Blue's Clues Party 1yr - Mailbox Invite

We had a Blue's Clue themed birthday party for our son Ben (Machine) Franklin's first birthday.   Here's what we did.. 

INVITATIONS: For the invitations I took purple paper and cut out the shape of the mailbox.  I made two mailbox shapes for each invitation.  On one of the mailbox cutouts started a bit below the top and cut not quite to the bottom (basically an upside down letter u) for the mailbox door.  Then I made a line of glue on the back just around the edge and glued that mailbox shape onto the other one. Then I folded down the "door" to make a good crease.  Now I had a mailbox shape where if you opened the door there was a little pocket inside.  Then I took a lighter shade of purple and cutout the shape of the door ( I opened the door and put the paper underneat and traced it).  Then I glued that to the front of the door to make the face.  Then I glued out two white ovals (eyes), a red capital letter u (the mouth), and a red flag for each invitation.  I glued the eyes on and drew in the pupils with a blue marker, then glued on the mouth and also the flag onto the side.  You could get some brads and put the flag on so that it moved if you wanted to.  Then I cut out blue triangles for the posts.  I glued the posts onto a sheet of light blue construction paper then glued the mailbox on top.  I drew yellow spirals all over around it and added "Mail Time!" and wrote out the mail song around it. 

For the "letter" I used yellow paper and cut out kind of an envolope pattern.  To make a template for one just draw a square with a triangle on the top, one on each side and on the bottom, trace and cut out as on big shape onto blank paper.  Then you fold up the bottom triangle, the sides and then fold the top down and it looks like a little envelope.  On the front I wrote "Ben Machine" and then the name of the guest where the addreses should go.  Then I drew a little picture of a baby in a diaper with a green on green stripe hat holding a balloon.  For the stamp I printed out a sheet of very small sized pictures of The Machine after he was first born and then cut them out with some scrapbook scissors (pretty cheap at walmart if you don't already have some or if you have a steady hand you could just do it yourself) to make it look like it had a stamp edge. 

On the inside:  On the top section I wrote "I'm (then drew a smily face) turning 1! You're Invited to my (then I drew a paw print and wrote Blue's Clues in it) Birthday Party!" On the left side I made a little house to look like Steve's house out of different colored paper cut into the right shapes (used yellow square for the house, red triangle for the roof, purple kinda upsidedown u with a little blue rectangle for the door and doggy door, then drew on details) but you could just draw it on.  Above it I wrote At: and drew a little arrow, below it I wrote Nana's House.  On the right side I cut out little white circles and drew on a pink border and added details to make tickety with her arms pointing at 5 o' clock. Above her I wrote At: with a little arrow and below I wrote 5:00 pm.  On the bottom section I wrote "Saturday, May the 15th".  Then on all the sections I went back and drew in little yellow spirals around the words and pictures. 

In the center part, the square part, I put a recent picture of Ben Machiney with spirals around it.  I took a picture of him and in photoshop made it to look like he was sitting in a thinking chair and added blue sitting on the arm of the chair wearing a birthday hat, then drew a hat on Benny as well.  Oh, also when I closed it back up I drew Face (from the commercials before and after Blue's Clues) on the bottom triangular section.  Then I stuck it shut with a Blue's Clues sticker and slid it into the mailbox.  I cut out little purple rectangles and glued them folded in half over the mailbox door (at the top, where you would pull to open ya know), then stick doublestick tape onto that to keep the mailbox shut.  I wrote "Pull Here" on those.  You can print out picture frames that look like the one in Blue's living room at nickjr.com.  You can glue those on to manila envelopes and write in the address of your guest to send out these bigger sized invitations.  Or you could just skip gluing the mailbox onto the lighter blue paper and just get oversized envelopes for the mailboxes themselves.  Also if you don't think you could draw a mailbox shape (it's easier then you might think though really) they have a mailbox craft at dltk-kids.com that you could print out and use for a template.   

CAKE:  I went a little nutty and made four cakes.  They have a template for a Blue's Clues cake at dltk-kids.com.  I used that template to make a white cake which I added blue food coloring to and a strawberry cake (that was pinkish red from the strawberry jello in it).  I iced the blue white one to look like Blue and the strawberry one to look like Magenta.  This worked great because of the color of the strawberry frosting would've been hard to dye but I wanted a strawberry cake and with just a little blue food coloring I got a great shade of magenta.  I also made two pawprints (just cut out a couple circleish shapes from the leftover cake after you cut out) for each cake.  Then on the tray between the paws I wrote Happy Birthday with icing.  I also made a smaller Blue cake just for Benny.  I used the Blue craft template at dltk-kids.com for that one.  It's actually for a craft but it's the perfect size for a just for the baby cake (well maybe a bit big but that's why it's so cute.)  They have a birthday hat template that you can print along with it.  Print that out too and cut it out and tape it to the cutout of Blue's head. I did not use the body, just the head and hat. Just cut it out and use for the template and do it the same as the actual cake template.  I also added two little paws on this one.  I put a small cupcake (I actually used a regular size cupcake liner and folded some of the side over itself and taped it to make it smaller and put little chunks of bread with frosting on top since he wasn't really going to eat that part).  I stuck a single candle in that when it was time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candle. 

The other cake I made I did a chocolate cake in a large (I believe 9 by 12) cake pan.  I iced the whole thing with German Chocolate frosting dyed green to look like grass.  Then I took a pound cake and cut it in half.  I put one half (curved side down) at one end of the cake and iced it yellow.  With the other half I started at the top (curved side up) and cut down at an angle on each side.  I put this on top of the bottom yellow half and iced it red.  Tada, Steve's house.  Then I used an icing bag and added on the door with doggy door and the doorknob.  I was short on time cuz I burnt my first cake (oops) and made this the day of the party but you could also add windows and spirals to the roof.  Starting from the house I used a light light blue icing to make a little path down to the other end of the cake.  Beaner's big brother Josey happened to have a little car with Blue driving that I put on the path ( got it at Big Lots in a set with I think a little tent and some kind of animal for about 4 bucks).  Then I drew a few little blue flowers around in the grass.  I had also bought some of those little rectangular wafer cookies and graham crackers. I had planned (prior to my burnt cake incident (remember to turn off those burners!)) on using four of the cookies to make a little sandbox with crushed graham crackers as the sand along one side of the driveway/sidewalk.  I also bought gumdrops to use a red one for pail.  You could just use a decoraters bag to ice on the face.  Also at the dollar store or craft section of walmart they have little fencing you can buy that you could put on either side of the house.  Oh, my stove is unlevel so  you have to put the cake in just the right spot for it to turn out level.  Well, I accidentally put it in the wrong spot so I ended up with a cake that sloped down, if you can do this on purpose, do it.  It looked so cute, like I did it on purpose.   

THE TABLE:  I found some pretty swell fabric at walmart for the tablecloth.  It had the pattern of the classic red and white checked tablecloth but it was more a teal and white and it had green, yellow, and teal flowers all over it.  It worked great.  For place settings I got a bunch of yellow folders (3 for a dollar at the dollar store or you could just use construction paper really) and drew yellow spirals all over them with a darker shade yellow crayon.  I put on them a dark blue dinner plate with a kinda teal blue dessert plate on top.  On top of those I set a napkin. I found green napkins with green striped hats with pink balls on top at the party store for fairly cheap.  They weren't Blue's Clue's but you wouldn't know it, the hat was just like Steve's shirt.  I got light green silverware.  I set a fork and a spoon on either side of the plates on the placemats.  I set the forks towards the top of the placemat and stamped (I just made a potato stamp but I'm sure there are pawprint stamps you can buy) a pawprint below it then on the other side I set the spoon down towards the bottom of the placemat and stamped a pawprint above it.  I put the green cups between the place settings.  I put Blue's Clue's stickers on them.  I wanted to get light green cups and draw darker green stripes on them but I didn't find any in time.  For the centerpiece on the table I took part of a box (not very deep but big around, the kind that has a bottom and a lid) and painted it brown.  I filled it with sand and put a stuffed Blue in it.  Then I took a red cup and painted a face on it and glued on a white pipecleaner for a handle to make Pail.  Then I cut a bit of the top off a white plastic spoon and painted it yellow with a face on it to look like shovel.  Then I took my "pail" and put a little water in it and added sand to it and made a little sand castle with it in the "sandbox".  Then I stuck a candle in it so it became a sand cake.  I put two pieces of green construction paper under the sandbox to make a square under it so it stood out more.  Then on either side I added some green, yellow, and blue blocks I snagged out of the boys' toybox.  I put a Blue's Clues sheet I already had over Beaner's high chair at his place setting and we tied balloons on it as well.  I also stamped a pawprint onto his sippy cup.  

DECORATIONS:  OUTSIDE: Benner's Aunt Meg had the idea to decorate one section of the sidewalk with chalk for each guest.  It was so cute. We also drew a trail of pawprints up to the door.  Along side the sidewalk we had Blue's house.  Machine's big brother Josey got one of those little tent house things (I believe they are around ten bucks at walmart) for Christmas last year.  What I did is I turned the plastic outside of the tent inside out and spraypainted it yellow.  Then I spraypainted the top red and painted on with acrylic paints the door, doggy door, windows and spirals on the roof.  I also got some plastic white picket fence (3.50 at the dollar store) to put along each side.  On the door I put a sign that said "Blue Skiddoo, you can too" with an arrow pointing inside.  

INSIDE: Inside the door on the floor I taped some pawprints I printed out from nickjr.com.  Right inside the door on a little table I put the house/car cake. On the coffe and end table I put all the blue, yellow, and green toys I found in my house.  Now there's a cheap, easy way to decorate, just find all the toys you have in your theme's colors and put them all over.  Also on the coffe table I put two big photo cubes.  On each side of the cubes there was a picture of Ben for each month. The first one was his first six months, the second one from there till his one year old picture (the one I used in the invitations)  I put them so Ben's hospital picture was showing on the top of the first cube and his birthday picture was up showing on the other.  I covered a little table with the tablecloth fabric for gifts. I used two shades of green twisted together and two shades of blue twisted together for the crepe paper/streamers and yellow balloons with green and blue ribbon.   

THE BUFFET: On the buffet I had bought a big red pail and painted pails face on it for the potato salad.  For the punch:  Use a beverage tub with blue plastic ball ice cubes (those little balls with water in em that you freeze, 2 dollars at target) and blue punch to look like a little tub to bathe in.  I sat it on a baby towel that draped down the side of the buffet.  Next to it was (supposed to be, but she suddenly turned up missing) Bathtime Blue. Around it also were some little yellow, green, blue bath toys (dollar for the pack at the dollar store) and I made Slippery.  I took the box from a bar of soup and painted it a pale purple.  I cut the flaps off of the bottom and cut the arms out of them and taped them to each side.  I added detail with a purple crayon, pink paint for the mouth and marker for the eyes.  I also drew some bubbles out of plain ole white paper and drew detail on them with the purple crayon, glued them to on the front down at the bottom.  That's it.  Then I just set Slippery next to the punch.  Also I made some raspberry ice Crystal Light for those that couldn't have sugar.  I put it in a clear pitcher with yellow and blue top (dollar at the dollar store) and painted a picture of magenta on it and wrote Magenta Lemonade.   

THE CLUES:  There is a big ole mirror above the buffet with three sections.  This is how I decorated it but you could use these decorations on the wall.  I bought a yard each of light purple, pink, and yellow fabrics (got them all from the dollar bin at walmart).  With the yellow fabric I made the kitchen from Blue's Clues.  I drew on the table, fridge, and utensil rack and painted them all.  Then I drew and painted the border to the bottom of the wall and drew and painted the diamond pattern for the floor.  I printed Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper off of dltk-kids.com and taped them onto the table.  Then I painted a slice of birthday cake on the table then cut out a pawprint and taped it onto the cake.  Then I cut out a word bubble and wrote "We did it! We have found za first clue.  It's on za cake!" and taped that above Mrs. Pepper.  I then taped the whole piece of fabric up on the first section of the mirror.  The second section I painted on the peach stripes and pink squiggles to make the wallpaper in the living room.  Then I folded a yellow piece of paper into four and cut out the four pieces, glued them together to make a frame.  Then I cut out circles and painted spirals on them to glue onto the frame to make the picture frame in the living room.  The I cut out pieces of construction paper to make a felt friend and drew a word bubble next to him.  It said "There's the second clue in the thinking chair!" On the buffet in front of that piece of fabric I sat the thinking chair.  The thinking chair was actually an inflatible chair Josey already had that I spraypainted red and added detail with black paint.  In the thinking chair was a birthday party hat I made by just taking a green piece of paper rolling it into a cone and taping it to stay put then I added light green stripes and tore a piece off of a pink plastic bag to make the ball on top (to match the hat on the napkins).  I glued the second pawprint on that.   With the light purple I painted white dots all over it and drew on Blue's bed, picture frame above the bed and the night table to make Steve's bedroom.  I cut out a big pink circle and glued a smaller white circle on top to make tickety.  Sat that on top of a piece of white paper then took a marker and drew legs and the button and bells on the paper.  Then when I lifted up the clock I just cut out and taped on the other pieces.  Made a word bubble "I found the last clue! It's in that picture frame!"  Above Steve's bed was the purple picture frame (made the same way as the one in the "living room" but with purple.  I glued the frame onto a white piece of paper that I'd printed a picture of Ben onto.  I glued the third pawprint onto that.  I cut out two green and three yellow big squares.  I painted on a small black border around the two green ones.    I drew with black marker on red paper the thinking chair and cut it out and glued it on the first green paper.  On the three yellow squares I drew simple pictures of a cake, a party hat, and Ben Machine.  On the other green square I wroter Happy Birthday Ben!  I taped them all  in a row to the front of the buffet.  I painted some white pipecleaner red and made the spiral for the notebook which I taped on top of the buffet over the two green squares.   

FAVORS: I made a mailbox by just setting an empty pasta box up on its side and taking a pieces of purple construction paper and glueing it over the top from one side to the other, it just naturally curved.  then i stood the box up on a piece of lighter purple paper and traced around the front of it.  I folded the paper in half and cut it out.  On the flap of the box I glued the two pieces one on either side and then the two together to make the door.  The just drew on the face and cut out and glued on a flag.  Party favors (Blue's Clue's magnetic fridge frames) in yellow envelopes inside.  You could also buy and paint an actual mailbox and put candy and stickers in teh envelopes.  The swell thing about this party was that it was definitely a Blue's Clues party but I actually only bought one Blue's Clues thing (the picture frames).  I hope this helps someone.  Happy Birthday Benny!