My little guy turned three last week and our superhero themed birthday bash turned out successful! It was super fun. And all those late nights of cape sewing were totally worth it. Totally. But, since I waited until the week before the party to make my decorations, I didn’t get to everything I had planned on my list. I managed to pull most of it off though!
So….. this was totally a cheater party….. shhh! If you’re familiar with the Hostess with the Mostess blog (HWTM), you may recognize this theme. Yup, I borrowed the theme from HWTM! Actually, while perusing Pinterest, I came across Kelly Noel, who also borrowed ideas from HWTM. I became so smitten by Kelly’s party that I borrowed most of her ideas!
My focal point was going to be the cake and dessert table so I put in some really good effort into it! I copied Kelly to a tee on the table backdrop. The “Super E” shield was created using this font. I made it as large as possible to fit on the turquoise and yellow cardstock I had on hand and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut it out.
I bought a foam tri-fold display board from Michaels (with a coupon, of course!) and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out 1-inch circles (408 to be exact – wow) out of black cardstock. Then, off to sticking all the dots I went! This was a tremendously tedious task that took a few hours total I think. I had the hubby help out and we sort of had an assembly line going! I used my large Omnigrid ruler for placement and double-sided tape to adhere them to the board. I was afraid the dots wouldn’t be aligned properly so I needed something that was less permanent than glue. And I gotta say, I think the tape method worked like a charm! I so love that stuff.
The buildings were boxes I found around the house (some empty, some not) that I wrapped with solid colored wrapping paper I found at Party City. I used my Silhouette Cameo again to cut out squares and rectangles out of black cardstock and then stuck them to the boxes with double-sided tape. My best-looking tower was two boxes of flash cards that I stacked together and wrapped – they were the perfect skinny size I needed!
The jello didn’t quite turn out the color I wanted but I still used it – no one probably cared but me anyhow! It was a black cherry flavor and the color on the box was red. Really, it was! I was fooled. It ended up being a very dark purple color. Oh well! I printed out a bunch of tiny “Super E” shields and taped them to lollipop sticks. Then, poked them through the (dark!) jello to make them look pretty. The marshmallow pops were dunked in melted red chocolate and then dipped in turquoise and yellow sprinkles. This is where I screwed up… I totally meant to tape some flags with superhero words on the sticks but forgot about them during the big morning setup rush!
I set our dining table with these cute “POW” paper plates purchased from Birthday Express. The plates were topped with shiny eye masks and super shields with each kid’s first initial. I made eye masks using this template. I bought some shiny textured cardstock from Michaels and cut the masks out again using the Silhouette. I then tied a thin elastic cord to them. The super shields were cut out from red adhesive-backed felt. I used heat n’ bond on yellow fabric, cut out each letter, and ironed them onto the red felt shields. The idea was to use them as “stickers”. I had asked each kid to wear a white (or solid-colored shirt) to the party so that they can adorn their shirts with the shield and other felt tickers. I made Ethan’s shield slightly larger with a number three on it and sewed it onto his t-shirt.
Guests were greeted with capes when they entered the house. Yup, these were the capes that kept me up the whole week! The hubby commented that my work area looked like a factory! I loved how they turned out though. The birthday boy had the shiny cape and all the other kids had solid colored cotton ones. I tried my best to use fabric that I already had in my stash. I used this pattern again to make each cape, all in different sizes. But I used only one snap button on each cape rather than the two instructed. I appliquéd a star inside a circle for each kid to keep it simple. Yes, I had plans to sew each kid’s first initial on at first, but decided it was too much work in the end!
I also purchased these cute candy wrappers from Birthday Express and stuck them to snack sized Kit Kat Bars. Cookies with the number three on them were also placed on the table for little hands to grab. The cookies were purchased from Beckers Bakery, a local bakery in Manhattan Beach, CA.
The birthday cake was also purchased at Beckers Bakery. It was soooooo delicious! I love the giant icing balls they put on it. I created the three cake toppers on PowerPoint and printed them out on white cardstock, then stuck it onto turquoise cardstock to give it a contrasting border. They were then taped to lollipop sticks. Love how they adorned the cake! The polka-dotted candles were from Sur La Table.
And my favorite part of the party was probably the little photo booth area for pictures! I purchased a few yards of red and white polka-dotted fabric from Joann and draped it over two foam boards that I taped together. I made a burlap “photo” banner and attached it to the top of the fabric board. The letters are fabric that I fused onto the burlap using heat n’ bond and cut on my Silhouette Cameo.
I made these superhero props for the photos. I designed the images on PowerPoint and printed them out on cardstock, cut them out and glued them to large popsicle sticks. They were so much fun and really added to the photos! Feel free to use them for personal use if you’d like!
I didn’t have many activities planned out for the kids. I figured three-year-olds would rather roam free and play as they wished. I put out some markers, stickers, and little superhero character notecards on the “craft table” and let the crafty ones go to town. The notecards can be found here – they are super cute (and all hand drawn too!).
I also put out temporary tattoos for the kids. I love these little callout signs! I probably would have attached them to everything if I had the time! I made them the same way as the cake toppers.
Outside, we taped up some superheroes and villains posters and had kids throw water balloons at them. Super simple and kids loved them. Although some of the kids got soaked! Sorry, parents!
Lastly, I had other various decorations around the house that I wanted to share with you. I hung up some of Ethan’s Batman books on a string as decoration. Thought it looked cute! I framed this awesome happy birthday subway art and also designed my very own “welcome all superheroes!” art. Feel free to use it for personal use.
And BOOM! There you have it — my little superhero’s third birthday party! Thanks for stopping by!
xoxo, Jen
chirpy threads 