Minecraft: The obsession and How I was Roped Into Crafting it

Minecraft.

Well, if you don’t know what Minecraft is consider yourself fortunate. It is an endless game of low graphic building with an occasional zombie, creeper, or spider to kill you. Once you master that then comes The End, the Endermen, the Enderdragon, the Nether, and timely updates to keep your child playing this game

for.

ev.

er.

However, if it has already entered your world then you understand. It does not ever stop. And, now I am referring to the words. My child can talk for at least thirty minutes straight about this game. I do not even think he breathes.

Just keep building. Just keep building. What do we do? We build, build.

When my son wanted to have a Minecraft birthday party I thought, “Quick, to Pinterest!”?

By the way, I am awesome with stencils. The year before we had a Star Wars party and I did stencil shirts by hand with a craft knife, self healing cutting mat, transparent plastic mylar sheets, and a lot of patience.

I went a little nutso, creating an Obi Wan, Yoda, R2-D2, a Clone Trooper, Princess Leia, Bobba Fett (or maybe Jango), the Death Star, and Darth Vader. They were fantastic. I totally meant to share them with the Internet but sadly, we had a full computer meltdown and they were lost to the Internet ether. All that remains are a couple of adorable photos we were able to recover and the sketch of the Darth Vader stencil (I am not going to read into that).

Now, I have a cutting machine and this would have made the job a million time easier and faster. But, not at the time of this party…

A Side Note on Cutting Machines

I have a Silhouette that I love. But, I am confident any of the well-reviewed ones will get the job done. On an extra side note, if you are just thinking of getting a cutting machine do not be afraid to grab an older model or used one. You will be able to get a great deal and they will still be able to do some amazing things that, if you tried on your own, would make you curse and give you hand cramps.

Back to the topic of partying Minecraft style.

Minecraft Stencils for T-Shirts

For this party I only made a t-shirt for my son. But, I did make more stencils (a Spider, Creeper, and Zombie…and I included those in the FREE printable pack). Part of the reason is, even though Minecraft can be an obsessively bothersome game, it has a lot of things that make it a really fun theme to plan a party around. So, we had other ideas for party favor/ gift bags.

Comparatively, here is what I came up with.

Get down with your bad t-shirt making selves. Now, on to the rest of the party.

The Minecraft Party Plan

I start every party by making a file. Pinterest is great but even that can be a bit overwhelming. I prefer Publisher because it is drag and drop. Wherever I put a picture or text it stays! However, if you do not have Publisher you can do a similar thing on Canva. Plus, they have a lot of really nice templates, fonts, designs, and a free account option with tons of features.

The file method is better than Pinterest because you can keep all your ideas, recipes, things you want to print, etc. in one place.

Which brings me to step two: choosing a font. Sure there are other things you could do but fonts set the mood! For this party I downloaded Minecrafter and Minecraftia, both free for personal use from Dafont.

Next, we work on the guest list. It does not have to be perfect but it is a good place to start so you can accurately budget and plan for food and activities. For instance, when your kids are younger you may have a lot of older people at their party so you can serve different food and skip organized activities. However, when you have 20 five year olds running around you do not want to run out of chicken nuggeys or let them get bored (a.k.a. give them a chance to get into your stuff).

Décor

You can go crazy with Minecraft and this is where you head to Pinterest to get inspiration. Then narrow it down and put the ideas you think you can reasonably pull off in your file. Here are the decorations we chose:

I love decorating with custom posters! You can make some fun Minecraft ones like these on your own and get large prints from Costco or Walmart for $7-$11. Worth it!

Creeper Piñata

Piñatas are about a wash financially to make your own versus just buying one. However, if you want something specific or need it to be extra strong (so all 20 of those kids get a turn) you can make one yourself. They are really easy.

We opted to make a creeper head. It was filled with candy and TNT tubes. (Toilet paper tubes painted red, filled with black Sixlets (powder), used a sharpie to write TNT on each, and then fold the ends in to seal).

1. Find a cardboard box.
2. Cut it to shape. (Thankfully, creeper heads are cubes! But, you can do anything – I’ve done a loot llama too.)
3. Tape the seams like crazy. Before you seal it all the way around make sure you add a way to hang it. I like to use the loop bungee cords with a ball on the end. For a little extra strength and to spread out the weight on the pull point, I use an awl, screwdriver, or drill to put a hole in the middle of a hard plastic lid (like the kind on peanut butter). Then push the loop up through the hole. Secure it to the inside of the piñata.
4. Put the candy in before you seal it all the way around.
5. If you want to fill with candy later, cut a panel. Put it on the top and you do not need to secure it very well when you get to the decorating part.
6. Fringe crepe paper and glue it on in strips until it is covered in your design. Start at the bottom.
7. Let dry.
8. Beat.

Activities/ Party Favors

I am not big on useless goody bags full of sweets and junky plastic. They definitely get enough sweets at the party and no one needs another bouncy ball. We usually try to incorporate a little something that is part of the party and they can take home.

Break Your Own Geode

For this party we did pails with a pair of safety glasses and a break your own geode inside.

During the party we set up an area with hammers and adult supervision for the kids to break their geodes or they could take them home and do it later.

Mob Fighting

We had two fighting options. The Creeper piñata (kids use their geode pails to collect their candy). Also, we set up a target to shoot mobs with DIY marshmallow shooters. The target printables are also in the FREE printable pack. I used binder rings to attach them to our target frame. The target frame is just a mishmash of leftover pipe, pvc, and dowels that I painted in place to help it not look like such a hot mess.

We offered two types because we found the PVC style – though neat because kids could “craft” them, were really hard to blow. The little shooter cups are much more friendly to little kids.

Crafting

Using your crafting table to make things is a really important part of the game. We set up our own Crafting Table with our collection of Trio blocks and let kids free-build.

For a cute touch you can cover the table with brown package paper and use black electrical tape to make the crafting table design on top. You can see the design in the Free Minecraft Printable Party Pack.

Food

Minecraft party food is another place to head over to Pinterest and get ideas. Thankfully, the game is full of real food so you can get some easy things and (if you are motivated to go a little extra) couple them with some fun thematic items.

Our menu was:

• Creeper-Ade (Green lemonade)
• Chicken Nuggets
• Apples
• Watermelon
• Pretzel “Sticks”
• Blue Jello “Diamond” Squares
• Grey “Cobblestone” Rice Krispy Treats (recipe in the Free party printable with signs for the food)
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (to give them a pixelated look before baking we added rectangular chocolate chips to the top of the balls of cookie dough, instead of mixing them in.)
• Birthday Cake (just a basic box with a Minecraft Lego scene as a cake topper)

Put it All Together and Have Fun

This party did take a bit of crafting but fortunately there are a lot more Minecraft party supplies available that are ready to purchase than when we originally threw the party. So, do not stress over perfection. Just focus on fun and everything will be amazing. No kid ever wants a burned out mom – just one who can enjoy their day with them!