Ninja Party -- Super Inexpensive!

Mr. S had his 5th birthday earlier this month, and after lots of thought decided he wanted a NINJA party. I must confess -- we threw this party together very quickly. On a Monday morning (BEFORE we had the theme) we ran to the store and got generic invitations for him to pass out to classmates at school that day. By that afternoon he had decided on the theme. The party was Thursday.

I called my brother, who is skilled in doodling, and asked him to draw me a quick ninja. I used his ninja to cut out posterboard ninja decorations for the front door

and the walls.

And, of course, at our house no birthday party is complete without T-shirts for all the guests! (Past parties with T-shirts: Super Mario Bros and Despicable Me!)
I found 16 long sleeve T-shirts, all XS, in four different colors at the dollar store. I worked my magic with my brother's ninja drawing, my printer, and some iron-on printer paper. It was a complex shape so it took a long time to cut out the ninjas, but it was most definitely worth it!

A quick rundown on games:

We started with Ninja Training. My husband was an excellent trainer, teaching them how to be quick on their feet by having them jump over a spinning sword, and teaching them how to listen well and be disciplined by playing Ninja Says. He and Mr. S even created a big obstacle course in the basement for everyone to run through -- it involved climbing over, crawling under, somersaults, and even throwing paper Chinese stars!

We played Pin the Sei Blade on the Ninja.

The cake? I thought we could make cupcakes, but Mr. S thought that didn't count for a birthday. So, the morning of the party we lucked out and found a black and red swirly-looking cake already made at Walmart. Hubs brought home some ninja legos to go on top. Perfection!

At a local toy store we found these FUN tiny dragons for 50 cents a pop. The original plan was to put them on the cupcakes, but...

...they were just right on each piece of cake!

At the END of the party, just before parents were coming to pick everyone up, we busted out the $1 foam swords (from Target!) and a huge pile of balloons, and everyone played "keep up" -- trying to keep the balloons from hitting the ground. This was everyone's favorite game -- and we saved it for the end to avoid any sword fighting among the ninjas. It worked out just perfectly!

So, to sum up: Everyone had a fantastic time. Each guest went home with a T-shirt, sword, and tiny dragon for a total of $2.50 per kid. Mr. S was beaming for days. Sounds like the perfect party to me!

It's birthday party time....

It's birthday party time around here again, and you know what that means....

....lots of dollar store and dollar aisle shopping!!

This morning we went and picked up scads of T-shirts, posterboards, and balloons from the dollar store, and a huge pile of foam swords from Target's dollar aisle!!

Can't wait to share some details later this week!

"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)

Tiny Party Hats!

Today's Dollar Store Craft just kills me! My kids and I are obsessed with collecting tiny little stuffed animals. We have a great time playing with them and making them do all sorts of fun things. One of our favorite things to play (besides camping) is that they are having a birthday party, so of course they needed some tiny little birthday party hats!

So tiny!

I simply used some leftover party hats, a tiny hole punch, some clear tape, and this pattern.


Trace your pattern on the back side of an opened party hat and cut it out. When you tape, don't overlap your ends -- butt them against each other and use one piece of clear tape on the inside and one on the inside. Punch holes and thread the original hat's elastic through. Tie on either end, creating the length you need. Done!

I got carried away and made a couple dozen for our stuffed animals!
And this size works great for Barbie, too!

Super Mario Party Wrapup

Just a few final things to share about Mr. S.'s Mario Brothers birthday party!

Less than an hour before party time, I decided my kids neeeeded to have some Mario brothers attire for the party! I asked each of the boys what character they wanted on their shirts. Of course Mr. S. wanted Toad, his favorite, and of course Buzz wanted a Bullet Bill. Perfection! And for JellyBean I chose Flower Power over one of the princesses. (We're just not princess-y people, you know?)
Anyway, I dug through my stash of dollar store T-shirts and found the right sizes in fun, bright colors. I printed the images on some printable iron-on transfer paper, cut them out, and ironed them on. Easy! (I use a brand you can find at JoAnn, specified as "transfer to dark." You can fit a lot of little images on just one sheet, so they go a long way.) We've already made another round of Mario Brothers theme shirts -- and I foresee more in the near future!

After the party I whipped together a little drawstring bag with a mushroom applique for Mr. S.'s Mario Brothers figures...

...and one more for the crochet mushrooms from Grandma!
(You must click over and check them out -- they are TOO fun!)


And, last but not least, this little "project" just tickles me!
I made a quick trip to the Hostess thrift store and bought Snoballs (green for Halloween, just my luck!) and some tiny cupcakes.

Add a little black gel frosting for eyes and some white frosting for spots, and you have an Extra Life Mushroom cupcake!! I cannot vouch for the, er, FLAVOR... but I think they are stinking cute!

I've had more fun than should be legal with these little party projects -- and everyone had a great time at the party! It was fun for everyone, but the creative parts were EXCEPTIONALLY fun for me. Win-win all around, I say!

More Mario Stuff

Here are a few more things I put together for Mr. S.'s Super Mario Brothers theme birthday party:

I took some super basic dollar store party hats and stuck on some Mario stickers. Easy!
I printed some Mario images on printable sticker sheets and cut them out individually. Quick, cheap, easy, fun!

For the party favor treat bags, I did the same with some mini dollar store gift bags -- three for a buck!

Inside the bags were some Mario Brothers Halloween candies (available at the dollar store and I've seen them at my local grocer), Mario fruit snacks, some cube candies I found at the dollar store (I figured cubes would be fitting for Mario!), some dollar store bubble gum rolls (slapped some stickers on those, too), chocolate coins, and some glow sticks.
Simple, cheap, and very Mario!

Now, the cake! It's Mario's 25th birthday this year, so there are Super Mario Brothers figures available in stores. I bought a little pile of figures and then turned the cake over to my sister.
She created a Mario level, complete with Fruit Roll-Up pipes, banana Now&Later question mark blocks, and giant Smarties coins. And check the chocolate bar bricks!

I have just a couple more Mario theme things to share tomorrow -- including one of my favorite creations!

A Super Mario Birthday Party

Mr. S. recently turned four, and we celebrated over the weekend with a Super Mario Brothers themed party!

Over the course of a few days I created a large scale mural for the wall, all freehand cut from dollar store posterboards. (Two sheets for a dollar!) I arranged everything to look like a level in the game, complete with the castle and flagpole at the end. The flagpole later became a pin-the-tail type of game -- Pin the flag on the flagpole!

We had to move one of our couches to accomodate the mural. To give you an idea of the scale, here's a shot of JellyBean checking out the Goomba. The mural was quite a lot of work -- but I admit I was having so much fun that it didn't feel like a lot of work to me!


Another party game I created was a "memory" or "concentration" game. The posterboard squares are about 7 1/2" square.


On the flip sides of the squares, I created more posterboard characters. Once again, a lot of work, but it didn't feel that way to me!

I have a few more fun things from the party to share -- stay tuned! :o)