Elmo World -2yr- Elmo Face Magnet Craft

For my son's 2nd Birthday I did an Elmo theme with crayons as the accent theme and red, blue, green, and yellow as the accent colors.  We had about 18 children ranging in ages 6 months to 4 years old and 35 adults. 

INVITATIONS - I designed a custom tri-fold invitation that opened vertically.  The front cover said Daniel's World" and looked exactly like the Elmo's World sign.  It was a separate cut-out that I mounted on puffy foam stickers to give it a 3D look.  The inside of the invitation was Elmo holding a piece of paper that said "Daniel's Birthday!  Daniel is turning two!  His mommy and daddy are having a party and Elmo is inviting you!" Then the date time location.  The background of the invitation was the same yellow crayon scribble that appears on the show.  At the bottom left of the invitation was Dorothy in her fishbowl on a purple nightstand.  Next to it read Dorothy has a question...How do you celebrate Daniel's Birthday?" and the RSVP phone number.  This was all in a Red crayon scribble type font.  I also drew a picture of Dorothy like the one on the show and the door (purple scribbles with blue outline) that appears on show.  The invitation looked awesome and we received many compliments about it. 

PARTYWARE - The plates were "Elmos World" that I had a really hard time finding because apparently they are discontinued but they were the only ones I wanted because they had a crayon theme on them and matched perfectly to my theme.  I was only able to find the dinner plates and used solid yellow solid green and solid blue dessert plates solid yellow napkins and blue cups.  The tablecloths on the guest tables were solid blue and the food/beverage/gift/party favor tablecloths were green. 

CENTERPIECES  I had four guest tables.  For centerpieces I used a glass fish bowl aquarium rocks rubber goldfish and an Elmo cut out.  Since the goldfish wouldn't float I had to tie it on fishing wire in a T-formation and suspend it down into the water.  Then I had a large (about 10 in. tall) Elmo cut out (waist up) with his arms taped around the bowl as if he was standing behind it holding it.  I tied four balloons to his wrist  red blue yellow green.  The centerpiece was sitting on top of a 12x12 doile I made to look like the scribbles and patterns on the show.  It was a purple border with green curly q's then a blue border and finally the middle had yellow scribbles in all directions.  The whole thing looked great and very authentic! 

CONFETTI - The tables were sprinkled with picture confetti I made on the computer.  I printed small square pictures of my son in various poses with all different Elmo toys.  They were a little larger than a postage stamp.  There were also solid red yellow green and blue confetti that I cut out of construction paper. 

SESAME STREET DECOR - I wrapped the one of the patio poles in green poster board from top to bottom and then placed the traditional green Sesame Street sign on it.  It was a small but nice touch.  I made the sign on my computer from an image I downloaded from a site. 

CRAYON DECOR -  I bought large oversized Crayon piggy banks at Toys R Us and hung them on fishing wire from our patio.  There were a total of 5.  I also found crayon cut-outs at a Teacher's Supply store.  I used them all over the patio.  They were everywhere.  I also bought a crayon border from the same teacher's supply store and put it as a border on the food/cake/beverage tables at the top of the table skirt.  I wanted to keep people mostly outside so I decided to seal off my sliding glass door and only allow people into the house through my kitchen door.  I used the same plastic green table cloths and draped them from top to bottom of my slider.  Then I mounted crayon drawings (approx. 11x14) that I made of the same drawings that appear on Elmo's World.  I had watched the show and paused the DVD on each drawing so that I could duplicate them exactly.  In total I had 5 drawings  Dorothy a tree the apartment building Elmo and his mommy (?) and one other that said Daniel's Birthday.  I also made a large sign that said Daniel's World and mounted it on green poster board. 

ELMO DECOR  Of course I also used my son's Elmo dolls on various surfaces  the food tables the cake table and the gift table.  The Elmo on the gift table was the largest one.  I sat him on a box raised above the gifts and tied Elmo mylar balloons to him.  Then I placed one of the crayon piggy banks across his lap. 

PORTRAITS - I had taken Daniel to get his birthday portraits earlier in the week.  In two of the poses he was dressed in an Elmo T-shirt jeans and nice tennis shoes.  In  the first pose he sat on a wooden block holding an Elmo stuffed doll and in the other I brought with me 3 of the large plastic crayons to use in the background as he stood next to 2 oversized blocks with the number 2 on them.   At the party I displayed these pictures in 8x10 red wooden frames at the party favor table and cake table.  Everyone loved them!! 

CRAFTS  I rented a children's banquet table and children's resin chairs in primary colors for them use for the crafts.  The first craft was just basic coloring pages I printed from the Sesame Street site and the second craft was making an Elmo face magnet.  I cut out red felt circles about the size of a large can of soup for the face.  White craft foam circles about the size of a half dollar and black craft foam circles a little smaller than a dime for the eyes. Then I bought orange pom poms for the nose.  After the kids glued and assembled the Elmo face I had also cut out brown cardboard circles that they could mount the Elmo face on.  Lastly I had strips of magnets for them to glue on back.  The craft was a huge success and some kids even made 3 and 4 to take home. 

DESSERTS  I made sugar cookies in the shapes of the letter D and the number 2.  There was a mix of red icing blue icing and green icing.  All of them had rainbow sprinkles.  The kids really loved them as well as the adults.  There were also cupcakes I made.  I used Elmo's World baking cups.  The cupcakes had white icing rainbow sprinkles and two crayons crisscrossing each other along with small pieces of curling ribbon.  When they were all on the tray they looked ADORABLE.  We received many compliments on them.   The birthday cake was from Sam's Club and I had them duplicate the Elmo's World cake I had found online.  I bought the Elmos World cake topper kit that came with Elmo Dorothy and Mr. Noodle.  The cake had yellow red blue and green icing borders in curly q's all the way around and it said Happy 2nd Birthday Daniel.  The letters were a different color each.  It looked really cute. 

FOOD & BEVERAGE  We served a large variety of foods  hamburgers hot dogs chili 7-layer dip chips/dips hummus/crackers potato salad and more.  All of the serving dishes platters and bowls were either red blue green or yellow.  For the kids drinks I found Sesame Street juice boxes by Apple & Eve.  Each flavor has a different character's face on it.  They were a big hit since no one had ever seen them before. 

KIDS PARTY FAVORS  I found vinyl Elmo velcro totes at the dollar store and filled them with a variety of goodies a Sesame Street Juice Box individually wrapped cookies (the D & the 2) a kazoo an Elmo sticker sheet a rubber ducky a small box of crayons and an Elmo notepad that I made with Elmo invitations I found at the dollar store.  I cut out construction paper in a variety of colors and stapled them to the inside of the invitation so that each child had a mini pad of paper to color in. 

ADULT PARTY FAVORS  I made picture magnets for each family using one Daniel's portraits.  I created an Elmo scribbles border and mounted a wallet sized picture on each.  Then I mounted the border and picture onto a wooden backing that my husband cut for me and I glued a magnet strip on the backside.  Everyone was very impressed.  I had the magnets in a fuzzy Elmo Easter basket which I cut the bunny ears off of. 

BIRTHDAY BANNER  I made a banner that said Happy Birthday Daniel.  With crayons I made each letter in it's own square by drawing a scribbles/squiggles border around each (similar to the doiles on the tables).  I mounted the individual squares (letters) on green poster board that I cut into long strips to form one big long banner. 

PINATA The pinata was the big traditional cone kind that you hit with a stick.  It had a cute Elmo picture on it with streamers hanging off the ends of the cones.  The kids were able to use their Tote bags to gather candy. 

EXTRAS  My son wore an Elmo terry cloth bib during the cake.  And I bought him Elmo sippy cups especially for the party.  For lunch he used a plastic Elmo sectional plate that I found at Wal-Mart."