Pirate Party

Thanks to Disney's Jake and the Neverland Pirates, my daughter Julia wanted a pirate-themed party for her 5th birthday. It's a cute cartoon that Disney launched as part of their Disney Junior lineup, and my kids really enjoy it. There were some cute ideas on the Disney website for a themed party, but I didn't have enough time to make the quantity required for the large number of children attending her party. We compromised on making generic pirate invites and party favors, and placing handmade characters of Jake and his crew on the cake.

The Invites:
I used the "Life's a Party" cartridge for my Cricut machine. This is probably my favorite cartridge offered by Cricut. It has lots of designs for child parties, including pirates, princesses, and jungle animals. The icons can be used to make invitations, party favor boxes, party favors, and even cupcake wrappers. I used the skeleton icon with metallic paper for the invites. I embellished the pirate scarf with pink flowers and rhinestones, after all it is a girlie-pirate party.

The Attire:
Pirate-Chic. A very easy way to make children's hair accessories is to attach silk flowers to headbands. I always get my silk flowers on sale, and then remove all the plastic stems, centers, and leaves. Once you have just the fabric portion of the flower, push a brad pin through the center. The brad can be used to attach the flower to a ribbon, which can then be tied around headbands, ponytail bands, or barrettes. For this hair piece, I found a girlie pirate decal in the sewing section of the craft store and just glued it to the center of a black Gerber daisy.

The Booty:

I found all these party favors on the internet at Amazon.com and Orientaltrading.com. Each kid will get a bandanna, pirate pouch filled with jewels and gold doubloons, pirate tattoos, Silly Bandz and the best snack food ever...Pirate's Booty.

The Cake:
The cake was made using a pirate ship cake pan. In order to make the icing easier, I made a chocolate ganache and poured it over the cake. I used store bought gumpaste to make the crew of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Painting detail was done with food dye thinned with Vodka and a fine paint brush. The netting, anchor and wheel were made by melting semi-sweet chocolate chips and piping it into shape. The children loved it.