I love planning my kid’s birthday parties. It gives me an outlet for my creativity and I can be as crazy with paper, glue, and cardboard as I want. My daughter and I pick a theme several months in advance so we have plenty of time to make things together. It is great mother-daughter bonding time and we get to share our love of crafting.
This year, however, Geekette had to share her party with her new brother, who would be having his first birthday at the same time as hers. (They are 6 years and 6 days apart. No idea how that happened.) So the theme this year needed to be gender neutral, i.e. no princess party. Thankfully, Geekette saw the Star Wars movies last summer and had been waiting eleven months to have a Star Wars party. Her one stipulation: it had to be things from the original movies, IV through VI. Once I started doing my research for decorations I came to a sad conclusion: there were very few decorations out there that go with the original trilogy. In fact, I ended up having to make everything. So, if you are planning a Star Wars party and want to stick with the original movies, here are some ideas:
Cupcake liners and picks: These liners set our party’s color scheme. Given that there is a lot of black and white in the movies, these gave us some color ideas. So we went with red/blue/and silver/black. See the review by fellow GeekMom Patricia. I do have to agree with her that $12 is a bit steep for what you get AND when you bake dark colored cupcakes, the designs basically disappear. We did red velvet in the red cupcake liner and Chewbacca was practically invisible. I got my liners for Christmas, though, so I can’t complain too much. If you’re handy with Photoshop or other software, you could probably make your own using pictures and toothpicks.
Wookiee Cake: Since it was my son’s first birthday, I wanted him to have his own cake. It was going to be a Wookiee cake so I made a practice one that you can see here . For his official birthday cake, I baked a small 6″ cake, made the Wookiee out of modeling chocolate, being careful to thoroughly dust the counter with cocoa powder which kept it from sticking, and then went a little crazy trying to make his belt. For his ammo belt, I made some marshmallow fondant and colored it black and gray. To get the gray a bit shiny, I brushed some silver pearl dust
Star Wars Cookies: Since I love to bake, these were a no-brainer and so much fun! I also did some that I glazed in white and then drew characters on.
Birthday banner: Continuing with our color theme, I used a large vinegar bottle and a round lid from another bottle for templates and cut out 26 red and blue circles from card stock in two sizes. We used some acrylic sparkle paint to lightly decorate the dark blue. I got a fantastic Star Wars font, printed out the letters and then cut them out. We used scrapbooking adhesive to hold the circles together, punched holes in the top, and threaded some black ribbon through. I also learned how to install a font. Woot!
Fireplace cover: I like the idea of those scene setters you can buy, but they are so expensive. So I made my own, smallish one to cover our fireplace and give a nice backdrop for pics. This was so easy to do! I got a silver plastic tablecloth, found silhouette pictures of an x-wing, tie fighter, and the millenium falcon, printed them out, cut them out with an x-acto knife and rubber cemented them to the tablecloth. Then I hung it on the mantel. The hardest part of this decoration was the detailing on the x-wing.
Personalized Door Signs: This was one of the tchotchkes that the kids got to take home. I found some Star Wars stickers at Hobby Lobby that were the old school characters. Using the same font as I did for the birthday banner, I printed out each guest’s name in Star Wars letters. I then glued their name to some see-through vellum with silver stars on it and glued that to another piece of card stock. I then put the stickers on the paper and used a paint pen and stencils to put silver stars all over.
Picture Backdrop: Yet another use for those plastic tablecloths. This time, I measured one to fit the size of my wall over the kitchen table. Once I had the size, I found various pictures of the characters online, printed them out and glued them to the tablecloth with rubber cement. I added the stickers I had leftover from the name plaques and the left over ship silhouettes. It looked fantastic with our cupcake display and gave us a great backdrop for pictures.
Cupcake Display: A long time ago, in a city far, far away I went to a Big Lots and got several deeply-discounted Martha Stewart cardboard cupcake displays. They were meant for the fourth of July, but I adapted them to a different revolution. Instead of the patriotic ribbon, I got some silver ribbon and used the included double stick tape to adhere it to the edges of the cupcake board. Voila! Instant theme appropriate cupcake display. My son got some darling Star Wars bath toys so we put the yoda on the top.
Kitchen Breakfast Bar: I ended up layering a red streamer and a blue streamer on the edge with scotch tape and then used the leftover pictures and ship silhouettes from the other decorations to give it a little pop.
Front Door: I printed off several of the vintage Star Wars masks and hung those on the door as well as the kid’s name signs that I talked about earlier. I drew eyes on Princess Leia so she wouldn’t look like a zombie, but most of them you could fill in the eye holes with black.
Vintage Star Wars toys: Apparently the Force was with me because a few weeks before the party my father-in-law came across a box full of old Star Wars toys that belonged to my husband and his brother. I spent several hours cleaning and regluing the decals with rubber cement. I used fishing line to hang some ships from our light fixtures. and added a few of the new action figures too. Then I arranged them on our buffet chronologically starting from Star Wars through the Return of the Jedi. The other parents launched into stories of their toys and what they had too and were just as excited as we were at finding them.
Wanted Posters: These I just printed and hung on the walls around the room.
Death Star Pinata: My daughter has wanted a pinata the last couple of years so I thought this would fit perfectly!
R2D2 Trashcan: This is now being used in my daughter’s room.
One last thing I made for the kids to take home were very basic Jedi robes. I found some cheap brown cotton fabric and using my daughter as a guide, cut it into a poncho shape. Basically, I draped it over her and cut a V where her head could come through. I know, I am a sewing goddess. Then I used jute string to tie at the waist. Super easy and very cute!
The party was a huge hit with the kids and they had a ball beating fighting each other (outside) with the lightsabers than expected. I probably could have just not planned any other activities. Here are the links to the games and other things I made for the party. Enjoy!
Star Wars bowling pins: These were fun to make and the kids really enjoyed them. I used a Clone Wars ball I got at Target for the bowling ball and beans in them to help make them more stable.
Goody Bags: Easy peasy with the dollar bin!
DIY Lightsaber: May the pool noodle be with you!
I am currently putting together my son’s 5th birthday with a Star Wars theme. The party is this weekend and I am feeling the pressure to get everything done. I was inspired by many of the ideas you posted earlier. 🙂
This is fantastic! I especially liked the light sabers made of pool noodles! Fabulous!
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