How to Make Napkin Rings

*Note - I discuss making your own themed napkin rings on my Place Settings page. This is a short tutorial using a Super Mario theme.*

Having a Super Mario themed party? If you've looked around online you may have seen these napkins-



They are pretty nice looking napkins and good and durable from the reviews I've read. They are available at Amazon as well as buycostumes.com and birthdayexpress.com (all for the same price but shipping may differ).


The only downside to these napkins is that they are 3.49 for a package of 16 (not including shipping). When it comes to children we all know the more napkins the better. So if you want to purchase these napkins you may want to consider buying one package and mix some solid colored napkins in with them. You can find many different colors at the dollar stores (for a dollar of course).

If you want to add a little pop to your mushroom napkins or tie solid colored napkins into your Mario theme, just add star napkin rings!

Seen here with a plain napkin from my pantry

First I looked around my house for something shaped like a star. I found this glow in the dark one in my oldest son's room. If you can't find anything you can either find one online and print it out or hold a thin piece of paper up to the screen and trace it for a template. I traced the star with a yellow marker onto yellow construction paper. I only traced three stars and then folded two pieces of paper together three times to be able to cut out 6 at a time.

I folded this green paper in half vertically

Then in half 8 times. Don't worry about getting it exactly even.


I then cut out the strips and stars.

Next I added the eyes to the stars with a black marker.

Then I overlapped each strip and gluesticked to make rings.

I placed the star upsidedown and gluesticked the ring onto the back

There you have it. After the glue dries slip in your napkins.

Total price for these napkins = If you use the napkins from the pantry $0, If we get a solid color from the dollar store (birthday boy is undecided right now) $1

Rubber Ducky Theme

Quack, quack, quack, got any grapes? My little one woke up quite cranky this morning so I decided to pull up his favorite little song on youtube to put him in a better mood. The video is below if you'd like to see it, followed by a Rubber Ducky birthday party plan.



Cute isn't it? Now onto the party plans:


Table and Place Settings -

Start with a blue tablecloth with lighter blue contruction paper circles gluesticked on for bubbles. For your centerpiece you can paint a box white and fill with crumpled blue tissue paper or how about a white bowl with blue jello, add a faucet with construction paper or cardstock and add a rubber ducky or two on top. Add a few other little bath toys around it.

Draw, print out, or get stickers of rubber duckies and add to blue cups. If you have a white paint pen add on some little bubble details (or cut out from white paper and gluestick on)

Yellow silverware can be wrapped up in orange napkins and placed in rubber ducky napkin rings. Cut out strips of blue paper,glue the ends together and glue a rubber ducky on top.

Here are a few different plates -

Nursery Friends	Rubber Ducky	Flip Flop Fun
Big 1 Dots - Girl	Big 1 Dots - Boy	1st Cupcake

I really like the polka dot options. If you decide to go with one of them you can add some colored dots to your cups and/or napkin rings too.


Games -

Using the Basic Games section

Pin the Beak on the Rubber Ducky

Find the Duckies - either draw or print out duckies or you can purchase many many different kinds of duckies at Oriental Trading Company

Throw the Duckies or Bubbles in the tub - paint a big box white and decorate as a bath tub, take turns throwing in the rubber duckies or use ping pong balls or other small blue or white balls and call them bubbles.


Ducky Match - Draw shapes or put stickers on the bottom of rubber duckies (real or just pictures on paper) This theme would likely be for toddlers so your best bet is to give each child one and just have them find their match rather then playing
the old fashioned memory. I am not a big fan of buying bigger ticket items but this game is very cute and could double as a birthday gift for your little one -



Musical Bubbles - Cut out construction paper circles can be your bubbles. Add a picture of a different colored rubber ducky and each time the music stops call a color. Whoever is on that color recieves a sticker or other small prize. Play
until everyone "wins" (is out) and give the last child a rubber ducky with their sticker.

Also for variations of Pick a Duck click here.

Cake - For a nice simple but cute cake ice a round cake white, add a big circle of blue gel icing to the center and place a rubber ducky (real or fondant) in the middle. Or ice cupcakes blue and place mini duckies or cupcake toppers with rubber
duckies on top. For more on cakes click here.

Happy quacking :)

Pin The Horn On The Triceratops

It has come to my attention that several people have ended up on this blog after googling "pin the horn on the triceratops" or "pin the tail on the triceratops". Seeing this I decided to dust off my old paint program and make this:



It will need to be printed in landscape mode. You can also save ink and print it out in greyscale and/or fast mode and freshen up with markers.

If you need something specific made or just have a question to ask please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Mario Party - with a little science

One of my son's favorite Mario Party 8 games is Shake It Up. In this game each character shakes up a can of soda. The winner is the one whose soda shoots up the highest when they open the can. Here is a video of the game -



Now while it's all very fun on a video game the logistics and potential danger of letting a group of children shake up soda cans is another story. This game made my son's list of top 5 Mario Party games though so I was determined to figure it out.

After thinking about it for awhile I suddenly remembered the Mad Science Halloween party we did last year. One of our experiments was The Sandwich Bomb. In it you use the classic combination of vinegar and baking soda to make a ziploc bag poof up. It can be seen here -

Steve Spangler Science Sandwich Bomb

How did this turn into a Mario Party party game? First I drew and cut out pictures of soda cans to glue onto the front of our sandwich size ziploc bags. Here is where it turns into a game, only some of the bags will have baking soda, the rest contain flour. (Note - Powdered sugar is closer in color but flour works fine, especially since the bags will be out of view until the start of the game.)

The children will stand in a line and grab a ziploc out of a box or basket. On the count of three they will pop open the vinegar and shake their bags. Whichever team has the most bags that poof up will be the winner. Be sure to have one more baking soda bag then you do teams so you won't have to worry about doing a tie-breaker.

Here are two of the finished bags, one with baking soda and one with flour (vinegar will be added later, I don't want any accidents before the party). For a detailed how to and total cost of this game, scroll down.

First I held a bag over a piece of paper to see how big my cans could be (which tured out to be four per piece of printer paper) and folded the paper to the right size.


Then I drew the can. You can also print out this clip art that I used for inspiration - Pop Can Clipart

I folded three more pieces of paper and stacked them together.

This way I was able to cut out 12 at once.

Then I colored them in

Then I glued the cans on the bags and put in the baking soda and flour. Vinegar filled snack size bags will be added later.

What was used and final cost -

Paper (already had) - $0
Markers and crayons (already had) - $0
Baking soda (already had) - $0
Flour (already had) - $0
Sandwich size ziploc bags (already had) - $0
Vinegar (already have) - $0
Snack size ziploc bags (leftover from halloween) - $0

)Note - If you don't have snack size bags but do have sandwich bags, you can use sandwich size for the vinegar as well. Just blow air into the bag before sealing to make it easier to pop open.)

Total cost - $0

Candyland Theme

I took a short hiatus from Mario Party planning this morning to think of a few games for a Candyland themed party. Here is what I came up with -



You can set out the board game and take out the color cards. Then you can draw out cards to show which game you're going to play.

Fix King Kandy's Crown - Have a crown for each child and have them find jelly beans to glue onto it

Lolly's Match - draw two or three bands of color with a crayon on the bottom of several lollipops, two with red stripes, two with green, etc. Turn a box upside down, decorate it, poke holes in the bottom/top and stick the lollipops in. Have them take turns pulling them up and try to find a match. To make it easier you could keep half the lollipops out and hand them one when it is their turn and then they just have to find it's match. Here is a picture of a Veggie Patch Match game to give you a visual -



Grab Gloppy's Goodies - Have a big bowl of chocolate pudding or for less mess draw or tape on a picture of Gloppy onto a box. Cut out his mouth and hide either real treats or just pictures of treats. Cut a piece of paper into several squares and draw or glue on a picture of each goody. Give each child a card and have them take turns reaching in and trying to find the goody that matches thier card.

Lord Licorice Tic Tac Lotto - Make simple bingo cards by dividing up paper into 9 squares and drawing a different color licorice in each one (just a rectangle with some slanted wavy lines) in different order for each card. Draw out one of each colored licorice and cut it out or you can buy a bag of multicolored licorice (you can use the leftover for your goody bags). Put them in a sack and pull out one at a time. You can use licorice bits as markers. Play till everyone gets three in a row.

Feed Jolly - Draw Jolly on a box, cut out his mouth, and throw gumdrops in

Mr. Mint's Musical Mints - cut out big circles and decorate them to look like peppermints, set them out in a big circle and play like musical chairs. You could also number them and have numbers attatched to prizes (or your goody bags) and draw a number when the music is turned off.

Pin the Wand on Princess Frostine - Draw a big picture of her on a piece of posterboard leaving the top off of the wand. Draw the outline of a circle. Cut out blue circles and draw on snowflake detail with a white crayon.

Make Grandma Nutt - Cut out curly hair, eyes, nose, and mouth for Grandma Nutt. Pass out paper plates and a set of facial pieces to each child. Cut peanuts from paper and write the name of a facial feature on each one. Have them take turns picking a peanut. They get to add whichever facial feature they pick out.

Here are a few activities -

Decorate Gingerbread men, either paper or cookies

Sandy Candy is really fun -
http://www.ehow.com/how_4882519_make-own-sandy-candy.html

And coloring sheets can be found here - http://www.coloringuniverse.com/index.php?p=1_128&p2=1


To make this party complete how about these place settings -

Plates - Cut construction paper candy wrapper ends and attatch to either side of your plate (underneath the edge) to make candy plates

Cups - Light blue with Snowflakes glued on would make Princess Frostine Cups

Silverware - Add red stripes with a permanent marker onto white silverware for candy cane style

Napkin Rings - wrap your candy cane striped silverware in napkins and slip on a peppermint napkin ring made bye cutting out strips of paper, attatching into rings and glueing peppermints over the line where the two ends meet (real or paper)

Pick A Duck and Fishing Games

With the help of my two big boys I finished another Mario Party party game today. It is a Cheep Cheep (Mario fish)fishing game that made me want to post about two more classic games, Pick A Duck and The Fishing Game.

Pick A Duck -

You've all seen this one at the fair. It is a truly simple party game that is always a good bit of fun. Thanks to the many differen rubber duckies available you can really make it fit your theme. You can find a big selection at Oriental Trading Company.


Shown here are Halloween ducks for Halloween Pick A Duck

You can play Pick A Duck just like at the fair with lots of prizes to choose from and the ducks indicating which selection of prizes you may pick from or change it up a bit and have one prize per duck with each prize numbered to match the number on the bottom of each duck.

Another idea is to have a large amount of little candies or stickers and let each child pick two or three ducks and add up the "points" of each numbered duck to see how many they get.


Farm Animal ducks for a Barnyard party
awarded points to pick candy from the Candy Tree

A fun twist is to give each child a paper plate, gluestick, and cut out paper eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Write one of the parts of the face on each duck and have them take turns picking ducks until they complete their face. You could of course change this to more specifically fit your theme (for example parts of a monkey for a jungle theme).


The Fishing Game -

This one was always a favorite of mine when I was a child.

First make a fishing pole by tying a piece of string to a stick, wooden dowel or whatever pole-like object you can find and attatch either a clothespin or magnet to the end.

To set up your fishing spot you can either hang up a sheet, cut the back from a very large box, or you can even just fish over the couch (maybe with a blue blanket or sheet draped over it).

If you've made clothespin poles all you have to do is have each child "cast" the pole over and have a helper on the other side of your sheet, box, or couch attatch a small prize. To make it more "fishy" you can put your prizes in ziplocs or paper sacks with a paper fish glued or taped on.

For the magnetic poles you can make several paper fish with paper clips attatched. You'll want to be sure that your fishing spot is low enough for the pole to reach and catch the fish. Alternately you can set your fish out in the open. As with Pick A Duck you can number your fish to award prizes.


Our Mario Party game titled Fish Sticks was inspired by this mini game from Mario Party 5 as well as Pick a Duck and The Fishing Game -



We made 4 magnetic fishing poles and Cheep Cheep fish with magnets inside them. The fish have numbers on the back to indicate point value and there is one gold fish that says "You get an extra turn". Each team member will catch three fish (blindfolded) and then their points will be added up.

Here is the finished product (total cost=$0),
scroll down for a step by step guide

First I traced out circles on red construction paper and cut them out (2 per fish)

I then traced the red circle onto a white piece of paper and drew out the details

The features were cut out and the hair colored in with yellow marker
They were then traced and cut out in duplicate

The features were added onto the red circles assembly line style

Here is a finished Cheep Cheep

Magnetic buttons (leftover from a Valentine's party two years ago) were glued onto the backs

Numbered circles were attatched to the back stuck only to the magnet and the top
leaving the bottom unglued so the two circles can spread out and the fish can stand up

Fishing poles were made from plastic sticks leftover from Halloween yard decorations, ribbon cut from a leftover Easter windsock craft, bobbers made by tracing around a paint bottle and adding details with a red marker, and magnetic buttons.

Here is a finished fishing pole. I first bent the plastic stick, then made a hole towards the end using a thumb tack. I pushed the ribbon in and out the top with the thumbtack and then tied it in a double knot. On the other end I tied a double knot around one of the magnetic buttons and then glued a paper bobber to each side and glued the edges together.

Here is the official list of what was used and the cost of this game -

Red construction paper (already had) $0
White paper (already had) $0
Gold paint (already had) $0
Markers, glue, gluestick (already had) $0
Magnetic buttons (already had) $0
Plastic sticks (already had) $0

Total Cost = $0

A Hide and Seeking Game

If you are planning a Mario Party or other Super Mario themed party this game is made for you. If you're not then this game is made for you to change up to fit your theme.

It is called Rumble Fumble and is inspired by this Mario Party 5 mini game -



In our party game version we have several Shy Guys and a few Bob-bombs hidden under A LOT of plastic cups. Many of the cups will have nothing under them at all. The cups will be all spread out in one area.

One member of each team will run out and start lifting up cups until they find either a Shy Guy or Bob-bomb.

If they find a Shy Guy they take it, run back to their team, place the Shy Guy in their team's basket and tag the next member.

If they find a Bob-bomb they leave it there, yell "Bob-bomb", and go tag the next member.

This continues until all Shy Guys are found. Whichever team has the most Shy Guys in their basket wins the game.

If you aren't doing a Super Mario theme just hide something else. For an under the sea theme you could have mermaids as the "good guys" and crabs as the "bad guys". For a bug party how about butterflies and worms. I could see it being a really good pirate theme party with gold coins or treasure chests and skull and cross bones.

You could also change up the game and just hide one of the "good guys" or not put any "bad guys". My husband suggested hiding little candies under some of the cups to "distract them" :)

If you are having a Mario theme or just want more information on this game, here is a step by step guide on how we made our party game version of Rumble Fumble.

First I found a picture of Shy Guy online and printed several of them out onto one page. I printed them in fast mode and in black and white as to not use up much ink.



Then we colored them in with markers.



I cut them all out leaving a bit of a white border. I leave a border a lot for two reasons. One reason is that I like the way it looks. The main reason though is that it makes is SO much easier to cut, no worries about cutting just right along the lines.



Next I gluesticked them all down onto yellow construction paper. I emphasive gluesticked because unless you are very careful glue is not a good match for markers, thin printer paper, or construction paper, let alone all three.



For my Bob-bombs I just traced circles onto black construction paper and let my son add the details with a white crayon. I decided to make 7 of them because that is how many fit onto this scrap of black paper that I had.



After the Shy Guys (with yellow border) and Bob-bombs were cut out, we taped toothpicks to the back of them so that we will be able to stick them into the grass. Be sure to cut off the sharp points!



That's all! Now we just need to stick them into the ground and put the cups over them on party day.


Here is the list of what was used and the cost of this game -

Printed Shy Guys $0
Markers (already had) $0
Construction paper Bob-bombs $0
White crayon (already had) $0
Toothpicks (from the cupboard) $0
Plastic cups
(used,rinsed out, and sprayed with antibacterial spray for good measure) $0

Total Cost - Zero dollars and zero cents :) Remember, just use what you have!

Younger to Older

I was asked this question "Do you have any ideas for an indoor Elmo themed party for a 2 year old where there will also be 7 and 8 year olds coming?" today and thought it would be a great topic to cover here.

What do you do if your guests range from younger to older? Simple, just have two sets of rules. Are you hiding something? Hide some items in easier spots for the younger children and harder spots for the older children. Move back your throw from line for older children. Let the young ones go blindfold free. And remeber younger children can still have fun with some games even though they don't understand them.

Here are some examples using the Elmo theme. (Also notice a lot of these games are spinoffs from the Basic Games section)

Find Dorothy – Hide either construction paper goldfish or goldfish crackers. To make it work for both younger and older kiddos just do it like you would an Easter egg hunt. Hide some really easy for the little ones and harder for the older ones. You could also give the little ones a headstart. Or you could even divide it up into two games. Hide lots of fish for the little ones and make rhyming clues for the big kids to find a picture of Dorothy in her bowl or a bowl of Goldfish crackers.


Pin the Nose on Elmo – Draw a big picture of Elmo without his nose or just print out a picture and draw a dashed line over the nose. Cut out a bunch of orange ovals and put doublestick tape (or rolled over scotch tape) on the backs. You could either do two of them side by side (or maybe even one Elmo and one Cookie Monster or someone else) one for the big kids and one for the little or just let the little ones do the same one but without a blindfold.


Throw the Crayons in the box – Decorate a box to look like a crayon box. Either buy one of those crayon banks (I have seen medium sized ones at the dollar store) or decorate a crystal light type container to look like a crayon. Then they throw the crayon in the box. Just have the bigger kids stand further away.


Musical Blankies – cut wavy borders around pieces of construction paper and draw little decorations on them (you could even glue little tassles to the corners to make them look more like blankets) or if you can find some cheap fabric you could just use little rectangles of that. The younger children might not exactly know whats going on but they will still have fun. A good idea is to give them stickers or some small prize as they get out.


Or you could do more of a cakewalk type game. Number the blankies and each time you turn off the music draw a number. Whomever is on that number gets a prize. You could segway this into your cake time too and say that once everyone has a sticker it's time for cake.


Elmo Memory– Make pairs of cards (just cut construction paper into rectangles and draw little pictures on them). Divide them up so that the pairs are not together. Hand out half of them to the kiddos. Have the rest of the cards set out on a table. The matches for the little ones can be placed face up and the older kids matches placed face down.


Elmo Has Mail Charades – Decorate a box to look like a computer, tape or glue an envelope onto the screen. On slips of paper draw a little picture of an animal with the word next to it. For the little ones they can pick out a slip and just ask them what noise that animal makes. The older kids can read it to themselves and act it out without making noise.


Mr. Noodle Says – Play just like Simon Says. The little ones may not get it but if you have Mr. Noodle telling them to jump up and down and other silly things they will still think it is fun.

Cakes

Store/Bakery Bought –

If you don’t bake (or just don’t want to) a store or bakery bought cake is for you. A lot of grocery stores have a bakery department that makes cakes. Check with ones in your city to see what options they have available.

They will most likely have a book that you can look through but if you don’t see something you like don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you see a design you like but don’t like the border they will likely be willing to change it. Even bigger changes are sometimes able to be made. The woman at my local grocery store bakery always seems happy for the chance to do something a little different.

Also be sure you keep an open mind as you look through their books. You may not like the style of a cake but not the particular theme. It’s possible that you can just change it a bit to suit your needs.

This hamster themed cake for a pet store party was originally a Batman cake that I chose from a book. I added my own hamster made from fondant (more on that later) and some new plastic hamster tubes. A big plus is that when I got rid of the batmobile in the original design the price also went down.

Another store/bakery cake helper is the photo cake. You can use a photo of your child dressed up to match the theme or just wearing a themed shirt. You can also draw a picture of something from your theme and turn it into a photo at one of those photo printing machines that are popping up everywhere. Check first but my local store tells me that as long as you drew it yourself even copyrighted characters can be done.

Photo cake from a drawing turned into a photo - The theme? A Dachshund Christmas, you truly can make a theme out of anything

Another cake made with a drawing I had turned into a photo

Cut Out Cakes –

These cakes are much easier to make then you might think. Start out with a sheet cake and cut it into whatever shape you want. Don’t want to freehand it? No problem, just print out a coloring sheet, cut around the shape you want and you have a template. Place it on top of your cake, stick a couple toothpicks in it to hold it in place and cut around it. You can even cut out extra pieces to put on top to get a 3D effect. After you have your cake cut out frost it all one or two colors and add details with tinted frosting. If you don’t have a frosting bag you can just use a ziploc bag with a hole snipped out of one corner.

This Blue's Clues cake was made by using a coloring page template


Dome Cakes –

Using a domed cake pan (or some round casserole bowls will work) can create many cute cake designs.

The most popular of course is the Barbie cake. For this just make a hole in the middle of the cake to stick the doll into. The cake becomes the doll’s dress. You can leave the shape as is or shape it by cutting off a little at a time. Remember this is the “Barbie cake” but its not just for Barbie. Any kind of small doll will work. I have seen Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Mermaid all in Barbie size dolls. This cake would also work great for a general princess theme.

Here is a Barbie style cake using a Dora bath doll

Domes could also be a soccer ball, sun, baseball, bowling ball, bomb, smiley face, ant hill, just about anything rounded that you can think of.

You can bring more life to your dome cake by using two of them. Just cut off a chunk off the rounded part of one to become a flat bottom, put frosting on top of it (for “glue”) and place the other one on top. This is especially great for pumpkin and apple cakes.


Cup Cakes –

Cupcakes are becoming a popular birthday cake alternative. You can make or buy cup cake toppers in your theme and add them to homemade or storebought cupcakes, bake them into ice cream cones, add small fondant characters or candies to the top, or even arrange them all into one big shape.

To make your own cupcake toppers just glue or tape small pictures onto regular or colored toothpicks. You can also just use small toys or novelty items to stick on top.

To make a big shape of all the cupcakes together draw a big outline of the shape you want to make. This of course works best with shapes that you can easily identify by it’s outline. Arrange your cupcakes inside the outline and then frost the top as if it was one big shaped cake. There are also already shaped cupcake groupings available for purchase at some stores and bakeries.

There are also many different shaped cupcake cups available. A great trick if you happen to need heart shaped cupcakes is to stick marbles between the pan and liner.


Fondant –

There are of course fondant covered cakes but that is perhaps for another blog. What I want to tell you about fondant is that it is very much like clay. If you can mold something out of clay, you can mold something out of fondant. You can make your own fondant or buy it already made (check the craft department of your local Walmart or craft store). You can sometimes buy different colors of fondant but I find it more cost effective to just dye my own. I use paste food coloring. Pull off a piece of fondant for whatever size you think you may need of a certain color (it’s always better to have too much then not enough), poke a small pit into it, add the coloring and knead it until it is all a solid color. Don’t forget to wear gloves!

Once you have the colors you need just mold whatever you want the same way that you would with clay. You will want to keep your finished product covered so that it doesn’t dry out. Keep in mind that fondant can be a bit heavy so don’t place on top of your cake too early.

Spongebob characters made from fondant with a gummy Krabby Patty
Here is a fondant pig sitting in a mud cake