When my son was turning 5, we had his birthday party at an indoor playground that had a planet/space theme. We decided to add it to it and make it a complete "Outer Space" party.
We started by sending out these invitations:
We didn't have to do too much more for decor, since the place was already "spaced out"… but we printed out and made space centrepieces, water bottle labels and party hats.
I used plain red, blue and yellow table cloths on the tables, and added some silver stars.
I also got plain red, blue and yellow plates, napkins and cutlery.
We also ordered a bunch of gold star helium balloons.
The only other decor that I wanted was a hanging solar system, over the main table. I started off looking to purchase one (like this), but then my creative juices started flowing and I decided to make it myself, using the simplest dollar store items.
There are technically 8 planets in our solar system, but I made 9, since I grew up when Pluto was still considered a planet ;)
All you'll need are the following:
- variety of sizes of styrofoam balls
- tissue paper - red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue/purple (scraps are just fine!)
- markers
- twine
- heavy tape or screw hooks
I picked up a variety size pack of styrofoam balls and sorted them out so they were approximately like this:
Take your tissue paper, and rip them into rough strips. You don't need much at all… less than one sheet per planet. If you have scraps left over from birthdays or Christmas, they're the best to use, since they're probably already ripped and wrinkled.
Starting with Mercury: choose your smallest foam ball. Using your glue stick, cover the ball. Take your light yellow tissue paper and put some glue on a strip. Start to cover the ball. The rough look actually gives a great texture, and makes it look more "realistic". Set aside and let dry.
Continue with the other planets:
Venus - orange
Earth - start with blue
Mars - red
Jupiter - start with yellow
Saturn - yellow
Uranus - light blue
Neptune - dark blue/purple
Pluto - light blue
When they're all covered, you can then add more detail to the planets that need it.
For Earth, add some green tissue paper in *kind of* the continents shapes.
For Jupiter, add some strips of red tissue to create a yellow/red/yellow/red pattern. Then using a red marker, draw the "great red spot".
For Saturn, I used a paper plate and cut out a hole in the middle (the size of the foam ball). Cover the plate ring in yellow tissue paper and attach them together with glue stick.
You can then take different shade markers of each colour and add more dimension to each planet.
When they're all done, cut 9 lengths of twine and glue gun each one to the top each planet, so they can hang from the main line.
Finally, attach a long piece of twine from one wall to another (I used a crazy amount of heavy duty tape, because it was temporary - just for a couple hours - but if it's something more permanent, I would use screw hooks into the wall, and tie the twine on each hook.)
Then loosely tie each planet (in order…lol!) to the main line. Because it's a loose tie, you can drag them on the line, and centre them where works for your decor. That's it!
When the kids came into the party room from the playground, we gave each one a party hat and glow stick chain. While they were eating, they were playing with the hanging planets (thank goodness the tape on the wall held up!)
Finally, in place of party bags, we gave each child a cool "spacey" fibre optic lamp. Believe it or not, we got them from the Dollar Store for only a few dollars each! Check them out on Amazon here.
The lamps came in cylinder shaped plastic containers, so we decided to make them into rocket ships to stick with the theme. Using construction paper, we cut circles and made cones for the top… and triangles for the bottom of the ship. Then with red, orange and yellow tissue paper, we made fake flames. We attached a thank you note to the front and a picture of the lamp, so they'd know what it is!
Needless to say, the kids thought they were the coolest things ever!
When kids are at this age, they go to so many friends birthday parties… why not make yours memorable?! :)
Happy crafting!
Comentários