Captain America Party: The Decor

It was pretty easy coming up with decor to fit the theme: Red, White & Blue.

It's close enough to the 4th of July that this stuff started to appear in stores and I took FULL advantage. My first stop was my new favorite store: Dollar Tree (Everything's $1).

I picked up some craft paper along with some red and blue wrapping paper to cover the folding tables where the kids would be sitting.

The best part -- each roll was $1 and I had more than enough to cover all the tables. I discovered this trick with craft paper during a work event. I never knew that craft paper (and wrapping paper) fit the width of a folding table perfectly, and after you cut it to the length **TA-DA** instant table covers. 

The best part --> the kids can color on them and clean up is super easy, roll it up and throw it away. I taped them down so they don't move around. Another good advantage to using paper like this is avoiding spills that result from shifting plastic tablecloths and rowdy toddlers.

The tables decorated and ready in the garage.

I picked up some table decorations (in red, silver & blue of course) that doubled as balloon weights. I used three flag themed star balloons, and a total of 9 star shaped Mylar balloons in red, white and blue to create the center pieces for the tables. They were $1 each at Dollar Tree. 

Lastly, I used red, white and blue streamers to make the garage feel like a party room. It was the perfect space, and for $22 I think it looked pretty nice. 

The garage not only looked pretty festive, but it was perfect protection from the ran that started right at cake time.

~ Jessica

Balloon center pieces.

Treat table with favor bags and candy.

Captain America Party: The Favors

The idea for this party came from my son basically refusing to take off his Captain America costume from Halloween last year. He would still be trying to wear it if I hadn't swiped it from his closet and stuffed it in a cabinet in the laundry room.

Knowing how much he loved it, I figured why not give it one last hurrah! His birthday is in April, so I figured (theoretically) he should still be able to fit it one last time.

After deciding on the theme, I pretty much started purchasing anything that fit the theme and could work for the "backyard, bounce house, superhero costume party" that I had in mind. 

The first thing that I put together were the party favors for the guests.



#LESSON#

Start planning as early as possible. If you know the theme you'll be able to score awesome stuff. Plus, it paces the spending, it's like a birthday party on layaway.

On a random shopping trip I found Captain America sticker books at Target. There were eight books in each pack, with about five sheets per book and the entire pack was $1. I could fill 20+ bags with a few full sheet of stickers.

Next, I found Captain America Pez dispensers at Walmart (they were $1.50 each). I knew they'd work for the boys, so I purchased those in January which was smart, because they were gone by April. It wasn't until around that time that I decided on Disney Princess Pez dispensers for the girls. I ended up with Bell, Mulan, Princess Tiana and Sleeping Beauty.

Once I had the biggest pieces figured out I needed to find something to hold all of the treats. I'm addicted to Pinterest, and that's where I found the inspiration for the treat bags. I already had some blue paper lunch bags, so when I saw these Captain America bags "Pinned" for $13, I was determined recreate them. I used stuff I already had, so it didn't cost me anything to make the boys bags.

 

Inspiration bag from Pinterest.

Blue bags and construction paper used for the Captain America bags.

For the girls, my "Love" thought of the wonderful idea to do Wonder Woman treat bags so they would fit the "Super Hero" theme. I purchased red paper lunch bags from Target (40 for $1.80) and used a combination of construction paper, printed Wonder Woman logos and silver star stickers (from Target, they also have them at the Dollar Tree I later discovered). So those bags cost me about $.07 each (I obviously have lots of leftover bags, which are good for dividing popcorn between little ones at the movies).

Wonder Woman logo, construction paper, stars and red bags used for Wonder Woman bags.

I lucked up and also found Avengers candy at the Dollar Tree (three different kinds) which I used to fill the rest of the bag (Taffy at nine for $1, Rock Candy at three for $1 and Sour Straws at eight for $1). 

All in all each bag cost roughly $2.15 to create and fill. I made a total of 10 Wonder Woman bags and 10 Captain America bags.

#LESSON# 
Try to use things that you already have, and make sure that you shop at the Dollar Tree. Everything's $1.

This was the first thing that I put together completely for the party and I was so excited to see the idea come together. I finished them a week before the party! 


~ Jessica

Captain America & Wonder Woman Treat Bags before they were stuffed.

The bags after they're filled with goodies. I hole punched the corners, attached a piece of construction paper with some ribbon (and a star sticker) and wrote "Thank You" on each one.

Captain America Party: The Invitations

Thanks to Pinterest,  I decided to print my own invitations for the party. I wanted to tie in the "Captain America" theme, and I wanted to do something that would be a keepsake as well. I saw these personalized invitations on Pinterest (from Etsy) and of course, my first thought was -- I can do that! 

So... I did.

The inspiration for the invite from Pinterest.

I had some office supplies left over from another project so I setup a word document using the Avery postcard paper template and set out to recreate the design. I will say however, unless you are really familiar with Microsoft Word, you may not want to try this, you can always just buy the invitations on Etsy. It was simple for me, but could be pretty time consuming for a beginner. I used a free font,  Lafayette Comic, a picture of my son in costume and some small envelopes customized with Captain America stickers that I printed, on a page of labels. 

The finished invites.

It turned out pretty awesome and didn't cost me anything, and so far everyone that has gotten one has been pretty impressed.

~ Jessica