Friday, November 23, 2012

Minecraft inspired Birthday party


My kids love Minecraft the video game.  They play it together and separately and sometimes with me.  I'm secretly a Minecraft junky too (shh, don't tell).  When they aren't playing it they like to pretend they are in the game and our house turns into a mining/ building/ construction zone.  This is why I wasn't the least bit surprised when Myles and Marina both asked for a Minecraft birthday party.  I actually got a little bit excited because this is something I'm pretty familiar with and I knew we could make it really fun.  




If you're not familiar with the game, the most important thing to know is that everything is in blocks.  The buildings, the ground the monsters are all very blocky and square.  The idea behind the game is that you have to mine materials to build your house, town or city to protect yourself against the monsters that come out at night.  I wanted to incorporate blocks and the organic, rustic feel of the game into their party. 


The Decorations








It all started with these little paper printable Minecraft characters and blocks I found at PaperMinecraft.com and Minecraft Papercraft.com .  I printed them out months in advance just to let my kids play with them.  I was surprised they survived all the way to the party.  They were the perfect paper accent to our dessert table and a wonderful party favor to take home. 





To make the windows look like the Minecraft pixelated glass I outlined them in masking tape.  I saw this on Pinterest of course and can't seem to find the source now, but it worked wonderfully. There are quite a few very creative parties online.  





Crafts and fun stuff



The girls started out making jewelry boxes out of small plastic Chinese takeout boxes that I ordered from Oriental Trading company years ago. They used stickers from Martha Stewart, with buttons and ribbon to embellish their boxes.  



Then they made beaded bracelets to go in the jewelry box. 



Along with the bracelets and jewelry boxes I had headbands waiting for the girls with twisted fabric flowers. 



For the girls treat bags I added some ruffle and flowers to store bought canvas bags, that I found at Kauflands. Since it was such a boy oriented party I wanted to emphasize the "craft" in Minecraft for our girls, with fun crafty activities and crafty treats.  





For the boys of all ages I painted boxes to look like Minecraft masks.  We also had a cardboard minecraft swords that I made and canvas bags with a felt creeper on the front for the boys to take home. 


The Food




The birthday cake was a creeper head.  He is that green bad guy sitting next to the cake, that likes to blow up and destroy everything around him.  Myles loooves green so it was a no brainer what the cake should be.  I saw several versions of this online and just tried my best to recreate it without making it look too sloppy.  That probably didn't happen, I think it looks pretty sloppy, but Myles didn't care. He thought it was awesome. 




Marina requested I make an actual Minecraft cake.  In the game you can make cake and it looks exactly like these.  They are little brown squares with white on top and a  sprinkling of red squares.  Instead of cupcakes we had these little square cakes with white butter cream and red chocolate squares on top.  They were my favorite. 



There are also little red topped mushrooms in the game, which I replicated with marshmallows coated in red chocolate. 



The Red Stone is a stone that is used for electrical purposes.  I created a pop rocks chocolate candy for this that was really fun to eat. 



There were also chocolate covered Pretzel Torches,


We had green Zombie Boogies, since there are zombies in Minecraft.  I found the recipe for Green Zombie Boogers at Paper & Parcel.  A genius idea of dying caramel corn green and calling it a booger.  I love creative bloggers. 


Green Jello jiggler Slime Balls,



Creeper Crispies, which were just green rice krispy treats with a chocolate creeper face. 



There was Creeper Juice, or green HiC.  



Thanks to my husband we had a few not so sweet dishes.  He made Capresse mushrooms with mozzarella and cherry tomatoes on top.  



He also made a wonderful mushroom soup by Barefoot Contessa (one of my favorite ladies).

We had pizza cut into squares with square pepperoni, but I sadly forgot to take a picture.  There was a lot of food. 





To go along with the square blocky theme I cut the ice cream into squares, which made it very easy to serve.  


Happy Birthday Marina and Myles.  My two crazy Miners.  

~Sunny~


Gotta give Credit to

Photography: Sunny Duran and Laura Scott
Cake and all baked goods: Sunny Duran
Party printable decorations: Sunny by Design
Paper printable Minecraft characters can be found at PaperMinecraft.com and Minecraft Papercraft.com

Green Zombie Booger recipe from Paper & Parcel
Mushroom soup recipe from Barefoot Contessa
The company Mojang for the wonderfully awesome game of Minecraft


Playlist

If you're as nerdy and geeky as we are you might like our Minecraft playlist. I found all of these on iTunes.

Creepers are Terrible (a Minecraft Parody) by Dreamreaver23
Mine By Minecraft Parody by Dreamreaver23
Kingdom(a Minecraft parody) by Dreamreaver23
Skelly Heart (a Minecraft parody) by Dreamreaver23 
Revenge (Minecraft Creeper song) [feat.CaptainSparklez] by TryHardNinja
Minecraft World (feat. Brad Knauber) by Pedro Esparaza
Redstone: A Minecraft Parody by Brad Knauber
I Found a Diamond(feat. Tyler Clark& Bebop Vox) by Brad Knauber














21 comments:

  1. THAT IS SO COOL!! My son would love that!! His pumpkin this year was inspired by Minecraft. My house is the place to go to play...we always have neighborhood kids here playing that game. I'm gonna pin this :D

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    1. Hehe, we had Minecraft pumpkins too. It sounds like you are the cool Mom.

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  2. Very cool! For the Minecraft Cake, did you use a square cupcake mold?

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    1. Thanks. Yes they are Wilton I think. Someone gave me the pan and I remember thinking what will I ever use this for? It worked perfectly.

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  3. Can you give me advice on the cake. Where to start and what to do!

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    1. I would love to. Have you ever worked with fondant? It might be easier to just email me, sunnybydesign@gmail.com

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  4. This is adorable. My bf's nephew is turning 13 and he's a huge minecraft fan. I'm googling images of rice krispie treats to make that are minecraft themed!!!

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  5. That looks like an awesome party. My wife found these custom made lego minecraft toys on etsy that she used as cake toppers. The cake looked amazing and the kids loved it. Just another great idea!

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  6. I LOVE the music!! Cracking up as I download for tomorrows party! Thanks for the Zombie Boogers cups :)

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    1. Ya my kids love to listen to it in the car even. Some of those artists are pretty good.

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  7. Wow, that is over-the-top amazing. I cannot imagine the hours you put into making this so incredible. Nicely done!

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  8. Hi there!! Just curious if you would share the recipe for the the pop rock candy...

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    1. I would love to.
      One bag white chocolate chips or one bag red chocolate candy melts
      Two packets strawberry pop rocks
      2 Tbs crisco
      If using white chocolate chips you'll need red food coloring.
      -Melt the chocolate or candy melts and crisco in a bowl in the microwave. Stiring every 15 seconds.
      - once melted add the red food coloring until it is the color you want and stir well
      -then gently fold in the pop rocks into the melted chocolate.
      - poor mixture onto a wax paper covered cookie sheet to cool.
      - once cool, break or cut the hardened chocolate apart.
      - then watch people's eyes light up when they eat this crackly confection:)

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  9. Did you use cardstock or regular paper for the characters and blocks that you printed out and put together?

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  10. Hi! We were recently planning a Minecraft party and we wanted to get the printable containers. I went to your Esty shop and I couldnt find them...? Please let me know! :)

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    1. The printable wooden containers are back in the shop. Sorry for the delay.
      https://www.etsy.com/listing/116183554/mining-party-printable-35-wooden-treat?ref=shop_home_active

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  11. Hello Sunny,

    Love everything you have done here. Where did you get the signs for the food?

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    1. Well thank you. The food labels can be found in my shop. https://www.etsy.com/listing/116181988/mining-party-printable-food-tent-labels?ref=shop_home_active

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  12. How do I make the sword I think its really cool I like to play Minecraft a lot and think you are very creative

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  13. Thanks. I cut the swords out of cardboard boxes and painted the pixels on them. You can buy them now out of foam online, although it's more expensive than a cardboard box.

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Of course I would love to hear your comments and thanks for dropping by.