Harry Potter Party

Continuing to back-post...

Unfortunately my network storage is down right now, so I can't access the invitation.  But each child received an acceptance letter signed by Minerva McGonagall herself to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  It gave directions for the party specifically, included a ticket for the Hogwarts express (Phoenix to Hogwarts) and was sealed in a custom envelope with a wax seal.  The invitations took a bit of time, but were one of my favorite aspects of the party.

As our guests arrived, they went through platform 9 and 3/4 with smoke blowing from the train, past Borkin and Burkes at Knockturn Alley and then rounded the corner to go down Diagon Alley.  They got to poke around displays at storefronts such as Slug and Jiggers Apothecary (which continued to be a hit througout the night), Flourish and Blotts, Eeylops Owl Emporium, Potage's Cauldrons, and finally they stopped at Ollivanders.  At Ollivanders, they sorted through completely customized wands till they found the one that fit just right.  Each wand came in its' own padded box, with certificate of authenticity and label (length, core, wood type, rigidity and price).

After Diagon Alley they came to the "Great Hall" complete with house banners and floating candles where they were sorted by Professor Dumbledore.  Then they went to one of four house tables for the start of term feast that began after the birthday boy blew out his candles.  At each place setting was golden serveware, and a chocolate frog with its' own box and trading card that they could exchange throughout the evening.  Along the table (with corresponding colored runners to each house) there were cauldrons of popcorn, buckets of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and fruit for when they watched "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".  Their drink options were butterbeer, pumpkin juice (mulled apple cider fresh from our trees) and veritaserum (my favorite- water!).

I was silly to think they would all watch the movie from their house tables.  There was a solid core of kids that sat close to the screen and kept telling the others to be quiet.  But most were having duels and experimenting at Slug and Jiggers.  Regardless, I'm pretty sure fun was had by all.

The thank you notes were 4x6 prints that I made that looked like mini marauder's maps that said "mischief managed" and personalized notes were added to in Sharpie marker.

A Perfect Pair

What is it when a long awaited baby turns out to be not just one- but two?  A perfect pair!  Neutral hues, burlap, mercury glass, pears, candles, and a few lace accents keep the theme light and just right for both boy and girl.

Illuminated Manuscript Invitation

Princess and the Frog Invitation Preview

The invitation will be bound in faux crocodile leather paper, with fleur de lis paper lining the cover, and hand drawn invitations in between every page of text.  The text is all I have so far, but I am too excited I just had to share.

It is inspired by the book that Tiana's mother reads to her and and Charlotte at the beginning of Disney's Princess and the Frog.  As much of the text that can be mimicked, is.  My mom is a very talented artist and I enlisted her help in designing the page borders to look like the book in the movie, but with a Louisiana twist with the fleur de lis.  I did the initial letters, and scanned them and the border in to keep with the whimsical, hand drawn look (with added touches of the bayou).  The pages are also justified for when they are bound, but it should look right in the end.

Up Next...

Is a shower themed shower.  I'm into everything umbrella, raindrop, blue and green now.  I found a link to a program called Tagxedo where you can create your own subway art and actually save it to your computer, not just print immediately like you can do with Wordle.  I created this and I think I might use it on the gift table.

The shower is inspired by this invitation that I got as a free download (and then tweaked) from Parents.com

Mario Kart Wii Birthday Party

invitation held inside a 1 to 1 scale Wii remote printed on cardstock
printable .pdf can be found at http://anthony.liekens.net

Activities:
~ Mario Kart races in box Karts begun with checkered flags
~ coin battles
~ awards lineup with party poppers showered on the racers
~ Mario Kart adapted pinata
~ treat time
~ gift opening

Music:
~ Mario Kart game music on a loop

Menu: a dessert table consisting of
~ sugar cookie Nintendo stars
~ moose munch chocolate popcorn
~ Jelly Belly beans
~ Jelly Belly sodas
~ toadstool pops made of marshmallows, donut holes, candy melts and white chocolate chips
~ funfetti cupcakes with green buttercream frosting

Favors:
~ Mario caps with mustaches and boxes of Mario 3D gummy candies

Back To School Carnival

I just sent out the invitations....

fonts: Carnivalee Freakshow & Coffee Tin

Pirate Party Invitations

We normally have a playgroup with our friends at a local park. We let the kids run around and have fun. But it's so hot right now, that we have to go where there's water. I decided to host a water playgroup in our backyard this week. And of course, if I'm going to do anything there must be a theme involved. So here are the invitations:

I printed the invitations I designed on regular 8.5x11" printer paper, then stained them and burned the edges and rolled them in clean glass bottles for a "message in a bottle".

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!

Wild Wild West Birthday

This wild west themed party was a rootin' tootin' time for all the 3 year old varmints! The invitation was a sepia toned "wanted" poster complete with faded typeface and rustic burned edges.


For lunch at "Mis Kitty's Saloon", the children had franks 'n beans with cornbread served with beaten up silverware in pie tins, and to drink they had IBC root beer in brown glass bottles. The "cake" was steaming hot sopapillas with powdered sugar, and the birthday boy had to blow out Mexican sparkler candles while he made his wish.

The birthday boy got to wear his desperado hat, and six shooters with a fringed leather vest over a denim western shirt. The male party guests got a bandana to wear and the female guests had hand sewn old west bonnets.

The activity was reading "The Three Little Javelinas" (a Sonoran desert version of the three little pigs) while they ate and they got to "shoot the varmints" which were hand drawn cardboard versions of a diamonback rattlesnack, a javelina, and a coyote. The winners (which were all the children) received an old west prize. And of course, our lil' desperado rode off into the sunset on a trusty old horse.

The party was outside, so we had a large hand sewn quilt to spread on the ground for storytime, and while not in use was folded and sitting atop a bale of hay. There was an old west "Miss Kitty's Saloon" sign hanging above the food, and the "varmints" served as decoration as well as an activity. We had a red checkered tablecloth spread on top of an old wooden table, and black and white pictures printed out of famous old cowboys and placed in antique and western frames. But the best decoration was probably the horse.