American Idol -10yr- Family Room Transformed

American Idol Party!  My daughter is turning 10 and wanted to do an American Idol party since she enjoyed watching Kelly Clarkson!  We moved some of the furniture out of the living room and set up a "stage".   On our ceiling over our fireplace we have a recessed light that served as the spotlight on the stage.  We made the stage out of pallets(used by forklifts to carry large items at most wharehouse stores-which you can usually get for free if you ask), with a piece of plywood over the top.  I covered the plywood with cheap plastic tablecloths that I used a staple gun to secure down. 

I also ran lines of heavy duty string across the back of the stage that I used to hang more plastic tablecloths-longwise-on.  I folded the end of the tablecloth about 2 inches over the string and stapled it down.  Then I ran more string down the side of the living room and did the same thing with the tablecloths making a curtained hallway from the hall that goes to the bedrooms to the backside of the stage curtains.  This way the girls could walk from the bedrooms to the waiting area behind the stage without ever being seen, where they would wait to be announced. 

I used my Christmas lights to line the string  and the stage for visual effect.  When the girls started arriving we immediately ushered them to the back bedroom, where we had stations set up for hair, make-up, and jewelry.  We asked on the invitation for them to come "dressed to perform"!.  I also had extras for anyone who came and felt "underdressed"!  I had a karoke machine set up with 2 microphones(in case of duets) and a built in tape recorder to record the girls songs, which served as their party favor.  In the back they could pick from a list of songs that they wanted to sing from and for the really shy ones, they could opt for a duet.  I had words to popular songs printed out in case they needed them. 

Then we introduced them one at a time to sing.  I asked a few moms to sit at a table at the back of the living room as judges and decide who was in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  There were chairs, and the couch's for other parents and siblings to sit and watch(which served as the audience).  Another option is to find a disco ball, strobe lights, or a fog machine for visual effects.  Later I also thought of making the girls "backstage passes" which wouldn't be hard to do.  When "the show" had ended the girls lined up to hear the judges results and the 1st place winner was awarded a (cheap)boquet of flowers and a (cheap)trophy, the 2nd place winner was given the same boquet of flowers and a ribbon, and the 3rd place winner was given just the flowers. 

All of the girls were then given a fake rose purchased from The General Dollar Store for 2 for a dollar. This worked because the girls were old enough that not everyone had to win the same prize.  For younger kids, everyone could be a winner.  Then I had a cake which was shaped and iced to look like a microphone and also pizza for the girls to eat.  After that the girls played around on the karoke machine until time to go, which they enjoyed as much as the show.  The whole affair lasted about 2 hours. 

For the invitations, I went to a scrapbooking store and got green sheets of stock paper(stiff paper)and a colored type of die cut that was a stage with lights on the top(made by Generation Next), this was really cute!  I took the paper and ran it through the printer to print the info. In a certain place on the paper(in the middle of the stage it was cut out for a picture, but I chose to print the info.there.)and then glued the stage around the printing. 

I wrote "You have been chosen by (name of birthday child) to appear on The American Idol Show!  Please appear "dressed to perform" for the live taping of the show on (date) at exactly (time) at the address listed below: address  To reserve your spot on stage please call the stage manager (child's mom's name) at: (phone #).  When the mom's called I informed them that we would be doing the hair and make-up.  Then I simply folded the paper over and used white, round, garage sale stickers to fold over the open side of the invitation, to hold it closed, and printed the address of who it was to on the front, stuck a stamp on it and mailed it! No envelopes! 

In the thank you notes I included a group picture with all of the girls all "done up".   This birthday was a huge success as all little girls love being in the spotlight and feeling like a celebrity!  And best of all it was all done for under $80.00 including food!