ahoy!

The next big event on the crafting and family calendar is Miles' pirate birthday party. I made this pirate ship drawing (thank you Ed Emberley!) last night which will be Gocco printed on the invitations. Miles spotted this cake in ReadyMade and his heart set on it (but NOT a cheesecake). I wanted to do skull cupcakes, but, really, one cake with sails will be so much easier.

I'd welcome any other pirate-themed craft, food or game ideas for three to seven year olds (boys and girls). We're renting an indoor play area, so elaborate decorations and treasure hunts won't work...we will be suggesting that party goers come in their pirate finery, however!

Comments

[pam]

was so fun to meet you and your sis at studio craft - what a blast! I had a pirate idea - make a treasure chest out of a box and fill it will those cute little gold foil chocolate coins you can get at Cost Plus - cheap and fun!
Pam

[tracy]

ahoy. pirates are a favotie around here too. will ask my pirate princess for suggestion. (oh ed emberley where would i be without you??!!)

[sally]

Beautiful drawing Steph!

[liane]

This issue of KidsCraft weekly had some pirate ideas: http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/pirate_issue.html

[Hildy]

we used to take toilet paper or paper towel tubes and decorate them and put colored cellaphane on one end & use it as a spyglass. another thing to do is make a parrot cutout { posterboard, cardboard or foam core work} and decorate them with feltpens, fabric and other trinkets.pirates always need their parrot companions! you could also have them make boats - either out of wooden scraps or make tiny ones out of walnuts, toothpicks and a bit of clay to hold the mast.
glad to hear that studio craft was a good time for all involved! so wished i could have been there...

[Sarah]

We made this cake for Lola's pirate themed 4th birthday party.

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50180

It was surprisingly easy. Should you try it my one recommendation is to make sure that your cake recipe isn't for a super moist cake. It'll screw with the structural integrety of your ship. Ask me how I know.

As party favors we gave out "jewels" (a.k.a. Mardi Gras beads...another item for a treasure chest?) and eye patches. We Koolaid dyed silk handkerchiefs from Dharma Trading and gave those away as well. They made great head scarves.

As for games, how about a twist on Pin the Tail on the Donkey...Pin the X on the Treasure Map or something along those lines. You could have M & M make a treasure map that could just be unrolled and pinned up once you get to the party venue. You might also do musical chairs using some pirate-y music. Other than that, I'm drawing a blank. I'm not so good on the activities.

[Melissa]

Here are a few links. I love the cake he picked. Bonus - it looks easy!

Craft like a Pirate
http://www.starlust.org/knitting/archives/000180.html

Pirates Cove (shopping)
http://www.piratescoveonline.com/index.htm

Knit Pirate Hat
http://knitlikeapirate.com/projects/tricorn.html

Construction Paper Hat
http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=tvs8715abc&site=living

Pirate Embroidery
http://www.sublimestitching.com/piratesahoy.html

[lisa]

oh shoot! i coulda made you one so easily, but yours is really nice.

[erin]

love your drawing - sounds like a great party. how about those gold foil wrapped chocolate coins as part of the booty?

[Toni]

We have some of those Ed Emberley books. There're great.

[Blair]

I love the pirate ship Steph! I saw that cake in ReadyMade too (have I mentioned my cake obsession at least once??). I will forward on anything good and pirate-y I find.

I have Emma's birthday party coming up on Saturday. I haven't done a thing to get ready.

[sulu-design]

One of my favorite bloggers - Erin at
www.houseonhillroad.typepad.com - celebrated National Talk like a Pirate Day several weeks back, during which she and her daughters sprinkled all of their sentences with lots of "argh"s. They went out and bought gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins, which could be a good party treat. Oh, yeah, I now see that she mentioned that above... How about a game of pin the parrott on the pirate's shoulder?

[bugheart]

wow
what a
great party
theme!
i'll try to
think of
a pirate game...
all i know is
alligators
need to
be involved!
arrrggg!

[meg]

hi stephanie
i saw in martha a few years back that you can buy temporary tattoo paper and make some cool pirate tattoos.
hope it is a great party!

[andi]

This weekend I wished so much that I didn't live so far away from Portland! Maybe next year I will be able to make it to Studio Craft...you are doing it again, right?

And thank you so much for making the link to your archives available again! That seriously made my whole day! I was so sad when you took them away, although I completely understood your reasoning, of course. But I am happy to have all of your amazing, creative inspiration accessible again!! I have been looking over some of your old stuff this afternoon and am so motivated to go create!

xoxo Andi

[Robyn]

Here is another cute idea for a cake...
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50180

[sarah]

we just did a pirate bday party last month for our 5 yr. old, but had up to 8 yr. olds in attendance. we had it be a costume party where all the kids came dressed up and "captain max" got to pick the best dressed who got a special pirate treasure. before we decided to do that i was going to make felt eye patches with a skull and crossbones (with a pink bow for the girls).

for one activity, i went to michael's and bought little wooden boxes, there were about 8 different varieties, for $1 (!!) each and we had the kids decorate them. we just used markers and crayons because paint and glue (with jewels, etc.) would be a little too messy for our outdoor party. the kids loved them. they put some of their pirate treasure (chocolate gold coins) that they found in the treasure hunt into their boxes.

we also did tape the X on the treasure map (like pin the tail on the donkey), which was already mentioned.

let us know how it goes... have fun!

[austen]

wow, that looks like it's going to be a fun party! yar, matey!

[Mama Urchin]

The ship looks great, I thought it was Lisa's when I first saw it.

[Jennifer Holm]

Hi,
I am a regular reader of your blog. Love it! Anyway, we just had our 4 year old Batman birthday and I made a batman emblim stencil out of cardboard and than made 10 out of freezer paper and pre-ironed on t-shirts for the kids. It was a hit. You could do a skull and cross bones. I cut out six freezer papers at a time. I managed to get hanes t-shirts on sale at Target but if you don't have alot of kids coming you could have them bring a blank t-shirt and iron on as you go. Just a thought. Have fun!

[Dawn]

Hello....our daughter had a pirate birthday 2 years ago when she turned 4 and it was a hoot.
Everyone showed up as pirates, although there was one little girl that wanted to be a princess so she was the pirates captive. Anywho you could do a treasure hunt with clues. Where you tape up clues and then have the treasure just sitting where the clues lead the kids. We did it at the beach and it worked great. We had the treasure really close to us so it was safe. Sounds super fun.
xo

[Siri]

Hmmm. Pirate ship drawings? You wouldn't happen to be related another hip artist in San Francisco, would you?
At R's pirate party a couple of years ago the party favors were red bandanas, homemade eyepatches, and "jewels" that were those faceted glass pieces used in floral arranging, you know, that go in the glass vase to hold the flowers? Oh, and a black and white spiral striped old fashioned candy stick, as well.
There is potentially a repeat around here of the pirate theme next month for E's birthday party so all the ideas I'm seeing here could come in handy.

[lapau]

Long time reader of your blog, here goes my suggestion: I guess is not very pirate related, but as there are ships (and therefore the sea involved), I remembered when I was a kid, when the birthday parties came to the part when presents are given to the kids (small candy bags for example) my mum and dad used to hide in one room, placed a big plank at the doorway (a dark cloth would also do), and we kids, each one with our fishing rod –stick and cord-, had to “fish” our present from the corridor (my parents hanged the little bags to each rod) . Maybe Miles and friends are too big for that now, maybe not, but I always remember it with special enthusiasm.
Have fun! I hope it’s a great party!

[hannah]

if i wear my pirate finery can i come to the party?

[Heather]

Pin the beak on the parrot? You could have the kids 'walk the plank' to reach the parrot. Sounds like it will be a fun party.