Kids Birthday Party Ideas » Cardboard

Rapunzel Theme Party for Kids

Elsie — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:14:43 +0000

A Rapunzel fairytale theme party is especially suited for girls from the ages of 4 years to 11 years old. At the age of 4 they can really start to understand fairy tales and at 11 they are old enough to begin to enjoy the romance one normally finds at the end of fairy tales.

Rapunzel Theme Invitation Cards:

Invitation cards can be in the form of a tower with a small cut-out for the window on the front page. Decorate the front of the card with two yellow braids made from wool or crochet cotton and dried herbs.

Another idea (and I love this one) is to make your card from paper that can be planted afterward. It will really suit the Rapunzel theme so well.

I found this very good tutorial on how to make your own paper filled with seeds at the thriftyfun site – complete with planting directions.

Decorations and welcome activities:

Obviously a tower will be one of the main features of a Rapunzel theme party. You can make one from a large, sturdy cardboard box – (ask at your local furniture shop for the type that new fridges and cookers are packed in). Using a craft knife, cut out a window on the upper part of the box; paint the box (using brown and yellow or grey and black paint) to resemble bricks.

Make two braids from thick yellow wool or yellow stockings and attach them to the inside of the “window sill”. (You can also use strands of twine or fairly thick rope). Decorate the sides of the cardboard box with lots of ivy or branches to give the illusion of thorn bushes growing against the tower walls.

Make a wig with long braids from yellow wool for every girl that will attend the party and make cardboard crowns for the boys.

Place a small table or chair inside the tower and let the birthday child hide inside on the day of the party. When the party guests arrive, they have to call “Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your long hair”, whereupon the birthday child will appear in the window, let the attached braids fall down and then hand out the wigs and crowns to her party guests. The guests will then be led to the party table where they will enjoy some witches’ froth while they are waiting for Rapunzel to appear after the prince has saved her.

Rapunzel Theme Party Table Decorations/Colour Scheme

Choose green and yellow colours for the table decorations – (green for the forest and herbs in the garden, yellow for Rapunzel’s hair) – According to information and photos on Wikipedia, the rapunzel or rampion herb has lovely lilac flowers, so you can bring this into your colour scheme as well.

Decorate the table with herbs or other leaves and twigs. If you have lavender or any other purple/lilac flowers blooming in your garden, add this too.

Place a few cardboard towers filled with candy or crisps among the leaves and flowers. Download your free printable tower candy holder (right-click and choose the Save Link/Target As option to download the file to your computer)

Rapunzel Theme Party Food:

The birthday cake can be in the form of a castle or why not try to make a faux tower cake …

Make sandwiches with coloured and flavoured butters, add some sturdier food like cheesy polony and egg pies for the lads…

Click here for the Rapunzel theme food ideas:

Rapunzel Theme Party Games:

Games: If you have a sturdy wall in your garden, you can let hubby help you to attach a few rope ladders to the top edge or else just make a few knots in thick rope and attach firmly to tree branches.

The party guests can also play hide and seek and adapt the call of the enchantress and the prince (“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair”) to suit their names. The child that is out, must then go into the cardboard box tower and “let down” his or her hair – (the braids that were attached to the window sill).

Rapunzel Theme Party Activities:

Keep the party guests busy with some craft activities that can also double up as party favours…

As always, have fun planning your kid’s theme party!

Favour Bags full of Goodies – Step by Step Tutorial

Elsie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:34:13 +0000

Let your child or children share in the excitement of an upcoming theme party by making the favour bags.

Once they get the hang of it, they will be able to finish a few bags in no time at all.

Once the favour bags are made, they can get creative with decorating it to suit the theme of the party.

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to make your own favour bags or even gift bags (why buy when you can make it yourself?)

First off you will need some empty cardboxes like cereal boxes, biscuit boxes, etc. (the size of the box will depend on the size of the bag you want to make – if there is no empty boxes on hand, try using a soft-cover book)

Other things you will need:

Scissors
Coloured card or heavy wrapping paper
Double-sided tape or glue
Cardboard
Hole punch
Ribbon, string or cord to match or compliment the paper

Lay box flat on long side of paper, ensuring paper will fold up to cover three-quarters of base.

Wrap paper around box to take circumference measurement, adding 2cm for overlap at side join. Mark dimensions with pencil, remove box and cut out.

Wrap paper around box to measure overlap, remove and open up again. Fold 3-4 cm over to inside at top edge of paper, glue in place.

Idea: Strengthen the places where the holes for the string or cord will be by cutting two pieces of firm cardboard about 3.5 cm wide and just a little shorter than the front and back width of the bag. Put glue on either side of the cardboard and position the pieces of the cardboard along the inside of the bag before gluing the top edges in place.

Wrap paper around box and secure the overlap at the side with double-sided tape or glue.

While the box is still in the bag, fold the bottom edges over.

Secure with double-sided tape or glue

Tip:

For extra strength or a neater finish, you can cut a piece of paper just a little smaller than the base of the bag and glue in place.

Slide box out of bag

Another tip: You can also cut a piece of cardboard the same size as the base and insert it into the bag on the bottom.

Pinch edges of bag together with fingers and crease down sides carefully.

Flatten bag, fold bottom and flatten. Fold bottom back and open bag.

Punch two holes in each side at top, measure the string or cord to the length that you want the handles and add about 5 cm.

Thread the string or cord through the holes and knot the ends. Make sure that the knots are big enough so that the handles don’t come off.

Have fun planning your kid’s theme party!

Play Kits that Work well with Dressing Up Parties

Elsie — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:00:07 +0000

Cardboard boxes are very popular with young kids as they can be turned into tunnels, taped together to form mazes and with a few odds and ends can be turned into cars, an aeroplane cockpit, counters and even buildings.

When you plan a dressing up party theme, these structures made from cardboard will give hours of pleasure to the young ones.

Counter: Use two large, sturdy cardboard boxes and place another long piece of cardboard across – the type that new fridges and cookers are packed in, are especially suited for counter tops.

The counter can be used for a store/shop theme, post office or even a hospital party theme (kids love to play doctor-nurse).

Aeroplane cockpit: Paint a large cardboard box in colour of choice or cover with coloured paper. Stick on a mass of knobs and dials from bottle tops, jars and tubes. Turn the box into a rocket or space ship by covering it completely with heavy duty foil.

Car: Paint or cover the cardboard box, add paper plate wheels and paint a number plate on card, attach to the ox. Use a sardine can key or any unused keys. Coloured tape makes good trim.

Houses and buildings: Cardboard boxes of assorted shapes and sizes can represent almost any type of building, such as a house, garage, farm or castle. Heavy duty foil can be used for the roofs of the buildings. Shoe boxes are especially useful as they can be stacked to make bricks or to build a multi-storey doll house. Pipe cleaners, plasticine and playdough are good for making people, animals, furniture and vehicles.