Creating a Mario Party Themed Birthday

Decorating for a celebration can be overwhelming, especially if your party theme is hard to find, or non-existent. Like for my son's Mario Party themed birthday party. Specifically Mario party 5 per my sons request, because my son was turning 5 at the time. I think Nintendo since then has re-released Mario Party the game up to 9 times. Hey, it actually makes for a great party theme to recycle through your child's adolescent years. I mean do you ever really grow out of Mario? Plus once you spend good time creating your decorations you probably will want to keep them, and reuse them. To create your own decorations, I suggest using an overhead projector. It makes drawing decorations at a large scale much easier. Plus in doing so, you don't have to spend too much time trying to draw out each character and it allows more time to spend coloring the decorations. You might not have access to an overhead projector but maybe you may know someone who does. Maybe a teacher. If you have school age children, maybe their teacher will allow you a little time afterschool to trace your decorations out onto poster board off the projector. Perhaps you can barter time using the overhead projector in exchange for time helping grade some papers. I'm sure the teacher would jump at the offer!

If you don't want to go the teacher route, then you might be able to purchase a Small Projector from your local Arts & Crafts store. I found one for kids, and it was around $35.00, which is a great price compared to a standard overhead Projector. The draw back of the kids projector is you won't be able to get your decorations to be too large, simply because the kids tracing projector does not project as crisp of lines, and the further away you place the projector from the wall, the image becomes fuzzy and it becomes hard to see where you are tracing.

The game guide instruction booklet that came with the Mario Party game, was very helpful when it came to looking for decoration ideas. I made these poster board spaces that resembled those that are in the Mario Party video game. I had placed these colorful spaces outside leading up to the door and throughout the house. Since these decorations were intended to be stepped on, I wanted to protect them somehow, but wasn't about to pay for each of them to be laminated. $ So here's a little cost saving tip, if you use packing clear tape , you can make shift your own laminating job. Take a strip of clear packing tape, enough to stretch across the entire middle section. Don't worry if the strip is slightly longer, just fold the excess under to the bottom side. It doesn't need to be perfect, just slightly over lap each strip, working your way down. I like to start in the middle, and do one half, then flip it and finish up the other half. I ended up taping these down to the floor so that they wouldn't be moved around, each time someone stepped on them.

I found an image of Yoshi coloring with a crayon, which was so cute! So I made that a decoration, and added in a piece below which resembled the Nintendo logo, except I swapped the N-i-n-t-e-n-d-o letters for my sons name. It came out very cute!

I was so happy when the local video game store gave us the Mario Party 5 poster you see off to the right. My son and I went into the video game store to ask about where we might be able to find Mario Party ANYTHING. I explained that my son chose to have a Mario Birthday Party, and we were having difficulty finding items to complete the theme. I don't know if the guy behind the counter was just having a good day, but without hesitation he walked over to the wall and took down that very poster, rolled it up, and handed it to my son saying Happy Birthday. My son's eyes lit up!

All of the Mario related decorations above were traced onto posterboard and colored in with marker. I used 22 x 28 white poster board. The poster board I used, had two sides. One side was semi-glossy, and the other was flat. If your poster board is like mine, I recommend using the flat side. The glossy side leaves big marker streaks when coloring. These poster board decorations were all colored in with bold bright markers. I would suggest buying a nice new box of markers for this coloring job. The areas are so large that need to be colored in, that you don't want your marker running out of ink. After I colored them all in, I went back over the black lines with a wide tip Permanent marker to make the outline pop.

Sometimes when I found images, they needed some adjustments.

Like this Mario decoration below. He was originally holding a golf club. I swapped out his putter for a pinata stick.

I made the Mario setting background from several poster board decorations and blue cellophane for the sky. I wanted to have a place to take a picture of the birthday boy with each of his guests. You're probably wondering about the mushroom chair. Yeah, well like I said, Mario was majorly on my mind. I was trying to come up with creative ways to tie in the Mario party to anything, and everything. This mushroom chair use to be a horrible mustard tan color and was in definite need of makeover. What better then a Power up mushroom! Am I right...or am I right ;o)

I sent out each picture to his friends with their Thank You cards. This gave guests a nice little memoir to remember the fun they had at the Mario Party Birthday party.

The yoshi statue you see here was made from Paper Mache, and plaster of paris. I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. It took me a few weeks to complete.

Party Hats were just another cute detail I added to the party. I made Bright red Mario hats, and Green Luigi Hats. The hats were made from colored poster board and piece of elastic string. The surprising part was that the kids actually kept these cute party hats on the entire length of the party.

The Mario piñata pictured above was made from paper mache, and decorated with tissue paper. The kids really enjoyed this piñata.

This Mario mushroom is a necklace pouch I made from felt. When the red top of the mushroom was lifted up the white base of the mushroom revealed a small pocket that was meant to hold gold coin party favors.  Rather then awarding prizes after each party game, I awarded gold party favor coins to the winners. Once all the games were played the child with the most coins won the chance to come up first and pick out a prize. This worked out great for the kids. Each child felt as though they won. No one was left out because everyone got a prize. As a parting gift we gave out yellow coin loot bags. The bright yellow bag to the right were blank yellow circular bags that I found on clearance in the cosmetic section. I painted a star on the front to resemble a gold Mario coin and stuffed them with goodies and even added in a personalized thank you tag from the birthday boy.

Looking for items to coordinate with your party, well check these out below. Not what your looking for? Search your party theme above.

Comments

[Velda]

Wow, you really go all out... I don't think I'd find enough time in a year to set up something that neat!

Love the party hat idea too. And thanks for commenting on my blog. :)

[Katy]

Hi, I was hoping that you could give instructions on how you made the paper hats. Your party is great!
Thanks,
Katy

[Velda]

We're gearing up for another Mario party this year and I'm loving your ideas! This time I'm planning ahead, so maybe we'll actually have time to implement a few of these ideas.

[Alice Phillips]

hey.. you are great and very crafty. I find myself in the same situation, but except my son will be 4 and wants just a Yoshi Party...If I pay you to create that Yoshi paper mache again would you do it??? I am making more yoshi things just like you did..Please advise. Thanks and you do awesome work!!!

[Carie - Cool Party Blogger]

Too Funny! Thank you very much for the nice words... However I wouldn't be able to ship such a large Yoshi Statue to you. Between the size and the weight, it would be high shipping cost.
Surprise, Surprise, you will never guess what kind of Party I just threw my daughter this past weekend...."A Yoshi Party". So I will be posting LOTS & LOTS of Yoshi / Nintendo Theme custom party items (with Templates and How To's) over the next several days. Be sure to Check back frequently. I'm sure you will be able to utilize some of these upcoming templates.
:o)

[Brenda TErrell]

Hello,

Your ideas are the best!!! I love this site! I hope you don't mind, but I am definitely going to use some of your ideas for my son's mario theme party coming up. I am a big party planner as well doing all my friends and family kids parties, and like you I tend to go over the top once my creative juices start flowing. I was looking at your game pieces for the floor and I want to do something like that for my "Mario Cakewalk" do you have a template for those? or did you use your famous projector trick?

Thanks!

And please keep the blog coming. I LOVE IT!!!

[Carie~Cool Party Blogger]

Of Course I don't mind... I am happy to share. :o)
I hope you come back and share some of your party pics. I would love to see some of your your cool party highlights.

For the Mario Game Floor pieces I looked inside of a "Mario Party" game instruction booklet. There they outline the entire game, the graphics, characters and what each symbol or icon represents. I referenced many of my custom floor decorations around game guides like that. Some were simple to hand draw, but other more intricate floor icons I utilized my nifty projector. :o)

Thank you for all your nice words.
Best of luck with your party.

[Kathleen Mathis]

Hi,
Your parties are amazing!! I am getting so many helpful and useful ideas from your site! Thank you so much! I will contribute to your tip jar so this wonderfully helpful site can continue to exist!

[Carie~Cool Party Blogger]

Thanks for your nice words. I appreciate the support. It is always nice to come across a thoughtful person who contributes with kindness. It does take work to maintain the blog, and I appreciate you taking notice to the work that goes into it. :o) Thanks-A-Bunch!

[Dana]

Would you happen to have the templates of the game pieces you places on the floor? Thanks Dana
dlanzalone@sbcglobal.net

[Carie ~ Cool Party Blogger]

I do not. But those game pieces are always changing with every new version of each Mario Party video game. My advice would be look to the game manuel of which ever game you are referencing for your celebration. You can find lots of cute ideas there that you can incorporate into your party.

[Shelly Plemons]

I am planning a Mario party for my son in January and being a single mom I am limited on the amount I can spend. I was wondering if you know where I could find Mario birthday party invitations that I can print at home for free. Thank you!

[Ruth]

wow I bow to you, I can't say thank you enough for your amazing ideas which will be so helpful for my sons upcoming 5th Bday

[Carie ~ Cool Party Blogger]

That is very nice of you to say. Can't wait to see pics of your son's upcoming celebration. Be sure to send them, and I will post them for all to see. You can send in your pics to partypics@coolpartyblog.com. :o). Thanks for all your nice comments.

[mommy of 3]

This is the most amazing site. When my son said he wanted a super mario party I couldn't find any party stores that carried mario supplies. So I was so excited when I stumbled on this site. Your ideas are so creative and affordable. I have used almost every idea you have posted and my son is so excited about his party on saturday. Thank you so much. I was wondering if you have any neat ideas for a disney princess theme.

[Carie ~ Cool Party Blogger]

Thank you for making good use of my site. I hope your upcoming celebration is a blast. Be sure to stop back and submit some of your party pics so we can all see. Submit images to the "Cool Party Pics" page.

Haven't yet taken on the Princess theme, but stop back in near future...you never know what theme is going to be customized next.
:0)

[GabyH]

I love your blog!!! i been working really hard for a month making all of your ideas for a mix party of Mario and Yoshi for my 2 kids birthday party. Thanks for all your videos on how to and templates, they help me a lot!!

I am thinking already on next year party, my sons will be 9 and 5 and love legos... any ideas for a "lego party" :)

thanks again.

[Karen]

Can you explain in more detail on how you did that amazing yoshi statue? My nephew would freak if I was able to make that for him. P.S. You are so amazing!

[jessica]

please please lets us know how u made the yoshi thanks

[Carie ~ Cool Party Blogger]

The Yoshi Statue was made using papier-mache. To start I created his form from newspaper, the layered with papier-mache. Then I added a layer of paris of plaster to make it more durable. I was a lot of fun to make! :o)