I had just joined Pinterest and it turned out that this is the perfect medium for sourcing ideas and inspiration for things like kids' parties. There are just so many fantastic ideas that people have had. I pinned a heap of party images that I liked and then also followed the links back to those people's blogs etc to see how they made things and get even more great ideas. The problem was, the more I saw, the more I liked and my decision making got even harder.!
The first thing to decide on was the invitation. I had a few cool ideas in mind, based on what I'd seen, but in the end, my husband made the decision on the concept, selecting which one he liked best. I spent ages on dafont.com trying to match fonts to those in the examples I'd seen, and on Word, creating the basic invitation template.
Here's what I came up with:
Following various suggestions from blogs, I created this invitation using the following fonts:
Heading: Bleeding Cowboys
Main text: Infiltrace
Number: Pirates Writers
I then got various free images from web searches and added a skull & crossbones and a compass. To do the staining, we did a strong tea bath in a shallow oven tray. For the darker patches, we smudged coffee granules and then washed them off. The edging was created by rubbing the wet paper lightly with fingers. The paper was then placed on a non-stick tray in the oven for about a minute until dry.
The next stage was creating the theme. I found all sorts of ideas I wanted to recreate. I really wanted to do a complete look for the table. I found some stripy fabric from Spotlight and then overlaid with a red plastic disposable tablecloth. I bought gold chocolate coins in bulk from TradeMe (a bargain!). We made paper bunting from a free downloadable pattern I found on Pinterest and threaded them on string on the curtain rail and in front of the table. I also found some great pirate treasure chest goodie boxes on TradeMe for the party food which perfectly suited the look I was going for. I added some othere details like mini Jolly Roger flags on the mini cupcakes and wrapping mini juice boxes with brown paper and string for a castaway look!
Instead of goodie bags at the end of the party, I decided that the kids could have some fun things to add to their costumes. I bought three types of cheap pirate fabric from Spotlight and used an existing bandana I had to measure a size to cut out squares to make pirate bandanas. I also bought felt and stuffing from Spotlight and some iceblock sticks from the $2 shop and cut the felt into moustache chapes which I then stuff and sewed (with a machine) onto the iceblocks sticks to make moustaches on sticks that the kids could hold up and have fun with. I also found some great plastic eye patches and cardboard pirate hats on TradeMe for really good prices. We set up a table by the door, so as the kids came in, they could help themselves to each of the goodies - with a sign telling them what to do:
And then it was time for the cake! I spent ages looking over cool cakes online and then found one I loved that I thought I could make a passable job of. It took forever but I was really pleased with the result. The treasure map detail was all hand painted and the sails were made out of the same tea-dyed paper as the invitation, with the number 4 pre-printed on the computer. Edible gold paint was fantastic for the coins and straps on the treasure chest too.
And, because that wasn't quite enough, I decided I really wanted to make these really cool Planet Cake cupcakes! I did 24, which took forever, but it meant each kid could have one in their goodie box and there was enough for the table too. I made them in really cool black and white striped patty cases to go with the pirate theme.
We had heaps of kids come - it was crazy - but a lot of fun. All the costumes were amazing and Billy Blackboots, the pirate entertainer with his awesome ship, the Black Rose kept the kids entertained and enthralled for over an hour. All the kids (and the parents!) had a great time. I had such a lot of fun researching and creating all the individual elements for this party and I was really pleased with how it turned out - definitely worth the effort.
