Happy Birthday to My Husband and our One Year Old Daughter.
In 2012, our Daughter turned One so we celebrated their Birthday's together because their Birthdays are only three days apart!
The very first thing I did was come up with a unique Invitation. These cards fit in an 5 3/4" x 8 3/4" envelope (100 count envelopes can be purchased at Office Depot for around $11). I used Resume Cardstock paper I purchased at Office Depot for the Invitation portion White Cardstock paper I purchased at Joann Fabrics. I love using Microsoft Publisher to create unique designs which is where I created the wording and image for the invitation as well as the mushrooms eyes. I also created a mushroom pocket for the invitation using the white Cardstock and printing the green color with white circles. This is how my Invitations turned out!
Next, I began creating the decorations and games for the party!
The Table Centerpieces:
I used Balloons and balloon stems (I purchased at Hobby Lobby). I used a square craft box and wrapped it in brown packing paper and added some green to the top of it to mimic a grass block from Mario. Then I printed out all the Characters from Mario Bros and a small castle on Cardstock paper. I used used small jewelry boxes to construct the castle, black construction paper and glue were also used to complete the castle look. I purchased floral foam and paper grass and placed the floral foam into the box, then I arranged the characters and balloons much like a floral arrangement. Then I stuck the paper grass in and around the bottom of the sticks to hide the floral foam. I found those color stars in the dollar section of Target and attached them with double sided tape. I used those all over the place including the tables and the walls for extra decoration!
The Games:
Yoshi Egg Smash - I saw someone had done this and it was such a cute idea I had to do it. I enlarged Yoshi and created a Yoshi Poster board and surrounded Yoshi in glitter! Then came the hard part. Collecting the eggs. Yoshi doesn't just give these away, I had to create them! It was time consuming, like cascarones at Easter but I managed to make enough in time for the party. We ate a ton of eggs, then i cleaned them, dried them, filled them with confetti, sealed them closed and painted them with green polka dots to resemble Yoshi's eggs. This game is fun for any age and the rules are so simple. Grab an egg, point it at Yoshi and throw! Just be prepared to clean up the confetti/egg shell mess once all is said and done...
Pin the Mustache on Mario - I also saw this idea on Pinterest and wanted to create it for our party. I just enlarged and printed Mario's face and then created felt mustaches and purchased some of that super tacky stuff that Teachers use. This was also a big hit. The prizes for this game were the favor bags so all the kiddos won!
Door Sign, Wall Art & Additional Decor:
I wanted to create a Welcome sign as well as an additional Wall Art Poster for the main party room. Just Poster Board, Mario images and wording, foam stars and a little imagination and viola!
Then I used Balloons, paper mache, and paint to create Mario Boo's and hung them throughout the party areas for additional decoration. This project took about 2 weeks to complete.
Here's a little behind the scenes of how the Boo's came together!
I also made a Bob-Omb but unfortunately I didnt get a good photo of it before a friend of ours took it home with them. It turned out sooo well and I used the same process that I used on the Boo's.
Bob-Ombs look like this:
The Favor Bags:
I wanted to make Girl and Boy Favor Bags so I purchased Pop Pink and Lime Green Bags and decorated them like Yoshi and Princess Peach. Then I printed Thank You Tags and added them to the Bags and got started on filling the bags up!
Here are some of the other things I created and added to the Favor Bags:
The Food:
I think I was out of my mind on this one, but I decided to make homemade Lasagna and French Bread for everyone to stick with an Italian theme for Mario... Everyone loved it but I was exhausted and almost too tired to enjoy the party. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the food. On top of making scratch lasagna I undertook creating the Cake. This was the first time I every attempted making Fondant and I was extremely pleased at how the cake turned out! I made the stars out of white chocolate and the only thing that I didnt make on this cake were the actual little Character figurines. The Cakes top layer was a fresh Strawberry cake and the bottom later was a decadent Chocolate!
I made chocolate covered stars, star shaped Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Mustache LollyPops, then purchased some chocolate coins to complete the table decor!
The Birthday Bash was a success and everyone had a blast. Time to pack it all away and get ready for 2013!
