My 2 & 5 year old sons settled on the theme of Super Heroes for their joint birthday party. It’s a really fun theme for this age and there are so many great sites out there providing inspiration for party decor and activities. I took notes over at Living Locurto and downloaded a mask template. I also got more than a few tips from Tip Junkie. As per usual, This Mama Makes Stuff just inspired me in general.
So I was jazzed about the party theme but I still lacked enthusiasm for any of the cakes I was seeing. I wanted “classic retro superhero”. Nothing against modern Spidey and Batman but the mere uniform predictability of them at every last party store was annoying to me. Why these two and these two only? Why should we limit ourselves and our imagination like this!?
I decided to keep the party licensed character free for just this reason. To allow the kids to come up with their own imaginary super identities. And then, while scrabbling through the closet for some paper goods, I happened upon my old comic book collection.
Left over from my camp days, most of my comic books were of the girly variety: Archies, Sabrina, Josie and the Pussycats, Richie Rich…. Mixed in, however, was a healthy stack of Thor, Avengers, Dr Strange, The Flash, and yes…even Spidey. These were hand me downs from my brothers and what I would now call “boy bait”. I was no fool. I read them to have something to discuss with the dudes at the cantina and the camp dances. Cause, you know, 11 year old boys were not so into the Archies back then. Worked like a charm for me in my tweens and how lucky for me now! The minute I saw them I knew what I was going to do.
Cupcake toppers and cupcake wrappers! I’d been trolling etsy for so long that it never occurred to me to make my own. Until the boy bait resurfaced. Sure it meant there would be licensed characters on the cupcakes, but once the comic book covers were copied and cut up and displayed in a jumble, it wasn’t so annoying to me anymore. At least there was variety and the collage effect was so pleasing.
The wrappers and flags I made had just that vintage superhero look and feel I had wanted. Note: Everyone still got to make up their own alter ego hero or villian at the party.
This craft was so simple and came out so well I had to share. Maybe don’t tell people how easy it was!
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