a dollar store-heavy production! :o)

33 comments:

denise said...

great idea's!
thanks for sharing.
love,
denise

Sandy said...

Great ideas! And I love that movie, so cute!

Tiffany said...

In wish you were MY mom! That looks like it was a lot of fun!

Kristy said...

Super fun! My guys would love this!

Amy said...

how cute! I saw and loved the movie.I would love to own a walking,talking Minion.

Jessica said...

I LOVE that movie - you did a fabulous job!!

myfairlady2511 said...

Too fun! What did the cake look like??

Jenn Erickson said...

So wonderfully creative!

Leah said...

wow..that is awesome!!!

Mad in Crafts said...

I love these ideas!!! The cookie robots are my favorite. I bet you had a couple little Boogie Robots dancing around while you were making them too!

Lorena Guerra said...

great ideas! sounds like a heck of a party!

Unknown said...

Love the party. Those minions are too cute!

Cammie said...

I love the Gru scarf and the squid launcher and the great shirts (which have all been worn to Church by these Minions) and your whole party! You are so fun!

Kris @ everywhereorange.com said...

Seriously awesome party Care!!!

Jess@craftiness is not optional said...

awesome, awesome party!

Angie White said...

I'm actually going to have a Despicable Me party for ME! We're going to make a minion army with Twinkies (saw that out in blogland somewhere!). Love your ideas as well!

"JeanneG" said...

Your kids are so blessed to have you as their mom. You always go that extra mile to make everything so much fun for them. Great job.

Lien Van Melkebeke said...

so much fun ideas !

Shari said...

What a GREAT party! Good job mom.

Angela's Crazy Daily's said...

I actually loved the idea of this as a party and made a minion out of a twinkie. It turned out really well. If you want a picture I can email it!

Nikki said...

Please tell me where you got such a great deal on those shirts and how you made such cute sleepy kittens. Are they fleece? My son LOVES this movie. Vector is his favorite. I'm trying to hunt down an orange "warm up suit" before his party. Thanks for sharing your great ideas with us!!

Care said...

Hi Nikki,

The t-shirts were at my local Dollar Tree. SCORE! And yes, the sleepy kittens are fleece -- there is a tutorial and pattern here on my blog. In this post you can click on "Sleepy Kittens" under the spaceship game and it will take you to the post with the pattern.

Good luck with the warmup suit! Too hilarious! I have a friend whose son is dying to have one too! :o) I'd love to hear how your party goes as well -- and feel free to send me an email if you have more questions!

Care.

Mama Teaching 3 said...

Cute, cute, cute! :)

ItsLiz said...

fabulous ... absolutely fabulous ... love love love it ... been trying to talk my kids into this for their party (i am so in love with the movie) but they haven't bought into the idea ... yet ... wait till they see this ...

Anonymous said...

Loved this post! Sorry I'm late on this, but I featured your party idea last week at Craft Buds: http://www.craftbuds.com/fresh-picks-for-thursday-3-18-11/

Barbie said...

super cute! ...wish i had a boy ;)

KCmomof2 said...

We totally copied you today for a Girl Scout "spy" theme party we are having next weekend. We used your Minions as a pattern to make "life size" minions for the girls to get their pictures taken with at the photo booth and made "Gru" scarves for all!

Thanks so much for sharing your ideas.

Her said...

hi can i ask how did u do the minions wall decos? thanks in advance for the reply :)

Unknown said...

So great! Any chance I could get the photoshop file with the minions on it? I would love to make t-shirts for my son's upcoming party. It's in just a couple of weeks! What did you do for the invites? Here is my email: rachelclarkbiz@gmail. com

Thanks so much!

Rachel

stgrunninmom said...

Can I get your photoshop link too? Great idea! cope143@gmail.com

Unknown said...

I'd love to know where you got the water guns! They are so cute! My 8 yr old daughter is having her DM party Saturday. Can't wait!

FarZain said...

A great party indeed!! The kids must have had so much fun!!

My daughter is a great fan of the movie too... and I came across your post when I was searching for Inspirations from Despicable me for my blog post...

I have linked your page and picture on my post here
http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/2014/05/inspirations-from-despicable-me.html

Thanks a lot for the awesome ideas.

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