Thursday, March 25, 2010

To Infinity and Beyond!

A Buzz Lightyear inspired birthday party

Invitations:
A DVD burned with what looked like a divided screen- the top had static and then cleared out to look like footage from NASA flying over a space capsule landed on the moon. The bottom part of the screen had Buzz Lightyear giving instructions for an "important mission to defeat Evil Emperor Zurg... sworn enemy of the galactic alliance!". The label for the dvd was made to look like stainless steel was imprinted with the Space Ranger logo.

Decorations:
~ When guests first entered, there was a duct tape path on the floor leading the way past the gift table and into "Pizza Planet" (also known as the kitchen).
~ The gift table had instuctions overlaid on aluminum foil. All of the pages had rounded corners and screw images in the corners to look like they were from toys. The gift table was covered in silver space blankets and a silver car sun screen. The table also had an oversized Toy Story "Zurg" battery (the source of his power). These were scattered throughout the party.
~ Guests passed through a space blanket "airlock" to pass into Pizza Planet which was lined with rope lights. There was a "Pizza Planet" sign on the refrigerator which was lined with neon glow in the dark sticks. All of the lights were off throughout the whole party, and everything was illuminated by black lights, glow in the dark necklaces, led lights, and electronic screens.
~ At the point where guests passed into "outer space" (also known as the living room where all of the furniture was moved out), there were angular fins on the floor marking the exit. They were similar to what could be seen in the entry corridor of Pizza Planet, if you watch Toy Story 1.
~ Once guests were in outer space, the floor was covered with silver space blankets, little screw on led lights were hung from the ceiling at different heights to give the illusion of being amongst the stars, and the three eyed aliens were floating all along the walls. They were drawn on large flip chart paper, and then highlighted with glow in the dark paint. Because the walls were also white, the paper blended seamlessly.
~ I painted a large cardboard facade with gray spray paint, and painted large, cartoony buttons with craft paint to look like oversized toy electronics and placed it in front of the armoire. The tv showed an ever moving star field and the doors to the armoire were also covered in aluminum foil.
~ The french doors that would have let in sunlight were covered with black construction paper with holes punched through to let in just enough light to look like stars.

Activity:
~ a custom made Evil Emperor Zurg pinata held glow in the dark toys and jewelry as well as candy.
~ After the pinata was opened, lunch and cake were eaten, and all of the presents had been unwrapped, remaining guests were invited to stay for a viewing of Toy Story.

Menu:
~ Pizza Planet pizza (pepperoni and cheese)
~ Alien Slime Soda (lemon-lime)
~ Atomic Orange Soda. I made custom labels using alien inspired fonts for the soda bottles
~ Chocolate rice crispy treat rocket ship "cake" covered with chocolate fudge frosting and bright orange rolled fondant with silver fins on a glow in the dark launch pad (a plastic cup with an led click light underneath)
~ When the birthday boy blew out his candles, we were waiting with a professional grade fogger that was being stored in the island underneath and blasted a jet of smoke to make it look like the rocket was launched. None of the kids were expecting it, especially the birthday boy!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Cute party! I love the glow in the dark stuff!

Kim @ http://frostmeblog.blogspot.com
party inspiration