For today's Dollar Store Craft I want to share what we did for Buzz's 6th birthday party last weekend. He really wanted a party with a Despicable Me theme. (If you haven't seen the movie yet, I definitely recommend it. It's so much fun!) Of course we had to have some fun decor -- so I bought a couple posterboards at the dollar store and cut out some minions for the walls. I found a bright yellow disposable plastic tablecloth at Walmart for a little over a buck, which I ended up cutting to fit not only my kitchen table but also two smaller picnic tables we brought in. Also found at the dollar store: bright blue paper plates, bright blue and yellow crepe paper streamers, and.... ....SCORE! Scads of bright blue T-shirts in all the kid sizes I needed! I busted out one of my FAVORITE crafty supplies I always keep on hand: Transfer Magic's Ink Jet "Transfer to Dark" heat transfer paper. This stuff is THE BEST. I simply sized some minion images in Photoshop, crammed them all into a 8 1/2" x 11" file, and printed them out on one sheet of transfer paper. I cut them all out while I watched a movie, then ironed them onto the blue t-shirts. Bang! 20 T-shirts for about $22! It was SO FUN to see all the little party-going minions running around in their matching minion t-shirts! Now for the party games: First a project-y sort of thing (you know I can't resist throwing in a creative project!): Cookie robots! My sister (thanks, Lol!) and I cooked this one up over the phone just a few hours before the party. When I went to pick up the cake (there IS a very cute Despicable Me cake available, hooray!), I also grabbed a bag of chocolate chip cookies, a box of Dots, a bag of stick pretzels and some cookie frosting. Ba-da-bing, cookie robots! Each partygoer got to come up with his or her own design. Fun and tasty! Another game: Gru Says! I whipped this Gru scarf together out of some fleece scraps. The idea is that whoever wears the Gru scarf gets to be in charge of Gru Says (Simon Says, of course!) -- and all the minions must follow. I admit, we never got around to actually playing this game at Buzz's party, because another game took over.... A beanbag-toss-type game: In the movie there is a scene at a carnival where the object of a carnival game is to knock over a spaceship to win a prize. In our modified version, I created a cutout posterboard version of the spaceship, taped it to the wall, and stacked some plastic cups in front of it. Each boy had a chance to toss Sleepy Kittens (we HAD to get them in there SOMEWHERE!) at the cups. If they knocked the cups over, they won a prize... ...a Shrink Ray! Or, if you rather, a Freeze Ray! Or Piranha Shooter! Or Octopus Launcher! Or any of the other fun and silly inventions from the movie! Buzz spotted these at the dollar store in three-packs, and he knew immediately that he NEEDED to have them as favors at his party. Genius! I'm happy to report that Buzz's Despicable Me party was a rip-roaring success, with no less than 17 minions running around and having a grand old time. Not too shabby for a dollar store-heavy production! :o)
