movie night party

i hosted a movie night for some of my friends and i. we had a great night laughing, eating, and watching a movie :). i cut cardboard popcorn containers for the invites (above)..they worked perfectly!

i found a lot of movie night/hollywood decor at a few party stores. i hung a doorway star hanger in back of the refreshment table instead of in a doorway...it worked great. i also hung a plastic movie reel streamer from the ceiling.

i purchased a bunch of plastic popcorn containers that everyone filled with, of course, popcorn :). i found a cardboard centerpiece that worked perfectly as a popcorn bowl :).
i also made popcorn themed cupcakes. you know me, i LOVE cupcakes!
i had movie 'star' stickers that i put on every one's backs. each 'star' was a different actor. everyone had to guess who they were by asking yes or no questions. it was a lot of fun and was a great activity to get everyone talking and havin' fun :).

here's a closer look at the hollywood plates, ticket/hollywood napkins, and movie confetti (all found at the party store).

i made the cupcake liners/containers out of paper popcorn bags (i cut and folded them to size) & a popcorn logo that i cut from cardboard popcorn containers (which i attached to the front). the 'popcorn' is actually marshmallows cut with kitchen sheers (i made little x marks on each mallow) sprayed with yellow food coloring spray (you can get the spray at almost any grocery store now). they turned out so cute!

i also found a cute movie banner that i set out on the bar along with the drinks (i found some movie theater paper cups). i sprinkled some more confetti all over the counter and put a few ceramic popcorn bowls out to bring it all together :).

like i said..it was a great night!

pirate party

i had a few pirate parties this year. i hosted a murder mystery dinner to begin with..and kept the decorations up to have another party the next day :). the invitations are above. i put a little bit of sand in some plastic bottles and stuck an eye patch and a pirate ring inside along with the invite and label. they turned out great!...

here's the table setting for the murder mystery dinner. each person invited had a character that they would act out through dinner/the game. planning the decor for this table was my favorite part. i covered the table with a skull tablecloth & gold & silver gum coins along with some skeleton beads. at each setting i placed a treasure map place mat, a skull & cross bone paper plate, a skeleton goblet, a pirate bandana for a napkin, and a place card holder made out of wooden pirate shapes that i found at the craft store (i glued them together). the table also had candles and a big oil lamp that i lit during dinner. oh & i also found some small glass dishes that i filled with plastic skull heads :)...

i made a large cardboard skull stencil & used it to spray paint skull heads onto black and white flat sheets. i then hung them from the ceiling along with some rope to make them look like ship sails..

i bought a styrofoam treasure chest and filled it with bead necklaces, pirate hats, rings, and gold & silver coins. i also bought a plastic skeleton to guard the chest. i found some light up skulls (this was all around halloween of course) and put them on the table too...

we had pirates of the caribbean playing during the party..definitely set the mood...
i found a roll of plastic ship scene decor that looked great! i also found some skull garlands that i hung from the bar & table...

i had a fog machine going off and on during the night...

i bought these huge pillars and a skull for everyone to take their picture in front of (found it at a high school dance decor web site). it looked great. i also hung fish net all over my house (really inexpensive,and fun to throw around!)...

along with the fish nets i hung pirate banners and pirate lanterns all over. i also found some hanging parrots (ot) & pirate dressed skeleton's that i hung from the ceiling and nets...
here's a look at the white sail i had hanging in the kitchen (along with decked out jon & jess!)...
i don't drink alcohol (along with most of my family and friends) so i had a 'mock' arita bar! i got tons of different fruit juices, pop, syrups, etc. and had them all out for every one's enjoyment. i also made little menu's in my photoshop program that had recipe's and ideas for everyone :)...


i bought this photo op from ot...i love these things..so fun...

i had a bunch of bandanna's, cardboard pirate hats, & tattoo sleeves at the door so people could put them on as they came in if they wanted...

some of the decor from a distance...

i got brain and hand jello molds. the jello turned out great!...
at one of the parties we had cheese and crackers. i found these cute skeleton pics that i put in the cheese. i also made mini caramel apples that you can see in the top right corner (they're also featured on my cupcake blog)...

everyone that came got really dressed up. we all had a blast. i had a costume contest for most creative, best costume etc etc...and also had groups of 2 or more people get up and act out a pirate skit (that they had to come up with in about 5 minutes time) to win a prize. i had a pirate game, an applebee's gift card, and some pirate loot for the winners...

i lit tikki torches out front to set the mood...

kid pirate party...

like i said...i had a few pirate parities that week :). i wanted to take full advantage of all the decor and fun! this is a pirate ring toss game that i found at the party store.
the pic below is of some of my girlfriends with their kids all sportin' their pirate hats, bandanna's, & eye patches..
for this party i had a pirate veggie tales movie going the whole time :)...
cute gabrie eating a cuppie...i also had plastic pirate daggers that i gave each child along with a bandana, eye patch, pirate skull sucker, and a pirate ring...

cute damon & his mommy...

i had a treasure map game for the kids to play..they had to find all the missing treasure pieces that were scattered all across the lawn...

all the kids decorated cupcakes...

and here's the cupcakes i made for the party...

happy hunter showing off his pirate cupcake ( i found the pirate gummy candies at the store, they worked great)...

and there ya have it :).

car birthday party

start your engines! this was my son's 2nd birthday. we all had a blast.
here's a pic of the invite. i made them out of colored card stock. they were stop lights if you can't tell. each color opened to a road sign with the party details. the red light opened to an interstate sign (clip art that i found online)..i wrote, "kaden's turning 2 years old, and is happy as can be because he's having a ...vroom...CAR PARTY and he wants you there you see!".
the yellow light opened to a stop sign and said, "take a detour on saturday, june 28th and stop @ details details. yield for family & friends!".
the green light opened to a yellow railroad crossing sign and said, "rsvp to..details details. get ready to have a racin' fun time!"...my son actually has a car bedroom...so i took a bunch of stuff from his room to decorate for the party. like this stoplight that we hung in front of the house to show where the party was at :)...
this is the birthday boy in his racing suit (his little bro had one too) on his new little atv...we had hot dogs, chips, and salad etc. i found these fold out cardboard cars and cut a hole in the top of them to put the ketchup, mustard, & relish in. they turned out really cute...i decorated all the tables to look like roads (black table cloth with pieces of white paper taped on). i also got about 100 ft of racing flags that i strung up all over the back yard...here's the b-day boy and his cousin eating their road sign suckers...
my friend julie borrowed all my car stuff a few months later to have a car party for her little boy too. she came up with the great idea to use a streamer up the table (again, to make it look like a road). she also used cars and my son's street light lamp to add that special touch... i placed road sign's all over the back yard (i bought the road signs on ebay) & bought blow up car's that i hung from all the tree's...i had a car race for one of the activities. i got boxes and spray painted them blue and silver. i then downloaded racing car logo's off the inet and stuck 'em all over the boxes along with paper numbers and paper circles. i cut out the bottom of the boxes and small handles near the top so the kids could actually get inside of the cars :)...

i found some plastic 4 ft tall road signs at toys r us that i put up as well... i set up plastic cones that they had to run through...i decided to make cupcakes instead of a cake. i made the frosting really runny so it would look like tar, used orange licorice as road stripes, got marshmallow cars and road sign suckers for the toppers, and found some traffic cone candles :)...

i also got a rubber car track (ot) and made 'gum cars' out of gum, minni candybars, and mini reeses peanut butter cups...sparklers added a fun zing to the party... he opened presents on a car sign blanket that i also found on ebay, it's now on his bed :)...we had fun with little racing cars that were powered by balloons. us mom's blew them up again & again for the little ones :). everyone loved them...this is my friend julie's cake. i loved her idea of using black licorice to make the cake look like tires! she set the cake on top of my son's tire toy bin. so cute julie!!...i hung up car patio lights around the back door... here's another pic of some of the signs in the back yard...i threw road sign pillows out for the kids to play with too. it was a gReAt party. we all had a blast...especially the birthday boy!~and here's the thank you card's we sent out after the party...