Star Wars Party- What I Did

I thought I would share some of the things I did to pull the party together. Where I got my inspiration and how I did it. 

The invitation: 
I downloaded the Star Wars font for free HERE.
I found the Star Wars logo through google images. 
I made it in a digital program I have, but I also made another similar version in Picasa
The wording for the invitation came from THIS post.
I had them printed in a 5 X 7 size at Costco with the Luster finish.  
The ones that were sent out were matted with yellow card stock. 



Decorations:
 Decorations pretty much consisted of murals on the windows and Star Wars toys hung and placed around the house. 
I was really inspired by THESE murals.
Even though I was tempted to do something similar I knew I had to keep it simple. 

I covered our windows in plastic, black, table clothes from the dollar store. They weren't thick enough to block out all the light so I had to double them up.  Then, I pulled out my white craft paint and made several dots and stars.  It only took a few minutes to paint all the stars.  I cut the ship from the box one of  my sons presents was in. You can find all kinds of ship images online that you could print and tape on. 


I also did one big wall in the dining room. I drew and cut out the letters while watching TV one night. 

The Robes:
I followed THIS simple tutorial to make the robes.
I bought all the fabric at Walmart for $1.88 a yard.  I used 2 yards for each robe, I was thrilled that they actually had 24 yards of it. I used the scrapes to make the hoods. 
This was the most time consuming and expensive part of the whole party.
I cut them all out while watching a movie and then made it a goal to sew two a day till they were done.  

The Light-sabers:
This was my favorite part of the party.  I love having something crafty for kids to do at parties. Plus using something with padding seamed a little safer than letting them all bring there own light-sabers. I got the idea to use pipe insulation from this post, then I tweaked it to work for us. Sorry things were so crazy, I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the process.
What we used: 
- 3' piece of pipe insulation, the thinnest I could find. (I bought it at Home-depot in 6' lengths)
- 10" piece of PVC pipe(Also bought in longer length and cut down). You'll want it to be just big enough for the insulation to fit snugly inside the pipe.
-3' wood dowel. I bought mine at Walmart for about 55 cents.
- colored duck tape and electrical tape. 

The night before I hot glued all the wood dowels into the pipe insulation. The dowels were thinner than the insulation opening but I made it work. 
When kids arrived they put the pipe insulation(the light) into the PVC pipe(the handle), and we helped wrap the whole thing in tape.  The handle looked best wrapped with gray duct tape and the rest of the insulation wrapped in a bright color. Some kids varied from that combination. I also offered to add details to the handle with black electrical tape and a black sharpie. 
All together each light-saber cost just under $2 a piece.  

Our Jedi Trainer and Darth Vader:
I recruited my little brother to be our trainer.  I paid him a small fee to do a little research and help during the whole party.  I made his tunic with another tutorial found HERE.  

For his boots, I used an old pair of my rain boots and spray painted them brown. 

My sweet husband deserves a huge medal for going along with my plans of him being Darth Vader.  First off, it was a hot day and he was dying in this costume.  The mask and helmet were made for kids and didn't fit his adult head.  And to top it all off he got beat to death by all those boys.  He had a headache for hours. 

But everyone LOVED it. 
We just dressed him in all black.  I made a cape with some fabric I had and the mask was given to us years ago by a neighbor. 

The Cake:
I use THIS cake recipe.
I  used THIS fondant recipe.
I decided not to fight the white powder on the black fondant and make it look like a galaxy.
Instead of a cake stand, I placed the cake on an upside down, black, spring-form pan.

I opted to not make fondant figures,  I know my limits.  
I used toys instead. 
They have these great little holes in the bottom that are perfect for tooth picks. 

The Favors:
I wasn't planning on doing favors since everyone was taking home a light-saber and robe. Then I found these buckets and some star wars game packs in the Target Dollar bins and couldn't resists. I added miniature certificates of completion and a few pieces of candy.

I didn't take pictures of the food, because we just had Little Caesars pizza. I don't believe in making good  food for little boys, it's a waste of time.  We did however wash it down with Yoda Soda (lime sherbet and 7up). The boys loved it. 

Let me know if I forgot anything. I would be happy to answer any other questions.

17 comments:

Laura W. said...

Did I mention you're my hero? :) I love this!

Amy Marshall said...

What a good mama to do all this work! I'm guessing the boys thought it was the coolest party ever!

HelenClyde said...

This rocks! Now I wish my girls liked Star Wars :) We did a huge Harry Potter party last year, though. Preparing birthday parties is the best, and I love how yours turned out. Thanks for sharing!

Mari said...

That is so amazing! I'm so in love with this idea and would love to do it one day for one of my boys. Thank you for taking the time to detail it all!

Anonymous said...

You make me sick.....(I say this with love and a hint of jealousy.)

Jeni said...

Wow! What a lot of work! Next years party will be hard to beat!!!

Sara @ Mom Endeavors said...

Just noticed you found the buckets in the dollar bins. How long ago was that??

Nike said...

WOW! This is such a great idea! Absolutely amazing!

CharityMay said...

my little guy is turning 3 in a couple weeks and wants a "dark bader" (darth vader) party. thank you for sharing your awesome ideas! i was looking at your blog from a link on a completely different post and about wet myself when i saw this. you made my day and his birthday party. you are awesome!

Carrie said...

ummm...okay... can you adopt me? ;) This is amazing... wow. You can see the dedication and love in every photo ;) You've got some lucky kids there ;)

Carrie said...

lol.... p.s... I LOVE the "you make me sick" comment... priceless.

Lm said...

I LOVE IT.......what a wonderful party. Your party looked more fun than the starwars show at Disneyland.

Jennifer said...

You are AMAZING! Thank you for posting your ideas. Do you happen to still have a copy of the certificate that you gave with the party favors? If so, would you either post it or email me a copy. I would really appreciate it!

Nicole said...

Why oh why didn't I see these tins at Target? What a great party!

Steph said...

Looks like you guys had a great party. Wish I had seen this earlier for my son's bday party.

Jennifer said...

Found this on pinterest. my son will be 5 next week and wants me to make him a star wars cake and i've kind of been freaking out about it LOL This looks very do-able! I think I'm going to try it!! THANKS for putting it out there!!

Gardner Family said...

You have given me such great ideas for my little boys 6th birthday coming up. Thank you! I have a quick question about the cakes and fondant?

Marshmellow Fondant - Is that 1 batch enough for the black covering and yellow line around the bottoms and lettering? Or did you double the batch?

Cake - What size pans did you use for the 2 round cakes? And did you 1/2 the recipe? or use all of it?

Thank you!!

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