Party Ideas

Mario Kart Party: Racing Flags

Here’s what you’ll need:
Hole Punch
String/Jute/Ribbon of your choice
Scissors
Tape
Print Derby Mom 360: Mario Kart Checkered Flags on Cardstock

This is a quick and simple way to make any party look more festive! This printable has two pages. The first page is just a traditional black and white checkered pennant. The second page has the golden mushroom that is also featured on the award ribbons. You could do a whole row of either flag or alternate between each. You could use only the first page for any party or even for the background of a photo shoot.

Derby Mom 360: Mario Kart Checkered Flags I used two flags on the front door to set the mood for our guests. I put a string of eight just over the television to make the racing more festive.

HAVE FUN!

Please share your homemade creations on the Flickr Group. I can’t wait to see them.

Mario Kart Party: Mario & Goomba Construction Paper Decor

Here’s what you’ll need: Derby Mom 360: Mario Cut Out
Goomba- Black, Dark Brown, Light Brown and White Construction Paper
Mario – Black, Dark Brown, Skin Tone, Red, Blue and White Construction Paper

Hosting a Mario Kart party can’t be complete without some decor to properly set the mood! I found this Goomba printable on Pinterest and was totally inspired to make one or two for the party.

How can you have a Mario party without the “Guest of Honor” represented? So I decided, based on the Goomba, I would make my own Mario. I found this great image that is a cutout mask from Games Radar and used it as a base for the project.

Here’s the printable template for your cut-outs. The PDF includes all the instructions you’ll need to assemble your Mario: Derby Mom 360: Mario Cut Out

ENJOY!

Hope you make some super cute Mario party decor. Please share your homemade creations on the Flickr Group. I can’t wait to see them.

Mario Kart Party: 12-Person Single Elimination Tournament with Consolation

I had 12 people RSVP to my party and half were men and half Derby Mom 360: Maro Kart Bracket were women so we went with seeding in the order that they RSVP-ed and did a male and female side of the bracket. That is totally random and arbitrary. You could have time trials to seed. Or ask people their level of experience. Whatever works for you.

For me, I just went Player 1 – Player 12 in the order that they said they would be attending. Since our party was all couples it would make it so someone would only player their spouse if they made it to the Consolations or Finals. Seemed like a fun way to do it and kind of erased the fact that most of the men at the party were much better than women at this video game.

We did our tournament on Mario Kart Wii. Each game was in the “VS” mode and the Wii randomly picks 4 courses that you’ll run. Those 4 courses take about 10 mins total. At the end of the races, one will be the winner by points and move on. The other is knocked out. Then we moved onto the next game of the tourney. The entire event took about 2 ½ hours. We coupled it with an Italian themed potluck dinner party so guests drank, eat and chit chatted in between turns and heckling those who were playing.

Here is a printable bracket that you can use for a 12-person single elimination tournament with a consolation round.

Derby Mom 360: Mario Kart Tourney Brackets

Good luck with your home tournament! I hope it is tons of fun. I’d love to see how your party turned out so please share comments below and pictures in the Flickr Group.

Mario Kart Party: Award Ribbons with Printables

Here’s what you’ll need:
Construction Paper: Blue, Red and Yellow (2 strips of 2.5”x12” each color)
Cardstock (3 strips of 2” x 11”)
Ribbon (1” x 24”)
Hot Glue Gun
Printable Centers (see below) or homemade inserts of your choosing

To begin, cut two pieces of construction paper that are 2.5” wide x the longest length. My paper was 12” but whatever you have is fine. I wanted pretty large awards. If you’d like yours to be smaller, cut the width of these two strips narrower. I cut out two strips of all three colors.

Next you’ll want to cut out some strips of cardstock. I liked the look of the brown more natural sheets but you could use anything. I cut these 2” wide. Again, just cut them the length of your paper. My paper was 11.5”. You’ll just need one strip for each ribbon, so three total for this project.

Then you’ll start crimping your construction paper, meaning that you’ll want to fan fold it back and forth. There’s no exact size here. I found that I liked the look of a little tighter fold but you can do whatever you’d like here. Once you start folding one color, you’ll try to keep the size of your folds the same size each time for both strips.

Once you’ve fan folded it all, you’ll want to glue the two ends together on each side for you get a fully connected cylinder. You could use any glue or tape here but I find a glue gun easiest for the rest of the project so I used that.

The next bit is probably the trickiest portion of this award project. You’ll want to bring on edge of the cylinder all together and lay it flat. The other edge will fan out and become the outside of the ribbon. It took both hands at first to keep it held in that position. Then once you have it properly gathered, you’ll grab your glue gun and put a good blob of hot glue in the center. You’ll need to keep holding the starburst in place while the glue dries. I just held it and blew on it for a about two minutes. After my first award, I realized I could wedge heavier objects on a couple sides to keep it from moving while it dried. Whatever works, you just want the glue to be hard before you release it.

While that is drying, you can prep your inserts. I made mine kind of funny and full of inside jokes for my group of friends. I have a more generic one here that is more likely to meet your needs. Just cut these out and they will serve as your center inserts. I chose to print them on cardstock so the paper would be stiffer to hold up to the hot glue.

Derby Mom 360: Mario Kart Award Ribbons

Next you’ll want to hot glue the insert to the appropriately colored construction paper starburst. I did First (Grand Champion sounded more regal) in blue, Second in red and Third in Yellow. I flipped my starburst over and found the side without the glue glob to be more flat and easier to affix the center circle nice and flat. I hot glued in the center of the circle and then much more thinly near the perimeter so it would be on snuggly but not show any lumps of glue.

Then the last part is to prep and affix the lower ribbon portion. I folded my cardstock at an angle to look like ribbon. Then I cut two strips of ribbon, slightly longer than each piece and glued them into place and let them hang over the end. Once that glue dried, I cut out a triangle on the bottom to give them a nice finished look. I used about 2 feet of white 1” wide ribbon but you could really use any scraps you have lying around.

Lastly, I laid down a good portion of glue at the folded end and affixed the back of my starburst to it. I head it in place for a bit until the glue started to set. That’s it! You have one beautiful homemade ribbon. I made one first to get the hang of it and then assembly lined the rest of them doing each step at the same time.

I found some cute Mario Kart trinkets at Ross and affixed each award to the prize as a “trophy” for the tournament top finishers. I have a very competitive group of friend and I felt like the awards made it so there was more on the line. There are prizes and titles to be won or lost! Makes the stakes higher.

I’d love to see how yours turned out. Post to the Flickr Group to share your creations.

Mario Kart Tournament

Looking around the internet I couldn’t find much guidance as to how to throw a home Mario Kart Tournament so it seemed like a good topic to share here.

I hosted this event as an adult dinner party. We did a fully Italian themed potluck complete with dinner, drinks, Mario Kart Wii and a lot of heckling. You could easily substitute out the cocktails and have this party for kids instead. Also, you could skip the tournament play entirely and just use some of these fun elements as an accent to your next Mario themed birthday party.

This entry is linked to all the different parts which include tutorials, links and downloads on the following:
– Award Ribbons
– Single Elimination 12-person Tournament Brackets
– Mario & Goomba Construction Paper Decorations
– Checkered Pennant Racing Flag Decorations

Enjoy! Hope you have a great party!

P.S. I’d love to see how yours turned out. Post to the Flickr Group to share your creations.

Cake Topper Bunting for Nautical Themed Party

I wanted to stick with the nautical theme for this party as best I could so I wanted to do some sort of cake topper that went with the rest of the nautical look. A miniature bunting seemed like a great way to do that!

CAKE TOPPER BUNTING SUPPLIES:
PRINTED PAPER
EXACTO KNIFE & MAT
SCISSORS
RULER
GLUE
STRING
STRAWS

Below is a printable PDF of the bunting. There is one set of flags that says “Baby is one” so you don’t need to do any extra work to make that topper. There is a second set of blank flags which you can add your own letters. I used Hagin Caps Medium font which I thought looked very cute with this theme. You can print the flags as they are and then write the letters by hand. You could cut out and glue letters on. Or for those of you more graphically inclined you could use any page layout program to add the letters on the computer and then print them out already to go. Whatever method suits your still set. Here are the files you’ll need:

Printable Cake Topper Flags
Font – Hagin Caps Medium

For me, it was easiest to just layout all the letters on the computer. I printed out all my flags on regular copy paper. Cutting these flags out is a bit tough because they are so miniature. You may find it easiest to cut these out with an Exacto knife and a ruler. It’s a great way to make very straight lines but if you don’t have a craft knife, scissors will do just fine.

Now you’re ready to start attaching your bunting. I chose to hang my banner in two lines but there’s no reason why you can’t string it all in one either. It just depends on the size of your cake.

First, you’ll cut a piece of string a few inches longer than your cake. Then layout you diamond shaped flags in the order you want to them out. It may be helpful to start from the center of your string with the middle most flag and work your way out to evenly space them. The flags are diamond shape so you can fold them in half over the string. Then add a tiny dot of Elmer’s glue and press it tightly for 5-10 seconds. Then move onto the next flag.

Once all your flags are glued on, you’ll take your straws and place them at a distance and angle you like in your cake. Then tie off each string very gently to the straw. I chose to use paper straws because I had some that went with my theme. If you don’t have any, you could also use a wooden skewer, a chopstick or anything else you can dig up around the house.

Up close your topper may not look perfect, but once it’s placed in your cake it will all come together and look great. The flags are very tiny for this project so be patient with the process and be sure to print an extra set in case the first attempt doesn’t work out.

That’s it! Topper complete. I grabbed a random Hanukkah candle to match my color scheme. No need for a big fancy candle since your topper is really the star here.

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

Bunting for Nautical Themed Party

Buntings, also known as banners or pennants, are a fun way to dress up a party, to use as an all-the-time decoration in your child’s room or even just in the background of a photo shoot. You could make them from paper, fabric or some other material entirely. I chose to go the quick and easy way from this project and print them on paper.

BUNTING SUPPLIES:

PRINTED PAPER
CARDSTOCK
SPRAY ADHESIVE
ROTATORY CUTTER & MAT
SCISSORS
RULER
HOLE PUNCH
JUTE (OR ANY STRING)

Below is a printable PDF with twelve flags for this bunting. Two flags have a picture (an anchor and a boat) that I used at the beginning and end of the shorter words. The other 10 designs all have a white circle in the middle to put your letters. I used Hagin Caps Medium font which I thought looked very cute with this theme. You can print the flags as they are and then write the letters by hand. You could cut out and glue letters on. Or for those of you more graphically inclined you could use any page layout program to add the letters on the computer and then print them out already to go. Whatever method suits your still set. Here are the files you’ll need:

Printable Nautical Bunting
Font – Hagin Caps Medium

For me, it was easiest to just layout all the letters on the computer. I printed out all my flags on regular copy paper and then used spray adhesive to attach them to card stock. Then with a ruler and rotary cutter, cut out each triangle flag. It’s a great way to make very straight lines but if you don’t have a rotary or a craft knife, scissors will do just fine. If your printer can print on card stock, you can do that and skip the spray adhesive entirely.

Now you’re ready to start stringing your bunting. I chose to hang my banner in three lines but there’s no reason why you can’t string it all in one either.

First, get your hole punch and put two holes in every flag, one near the top right point and one near the top left point. Then layout your flags as you’d like them to read. Here’s how I did mine:

Anchor-H-A-P-P-Y-Boat

B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y

Boat-M-O-S-E-S-Anchor

Figure out about how long you’ll want your jute and add 4 feet or so to that so you’ll have plenty to work with. Start with your last flag first. So I’d string “Boat” and push it all the way down to the end. Then “Y” and push it all the way down to the boat with about two inches of space in between.

Through trial and error and some great help from my sister-in-law, we figured out that it was best for us not to tie a knot to hold the flags in place.

The jute keeps them from sliding around too much. If you just string them all up with no knots, when you hang them you can still move them around a little bit, which worked out best for us.

FINISHED!

After you’ve strung all three, space all the flags out evenly and you’re good to go! If you hang the bunting by the jute and not the flags, the banner will remain in great condition and you can reuse it for many events to come.

Pinwheels for Nautical Themed Party

Pinwheels are a fun and playful addition to any party! These make such a cute table accent, party favor or just a project for the kids. You could make these for any themed party. I chose to print nautical designs for this party.

PINWHEEL SUPPLIES:
DECORATIVE PAPER
SEWING PINS
PAPER STRAWS (OR PENCILS)
ROTATORY CUTTER & MAT
SCISSORS
RULER
NEEDLE-NOSE PLIERS
ELMER’S GLUE

For a more premium looking pinwheel, you’ll want to print something different on each side of the paper. For this design I did navy strips or anchors on one side and sold yellow on the other side. You can download my full page designs here:

Printable: Blue Anchors on Gold
Printable: White Anchors on Blue
Printable: Blue Anchors on White
Printable: White & Blue Stripes
Printable: Blue Solid
Printable: Gold Solid

You’ll want to print out as many double sided pages on letter sized paper as you’d like to make pinwheels. They can be as large as 8″x8″ or as small as you’d like.

First, you’ll want to trim off any unprinted area on the page. My printer leaves about 1/8″ that is not printable space and needs to be cut off. I prefer to use a rotary cutter and ruler to get a clean line but scissors are also fine.

Once you have only your beautiful printed designs on both sides with no white edges, you’ll want to cut the sheet down to a square. 5″x5″ makes a pretty nice sized pinwheel but you can play around with it. Any size square will work. For my party, I made a couple big ones and a couple of smaller ones. If you go 4″x4″ or smaller you can make two per page. For those who would rather trace a pattern, Oh Happy Day has a great printable pattern for pinwheels.

If you’re going the more free flow method, once you have your square, you’ll need to make slits to fold the points in. You’ll start at one corner with the ruler laid flat and have it line up on a diagonal to the other corner so there is a 45 degree angle on either side of the ruler. I made the cut about .5″ shorter than half a side. Meaning if I did a 6″x6″ I made the slit about 2.5″ long. The red lines on the image to the right show where I would cut.

Next you will fold every other point into the center. So I don’t get confused, I fold in the point to the right of the cut on each corner. Also, when you fold them in, go a little passed the center mark with the point so you have enough to put the pin through to tack it down. I found through trial and error it was a bit easier to primp the pin first and the poke it through the 5 layers of paper and then the paper straw. I also found the pins with the round plastic heads looked a bit better than a traditional pin, though either will do just fine.

So once all 4 points are folded to the center area and have overlap, poke the pin through all points and the back layer and then through the paper straw. I trimmed down the end of the pin with my wire cutters and then added a dab of Elmer’s glue to the exposed edge so that once the glue dried, there was a clear protective covering over that part which could be a bit scratchy and could also fall out with use. If you choose to go with a pencil, you will not need to do the glue or the crimping, you’ll just poke it right into the eraser and cut the end down. I had paper straws that were perfect for my theme so I decided to do the extra steps.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have completed your first pinwheel! Let the glue dry and you’re ready to use them!

Paper Boats for a Nautical Themed Party

These paper boats are a really fun touch to a nautical party and they do actually float! With sails, they can be a little less balanced but without sails you could put several in a bowl or bucket and make a game out of it.

PAPER BOAT SUPPLIES:
DECORATIVE PAPER
ROTATORY CUTTER & MAT
SCISSORS
RULER
ELMER’S GLUE
STRING
WOODEN SKEWER
TAPE

You’ll want to start with a decorative piece of paper. Here are some fun full-page printable nautical patterns that will work great for these boats. You can do the same design on both sides or switch them up. There are two half sheets I used for sails and flags.

Printable: Blue Anchors on Gold
Printable: White Anchors on Blue
Printable: Blue Anchors on White
Printable: White & Blue Stripes
Printable: Blue Solid
Printable: Gold Solid
Printable: Blue & Gold Solid
Printable: Gold & White Sails

Derby Mom 360: Paper Boats for a Nautical Themed Party To start, you will make a basic origami paper boat. They look pretty good made from a sheet of letter sized paper or you can play around with the size and ratios. Print up one of the full page patterns from the buttons above and then trim off any extra white on the edges. I prefer to do this with a rotary cutter and a ruler but if you don’t have one you could just use scissors.

This site has a nice diagram of how to fold a boat. You’ll want to fold a standard origami boat or any kind you’d like! I did one or two on regular paper first before trying it with my fancier stuff.

The next step is the fun part, making the boat your own! I added one sail and a string of flags to each bigger boat.

Derby Mom 360: Paper Boats for a Nautical Themed Party To apply the sail, you’ll need a mast. Take one of your sewing pins from the last project and poke a hole in the high point of the boat to make a start hole. Then you can poke the sharp end of the skewer through it. Then cut the skewer down to your desired length. I used electrical tape to attach the end to the inside underneath of the boat.

Then you’ll cut out a sail size of your choosing. Making a bit of an curve to the shape instead of just a triangle makes it look like its sails are filled with wind. I made a starter hole with a pin on the top and Derby Mom 360: Paper Boats for a Nautical Themed Party bottom of each sail. then I threaded them threw the skewer doing my best not to stretch the holes out too much so the sail stays tight to it.

Next I made some flags for extra embellishment. First, glue the string down under a flap of the folded boat inside the hull. Tie off the other under the sail near the top hole. I added some Elmer’s on that knot so it wouldn’t slide down. Fold a paper in half and cut out triangles with one side as the fold. Then you can put a dab of glue inside and fold it over the string. Play around with flags and sails to make your boat your own. Derby Mom 360: Paper Boats for a Nautical Themed Party

SHIPS AHOY!

Congratulations, you’re done. These make great party favors, centerpiece accents or a fun photo shoot proper for a bath or kiddie pool.

Nautical Themed Party Decor

Pinwheels, Boats & Buntings for a Themed Party

For my son’s first birthday, I wanted to do a themed party. Nothing too cutesy or baby-ish. Something for a little boy that was also fun for the adults present. As a woman who loves almost anything that comes in navy stripes or has an anchor on it, I figured nautical was the way to go!

Here are some quick and easy how-to’s in order to host your own nautical themed party whether it be for a birthday or a just a festive summer BBQ. Each tutorial has nautical themed printables so you’ll need very minimal supplies and design skills to make any of these projects. Click on the pictures below to get started!

: Paper Boats: Sails & Flags

: Pinwheels: Stripes, Anchors & Solids

: Bunting: 12 Different Flag Patterns

: Cake Topper: Miniature Bunting

Derby Mom 360: Mario Kart Tourney Brackets

Derby Mom 360: Mario Kart Award Ribbons

CAKE TOPPER BUNTING SUPPLIES: PRINTED PAPER EXACTO KNIFE & MAT SCISSORS RULER GLUE STRING STRAWS

Printable Cake Topper Flags Font – Hagin Caps Medium