Candyland Party -1yr- Giant Game Pieces

Our little girl was about to turn one and we wanted to have her a birthday party that was as sweet as her.  So, I told my husband that I wanted to do the theme Candyland.

INVITATIONS:I made her invitations and told everyone to bring their sweet tooth. Our location for her party was our church. It is very big and it would be perfect for us to have her party there.

DECORATIONS & GAME: To make Candyland come to life I started with drawing and coloring all of the characters.  I went to a craft store and told them that I was looking for foam poster board ($1.00 each board).  I knew that I wanted to make the characters like a game piece.  So, my husband went into the wood craft area and grabbed a wooden circle bases that was a dollar each and thin strips of wood trim. After I got all of the characters drawn we cut the wooden trim into pieces(about four inches) and hot glued one piece on the wooden base and then took the foam board and held that up against the wooden strip while the other person glued the second strip to the base on the other side. To our amazement it stood straight up like a giant game piece.

We repeated the process for all of the nine characters. Then we took two liters that I've been saving and cut off the bottom.  I wrapped each two liter with colored paper then I took paste and rubbed the paper all over. We then rolled the paper into color sugar that we made the night before.  I could've use glitter but I had sugar and food coloring so I used that. They turned out so cute! We transformed our church fellowhip hall into candyland.  We emptied out the room and placed colored cardstock on the floor. We made the trail all the way up to the castle in which my husband helped me make with cardboard boxes and colored paper.  For the rainbow trail and the gum drop pass we used scrapbooking paper.  I then placed all of the stand-up characters where they were supposed to go. We put the type of candy that went with each character in that area. For the chocolate swamp I placed a brown table cloth to make it look like a swamp and then placed the monster in the middle. We closed the doors so that no one would know what was in that room . 

After everyone was done eating my husband asked the kids if they wanted to go to candyland and he made them chant candy. We lined them up in the hallway and opened the doors. They were amazed!!! Every kid got to play the giant version of candyland.  The winner got a gumball machine and a juice bottle that looked like a gum drop(I bought them at factory card outlet for a $1.00..they came in four different colors) But no kid left candyland with out a prize every kid got a juice cup! In the hallway that led everyone to the gym I had candy hanging. This is how I made them.  I took 2 different sizes of cake circle and painted them all different colors. 

While I waited for them to dry I took small styrofoam that I found at Kmart for $ 2.89 for a pack of 12 and paintd them.  By then the cake circles were dry so I made swirls of a different color on them and started to tape a dowel rod on them that I bought at Michaels craft for .29 cents a stick.  We got three lollipop sticks out of one dowel rod.  We took cello wrap and wrapped each one and tied them with a cute ribbon.  They really looked like a lollipops.  With the styrofoam balls we also wrapped them and twisted each end and tied them with ribbon they looked like candy pieces!!!! We hung the candy we made from the ceiling in the hallway with fishing line. In the gym we had the food,cake,candy station and gift table.

DECORATIONS: Here is what we did. For centerpieces I bought small clay pots and hot glues styrofoam in the bottom and a dowel rod in the middle with a styrofoam ball on top and then I took toothpicks and places here and there into the styrofoam and then placed gum drops on them.  The other areas I placed dum dum suckers. I took pink shed that I bought for a dollar a bag at the dollar store and covered the bottom of the clay pot and the top of the ball where you could see the styrofoam.  I took a candy boarder (dollar tree 14 strips to a pack) and taped it around the clay pot then I tied with a bow on the dowel rod and they where done.  I bought gum ball machines for the other tables at the dollar store.  Every other table had a candy tree or a gumball machine in the middle as the centerpiece.

FAVORS: I made bottle labels on my computer with my daughter's name, picture and a picture of candyland on them. I printed them on regular printer paper cut and used zots to attach them to each bottle.  I placed the bottles on each table around the centerpieces.

DECORATONS: I made four balloon colums and placed them into the four corners of our church gym and then took streamer that I bought at Hobby Lobby for .99 cents a roll and connected all of the streamers to the middle.  Then I took a bunch of balloons and attached them to the midddle and the streamers went up in the air.  It looked like a big colorful canopy.  We placed all of the tables under the canopy and decorated all of them. Each table had a different color table cloth.

CAKE:In the center I placed the cake table. I found rainbow fabric at walmart and I knew right this was for my cake table.  Since I make a cakes it was only right that I make my daughters cake.  I took a six by four foot b-board that I bought from a home improvement store and turned it onto it's smooth side and rolled it with colored fondant.  My main goal was to make a big version on the candyland game.

I made the Gingerbread Tree out of fondant and placed it ontp the board. For Peppermint Forest I used white icing and piped it onto the board where the forest needed to go(so it would look like snow) and took peppermints and placed them into the snow". Then for the Gumdrop Mountain I put gum drops in that area.  For Licorice Forest I put red and black licorice in area. Then I put dum dum suckers where Lollipop Forest was and for Peanut Acres I used peanut. For snowflake Lake I used blue fondant and rolled it out to look like a lake and piped snow flakes all over the lake and used purple cake dust and gave it a glittery look to the ice.

For the Chocolate Swamp I took a plastic ornament that you can design with it($1.00 at Hobby Lobby) took one of the side(it comes with two halves to make one ornament) and molded brown fondant on it and made the chocolate monster.  I placed him in the middle of the swap and then I took chocolate icing and spreaded the icing to look like water.  I then took chocolate chips and scattered them on the icing. 

For the Candy Castle.  I bought the wilton romantic castle kit from Michaels( I used a 50% off coupon).  I took white cake mix and seperated the batter into little bowls and colored each bowl with a different color.  I then layered each color of top of the other to give the cake a rainbow look. I made 2 ten inch square cakes and 2 four inch circle cakes.  After they cooled I stacked the tens together with icing and the fours together with icing. I placed dowel rods in and stacked the four on top on the ten.  Iced both cakes. 

I placed the cake onto the candyland board and then placed the towers into place. Piped green icing around the cake and placed skittles in the green icing.  I was going for the grass with colored pebble look.  I then finshed decorating the rest of the cake with peppermints at the base. I made the candyland trail colored blocks out of icing and it turned out beautiful!!!! It looked just like the game board you play. Her cake was the center of attention when people walked in. Keep in mind that the cake board was six by four it took up the whole six foot table It was Awesome!!!!

FAVORS:In the same room we had her candy station with all kinds of candy in glass containers with tags of what was in the container. There also was brownies and cupcakes on her candy station. I made a sign with Sweet Shoppe on it and placed it above the table. The cute favor bags I found at Hobby Lobby for $1.49 they came package 10. We bought a total of 70 bags.

FOOD: For the food table with served chili dogs pizza nachos potato salad mac and cheese cheese ball and salsa and chips. On her gift table I put a picture of her (I decorated the frame with gum drops) and I wrapped a a box for her cards.

FAVORS: We had a coloring station with kids tables set up in the back by the candy station for all of the kids.  I found coloring sheets for free online of all of the characters.

DECORATIONS:On the walls in the gym and hallway we placed colored cardstock (1/4 sheets) paper in a line and made it look like it was the candyland trail.

Our daughter gor so much gifts and everyone left the party happy.  It's only been a couple of days now but they still are talking about this party. They cant wait until next year.  To tell you the truth I can't either!!!"