Saturday, June 13, 2015

DIY Minecraft Birthday Party on a Budget

Parents with Minecraft-obsessed children dream about creepers and diamond pickaxes. Kids (and adults) get so into this seemingly-simple game of creation and destruction that they chatter about it constantly, pulling everyone around them along with them into the world of Steve.

My oldest son is in love with Minecraft and--since I could write a book on the game too now--I decided to throw him a DIY Minecraft 5th birthday party at my parents' house this past winter. My son and his friends, both boys and girls, had a really great time and most everything was handmade or printed out from online for free!

The great thing about Minecraft party DIYing is that the primary colors (green, brown, black and blue) are easy to find at any party store or dollar store and the artwork is all squared (pixelated) and easy for even the worst artist to recreate. Here is the lowdown of our Minecraft birthday party, with links to printouts and more to make your party planning easy!


Decor: 
We started out our party decorations with green and black helium-filled balloons, green plastic tablecloths, square plates, and two shades of green crepe paper purchased from Party City (available at dollar stores as well.) I drew creeper faces on a few of the green balloons with a black sharpie. Simple and effective!

I printed out a perfect and FREE Minecraft birthday banner, tented food cards, and Potion of Healing drink bottle wraps from Printabelle via CatchMyParty.com. I used  twizzler bites for TNT, rolos for Gold, Hershey's Kisses for Diamonds, and Swedish Fish for, well, Fish! We also wrapped green Gatorade bottles with the Potion of Healing bottle wraps.

You can download all these free printable and more HERE.  

Finally, I splurged and ordered my son the letters of his name transformed into 8" Minecraft characters by Christine at Wrap It Up. These served as the dessert table centerpiece, but also as a gift for him that is now a decoration in his bedroom. The letters are amazing and were totally worth the $10 a letter.

Entertainment/Party Activities: 
I found a perfect mom-approved Minecraft parody music video playlist on YouTube and beamed it wirelessly to my parents' TV from my iPad for the duration of the party. The kids were mesmerized by the videos and spent the beginning and end of the party alternating between free play with my sons' toys and having a Minecraft dance party.

You can get the playlist HERE and HERE.

After we ate pizza (what else?), I had the kids decorate paper swords with adhesive back foam squares and stars from Oriental Trading. I doubled up the swords (glued and taped them together) to make them sturdier for the sword fighting that ensued. Both the boys and the girls loved this activity (and some of the parents participated too)!

And, finally, I had the kids get out the rest of their energy with a Minecraft pinata. I made this myself out of green and black crepe paper, glue, and some ribbon. You can't tell from the photo, but it had a black crepe creeper face on the front! SO easy and SO cheap.

Cake: 

I made Steve and TNT fondant cupcake toppers with pre-made fondant purchased at AC Moore. I didn't get a good shot of all my hard work (ok, it wasn't that hard!) but all you have to do is cut out squares and rectangles. Its so simple and quick if you use boxed cake mix and premade frosting as well.

Favors:
For favor bags, all you need is a green paper bag and a sharpie or some black construction paper to make creeper faces if you have the time. I stuck to plain green bags with the guests names on them and filled them with candy, novelty noise makers from Party City, and homemade Perler bead Minecraft keychains.

These keychains are SO fun to make with your kids and you can find patterns online HERE or come up with your own designs. Perler beads and keychain findings are available at AC Moore or Amazon. You can also purchase them from my Etsy shop HERE if you are feeling DIY-ed out!


For a party that was super simple, cheap, and enjoyable to throw together, you wouldn't believe how much fun the kids had! But, maybe, that is just the real underlying power of Minecraft; the power of going back to simplicity and letting kids use their imagination to dream up the fun.
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How will I top this next year??