Minecraft Birthday Party

Has Minecraft taken over your household?  It certainly has mine.  I was completely resistant at first to the whole idea of Minecraft.  At first I thought it was some sort of fighting or war game which I refuse to allow my children to play.   However, my husband researched Minecraft and with the help of the neighbour children, it was explained to me that playing Minecraft in creative mode is about building and exploring only.  So while it may be harmless fun, I’m not sure about the hours that my son plays building and them blowing things up.  I don't really get the attraction but there it is.

So when my soon to be 8 year old wanted a party it had to be Minecraft.  Fortunately, it was a pretty easy theme to decorate for what with pixelated graphics, a black, green and brown colour scheme.  Of course, my first start is to check out Pinterest for ideas and a quick visit to Party Palace to see what was available.

While the colours were easy to find in abundance of plates, cups and tablecloths.  Not so, actual Minecraft decorations.  A printed cardboard box that the child puts over their head to be Steve (I kid you not) was $24.99.   Foam MineCraft swords retailed at over $5.00 each.  As for invites or anything like that, completely non-existent in our neck of the woods.  Thank goodness for Pinterest.

 
The Invitation.  I saw something similar to this online and was able easily to  re-create it for my own purposes using Microsoft Publisher.  I was able to print four invites per page and printed it on heavy card stock paper.  It looked fantastic when printed.

Next by downloading some Minecraft printables at Catch My Party I was able to create a Happy Birthday Banner, Cupcake Toppers and tent cards for the food.  For the banner, I bought a plain green triangle banner at Party Palace and simply glued the cut out Minecraft letters and strung it on green ribbon.

 For the food, I chose simple items that might fit the Minecraft theme, like wrapping up bundles of red licorice and labelling it dynamite, green juice doubled for “creeper juice”.  Green and Black streamers hanging down the wall gave it a neat Minecraft feel.  For the juice cups, I simply printed off labels with Minecraft clipart on each one and then wrote the child’s name with a sharpie on the cup.

I was particularly proud of the “grass” mat I created to sit the food on.  I took strips of green tissue paper, cut it part way through, glued it to a piece of cardboard and then fluffed up the “grass”.  It looked pretty cool and my son still uses it as a base for playing with his Minecraft lego.

   

Square plates, and gold cutlery made it easy to decorate the table.  For lunch, we served homemade square pizza.

 





It was so easy to get creative with Minecraft.  Another creation I was quite proud at how it turned out was pin the tail on the piggy.  Basic square shapes of pink construction paper worked perfectly.  To give it some depth, I made then nose 2d and the tail was folded accordion style.  A little piece of velcro attached to the tail and paper, worked perfectly.   Another keepsake for my son.





I’ve long decided that goody bags need to go back to being basic.  A few small treats, a pack of stickers and temporary tattoos in green baggies was perfect.  Of course temporary tattoos and stickers can be hard to find but I managed to order some through Amazon here and here.




One craft that we did, but I forgot to take photos of, was taking a yellow coloured square plate and gluing a bunch of coloured squares all over it to make their own pixelated face mask.  Once they were done gluing, we cut out the eyes and taped a wood stick to the back.   The most tedious part I think was cutting all the little squares of construction paper.  I still have a bowl of leftover pieces.

And that’s my Minecraft birthday.  Nothing too fancy.  I think the most expensive part was buying the stickers and tattoos but by splitting the packs up and since that was the main part of the goody bag it really was affordable.  

Please share with me in the comments any special parties that you planned for your child.

Zeemaid