I have discovered the magic of Pinterest. If you have never heard of it please check it out. Some of the most creative ideas and DIY stuff imaginable is on this site. Information on anything from photography, art, travel and crafts can be found on Pinterest. On my own Pinterest Page I have boards that revolve around everything for parties. Birthday, Baby Shower, Holiday Party themes are found on my page along with Party Games, Recipes and Party DIY Decorations. ( http:// pinterest.com/snappyfacepaint/ ) I gathered pictures of 259 different themed parties (and counting) so you can get ideas to create your own themed party. It’s a lot of fun and I love that you can create a party inexpensively with inspiring and “do it yourself” ideas from Pinterest.
After seeing so many wonderful party ideas on Pinterest, I decided to throw a themed birthday party for my grandson Nathaniel. His birthday is around Halloween so he was going to have a costume party. My daughter and I decided on a “Cute Monster” themed party. Well, I was going to get ideas about birthday decorations, baking recipes and such from Pinterest. I love the fan shape backdrops I’ve been seeing on Pinterest lately, so I decided to make them for Nathaniel’s party. It is just made of construction paper folded and hot glued into circular shapes. I didn’t realize just how much folding was involved (it took about 8 hours to make them) but I was pleased with the results. The ghosts and felt black bat cut outs were purchased at a hobby store. Nathaniel loves building things so he put together the haunted house from a kit that was purchased as well. This turned out to be a nice centerpiece. The table cloth is plastic purchased at Target with a spider web runner.
For games we decided to make a gum ball filled vase in which the kids guessed how many there were. A miniature pumpkin tossing contest (similar to hot potato) and a costume contest.
We made Mummy Hot Dogs (recipe on Pinterest) and Monster Cookies on sticks (Pinterest) and bought some pizzas. The cupcakes were purchased from an amazing baking artistic talent here in Denver, Colorado. Astonishing Cakes not only makes the most adorable and beautiful cakes I have ever seen, but they are the most delicious as well. Renee from Astonishing Cakes can design anything for your party. I asked her to make cute, adorable monsters (vampire, frankenstein, mummy and a hairy monster) for cupcakes using the colors purple, green and white. She really met the challenge and the cupcakes were the hit of the party. My only regret is that my own Monster Cookies I baked looked terrible (and didn’t taste all that great) compared to the Monster Cupcakes from Astonishing Cakes. Some things are better left to the professionals. Next time Astonishing Cakes will do ALL the baking.
All in all, I had a lot of fun making decorations for Nathaniel’s birthday party. Now I’ll have to get more ideas from Pinterest for the next party, my other grandson Ethan’s birthday.