Minecraft Birthday Party - the Set-up

Gavin LOVES Minecraft so when I was figuring out what to do for his birthday I instantly thought of MINECRAFT!  Of course, I have never played Minecraft before so that made it a little more difficult - but there were lots of ideas on Pinterest (I have a Minecraft board if you want more ideas).  Everything in Minecraft is SQUARES so that made it a little easier.  But everything in Minecraft is pixelated - not so easy.  Most of the decorations are of a CREEPER - the big green guy with black eyes, mouth, and nose.  

I made this CREEPER out of small, colored paper plates - the fit perfectly in my kitchen window!

 I ordered three square green lanterns online and added the CREEPERS face with black construction paper and tape. So simple.  I hung one from my chandelier along with some other balloons and then the other 2 from the sconces that are next to my kitchen window.

 I made this big CREEPER out of cardboard boxes and butcher paper.  I just wrapped each box like a present and stacked them - so simple!  And pretty cheap!

 Here is a bigger picture showing my CREEPER window and chandelier.

I liked my window CREEPER so much that I made another to put behind the food table.

 I bought MINECRAFT bingo (a digital version I printed) on Etsy (HERE - just didn't have the time to make it myself) - that is what the cards are on the table.  The head/box in the middle is the character STEVE from the game.  I bought 11x11x11" boxes and printed the STEVE pattern I found online.  I found GREAT instructions on how to get it printed online as well (HERE)  I took the file to FedEX Office to get it printed.  My kids LOVE the STEVE heads.

 In the family room, I had tables set up for the boys to make their own MINECRAFT SKINS (sounds gross but is just their own faces out of squares).

You have to have a Happy Birthday sign but with the CREEPER in the window, I had to hang it here - I actually liked it there.  I usually made my banners but again, I didn't have the time so I bought it (a digital copy) on Etsy as well (HERE).

 I made a second CREEPER out of cardboard boxes to put on the front porch.

Now to the food table.  Apparently there is all kinds of food in MINECRAFT.  I saw so many places that people had already made tags/labels for the food that I didn't want to waste time (that I didn't have) on recreating them.  So I bought those on Etsy as well (HERE).

But my FAVORITE find for this party is the frames that the food labels are in.  I will use these ALL the time.  I got them at IKEA for $0.99 each - what a deal!

The food ended up being SUPER EASY to do.  Most of it was just store bought candy.  I did make the coal - rice krispy treats with black food coloring dropped in little mounds onto wax paper.

The COOKIES were chocolate chip cookies from National chocolate chip cookie day the week before (silly I know but we had to have chocolate chip cookies that day).  The WATER is just blue Jello jigglers - so simple.

The CREEPER JUICE is just the small Sprite bottles with the labels removed and black electrical tap placed to make the CREEPERs face.

The cake was pretty easy to make - actually, incredibly easy.  I made 2 pans of Jello jiggles so I would have plenty for the WATER part of the cake (cut into squares) and the WATER shown above.  I made a pan of Rice Krispy treats and cut them into squares (I LOVE Rice Krispy treats - so I didn't mind having leftovers).  Then for the "land" I made 2 cake recipes in one big pan, cut it into squares and stacked.  I frosted all the "land" with green frosting and then used the Wilton grass tip to make the grass.  Then I made the STEVE and CREEPER guys from paper.  I got the patterns online (HERE).

 I added these spider/Enderman things at the last minute (since I had a minute before the party started).  

 I also made CREEPER shirts for all the party guests (and my little 3).  So so easy!  I will post about how to make those later.  The boys all LOVED the shirts.

 Brecken and Cameron were very excited for the party!

 Here is the birthday boy - all ready for his party!  

I will post about the party soon.  But I was happy with how it all looked before the crazy 8 and 9 year old boys arrived.