Sunday, July 27, 2014

Lego Birthday Party


Just realized I forgot to post the details of my two kiddos birthday party last month.  They are both really into building things with Legos, so we decided this would be the theme of their joint birthday party.

Invite:  I designed the border and text of the front of the invite on Photoshop.  I then used scrapbook paper, circles cut from my Cricut, and foam tabs to create the green, yellow, and blue Legos on the front of the invitation with the 3D look.  This took quite a bit of time to do, but I do love how they came out.  For the back side of the invite, the kiddos and I  built the number 3 and 5 out of Lego Duplos and then had a mini photo shoot in the front yard.  I took these photos and added them to the invitation I designed using Photoshop. I downloaded the free Lego font to do the main text.


Attire:  I made this Superman Lego shirt with the help of one of my friends.  We bought a plain red shirt, and  we cut out the fabric pieces and ironed them on the shirt.   My friend sewed them along the edges to help them stay.  My son's superman did lose an eye during the party, and it didn't really hold up after the washing machine, but it sure was cute!


My mom made my daughter's super cute dress.  I made the Lego hair clips to add to the outfit.  To make these, I just bought plain silver hair clips and then used hot glue to adhere the white Lego (with the smaller red one on top) to the clip.  They were really cute!


Entry Decor:  I made a giant Lego on my front door using a red plastic tablecloth and red paper plates.  It was super easy to do.  Just used duct tape to make the plates stay (and they did).  The Lego head I made using yellow foam board.  I drew the face and then cut it out and used red and black Sharpie markers to make the face.


Inside Decor:  On the fireplace mantle, I used some brightly colored garlands.  One of my friends made these out of felt for her daughter's rainbow-themed birthday party, so I was lucky enough to just borrow them.  The giant yellow Lego I made using poster board, card stock circles I cut out, and the foam tabs to make the Lego 3D. I made several of these giant Legos in various colors to spread throughout the party.


I also made this Lego banner.


For the centerpieces, my daughter made Lego Duplo creations. She had a lot of fun with this.  I set each creation on a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper that I made to look like a Lego/Lego base.


I also built a utensil and napkin holder out of Legos.


Party Games: We ordered this super cute cake bouncer and borrowed the corn hole game from a friend. My original plan was to make the bean bags look like Legos by stitching felt circles to the top, but I ran out of time.  We also had a Lego pinata.


Menu:  I wanted to stay simple on the menu, but I also wanted to at least have some items that related to the them.  I decided first on Lego My Eggo turkey and ham sandwiches.  These were good, except that the waffles were not as crisp as I had hoped once people started eating.  My advice is toast them right before you are going to serve them.  This way they stay warm and don't have a chance to get soggy.

For the kids, we also had hot dogs - the cheap and simple staple of birthday parties!  My original thought was go have square shaped pizza with pepperoni because it can look like Legos, but we went with Plan B to save time and money.


I made these jello Legos with a silicon mold set I bought off the Amazon (also used on favors).  As you can tell in the photo, these were VERY hard to use for this particular project. The little men came out fine, but the Legos didn't work. The knobs on the Legos stuck to the mold, and it just did not work well. I ended up using the same mold I used on the candy cake pieces (discussed below), which worked better, but not great.

We also had fruit salad, chips, and veggies to round out the meal.


I had a lot of fun making the cake and cupcakes, and I love how the cake table turned out.  I used the giant poster board Legos I made as backdrop.  I also bought a Lego storage head from Target to add to the decor.  All the desserts were served on Lego mats that my kids build their Legos on all the time.


The cakes were very simple to make.  Just 9" cake rounds frosted.  I used Lego Duplos on the top because it was simple and I could customize it to each of my kids loves (firemen and princesses) very easily.  As I mentioned above, the chocolate molds did not work, so I quickly ordered a different set off Amazon to try.  These chocolate candy molds worked perfectly, and I would recommend this set if you are making chocolate Lego bricks.


The inside of the cakes were two different colors.  I put food coloring in white cake mix to make these.


I saw Lego cupcake wrappers on Amazon, but they were outrageously expensive.  I decided to make my own.  I found a Lego border on Google images and used Photoshop to make it as big as I needed it. Then, I borrowed the Cricut Lite Cupcake Wrapper cartridge from a friend to cut the scalloped wrappers. The Lego chocolates on the top are the same ones as the cake; I just cut them in half for the cupcakes.


Favor:  Honestly, I couldn't decide on what to do for favors as I had too many ideas! First, I made goodie bags.  The multicolor bags I purchased at Michaels and just added the card stock circles/foam tabs to make them 3D.  I made the tag on Photoshop...




I spray painted baby food jars yellow and added these silly Lego faces with Sharpie markers. Each jar was filled with Lego candy I bought on Amazon. I bought a 3 pound bag to fill these jars about 3/4 full and had plenty.


I also made mini Lego coloring books. I found the images on Google and then made them four of them fit on piece of typing paper.  Then I just printed one on back of the other.  It took me forever to find the images and get them positioned correctly.  If you are interested in doing this for a Lego party, I am offering these files at minimal cost.


I made the crayons using the Lego man mold I bought.  I bought a few boxes of cheap crayons, soaked them to get the wrappers off easily, and then broke them into 5-6 pieces to put inside the mold.  Then just put them in the oven for about 10 minutes to melt. I only needed one crayon per mold for these.  I placed them in candy wrappers bought at Michaels and made an address label as a sticker to close them up. This was much faster than tying bows!!


After the party, I took this silly photo of my kiddos to use on a Thank You card.  The border/text I did in Photoshop.

All in all, the party was a success and the kids had a great time. Can't believe my little ones are 3 and 5 already!  Thanks for reading this super long post...Please comment below.  I just love hearing your thoughts!

Friday, July 11, 2014

World Cup Party: Viva La FIFA


 I can't say that I follow the World Cup too much, but it seemed like a fun theme to have for July, so I went with it. It also seemed fairly easy, and since I was on vacation the entire week before the party, I decided "easy" sounded good.


Invitation: I modeled my invitation after a World Cup ticket I saw on the internet. The logos are everywhere, so adding those was not hard to do.


Entry Decor: I made this entry sign out of card stock and a foam board.  I found the image on Google and enlarged it to use as a template.  The letters I cut out using my Cricut. I was also planning to have a huge (4 foot) blow-up soccer ball near the door, but it had a hole in it! Bummer.


Inside Decor:  I set my table with fake grass I purchased at Home Depot. I then used white electrical tape to make the field outlines.  As you can tell in the photo, the tape didn't stick very well when trying to do the circle.  I made the flags with card stock and dowel rods.  The mini chocolate soccer balls I purchased at Party City and put them in the vases with green tissue paper.  The soccer ball plates I also purchased at Party City.


I made this banner using paper lanterns I purchased at Party City and flags made out of card stock.


I made these cake pop place cards for each guest. After dipping them in the flesh color, I then used a piping tip to do the brown hair.  The facial features I did with a toothpick.  I made the jerseys on Photoshop.  Each jersey was from the team the guest RSVP'd that they would represent, and I added the guest's last name to the back along with the date of their birthday to the front and back as their soccer number.


Just another photo of a Colombian place card.


For wine charms, I found images of soccer balls with various flags online.  Again, I tried to match up the guest's RSVP country with the glass.


Menu: I wanted my menu to reflect participating countries in the World Cup, but I didn't want the food to be so random that it didn't go well together.  My original plan was also to serve everything in cups for the World CUP, but I strayed from this as my time and ideas ran slim.  I started off guests with a Greek Salad. It was Romaine letter, tomatoes, Kalamata olives, feta, cucumber, and red pepper.


For the main meal, I asked my good friend to make traditional Colombian empanadas.  This is her mother's special (and secret) recipe, and they were AMAZING! Absolutely delicious!


As side dishes, I made Spanish Rice and black beans.  We added salsa to the beans and a little cilantro/extra spices to both for added flavor.


For dessert, I kept it simple.  I made chocolate pudding and placed a toasted Eggo waffle (cut out with a round cookie cutter) in the top.  Since Belgium is known for chocolate, and I love Belgium waffles, I figured this might be a good combo.  Yep...I was right...yum!


Favor: As a take-home gift, I bought water bottles from the Dollar Tree and added a ribbon and soccer ball to the front.


I made this tag to attach to the water bottle.


We had a great time. We'll see who takes home the World Cup title this Sunday!!

**As usual, if you would like the tag, invite, flags, etc. just send me an email, and I would be happy to share.