Oh man… sooooo… even though this birthday party took place FIVE months ago, I am still going to blog about the details! Cool? Cool. Better late than never, right? Actually, I really needed to post this blog entry before I could move on… I couldn’t bring myself to blog about any other project until I blogged about this ancient party. Ha! And, of course, it’s to hopefully inspire anyone who’s kids are into dragons and wants to throw them a dragon party! But seriously, I have sooooo many completed projects lined up and ready to be shared. Yikes!
I also wanted to share what I’ve been working on these past few months… I’ve been working hard! Really, I have! I’ve made a few play things for Ethan, sewn up gifts for friends, and have been trying to build an Etsy shop. YUP! I’m going to start up an Etsy shop with a friend very soon! It’s been so exciting working out all the fine details of the little shop. More on this to come! Oh, and I completed Ethan’s Halloween costume last week — yes, I really wanted to share the costume I made so I need to finally get the birthday stuff out of the way. So, without further ado… let’s get back to the dragon party!!
My Ethan turned FOUR way back in May and the theme he close was dragons – like, the scary kind. You know, fire-breathing dragons! Um… ok, we can have a scary dragon party but still make it cute, right? Four-year-olds are still babies, right?! *sigh*. Hopefully, this isn’t the last year I can plan a party with a little cuteness. I still can’t get over how fast my son is growing up.
I can usually find good party inspiration on the internet but discovered that dragon birthday parties were pretty rare. So I got to thinking – and thought scales and dragons and lots of green would work. I made a dragon scale backdrop and decided that the the cake table would be the the main focus. For the backdrop, I reused the foam display board from last year’s superhero birthday party and cut out a TON of fabric “scales” in three shades of green, and stuck them onto the board with double-sided tape, slightly overlapping each one. And boy oh boy, this was truly a labor of love! I divided this task into several days/nights, working on it whenever I was in the right mood. But it turned out so cute, so it was worth every sleepless night! The burlap happy birthday banner was made a couple years ago and it sort of fit the rustic-like theme so I reused it here. The dragon cake is from Torrance Bakery (a local bakery here in SoCal) – they did such a fantastic job! I also tried to find as much green sweets as I could – hence, the green gummy bears, jelly beans, and yogurt pretzels! Ha!
Ahh, I’d have to say my favorite part of the party was the paper mache dragon eggs! These, my friends, were another true labor of love as well! My scissors, tissue paper, and mod podge were my besties for several days. I got my inspiration and tutorial for these eggs here. I made a few eggs each for all the kids and put treats and little toy dragons inside them for the big “dragon egg hunt”. I also made a wood “dragon egg hunt” sign using some cheap plywood and stick I got at a craft store. Man, this activity was so much fun for the kids!
I kept the other decorations very simple. I created a few dragon prints on good old PowerPoint using the images I purchased over at poppydreamz on Etsy. I also made the party invitations using these cute dragon images. I blogged about that as well as Ethan’s dragon cape here. The multi-shades-of-green pennant garlands were made using card stock and twine – super easy and adds a bit of festive flair! I bought wooden utensils from Amazon and used washi tape to dress up the ends for a pop of color.
I forgot to mention that I wanted to add a bit of woodsiness to the party as well – I’m sure you can sort of tell from the photos? Maybe? I used these wood chargers that I had as well as these wood bark coasters, all from World Market – love that store!
Mmm. Don’t those cookies look yummy? These ahh-mazing dragon cookies were made by my friends over at Two Sweet and Crafty. These women are so talented! If only I could bake… maybe someday I’ll try my hand at it. But for now, I think I will just stick to sewing!
And finally, the photo booth area! I thought a stone/rocky background would be appropriate for dragons. The backdrop is from here. That fire-y looking cup that Ethan is blowing into was another craft I had set out on the kids’ table. It’s a green paper cup with the bottom cut out and strips of red and orange tissue paper glued around the perimeter of the top. It’s supposed to be the “fire” for all the “fire-breathing” dragons! 🙂
And that’s all I have for now, folks! Now, I can finally move on and share with you Ethan’s costume! I can’t believe Halloween is THIS week! Why is it the end of October already?!
xoxo, Jen
chirpy threads 