Willy Wonka Birthday Party

 
     It has been a little while since I have posted about a party I've planned, but it isn't because I haven't done any events, I have just been too busy to post about them. I did a "Cupcake Wars" party for my daughter in November and a meet-and-greet with a gorgeous white-and-gold fall theme. I also did one of the simplest events I have ever done, a Christmas carol sing with childlike craft/nativity decor in December. I did enjoy all those things, but the birthday party we threw for my dad last week was definitely the most fun, so since I'm the boss around here that's where we're going today!

    My mom wanted to throw a surprise party for my dad and, as is my entire family's M.O., it came together at the last minute. Literally, we planned this party in a week. I followed lots of my own "rules" (I wrote about them here.) and they really do work. All credit goes to my sister, Lisa Dawn, for suggesting the fantastic theme: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The old seventies version with Gene Wilder is one of my dad's favorite movies and truly screams for an over-the-top birthday reincarnation.

  I was happy to oblige! We coordinated ideas via Pinterest (Lisa Dawn and I don't live in the same town) and she came in the day before and we worked for 6 hours the day before and 8 hours the day of to pull it all together. And it was totally worth it!

     Lisa Dawn and I each had different ideas for major decor areas, so we each worked on our own space with input from the other. I wanted to pull from the scene where the ticket holders walk into the "Paradise" area. I made a "chocolate river" out of plastic tablecloths, and supplemented it with plenty of fake plants and pillars. I made giant "mushrooms" out of cups and bowls painted with white dots (Most of them are from the Dollar Tree-I thought the scalloped-edged ones were particularly charming!) I incorporated daffodils (That is what Willy Wonka drinks out of in that scene.), as well as some Christmas candy cane lights, as those are also prominent. The scene opens with a staircase decorated with urns of giant candy balls, so I duplicated those with a planter filled with ball pit balls.

 I made giant "lollipops" out of Dollar Tree pool noodles wrapped in cellophane, and some smaller ones out of styrofoam circles with dowel rods as sticks. We threaded marshmallows as garland for this tree.

This tree was my favorite. We looped fishing line around larger-than-normal gummy bears. These Trolli Big Bold Bears aren't nearly the size of those in the film, but they were still cute and colorful. We got them at Walmart for a little more than $1 per bag and I was thrilled with them.

 I duplicated these edible cups from a photo on Pinterest. I sawed off the bottom of a cake cone, and glued it to a peach gummy ring with icing, and then to a Dollar Tree butter cookie. I cut a peach ring in half for the handle and attached it with icing. I filled them with candy, and they paid homage to the edible daffodil cup that WW bites into in the film.

 WW is chock full of WONDERFUL quotes. I could have done 50 without batting an eyelash! However, I was limited by time, so I snagged a few printable ones from the Web and typed up three of my own that I couldn't find versions of to suit. I plan on offering the ones I did later on, but I am hoping to try a new PDF style for printing, and I need to upload some things before it will work. This one I pulled from a Google search and I cannot find it again! I try to pin all those things so I will have the link, but I was pretty short on time-working at 11 pm!

 We decorated the wall with these oversized candies. They were definitely bang for our buck! They were styrofoam disks from the Dollar Tree and came two to a package. We covered them with colored cellophane from DT and Walmart, each roll was about $1. We stuck pre-cut dowel rods from Walmart's craft section in some of them to make lollipops. They really helped the ugly walls of our church basement!

    The Oompa Loompa "topiary" heads are completely Lisa Dawn's handiwork. She painstakingly put them together out of jelly beans. I supplied the printable, which I designed. I think that quote is hilarious, because if children disappearing in every act doesn't constitute dangerous, I don't know what does! I picked up the fabric for $1/yard at Walmart and we used it for the centerpieces for the tables, also. I threaded candy from the Dollar Tree that was the perfect colors (brown, white and green are all on the Oompa Loompas) onto fishing wire to make a garland and filled the containers with more.

   We kept the centerpieces simple. We stuck three pipe-cleaner lollipops into a bowl filled with regular and mini fruity marshmallows and then scattered Rolos and colorful hard candies onto a piece of the fabric. We covered the tables with orange plastic clothes for easy clean-up.

  Of course we had to design a contract! I used brown kraft paper and a sharpie. If I had had more time I would have made it much more ornate, but I still think it turned out well. That is one long contract!

 For the food table we kept the decor to a minimum so there would be plenty of space for my mom's tasty offerings. I filled a few glass containers with candy and added a printable I designed. Another WW quote that I love!

 I loved these giant suckers out of balloons! They were so easy to make, just balloons, dowel rods and cellophane. We popped them in a jar filled with gumballs. The printable is a freebie I got from here.

With our time crunch the backdrop wall wasn't exactly what I pictured but it turned out well. The accent wall was amusingly already brown, which was perfect for our color scheme. We added purple, lime and orange streamers and then criss-crossed it with garlands of lollipops, colorful mini candy canes and hard candies.

  Lisa Dawn's focal area was our interpretation of "Bill's Candy Shop". We put a spin on the candy buffet concept by using a nine cubby organizer. It made it look more like the tall shelves in the movie. We made "Wonka Bars" by covering Hershey Bars with these wrappers. Of *course* Nestle is phasing out using Willy Wonka on its packaging, but we were fortunate to find Everlasting Gobstoppers (must have!), Nerds and Laffy Taffy (That's in the giant jar on the side.). We filled it in with colorful gumdrops, suckers, gummy bears, licorice ropes and gumballs. Working with candy is so.much.fun!

 I was thrilled to find these giant suckers for $1 each at Dollar Tree. We pulled the ugly wrappers off and re-covered them. Lisa Dawn put together the adorable candy button chain from supplies from Party City.

      I specifically designed this quote for the Bill's Candy Shop area, since it is a line from the song he sings. My sister Lisa Dawn loved it so much she took it home to hang.

  Lisa Dawn tweaked this sign from the movie, in the original it is Store Room 54, but since it was my Dad's 55th we changed it. She loves this quote so she handlettered the sign.

  Of course we had to have the troublesome "Fizzy Lifting Drinks"! We added these labels to bottles of Mountain Dewshine. My sister Kelly helpfully resized them on the computer to the perfect fit. We used white balloons to simulate bubbles.

 I pulled the "Bubbles Everywhere" quote from the Web, again I forgot to pin it! I'll have to hunt down the links. This one didn't copy super well, it was fainter than I wanted it to be. We piled it onto a white cake plate with the drinks.

We set up a scale from the "Egg Room" scene, complete with golden eggs, which fortunately are easy to find this time of the year! We got ours for $0.50 each from Walmart. I handlettered the chalkboard sign based on one that I saw on Pinterest. One of my sisters was surprised that it added up to 105%! Ha!

 We couldn't pass up the opportunity to let the movie inspire our outfits. Can you guess who each of us is? My sister said we reminded her of those "inspired-by" Polyvore boards on Pinterest-not exact duplicates, but more of a nod to the original.

  We played a peanut-shelling game. For true fans of the film, you will remember that Veruca's father owns a peanut factory, and during the giveaway, the workers switch from shelling peanuts to shelling chocolate bars. We timed the contestants to see who could get the most peanuts in a minute. We also did a fab movie quiz my sister Katy put together. My mom handed out envelopes to those with correct answers and at the end of the game we opened them to see who had won "golden tickets" which entitled the winners to prizes. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of those!

 My talented teenage cousin free-handed this AMAZING Oompa Loompa photo prop. It made for an adorable photo area.

    It was such a fun party, and really goes to show that you don't have to start planning six months in advance to throw a great event. My dad was really pleased, and all the guests were delighted with the tiny details. It does help that I have my own tribe of party "minions"-both Joel and Jordan, Lisa Dawn's husband, were great and Kelly was amazing as always. My mom supplied all the funds, and thoughtful opinions. I am so thankful to have such a great family that helps bring my visions, as crazy as they are sometimes, to life and allows me to flex my creative muscles!

   So which one do you prefer? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Or the crazy drug-trip of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? I'm old-school all the way-I haven't even seen the Johnny Depp version! ;)

Linked at:
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No-Sew Fabric Strip Garland

    I plan to post about the "Sunshine" baby shower soon, but first I wanted to show you the garland that I made for the shower. I love the "shabby chic" look it has, and it was so easy to make. My mom and I first saw this type of garland at an adorable craft boutique and it was definitely one of those "I could make that!" moments. I love to work with fabric, even though I don't sew, mostly because I love to mix colors and prints. This garland combines both, and it adds a great textural element, too.

This garland isn't just easy to make, it is pretty inexpensive, too! You shouldn't need much that you don't already have. 

I used:

-6 coordinating fabrics, 1/4 yard each. They were all cut from the bolt, except one, and cost $0.66 each because calico was on sale at Joann's, yay! The yellow chevron is a "fat quarter" which you buy pre-cut in little squares for quilting, usually. It was $0.99, so still pretty cheap. 

-heavy string. You can buy this in a spool fairly inexpensively.

The total cost for this project was right around $5, and it is definitely a decoration you can store and reuse. That makes it worth a lot more in my mind!

   First, if you buy your fabric off the bolt you will want to check for "selvage"- that is the unprinted edges of the fabric. See the white line on the piece above? You will want to remove it, because it won't look nice. Cut those off before you get started, you can even tear them off so that you can start more easily.

     Decide which edge of your yardage you want to start with. I had mine cut to 1/4 yard, so I tore down the "long" side (think of it as a rectangle" so that my strips would have more length. I simply used the width of a ruler to determine the width of each strip, but this project is super forgiving, you don't need to aim for perfection!

     Start each strip by snipping an approximately half-inch cut into the fabric.

     And pull the cut portion firmly away from the fabric. It will give you the "torn" edge. Don't pull too quickly or you will end up with decidedly uneven pieces. You don't want it to measure 3/4 of an inch shorter at the top than the bottom!  Finish tearing all your pieces. It took me approximately an hour (Measured by two half-hour TV shows! Love projects I can do while catching up on my shows.) You will have a giant, messy pile of pieces. Pull off any decidedly hanging strings, and the hard part is done!

      I folded each strip in half, and stuck the bottom pieces through the loop formed by the top, catching the string in the center and pulling down on the pieces to tie it on. To achieve an intentionally mismatched but not messy look, I followed a pattern of gray, yellow and orange, but didn't pay attention what print.

     Once you have threaded all the pieces on, you are done! My finished garland is roughly six feet long- a terrific length for decorating. I was thrilled with how it turned out! My mom also loved it, she gave it a home on her entry way shelf. She has a similar one in her laundry room. And after the shower, a friend was inspired to make one for her outdoor patio area. It is great for so many spaces-I think it would be precious in a baby's room, too!

  
Linked up:
"Craft Frenzy Friday" at Craft Dictator
"Motivation Monday" at A Life in Balance

Pizza Parlor Birthday Party

     Josie turned 8 in November. Right before Thanksgiving. Which (seemed to me) was right on top of Christmas. And in the midst of Christmas, I decided to save her little party to share with you during the somewhat boring, much more laid back month of January!

    Our kids don't have a "real" party every year. We are on a rough every-other-year schedule, and this year it was Josie's turn for a party. She is not an out-of-the-box thinker when it comes to party themes (She suggested two other themes we had already done, and also Chuck E. Cheese, which I put the kibbosh on due to cost.) so I supplied some inspiration. She selected this pizza party theme from the choices I offered her.

    I had not had an opportunity to throw her an all-out, make decorations, plan games, coordinate food party, and I was very excited about this one! It turned out better than I had hoped-which is rare. Josie absolutely loved it, and that is definitely the most important part!

My personal favorite part was the candy buffet- which had a special twist. I only choose candy that looked like pizza toppings! Each guest filled a bag as part of their favor, and the girls loved it.

I purchased white Sixlets (Walmart) as "onions". I also provided classic Starlight mints- for that onion breath! I employed my tried and true technique of filling a variety of white dishes and glass containers. The tiny spoons are from the Dollar Tree.

Junior mints were "olives" (most black candy is black licorice flavored-yuck!) I divided the new Starburst Minis (they come in a pouch-Walmart) into colors- the yellow were "pineapple pieces"-I should have said "bits"! I made the label cards in Picmonkey-they weren't perfect, but they worked. The red licorice was just to add height-and also because I love Red Vines!

The "ham bits" are the pink Starburst minis. The "green pepper" is Rips sour candy strips. I used kitchen shears to cut them into thinner pieces.

You can barely see the "sausage"- a combination of Raisinettes and Cookie Dough Bites (Walmart). Haribo Cola Gummies were obviously soda (World Market)! I lined them up in an olive dish. I didn't get a good photo, but red Rips sour strips were "pepperoni" and also red licorice wheels (World Market).  Not pictured: I had Red Hots as "red pepper flakes".

The centerpiece of the party was the deep dish pizza cake! I was so proud of myself for making this, I am by no means a cake decorator. It is a double layer chocolate cake that I frosted with peanut butter frosting. I used canned vanilla frosting and added peanut butter until it was super think and almost moldable. I pressed it around the sides of the cake, and made sure that I piped a thick round layer around the edge for the "crust". I added red icing tint to more vanilla frosting for the "sauce". My favorite part: the cheese! It is grated white candy melt- I softened it a little in the microwave, and then grated it with my cheese grater. It worked perfectly-and I sprinkled it on just like cheese. The pepperoni is strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups, the sausage is Raisinettes, and the bell pepper is Rips sour strips.

I placed a spring tension rod in my window (actually Joel did) and threw two pieces of red gingham fabric over them. I literally bought two yards at Walmart, and cut it in half. No sewing *at all*! Just my style. I stuck fuzzy mustache stickers (the Dollar Tree) on wooden skewers for the girls to have "chef mustaches". They made for cute photo props. I made the tulle pom-poms using this tutorial. They took a ton of tulle, but it was worth it!

I made the giant pizza slice from foam. It wasn't perfect, but whatever. I bought the foam pieces at Hobby Lobby and freehanded it. I attached it with tulle to the Birthday Girl's chair.

 I used a pizza pan with a Parmesan shaker (both from the Dollar Tree) as a centerpiece. I used old Frappuchino bottles for the flowers (From this shower! I'm such a hoarder!). Josie also requested candles. It was a little tricky with such a small table, but the red tapers made her feel so grown-up. I covered the plastic red gingham table with brown wrapping paper (the Dollar Tree). I also filled a sundae glass with red striped paper straws, for the bottled rootbeer we served!

Each girl had a four pack of crayons (Target Valentine clearance, but you can get them at the party store.) and some "Bendy Sticks" (Party City-$0.10!) with these cute pizza coloring sheets at her place. Kind of a twist on restaurant "place-mats". They had fun playing with them while they were waiting on their server!

I decorated the rest of the living room with more flowers, cans of tomato sauce, and I filled red baskets from the Dollar Tree with fresh onions and bell peppers. They added nice spots of color.

The highlight of the party was that each girl got to make their own pizza. I bought "Mini Murphs" from Papa Murphy's- they were perfect! At $3 each, every girl got all the fixings (sauce, crust, pepperonis and cheese) for an individual sized pizza. They loved the cute little pizza boxes, and they were perfect for the left-overs.

It was so easy for them to make their own pizzas. It was also dual-purposed. I didn't have to make dinner and it was a fun party activity! While the pizzas were baking (they only took about 15 minutes) we played some party games.

I got these terrific "pizza" bingo cards from here. I gave the girls buttons to use as card markers. I had prizes of nail polish and mustache erasers-that I forgot to take photos of!

For the "pin the pepperoni on the pizza" game, I cut a circle out of red poster board and used brown wrapping paper to create a crust. I cut light cream construction paper for mozzarella. I divided the board into eighths and the girls got points for where they put their foam pepperonis. (I cut those out easily with my circle punch!)

I ordered the pizza slice banner from Oriental Trading. The girls got points in the game based on where they placed their pepperonis. 1 point on the lines, 2 points all the way in a slice, and three for right in the center. The girl with the most points are putting up three pepperonis won!

The birthday girl gave us a great big cheesy grin over her cake! It was a magnificent ton of sugar.

To go with even more sugar! The girls actually took their candy home with their favors-which I also forgot a photo of! I bought these cute pizza sticker sheets, pizza gummy candies (from Hobby Lobby-special thanks to my sister, Robyn for finding them!) and soda flavored lip balms (from Walmart).

    I loved this party! It was such a great theme for games, food and decoration. I was a little nervous about bringing my vision to life, especially since so many of the parties I had seen online had professionally made paper goods, and were put together by paid planners. In the end though, it came together, and the birthday girl declared it her best party yet!

Linked up:
"Craft Friday Frenzy" Craft Dictator
"Share the Love Sunday" at Buttercream Bakehouse 
"Whatever Goes Wednesday" at Someday Crafts
"Fabulously Frugal Thursday" at A Life in Balance
"Create It Thursday" at Lamberts Lately
"Pin It Thursday" at Sweet Bella Roos
"Thrifty Thursday" at Living Well, Spending Less