When I saw the coming attractions for Tinkerbell's new movie The Pirate Fairy, I knew right away that it would be the perfect party theme for my daughter Lilianna's 4th birthday. For starters, it would work great for both girl and boy party guests. It's always a challenge making boys happy when the theme is super girly, like a Tinkerbell themed party. After watching the movie with the birthday girl, it sealed the deal. Lilianna was on board with the theme and I went into full blown party planning mode! Here are a few of my ideas.
For the invitation, I printed all the information on a piece of card stock. I added a pirate ship and a compass stamp to give it a more "pirate" feel.
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Rip the edges of the invitation and crumble up the paper. This will give the invitation a weathered look.
Next, I used coffee to age the paper. Brew a strong cup of coffee. Lay the invitation down on a cookie sheet. Then, with a sponge brush "paint" the invitation with the coffee. Bake the paper at 220 degrees for 10 minutes. The paper will come out of the oven dry. If it still feels wet, put it in for another minute or two.
To assemble, roll the invitations and wrap it with a cotton string.
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| Finished invitation |
My daughter had a very specific request that Zarina, the pirate fairy, come to the party. Since the movie was just released, it was impossible to find a Zarina costume. Where there is a will, there's a way, right? So I went to a thrift shop and found a green strapless dress for $15. I glued gold buttons and trim to the front and cut the hem so it looked ragged. Using black fabric, I made a sash and covered it with red and white rhinestones. I had a pirate type shirt in my closet to use for underneath the dress. With the addition of white fairy wings, hoop earrings, a blue headband and high brown boots, we had a Zarina costume!
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| Our little cousin, Emily played the part of Zarina for the party |
For the favor, I made pirate ship cupcake holders. I found mini bins at the Dollar Tree. Four bins for $1, what a deal! They worked perfectly as the base of the ship.
To make the ship's sail, I used 5X7 index cards and "aged" them using the coffee technique like the invitations above.
I used a skull and crossbones paper punch as the embellishment on the sail. If you do not have a similar paper punch, you could print a picture of a skull and crossbones before "aging" the paper.
Using a standard hole punch, punch holes at the top and bottom of the sail. Then thread a 12" dowel through the holes to create the sail. Hot glue a small piece of styrofoam to the bottom of the ship's base. Using brown paper bags, cover the styrofoam at the base. Then stick the dowel through the paper, into the styrofoam.
Now comes the fun part, decorating the cupcakes!
I bought all kinds of pirates booty at the Dollar Tree. The cupcake picks were purchased at The Christmas Tree Shop.
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| The "sand" is crushed graham cracker crumbs |
Each pirate ship held two cupcakes. Wrap the ship in cellophane and tie it with a red ribbon. These were a huge success! All the party guests loved them!
For the cake, I made a sheet cake and decorated it as a pirate's map.
I also made fairy wands for all the girls and gave the boys pirate swords. The wands are available for purchase at my Etsy store, LittleLadyLilys.
Also check out my "Tinkerbell Fairy Finding Kit" party favor post here
I hope you enjoyed these ideas!
