Category Archives: Birthday boy

Jurassic World Party

20th August 2021


Listen, when I’m President, I promise to launch a team to investigate the price of fake palm leaves. They look good though so all’s well that looks well.

I made the banner in on the window with footprint cut-outs from Hobby Lobby. I punched holes in them and strung them on twine and it did a body good.

My very first idea for this party was this centerpiece! I saw large dino claws at Big Lots and found them on Amazon cheaper. Those can be purchased here. I was envisioning a dinosaur coming out of the table. I layered palm leaves around the claws and used my son’s Halloween costume mask from 2 years ago in the center. I used a glass bowl and purchased a small mist maker here to make him light up and smoke. I hope this makes your dreams come true like it did mine.


Look at the smoke and the detail in the claws! Is this Disney, because it’s feeling awfully magical in here.

I found this Pteranodon blow up on Amazon when looking for dinosaurs I could hang from the ceiling. I think it is technically for pools, but he has a hole in his head for hanging so one can’t be too sure. You can find him here.

I found this big ole’ fish net and the garland of leaves in the party section at Hobby Lobby. It got the job done and covered a lot of space for just two pieces. I also promise to investigate the cost of decorative fish nets as your president.

The best ever party hack is to buy a pre-made cake and decorate it with candy and crap you already have at home. I literally took a 16 dollars Sam’s Club and start to finish did this cake in under 10 minutes. Now that’s a win.

Breaking news, these are NOT real rocks! These are chocolate boulders that I bought from Candy Craze at our mall. Ere’body thought I put actual rocks on the cake. No, son.

The Dollar Tree has bags of dragon egg gumballs and since no dragon experts were coming to my son’s party, I used them as dino eggs and stuck a T-Rex head out of the middle of the bowl for good measure.

Okay, actually the dino head in the gumballs was actually the lid to the tube that these little dinosaurs came in from Target. Everybody got dino eggs, a mini dino, and a slime volcano with dinosaur as seen below.

I found these gel/slime dino volcanoes in the summer section at Kroger for two dollars each. It was like the party gods shined down and said, “Here girl, take these.”

You know I love to cut edges into my plastic party tablecloths. I made this one really jagged in the spirit of Jurrasic World.

I had 100 water balloons, dinosaurs set up for water gun shooting, and an 18 foot water like thingy all set up. It was sunny alll day, until the party. We got to have fun for 12 minutes though so take that thunder time.

I hope you like this simple Jurrasic World shabang. Pin, share, enjoy! Follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for a good ole’ time.

Among Us Birthday Party

27th April 2021

Can I hear it for my daughter’s Target “dollar section” light up board?! I love it when you can use crap from your kid’s room at a party! It looked cute lit up at the party, but you can never see that in pics. Dang.

If you don’t know anything about the game Among Us, it’s sort of like clue but with astronaut guys in outer space. They say people are “sus” for suspicious so I had to use sus in the party because everyone needs a reason to say that.

The little acrylic guy on top was actually a remote controlled light with tons of settings. I used the color strobe setting so the lights were always flashing a different color. I have a clip of it working on my her party pants Instagram, but not on here because technology hates me. You can buy these lights on Amazon for 15 dollars. Click here to shop them.

I bought the cupcake toppers here on Etsy as a printable file for just $2.90! I printed them for under two dollars from Staples using their on-line print ordering services. I picked them up same day and cut them out at home and hot glued them to toothpicks. I don’t know how many times I have said this but, hot glue is the craft medium of the craft gods. I can make anything with felt and hot glue! Bet it!

Hobby Lobby astronaut vibe plates for the party win! I scattered some Crayola star confetti on the tables that I found in the clearance aisle of Meijer. Po’ pimpin’ dem budgets.

I mean, this is what I mean by my site being “realistic Pinterest”. It’s cute, but it’s not over the top. It says, “I like parties”, but also, “I didn’t hire a balloon artist and do a 100 dollar table-scape because this is real life and a two hour party and I don’t own a Fortune 500 company”.

You can buy all of these balloons as a set on Amazon here. Mylar balloons are great and you can deflate and reinflate them to use again! I have Party City fill up the Among Us character balloons and I added a 3 dollar balloon tail that I purchased from there also. Imma save dat tail, too. I have a whole big ole’ collection of things I keep from other parties that I love reusing later.

So, we are renovating our house, and the room pictured here was supposed to be done by the party. Good thing it wasn’t because it rained all day and we needed a safe zone to make these reverse tye-die shirt aka bleaching method. What can go wrong indoors with 10 kids with straight bleach in spray bottles with little ventilation? That’s right. Nothing.

I got some cheap packs of craft stars in different sizes to go with the whole galactic theme since Among Us is set in outer space. It was a cheap and age appropriate thing to do with pre-teens so yay us.

I stretched out dollar store plastic table cloths and labeled each child’s name on a strip of tape next to each shirt. They laid out their shirt design and got to spraying. It’s such a simple activity and I think they turned out really cool!

BEFORE

AFTER

To end the party, they all played Among Us in real life. My husband secretly picked two impostors and they roamed about the house figuring out who had “died” and who must’ve been the impostor “Among Us”.

This now concludes the two part series of “parties right after a move that are not as crazy as some parties I’ve done before”. I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay here at Her Party Pants today. Travel safely.

Candy Theme Party

25th April 2021

Everything you see in this party, except for the cake (which was dirt cheap) and the candy, was either free from a dumpster (true, read on), or 5 dollars or less. Most things seen in this post were three dollars or less. Come join me on a cavity fun filled adventure!

I talk about some of these individual decor pieces down below, but let me just talk about the rainbow swirl candies here. I bought a 3 dollar pack of dessert party plates from Target and wrapped them in cellophane to make 8 different rainbow striped treats that I used in different ways for this party. Some were taped to the wall….that’s right….taped….just directly on the wall because I hear packing tape is good for paint. The remaining ones I turned into a garland. Wee doggies.

There are the plates I made into a garland. I cut circles out of card-stock from an old garland to add between each plate. Put it on a ribbon and ya done!

TIP: Buy a solid color store bought cake and decorate it at home. This cake was a big size and only 15 dollars from Sam’s. I decorated this one with a sprinkle number topper from Hobby Lobby, candles from Five Below, and candy from the Dollar Tree! It was a twelve inch cake and all in cost me 22 bucks! This is an example of being a winner.

PSA: You can always hot glue anything. This includes large swirly suckers that you drop and break.

Might as well turn the homeschool chalkboard into something.

I know, I know, the balloon backdrop looks so small here. In reality, it was fine, Karen. Moving on, I hand cut a dollar store tablecloth into drips, which coordinated with her invitations that I bought on here on Etsy. If you’ve been around here a few years, you may remember the first time I came up with drip cloths for my third daughter’s chocolate themed birthday party. They are satisfying

I bought plain white paper boxes from Hobby Lobby and decorated them with large patterned letters in each child’s first initial. My daughter decorated each box with puffy sweets stickers.

Buckle up kitty cats because those swirly little fans are straight from a dumpster at Five Below. Yes sir! My mom dumpster dives in retail dumpsters and you wouldn’t believe what they throw out. She found these fans and other party supplies and I’ve kept them in a tote knowing I’d use them one day. Two hours before the party, I thought they would look like suckers on spray painted dowels, so that’s exactly what I did! I added ribbon and that, my friends, is how you turn dumpster finds into basically free party supplies!

The bigger suckers and the wrapped candies in the picture below is just one dollar pool noodles wrapped in athletic tape and sealed with cellophane. For the big suckers, I hot glued them on craft dowels I painted and for the individual candies, I just wrapped the rolled up noodle, and twisted up the ends of the cellophane and tied them tight to make them look like over-sized candies. The handing honeycomb ice creams were one dollar from the Dollar Tree for a two pack. Pimpin’. I hung them and opened them halfway and secured them to the balloon wall for a dimensional look.

They filled them nicely, bro.

So boat loads of candy can get expensive. We found the world’s cutest marshmallows from Walmart for 2 dollars a bag. They were just vanilla flavored marshmallows in cupcake shape with sprinkled sugar on them. They were so cute, cheap, and took up a bunch of space. I also used brownie bites from Sam’s Club that were manna from heaven! I’m not supposed to eat gluten, but I partookth.

Aw yeah, donkey butt, that is one of those cute glass jar gumball containers from the Target cheap zone that sold out super fast. I know a sell out when I see them so I bought one and I sprayed painted the red on the jar yellow to match the table. I bought many of these plastic display containers from Hobby Lobby and they were cracked so instead of 6-7 dollars, I got them for $1.50! When filled with candy, you couldn’t even tell and imma keep usin’ those bad boys until they fall apart or the good Lord comes back, one.

You are darn tootin’ that I used mini boxes of cereal! The mini box backs are cheap and cereal is truly the ultimate of trash foods. Everybody loves cereal AND they take up lots of space!

For the sucker display, Styrofoam can puzzlingly enough, be costly so I bought two circle discs of Styrofoam from the Dollar Tree, stacked them in this container, and stuck carnival suckers in them. It gave some variance to the look of the display and was cheaper than….something witty….cheaper than……I don’t know, Sarah.

Another big table filler: Cotton candy containers from Sam’s! It was really cheap, really. It’s way cheaper than buying smaller candies, like Skittles, that don’t take up much space.

I love coming up with neat ways to give a gift card and I made this large clear candy ball with an ornament and twisted and glued cellophane hot glued to each end. I got confetti from the Dollar Tree and cut it up to use as a filler. I mean, I love these like chocolate cake after midnight in my pajamas.This gift card was the prize for the ice card scratch off games. I found the scratch offs in the “dollar” aisle at Target a few years ago and bought a few packs to use at different parties. The ice creams went perfect with the theme. Here are the scratch-offs below. I love adding a gambling flair to elementary school parties. It just feels so right.

And the winner was…..Mrs. Emie!

I did this whole party for 12 kids for 100 bucks! That includes EVERYTHING! It was simple and fun. 5 stars. Highly recommend.

Pin, share, enjoy! Follow me on my social media accounts, but just like my bio says, just not in real life.

Godzilla Birthday Party

22nd August 2020

This city-scape spanned 6 feet wide and about 4 ish feet tall. When I finished just the city on the wall, I asked my husband, “What do you think about my night city sky line?”. He said, “Oh, I just now realized what that was!” He almost caught a punch to the jugular.

I made the city using yellow construction paper and two rolls of 2 by 12 bulletin board paper. The whole wall only cost me 7 dollars so it was a big impact for little bucks!

The white city buildings on the table were just spray painted food boxes with black construction paper windows. I was SUPPOSED to have dry ice under each building with holes cut out to release the smoke, but sometimes, we run out of time and let our party dreams shatter.

I found these super hero napkins at the Dollar Tree and they worked well with my black and white with pops of color, color scheme. Plus, I figured Godzilla “pows” and stuff too so, why not?

Naturally, the black cobwebs I used for a buffet cover got messed up and I didn’t realize it when I was taking pictures. It’s like these kids don’t care about a nice set-up or something……

Nothing like a party that you can use your child’s toys as decor for! I hot glued blue raspberry rock candy inside of Godzilla’s mouth to make it look like he was shooting out his atomic breath like he does in the movies. I haven’t seen the movies, but my little boy keeps me up to date on the Godzilla information.

I ordered these old Godzilla movie wrappers from PartyTimeLabels on Etsy and they shipped with the foils too! Hershey bars are my son’s favorite so we dressed up a dozen bars to go with his theme and personalized the backs.

We told the kids that Godzilla sprayed the cupcakes with his fire breath and lit them on fire. I don’t know if they believed us, but if not, they really missed out on a great opportunity to use their imaginations. Kids these days…

Poster board plus scissors = Godzilla prints on our floor.

I took an up close picture of my son doing his best Godzilla roar and blew it up at Walgreens. I cut around his profile and hot glued it to a piece of Dollar Tree poster board. The city is construction paper and black dollar poster board. Super easy! I hot glued my son’s picture to a shoe box that I put between the skyline to give it dimension. The atomic breath he is spraying out of his mouth is a plastic tablecloth that I duct taped to death.

This set up was also supposed to have dry ice behind it, giving it that extra umph. Let’s just pretend you see a bunch of “smoke” billowing out in this picture.

I call this Godzilla City! I was supposed to have a cool banner hanging above the box city that said that, but again, time…. We can’t have it all, folks.

Knowing I wanted to do this, I saved boxes for the past month and then I wrapped them with reverse side of wrapping paper that I had laying around. I used a Sharpie to draw on windows which was actually easy because the white side of the paper had grid lines! I added some toys all around it and the boys had their own little city. I’m actually going to save it for a little bit because the kids liked it so much!

For some end of party fun, I took Godzilla City outdoors and let them each take turns “Godzilla-ing” the thing down. It was some boy fun, let me tell you!

Here I am with my little man and he is wearing a shirt from Etsy at LittleMamaShirtShop and the Godzilla on the front was drawn by a little boy!

And no, I didn’t brush my hair from when I woke up, lol. I feel like you knowing that brings us closer together. Friends forever….

Hope you liked the party! Pin, share, enjoy and follow along all of the unique parties I create that you can realistically and affordably recreate yourself! Peace out, players.

Digger Construction Party

18th August 2019

This party was really soooooo cheap. Most of the decor was from toys he already had and his outfit is made up of a dollar hat embellished with a 2 dollar sticker hat. The vest he is wearing is from public school and is the safety vest they make the kindergartners wear, haha. You can recreate this party so very easily. Links and sources are in this blog!

Dollar store plates, street runner from Hobby Lobby (or Amazon), and a grass tablecloth that I bought from Party City that I reused from Crosby’s Lochness Monster themed 1st birthday!

If the wrinkle in this runner hurts your feelings, it does mine too. Let us all try to look passed it and focus on the picture at hand.

This is a pre-made plain cake from Kroger’s bakery that I took home and decorated. The cake cost 13 dollars and fed 15 people and the only things I bought to make this was the “3” candle and a box of 2 dollar chocolate rocks. The rest of the decor is just from my son’s toy box and a few left over candles from another party.

The caution tape came from Hobby Lobby, however, you can buy real caution tape from Amazon in big rolls for 6 to 8 dollars if you want the real deal or if you need a lot it!

I don’t want to make you lose sleep at night with joy, but the crane moves up and down and all around.

What is a construction/digger party without a truck dumping out a party detail? The answer is: not a party.

Stop it with the crane. I bought a paper mache three for a few bucks at Hobby Lobby and used white duct tape and black paint I had at home to make it look like a road. I suspended it with fishing line that was looped and hot glued to the top.

Yes, these are spoons and yes, they are shovels. Shovel spoons. I bought them here on Amazon. I also used these in my party favors that you will see in a little scrolly scroll.

By a massive landslide, the most expensive part of this party was Dippin’ Dots for 9 people. It cost just shy of 30 dollars. My son loves them though so it was my one splurge and if the most you spent on one thing was 30 bucks, you are doing good, Bessie.

Plus, I’m sure Dippin’ Dots really needed the money since they are probably bankrupt from selling millions of package a year of ice cream priced like gold. This picture makes it all worth it.

Do you know how much dirt by the bag is? 11 dollars. Do you know how much dirt costs from a construction site? Zero dollars. We put out some of his toys and some orange caution cones that were two for a dollar and here we have some theme appropriate, dirt cheap fun. Pun intended? I’ll never tell.

I know everyone would think that these 3 2 foot by 2 foot photographs were so expensive, but I got all 3 for 11 dollars after tax! I also just used my iphone to take the pictures so it was so easy. They are my favorite unique detail because you never see this and it is so unexpected!

What’s the trick? Print photos on to engineering paper aka blueprint paper at Staples. The paper quality makes it so cheap! These were originally going to be black and white, but they printed color and I’m so glad they did. They only charged me for black and white so the color version of these 3 huge prints would’ve been more around 10 dollars a piece. Still, in the scheme of parties, what’s ten bucks?

Oh my, these are my favorite party favors I’ve EVER made! They are so, so cheap to do and so versatile. I had the idea from Crosby’s favorite toy which is a mini-sandbox. I thought, “Why can’t I just make individual take home mini-sandboxes myself?”. I am doing a post for my favors category on these with a price breakdown. They are so cheap!!!!

I wrapped each sandbox aka disposable cake pan with duck tape and added a sticker from a pack from Hobby Lobby. You can’t beat a fun, non junk, imaginative play, cheap, theme based favor, if you ask me. This is a favor a kid will actually use and really enjoy! Now the moms….they will have to get over the sand….or let them play outside, homies.

Thanks for looking! Pin, share, enjoy and follow me on Pinterest and my social media accounts! Questions? Just comment or send me a message to herpartypants.com on Facebook.

Series of Unfortunate Events Party

28th April 2019

I always appreciate when my kids want an uncommon theme naturally so I don’t have to force any creativity upon them, lol. It may be an obscure theme and if you haven’t watched the show or read the books, you may not know what everything is or why I did what I did so thank heavens above, you can read my comments on the pictures! I tend to do parties that you can’t buy any party supplies for so I have to really flex the creative muscles, which I love! I hope you enjoy this very unfortunate party.

One of THE BEST resources for your party’s customized goods is Zazzle! I make custom stickers and shirts, like this one, alllll of the time for parties. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are three of the main characters and my girl’s favorite. I saw a shirt similar to this on-line for around 28 dollars. Nope, pass. I used the Word Swag app to make the wording on a transparent background and then uploaded the image to a custom shirt on Zazzle. I made this shirt for 15 bucks, shipped and all.

Ahhhh, cake sniffer. It’s weird and I love it. It’s a name that a little rich spunky character calls the Baudelaire kid’s in one of the episodes and one many lovers of the show remember! I bought a blank garland and stickers from Hobby Lobby to make this banner.

I decorated the kitchen table with the books and these little toadstool mushrooms. I learned this year that these mushrooms that are in all of the cute fairy tales are actually very poisonous! In Series of Unfortunate Events, there is a deadly mushroom called Medusoid Mycelium. These red poisonous mushroom represent the toxic make-believe mushroom from the show!

While we are on it, I bought stamps and made my own napkins because, if they don’t sell it or you can’t find it, you have to DIY! I bought a round larger frame stamp and then the seperate toadstool stamp. Make sure to buy the good stamping ink: waterproof, smear resistant! I used this one. You don’t want a bunch of people wiping ink on to their mouths and hands! I use the right ink and I’ve never had a problem.

This set up it missing 4 amazing little white ceramic houses from Target’s one spot with orange and red paper flames coming out of the windows and chimneys. It’s from the show and ties in many ways, and it went awesome with the set up and color scheme, but, it ain’t in these pics, y’all.

I LOVED this part of the party and couldn’t wait for my daughter to see it! The theme song shows a board just like this where they link the characters to count Olaf with yarn as the show plays. I printed pictures of each of our party guests and the birthday girl and made a clue board just like the opener. I just used a foam board wrapped in newspaper that I taped down and the rest is obvious!

Lachrymose Leeches! There are two people that die in the series because of the Lachrymose Leeches so I made these gummies one of their movie snacks. To make these food labels, I googled the leeches from the show on an image search and found this picture. I took this picture and uploaded it into Zazzle and made custom stickers. HOWEVER, I didn’t get them on time so I took a screenshot of the stickers I made and printed them out like 4 by 6 photos and then hand-cut them out and taped them to toothpicks. The show must go on.

I printed a Lemony Snicket quote from an image search and put it in this cute Ikea frame. It was perfect all around, homies.

The whole series of Series of Unfortunate Events centers around the Baudelaire orphans and Count Olaf trying to “adopt” the children to gain access to their fortune. I made these little labels the same way I made the leech labels and hot glued them on. I bought plain white dessert cups from Hobby Lobby like these here and filled them chocolate coins, a million dollar chocolate bar and a ring pop. This, and the leeches, were their movie snacks and, of course, we watched the show as well!

Okay, so these are happy little sunshine cookies with bows….and fangs. There is a character named Sunny and she is a little baby girl with some sharp old teeth. Get it…sunshine…Sunny…..

I don’t know why I didn’t order an actual baby face with fangs, but these were super cute and delish! Mackin’ Made nailed the picture I sent her exactly and just added in a nice set of fangs on each one.

“Look Away” is the title of the theme song and I don’t want to throw anyone for any loops, but I also made theses custom stickers myself on Zazzle with the help of the Word Swag app. You are welcome for that awesome hack!

Zazzle + Word Swag= Party Dreams

Admittedly, this cute turned out, how you say, super ugly. I drew a diagram and color coded it. I use to make cakes and I draw fairly well so it was specific. Usually I love this bakery, but they are in the middle of the move and well, this cake. Let me explain it though. The aforementioned Medusoid Mycelium is a deadly mushroom that has a few cures in the book and one of these cures is the sugar bowl. The cake IS designed to look just like the sugar bowl and the top of the cake is the spy glass symbol for the VFD. I’ve been pretty committed to explaining most things in the post but it’s getting late so you will just have to google VFD if the suspense is killing you.

The top of the cake reads “Happy Unfortunate Birthday” which is similar to the wording on her invites.

This is not a fancy OR complete table for that matter, however, I wanted to show the black viper snake silhouette I made on the kitchen island. The viper is significant in several episodes so I pictured this for a table and simply cut it out of a black poster board.

Hope you like this unfortunate party for 13 rowdy 8 and 9 year olds!

Pin, Share and Enjoy!

Blippi Birthday Party

16th August 2018

If you don’t know who Blippi is, he is a YouTuber who makes fun educational videos for kiddos.  They don’t have Blippi party supplies yet so if you do a Blippi party, everything basically stems from his outfit, color scheme of his outfit, and some details from the show that your child loves…in our case….diggers and construction vehicles! And…I was supposed to only do cupcakes and family so…nailed it?

I turned the kid’s table into Blippi’s costume with streamer suspenders and a giant felt bow tie and felt buttons.  Why?  Because felt is a gift from the crafting gods.

I WISH you could have seen the floating glasses in person because I just couldn’t capture it well in pictures.  Boooooo.  I used fishing line to hang cheap plastic glasses in and around the balloons and they just looked like they were floating!  I used an old bag of cheap plastic sunglasses from Amazon, busted out the lenses, broke off the arms, and spray painted them orange!  I was probably my favorite thing.  Maybe.

Mighty Dollar came correct with napkins and plates in construction theme!  Blippi has songs about all sorts of construction vehicles and it makes Crosby’s heart beat to the sound of dirt, rock and engines.  Cheap and perfect for this party….this party that I swore would only be cupcakes and nothing else.

Blippi wears an orange bow tie, therefore, so did all of our forks with orange napkins tied with ribbon.

Now these cars, trucks, etc.  were the best thing to ever sit on a cupcake to these kids.  They are actually small pullback toys and not cupcake toppers so they got to each take home a few of these small toys.  I got the whole pack of these pullbacks on Amazon for under 10 dollars.  HOLLLERRRRRR! And it still went with the theme soooooo, I’m excited. You could use these cars and construction vehicles for a ton of different parties too, from Easter egg hunts at Easter shindigs, pinatas, or loads of little boy (or girl) party themes.

Okay so truthfully, maybe this is my favorite thing and the floating glasses second.  Since there are no such thing as Blippi cake toppers, I screenshotted images of him on Bing and sent them to Walgreens from my good ole celluar device.  I printed 4 of each image and cut them out, turning them into cupcake toppers.  The huge dancing Blippi is funny to make and I loved having a huge topper because usually, they are tiny old things.

I made his party hat with leftovers of things I had: leftover hat, extra felt from making the table decor, and a small strip of streamer.  I mean……

50 cent suckers from Walmart in Blippi colors.  All. Day. Long.

“So much to learn about, it’ll make you want to shout….BLIPPI!”

Pin, share, enjoy!  Thanks, yall!

Lochness Monster Party: Her Party Pants Original

14th August 2017

 

I geeked out big time on this party with word play and details that doubled for my son’s birthday and the existence of Nessie.  Rarely do I geek out…this was full on geek.  I prefer ganster rap, but every blue moon, I get nerdy….

I loved doing this party, aka the first one I’ve ever done for a son!  I did a little party for my friend’s son (Food Fight Party), but other than that, this is the only other boy shindig I’ve ever done.

I for real believe in the Lochness Monster, but don’t let that run you off.  You have to at least believe in him for 5 seconds with me.  Come on, it’s magical.

For those of you that don’t know, Lochness is a sea dinosaur that has been spotted hundreds of times over decades from Scottish locals around the Lochness Strait, to tourists, to images from Goggle Earth.  It’s basically my favorite mystery.

Check this party out, buddy.

I drew these Lochness guys freehand on scrapbook paper while looking at shilouette images on-line.  I was pretty proud of them, because even though I am somewhat artistic, the more life-like, the harder.  And for an even sweeter detail?  Read the caption on the picture below!

 

I wasn’t sure if anyone would say anything about me using a gold glitter banner for a boy’s birthday, but since my son can’t talk or have opinions….gold glitter it was!  I had this custom made from Contagious Events on Etsy.  The quality was great and I love the black and white baker’s twine it came with that the letters hung on.  HIgh five team, Contagious Events.

I was super giddy at how the “so happy you exist” idea was perfect for a birthday and for believing in Lochness.  I’m not gonna lie. I stole it from a greeting card.  Good job, whoever you are who thought to put that on a card with a creature like this.  You win today’s favorite person award!

If this cake doesn’t give you all the monster feels, than you must not have feels.  I drew a detailed color diagram of the cake that I wanted for 3 reasons:

1- I am a past cake decorator and I have a specific vision for my cakes.

2- It’s the only way to almost guarantee you get what you want!  I recommend drawing your orders if you can if it is a cake you are creating.  If not, definitely bring a good picture of what you want.

3- I’m a dork about cakes.  Here is one I made for my daughter’s 1st birthday party many moons ago.  But let’s get back to Nessie…

This cake was made by Sweet Temptations, a local bakery in my hometown that I use for all of my cakes when I can’t muster the strength to make one…which is almost always.

The detail on the face was a million times above and beyond what I had hoped for.  I drew the most simple Lochness head of all fondant times.  I ADORED this little guy!

I deserted the “Happy Birthday” for “Love You A LOCH”….get it….wordplay….fun for days.  And don’t miss the tail detail on the side of the cake there.  LOVE!

These Target plates by Cheeky were perfect for my party because not only was the color scheme correct, it looked like waves/Nessie hump.

DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’

AND my favorite….

I NEVER LOOK GOOD IN PHOTOS

Ha ha, get it…people are always trying to get good pictures of him….

I found some Lochness stamps on Etsy at  The Crafty Carvery .  They were very fast and 3 cheers for them providing something unique!  The Lochness was whimisical enough to add some childlikeness to this 1 year old birthday party.

Using waterproof inking pads, I stamped Nessie and each sentence individually.  It actually doesn’t take that long and after I made my own napkins with stamps for the fiesta baby shower I just threw, it’s become a love of mine!  Whenever you can, go custom!  Keep it original!

In case you missed it above, and I can’t allow you to, “I never look good in photos” is what these high five napkins say.

I found this Lochness figure (Elasmaosaurus) on Amazon and made him appear to float in the chocolate milk for the kids.  It looked like he was right at home in his lake water.

Somebody call the doctor!  I’m going to have a stroke for these little favors I gave to the guests. I bought these little glass candy jars from Amazon and spray painted the lids to be color appropriate. It took less than 5 minutes to get them all coated and finished sooooooo that is pretty super.  I purchased these stickers that I used on the side of the jars from my favorite custom, has anything you want site: Zazzle.  This image is of the famous scam picture taken many moons ago that became famous.  I know that because I’ll give you a hint about me and Lochness and it rhymes with…week.  No, it’s not that I’m on fleek.  But this party might be…

These super sweet jars hold 5 Hershey Kisses and the stickers on the bottoms with my son’s face, hold about all of my dreams! I found them at Silly Wise Kids  on Etsy.  This shop offers several face customizable party products.  I thought it was an unexpected and fun little detail!

I simply cut the huge letters out of gold poster board that i laid vertical for extra height.  If you aren’t too good at free-handing, and trust me, I didn’t want to freehand these, I have a stellar tip. Go with a pencil in hand to Hobby Lobby to purchase your poster board and while you are there, go get some of their huge wall letters and trace them on to your poster before you buy the poster.  I meant to but I left my pencil, because something always goes wrong when I go on kid free errands.  Truth.

The Nessie details I cut out of left over scrapbook paper from the Lochness famiy I made for the backdrop.

The kid’s table was sooooo much fun!  A grass tablecloth underneath a blue flowing water tablecloth, which is just a plastic one I cut a bunch of curves into. This grass cloth here is really a heavy plastic lined printed one from Party City, but I really wanted a textured grass one like this one here on Amazon.  It is technically a rug but thin enough to be on a table.

Last but definitely not least, I bought a Styrofoam cake dummy, cut it in half, and spray painted it to make look like humps coming out of the water.  When this idea hit me, I couldn’t wait to find something to make the humps with and these cake rounds were perfect! I bought my cake dummy from Hobby Lobby, but you can buy one just like it here on Amazon for 9 bucks and some change.

I used plastic tablecloths to turn the adult tables into huge Scottish flags.  Hip hip hooray!

 

If this balloon garland doesn’t change your life, nothing will.  I don’t want to throw anyone for any curve balls here, but I had the colors customized and ordered it from Twigs and Twirls LLC on Etsy.  In my heart, I hoped it never deflated, but in real life, my kids ripped it apart after the party and had a blast with it.  I love this Etsy shop/site and I will use them again for a party source!

Since Lochness is all about sightings, I used the stamps I used for the napkins and stamped 45 of these critters and cut them out to hide around the room.  Whoever gathered the most sightings, won a Target gift card!

“You’re my favorite Monster” so sweet for a 1st brithday!  This is a tiny bag I stamped and stuffed for the prize for the Lochness sightings game.

Just like for my daughter’s Ketchup and French Fry Party and my oldest’s Diaversary party, I bought a custom party shirt for the person of honor which was this little man this time.  I bought this shirt from Zazzle, one of my 2 favorite custom sites.

This just in:  he’s been caught!  I knew I was right.

Happy birthday my sweet boy!

Pin, Share, Enjoy!

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Food Fight Birthday Party by Her Party Pants

28th February 2017

 

Food Fight Birthday Party by Her Party Pants.com. A unique, fun, affordable summer party!

All photo credits to Joel Ham Photography

Before I found out I was even pregnant, much-less with a BOY, I told my good friend and photographer for lots of stuff on my site, that I had the most fun party idea!  Being a mom of 3 girls, I had never really dreamed in boy for parties, but the idea of a food fight party came to me and really got me pumped!  We decided to do it for my friend’s son’s birthday and it was the perfect, affordable summer, boy-approved theme to date.  All you need to achieve this is a water hose, clothes you can ruin, goggles, and some cheap throwing food!

I have a friend who can get perfectly good shirts for free that were considered slightly defective by the manufacturer, so I headed to him to get colorful over-size t-shirts that would be perfect for….destroying.  Goggles are a necessity for a party like this to protect the eyes from flying who knows what.  Each shirt was wrapped in, yes, dollar store goggles.  Perfect to wear for the fight and perfect to toss when it’s done!

Hit up Aldi or any food discount store for cheap food fight weaponry.  Boxed spaghetti, dry cereal, whipped cream, ketchup, mustard, rice, flour, chocolate sauce…the list goes on and on.  A little goes a long way and you can get these things for next to nothing.

Before

Line them up on the hose line, set 2 table food stations on each side for each team, count em’ down and let them go!

You really can’t help but smile when you are launching spaghetti at your friend’s heads….

Birthday boy for the win!!!!!!

They had a blast and they were quite the food tossers.

Have every guest bring a change of clothes, line them up, hose them off, and toss the goggles and shirts.  So simple.  Believe it or not, they got really really clean from the hose off.

The messiest of them all won the 1st Place Mess Bucket full of silly string, slime, water bombs, water balloons, and candy because….kids love it.  Here I used a paper popcorn bowl from the dollar store that I spray painted gold and embellished.  All of the items inside the bucket are from the dollar store as well.  Easy peasy and cheap!

I was going to make a crazy cake for this party but 2 things happened:  I was 37 weeks pregnant with crippling insomina in one of the hottest summers of my life and 2:  I saw this hamburger cake at Meijer for 12 stinkin’ dollars!!!!  What is better than a hamburger cake for a food fight party?  Unique AND cute!  Just stop it already….   If you have a Meijer in your town, this is cake they have that you can order year round, even if it isn’t in the display case or cake book.

 

Other fun party details were a taco pinata and napkins that looked like pepperoni pizza. The tablecloths and plates were yellows and reds to match the hamburger cake. Let’s break for a cell phone picture from Target. Either pinata is cute, but I used the taco one since the cake was a burger. 15 bucks doesn’t get much cuter!

You can use any hodge-podge of food looking products for a food fight party! I had a few party details that didn’t get done for this one because of the aforementioned about to give birth and not sleeping.  Another party, another time… Lacking from this post are invites and the container idea I had to package the candy from the taco pinata.  Just pretend like you saw it and it was everything you had hoped for.

If you have a little grass, a good hose, a small budget, and an adventurous boy…or girl….  I highly recommend recreating this food fight party!  Please pin, share and enjoy!!

Glow In The Dark Party

18th January 2016

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Example invite from Etsy of the one we purchased.  You can purchase and customized this invite here at this great shop!

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This was done by activating and cutting open a light stick (not skinny glow stick) and flicking it on the floor.  It is a clear non-filmy liquid and when it quits glowing, you can’t see it was ever there.  Still, I wouldn’t do it on light carpet and definitely not on tile because I’m sure it would be slippery due to wetness.  You need to do it a few times to sustain glow for a 2 hour party.  SUCH a cool detail to even have the floor glowing!!!!

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You can’t tell in this picture BUT, they were hanging in 2 circle pattern.  There was one large shorter hanging circle of balloons with a smaller lower hanging circle from the center.  See the balloons at the actual party below in my really short Blair Witch execution style video.

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This lighted wire is sooo cool and could be used for so many things beyond this party!  It also had different settings like strobe and slow blink as well.  I think this added a wow factor and an unexpected personalization to the party.  I simply curved each line and used clear packing tape to secure it as I went.

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To make galaxy jars, we used Tulip’s Glow Puff Paint in the color of natural (the only color I learned will truly glow after research) to make these jars by making tons of little dots on the outside.  It was a party activity for the kids plus one cool take home.  The jars charge in the daylight and glow at night in the dark in their rooms.  If you want to see them in action, check them out here.

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Thank you Shelly Griffin Photography for these pictures!!

Party Breakdown

Time invested:  12 hours

  •  6 hours of set up over 3 days (moving and setting up chairs/tables, opening all packaging,   organizing, activating 450 glow sticks and turning them into bracelets, centerpieces, etc., blowing up balloons, hanging things from the ceiling, arranging table arrangements and cleaning up the mess that ensued
  • 2 hours invested at actual party helping and leading
  • 4 hours of shopping, returning, looking on the internet for invitations, glow products needed, researching what really works, running errands for cupcake pick-ups etc.

I could replicate this party much faster, as could you, versus doing it from scratch as I did this time.  However, the set up will always be time consuming with this type of party.

Pros To A Glow Party

Glow gear serves double functions, decorates your party and each kid gets to go home covered in glow as a favor.

The party atmosphere itself is part of the fun and kids can largely entertain themselves.

Glow when done right is an easy wow factor.

Glow sticks are inexpensive (Cost of every glow item shown here was $141 on Amazon for a party with 15 kids, 35 total people including adults. )

Cons To A Glow Party

Set up is tedious

Set up can only be finished within 2 hours of the party which causes a bit of a mad dash, because glow sticks have a glow life and can’t be done hours or days in advance like other party details

Tips

Don’t skimp on glow or your party will be a flop because if ain’t glowin’, you just in the dark, y’all.

This party had about 35 people including adults, 15 of which were kids.  This party was achieved with 450 glows stick and that is what you will need.  That included all glow for the decor and for the kids to wear and create.

DO YOUR RESEARCH!  There is a difference between glow in the dark and other products that are black light reactive!  If you don’t read, you can end up with things that are neon and for black light only.  People easily get the 2 glows mixed up.  ALSO, READ REVIEWS!  Just because a product says it will glow, doesn’t mean it will glow long or well.  You need bright, long lasting items to really create a good glow party.   Glow is especially difficult to find in paint when quality is concerned.  The most effective glow paint I found was Tulip’s Glow Puff Paint in Natural color only.  They sell many colors but really, only this one glows.  The glow is very short though and it is good for a take home craft or as a favor but will not give you a glow adequate for decor for a party by any means.

Use LED balloons and LED accessories and fiber optics. Using few flashing/color changing and constantly lit accessories will give you a big bang for a little buck and help to “light” the party a tad more.  My LED accessories all had at least a 15 hour light life, too!  Can’t beat that!

When you figure how many glow sticks you need (I’d use my reference above) BUT, overshoot. There are always plenty of duds in a pack no matter where you buy them.  Also, acitivate and assemble glow decor in a dim room so you can see which are really glowing and how well!

 

I had always wanted to do a glow party and I highly recommend them!  They are unique, which I love and are an easy pleaser for everyone because it is such a cool effect!  I could shave off time my next round and do this party much faster and using my images and sources, you can too!

 

Here is all the glow I got on Amazon for 141 for the whole party!  Enjoy, pin the poop out of this ,and share a lotta bit too!  Thank you so much and thank you Courtney for letting me plan your daughter’s party!

Source List

Led flashing jelly rings

50 Glow Avaitor Glasses Kit

100 count Lumistick Bracelets

300 8 inch Lumistick Wholesale Bracelet pack

Electroluminescent Wire

Fiber Optic multicolored flashing Led hair strands/barrette clip

LED flashing multicolored balloons

Glow stick party cups 24 pack

4 packs of neon colored ping pong balls

Invitations