Thursday, January 22, 2009

Wiiiiiiiiiiii! Party Recap and Free Downloads



We celebrated Pumpkin's tenth birthday this Saturday with a Wii Bowling Tournament for the entire family! This was such a fun party and super easy to put together. The best part about Wii is that adults enjoy it just as much as the kids, so not only did all of the cousins participate, but the adults did too!

The decor for the party was based on the colors of the Wii brand - flourescent lime green, gray and white. For my fellow color geeks, I found that pantone 376 M was the best match to the green for my printer. Using this color scheme and Mii graphics, decorating for the party was a snap. We started with a Happy Birthday banner using the Wii font (continuum) and a bowling ball graphic that I created by layering a vintage-inspired bowling ball clipart with simple shapes for a bolder look. I am working on making this banner available as a free download. In the meantime, you can contact me by email and I will send you the pdf file of the banner. 


As an fun little surprise in the decor, I replaced a framed picture hanging on the wall with our Mii family portrait and waited to see if our party guests would notice. (and they did, slowly as the party progressed. such fun to see the reaction!)



As each guest arrived, they were given a lanyard with their tournament badge featuring their own personalized Mii. Badges were easily laminated using Avery lamination paper.


Hanging on the door leading to the play room (the venue for the tournament) was a chart containing cards for each person's Mii. This was used to create brackets for the tournament. The bracket cards were held in a classroom chart purchased in Target's dollar spot. (dear Target, how did I ever live without you?). 


During a break between rounds, we sang to the birthday boy and enjoyed cupcakes adorned with his Mii, of course. Then back to the tournament. At this point, it was getting really intense!


When the tournament concluded and the winner was crowned (congratualations Petunia!), the guests left with their own Wiimote filled with treats. The wiimotes were made from paper using a pattern found here {via mumbojumbo}. I printed the pattern on 100 lb. cardstock and they were very sturdy, but did take some extra time to fold. Be prepared to spend some time cutting and folding, about 4 minutes per wiimote. 


At first, I thought I would use double-sided tape to assemble these, but quickly decided that hot glue worked much better. To fill the remotes, I put gummy lifesavers (about 14 per remote) in cellophane bags and then sealed the open end of the remote with tape. Ziploc snack bags would work just as well and the long shape would fit nicely into the wiimotes. No significance to the gummy savers, just a safe choice given food allergy concerns in our family.

Reading this over, it seems like this party was a lot of work, but it really wasn't! The party came together very quickly and easily with the most time-consuming task being the Wiimote favors. If you're short on time, Wiimote candy dispensers are available on Amazon and at Walgreens {found via hwtm}.

Now on to the thank you notes - I'll be back with those tomorrow!  {invites were sent via evite due to holiday card season burnout}

ETA: Thanks so much to everyone for all of your enthusiastic emails and comments. You can make Miis at several sites online including miimaker.com

26 comments:

Wecare4much said...

Wow! You always blow me away with your ideas. I have a couple of little boys that would love this kind of party. TFS!

Crafty P said...

Such a fun party. Thanks for all the details, the pdf's, etc! I'm so glad you found those candy dispensers, too, I may have to get more of those in the future.

Who won the tournament? Were there any prizes?

ps. I bought that same classroom chart at T's and have yet to use it! did yours smell of awful cheap plastic, too?

PUMPKIN PETUNIA said...

Petunia won the tournament!

Yes, I had seen the candy dispensers before but wanted to do the paper favors instead. I have this knack for making more work for myself!

re: the chart. I didn't notice a plastic smell and am usually sensitive to stuff like that. Maybe I was too busy with party prep to notice.

Annie said...

This is a ton of fun! So creative! Love it all. I'll be requesting the DL and find a reason (excuse) to have this party! Check out our bowling bundt cake we did this Christmas here: http://www.nofussfabulous.com/?p=2507
Thanks for sharing your talent!

Anonymous said...

This is one awesome party, I'm glad I stumbled upon it. Thanks for the inspiration, and all the tips.

CzaMama said...

Everything turned out SO GREAT!!! Good job, J!!!

Kendra@My Insanity said...

This is great! Make me want to go and buy a Wii, so I can have wii parties! I did a post earlier on Wii parties (especially bowling), if I reference that again, I'll have to send my readers here, too! I love your paper wii-mote and all of the cute mii's. That banner is great, too! Thanks for linking-up to my party party!

Sarah J. said...

Yes, of course you can make a post about the love birdies! I'm glad you like them! Come back any time!

Mrs. M said...

GREAT party! How did you create the Mii's for everyone?

testing 1 said...

Awesome party! We are having a video game party in June and I'm so excited to make the remote boxes. I'll ask too, how do you make the Mii's, like your cupcake toppers?

PUMPKIN PETUNIA said...

Oops! Thought I answered the Mii question. Must have answered someone by email.

You can make Miis at several sites online including miimaker.com.

Jax said...

I love this idea my son wants a wii party. How do you make the Mii's to be able to print them?

Anonymous said...

Can you tell us how you printed out the pictures of each Mii?
Thanks, love your ideas!!!!

PUMPKIN PETUNIA said...

Thanks so much to everyone for your kind response to this party. It was a lot of fun to do!

You can make Miis at several sites online including miimaker.com.

Katrina said...

Your blog is too cute! I am striving to have a blog as nice as yours.. you have great ideas, and I find it ironic that you start with the invite for ideas also. I came up with a good one for my best-friends baby shower but was unable to use it :(
It was a *story book* theme. I started with a invite that had a Once Upon a time border.

Wilda said...

Super cool idea!
Wondering where did you found your lime green chart?
I love green so I have to get one! ;) Thanks for the coolest ideas!

Doug &Tina Freeberg said...

Hi,Where did you get the mii family picture and the mii pictures for the landyards? I am trying to do some pictures like that for our party but haven't been able to figure it out.
Thank you

Sarah E. said...

I'd also like to know where you got your mii characters at. Your banner is great too. The party looks like it was a hit!

Lisa53406 said...

This is a great party. I can not figure out how to make the mii characters. Help please.

Thanks!

Unknown said...

Where did you find your printable Wii-mote boxes? I've been looking every where and don't want to buy the expensive ones. The link seems to be to the Real Parties: site and I don't see it there. Thanks. Also I'd love to get a copy of your banner!

The Bohon's said...

How fun! I would love to do this for my son, do you have the pdf of the banner yet? It's so hard to find new and exciting party ideas the older my kids get, this is awesome. Thanks so much for sharing!

Susie said...

LOVE this idea! I would also love a copy of the PDF banner. Not sure how to contact you by email. Thanks!

Unknown said...

i too would love the pdf of the banner. this is genius...

we had a mario party for my then 7 year old and i spent weeks on that party...this is on my next party list for him....

my email is greta.adams@gmail.com

Jess said...

Hi I think this is a great idea I plan on having a girls night bowling tournament and I think it would be fun to have badges like this for everyone. But the site you listed to use to make our Miis didn't work. Also how did you make them look so fancy?

Anonymous said...

Where did you print the Mii's from. One of the sites that were mentioned previously charge $10 per Mii for a digital download. Is there is a more cost effective one?

yvonne said...

Hi fab idea, would you be so kind as to email me the banner (for my birthday eeek!)

thanks ever so yvonne