Thanks to Oriental Trading for helping make our Shopkins Birthday Party even more amazing!
This year my daughter was adamant that she have a Shopkins-themed party and had been making plans for months. This was her first birthday party with friends (rather than just family and cousins), so the pressure was on to make this party awesome!
While "Pinterest-perfect" parties are the goal most of us strive to achieve, our budgets don't always agree with these huge birthday party plans. I know I'm not the only one in this predicament, so I wanted to share some simple tips, FREE printables, and more about how we were able to throw an amazing Shopkins party on a budget for my daughter that her friends are STILL talking about!
Shopkins are a popular item right now, so of course Shopkins-themed party supplies will be more expensive in stores - ultimately eating up your budget quickly. After shopping around, I found that
Shopkins party supplies at Oriental Trading had the best prices. Best of all, it was shipped to my house so I didn't need to set foot in a store!
Once everyone was done coloring, we took a break to enjoy some Shopkins-themed snacks like
Pretz-elle's pretzels,
Kooky Cookie's chocolate chip cookies, and
Poppy Corn's popcorn on
Shopkins paper plates. We then played a few rounds of
Free Printable Shopkins Bingo, which is always a favorite game to play at birthday parties!
When my husband and I were growing up, we always played some kind of "pin the..." game at birthday parties! I haven't seen it played in ages, so I put together a fun "Pin the Candle on Wishes" (the official Shopkins birthday cake) that is totally free for you to download and use at your own birthday parties (personal use only, please)!!
To play the game: place a blindfold on the player, spin them around a couple of times. Add a piece of tape to the back of a candle piece and the player tries to place the candle on Wishes in the empty spot. The player that gets the closest to the missing candle is the winner!
For best results: print the party game on cardstock. Because printing posters can get pricey, I've put the poster file together so that you can print it on just 6 pages and piece it together (as shown above). To get more life out of the party game, I would recommend laminating the candle pieces and the poster itself.
Some things you should know before downloading:
*Artsy-Fartsy Mama printables are for PERSONAL USE ONLY.
*You may NOT modify, re-sell, redistribute, or claim the design as your own.
*Please do not remove the credits/watermarks.
*If you'd like to share this project, credit must be given to Artsy-Fartsy Mama & linked back to this post.
The highlight of our party was definitely the
Shopkins Kooky Cookie Pull-String Piñata! This isn't your average piñata! This one gets filled with candy and prizes, then party guests take turns pulling the strings to release the candy instead of ducking for cover while a blindfolded kid takes a whack at the nearest object(s). Plus
Kooky Cookie stays intact, which made my daughter beyond ecstatic to make him (her?) a piece of decor in her Shopkins-themed bedroom! Win-win.
Along with candy, we also put together party favors for our guests. We gave two
Shopkins temporary tattoos, a few
Shopkins stickers, a
Shopkins pencil, a stretchy
Shopkins rubber bracelet, a candy bar to look like the character
Cheeky Chocolate, and a Shopkins 2-pack (the most expensive part of the favor)! As always, these are just ideas! You can go as big or as little on the party favors as you want depending on your budget.
Place all of the party favor items into a clear plastic gift bag and tie with a ribbon. For more Shopkins cuteness, some stability, and a great way for guests to hold all the piñata goodies is to give the gift bag with an empty
Shopkins paper cup!
I'd also love to help you with party favors by offering some
Cheeky Chocolate candy bar wrappers for you to use! They will fit around most chocolate bars. Print the designs on regular copy paper, cut, and tape the edges together in the back. Simple as that!!
Some things you should know before downloading:
*Artsy-Fartsy Mama printables are for PERSONAL USE ONLY.
*You may NOT modify, re-sell, redistribute, or claim the design as your own.
*Please do not remove the credits/watermarks.
*If you'd like to share this project, credit must be given to Artsy-Fartsy Mama & linked back to this post.
This party was a ton of fun to put together, and it makes it even sweeter that my wallet didn't take a huge hit from it. I need to try to remind myself that these parties are more for creating memories, not perfection. If you're looking for party favors, decor, and games for your birthday parties, be sure to check out
Oriental Trading to make life easier!
What do you think? If you've got any ideas or suggestions to help make parties even better on the budget, let's hear them in the comments!
