Gettin’ my Pirate on!

Phew…pirate party done! It sure was a fun day around here with all the little swashbucklers around! I know pirates is a popular theme these days for kids birthday parties so I thought I’d share some easy crafty party ideas with you.

Pirate Cupcakes: to get the cupcake in the shape of a skull place 2 small wads of aluminum foil in the muffin pan between the cupcake wrapper and the pan. Do this after you pour the batter and don’t fill the cupcake liners more than 2/3 full. Click here for a egg/dairy free recipe (great if you have guests who have an allergy or are vegan!) Beware, I love cake and I may crash your party if you make these…I’m not kidding!

Creepy cupcakes!

Eco-Friendly goody bags: Stamp a brown paper lunch sack for a quick creative goodie bag. Fill them with kid friendly snacks such as goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, peanuts etc instead of cheap plastic made in china party favors that will be thrown in the trash before the night is out. Plus if the kiddos munch on peanuts and crackers on the way home it can offset the sugar in the cake & ice cream making for a more pleasant child. The other moms will thank you! PS you can make your own stamp as I did here. Carve a simple design out of a potato (if you are only planning to use it for a day or so),an eraser or easy cut block as I did. A custom stamp in minutes and you can use it with paint or ink! I also tore and inked the top edge of the bag for effect.

Make custom decals: I used my trusty Cricut and scal software to create pirate themed decals for my walls. I used scrap self adhesive vinyl given to me from the local sign shop and cut elements from these free fonts: ArmandaPirata, Storybook, and Evilz. Use pressure setting “3” so it will cut through the vinyl but not the backer. For the detailed ship I cut the image, peeled off the extra vinyl then pressed Contact paper over the design and peeled the image off. Then I stuck it to my cabinet and rubbed it firmly with a scraper (you can use a credit card) and peeled off the contact paper. The ship was perfectly positioned and i didn’t have to stick each piece on individually. My hubby wants a decal for his car now!

How about a Fruit Cake? I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine…now that is a weight watchers cake! The kids loved it and had their fill of fruit before the sweets!

Thanks for reading this LOOOOONG post. Stay tuned because I have a giftie for my faithful blog readers. I told myself that I would do a giveaway when I hit 10,000 hits and holy cow we are almost there! Keep your eyes open in the next day or too for some crafty goodness, and tell your friends to visit too!

Have a great weekend,

Lindsay