The idea of the party is that each guest will travel throught the movie as the walk through the party. This begins at the entrance to the back yard. Signs that were printed off the internet onto paper and mounted onto cardboard with spray glue were nailed to a nearby tree by the gate to the back yard. On the gate to the back yard there was a sign the read "Now Leaving Kansas, Thank You for Visiting". This begins the journey.
Once in the back yard, each guest is asked to "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" created on the ground with yellow plastic table clothes and yellow tape for dimension. Yes, I am aware that this part is a little out of order, but it made the most sense for the layout of the backyard that the party was taking place in. There is yet another sign printed out from the computer and mounted on cardboard with spray glue on a nearby tree letting guests know that this is indeed the yellow brick road and they should walk on it.
The tin man is the only aspect of the entire party that I had nothing to do with. I contacted a friend who is a handyman to get him to build something that I could attach a Tin Man halloween costume to. He said that he would take care of the Tin Man himself and this is what he arrived with. It is a life size Tin Man made out of spare duct work that he had around his house. A manaquine head, store bought "heart", oil funnel, fake wooden ax, and some logs made completed the scene causing the Tin Man himself to become the photo op location of the night. Every person at the party had their picture taken with him!
The Cowardly Lion was the least involved scene created at the party. This is a childs halloween costume that has been stuffed with pipe insulation and a printed face taken from teh internet was placed over the face hole to create the look. He is hanged off a tree and appears to "stand" on a bunch of logs that were cut from a tree that had fallen recently. Because the area that the lion is located in was the darkest and most overgrown area of the backyard (kinda like the woods that he was first seen in), some ground torches were placed to keep him visable during the night and to keep that area illuminated. In addition, it kept the area looking a little spooky as it should be.
The Emerald City was the largest and most involed part of the party decorations. Not only was this where all the food for the party was located, it was the entrance into the house to get to the bathroom (you actually had to walk throught the city to get inside) but it was the only scene that complely transfromed once the sun went down.
How this look was put together:
The Building: Using painted cardboard boxes but to lay flat and Duct tape they were atteched to a green canopy tent that I already owned. Folding Tables were placed inside for the food and covered with green tableclothes. The back wall was a piece of glitter green felt that was attached to the tent with cable ties. This was actually functional as well since it did actually hide someone "behind the curtain" (the guy on the grill cooking burgers, chicken and hotdogs).
The signs: "Bell out of Order, Please Knock" was printed on green paper off the computer, mounted onto cardboard using spray glue and attached near the 'door' to the city.
"Pay No Attention..." was hand painted onto a piece of scrap wood and screwed into a stake and hammered into the ground near the Emerald City.
The Decorations: A candle holder that was used at a previous birthday party has been filled with green Mardi Gras coins (Emerald City Money), green lollypops (free from a local bank) and childs toy fairy wands from a dollar store (Glinda's wand) with tea lights provide a form of light inside.
Emerald City at Night: This was done with a laser light show device that was provided by the same person that created the Tin Man. The photo does not do this effect justice becasue it was in perperual motion so it looked like it was always shimmering.
The Haunted Woods was what actually started the entire theme idea for this party. When the idea was still to have a horror film themed party I began to use some scrap wood from a fence that we took out of our back yard to create the run-down looking directional sign and the idea just morphed from there. Some old wood, wood glue and paint was all that was used to create this sign. Now this sign lives at a Haunted HayRide in New York. Adding cobwebs, fake crows, halloween themed luminarias, and a witches hat from a cotume store complete the Haunted Woods. Additionally, this area of the backyard always seems to be the darkest because it is the only area that has evergreens so it works at giving the scary feeling indicitive of the Haunted Woods.
Misc Items: Every party has some things that are inbetween and cannot be categorized into other areas, especially when one is trying to follow scenes in a movie such as me. So these are all of those other things that were done to help complete the overall look of the party.
The centerpieces: were created using small baskets, blue gingham, and poppies purchased at a local craft store. The party favors were the small platstic "Ruby Slippers" filled with candy necklaces that were purchsed on the internet. These were found on every round table over green linen tablecloths. Additionally, after the sun goes down, glass candles that were covered in printed pages from the script added light to the tables. Because this was an adult party, some bad habits do exist so a ruby red cup serves a new purpose and should be labeled appropiatly to ensure that someone doesn't have their drink ruined.
Birthday Cake: This was purchased at a local grocery store. I actually drew on the order form exactly what I wanted in regards to icing colors and pattern so that I could add the plastic "Ruby Slipper" (from the party favors) on top.
Garbage: Garbage cans were labeled with signs created on the computer and placed near Emerald City
Sign: Printed off the computer and mounted onto cardboard using spray glue and nailed onto a tree near the drinks. It is not from the movie exactly but it is cute.
Sign-In Board (not pictured): Instead of having a poster board for each person to write messages to the birthday girl small pre-cut hot air balloons were provided (purchased from a dollar store from the school supplies section). Each balloon was attached to a larger board for the birthday girl to keep. Some people did not actually write anything, instead they decorated their ballon and pit their name on it. That is the sun part of this idea, each person can so whatever they want.
Paper Products: Everything that we used was red. The plates, napkins, cups, forks, knives, and spoons were all red. This provided uniformity and was the color on sale at the time of shopping.
Hot Air Balloon: I contacted a local artist to draw a more modern version of Dorothy using a likeness of the birthday girl. He did such an amazing job, even getting the tattoos she has correct and giving her ruby red converse instead of slippers! It was a perfect representation and was what I used to creat the hot air baloon. Using a color copier to make several copies I used elmers glue over a balloon to create the shape. First I layered newspaper over teh balloon to give it the foundation. Once it was dry I painted the entire thing white before attaching the repeating drawing. Using yellow duct tape (from the yellow brick road), a plastic cup and some yarn complete the balloon. This was hung from a tree.
Music: The Soundtrack for the movie was playing in the background for the first few hours of the party, until a majority of the guests had eaten, before being changed into current popular music selections.
Food: The food was themed as well. Here are a few of the examples of what was done:
- There was rice krispie treats cut into dog bone shapes labeled Toto Treats.
- Apples were placed in a basket with a sign that read Hand Picked from the Haunted Apple Trees. There was a Haunted Apple Tree as well (no picture provided). This was completed using apples, plastics baggies, and red ribbon. Each apple was placed in a bag and tied to the tree with the red ribbon at different lengths next to the Tin Man.
- Beef Storgonoff was labeled Lion Chow.
- Auntie Em's Vegetable Meadly was a vegetable Meadley
- Corn on the Cob was Scarecrows Crops
- Chips and Salsa were Tin Man Tid Bits and placed in foil lined bowls.
- Bowtie Pasta Dish was labeled Wizards Pasta
- BBQ Chicken was called Munckin Legs
Hope that you enjoy the ideas and what can be done with a little imagination.
Oh! Wow! A lot of hard work can be seen in here. The kid is very lucky to have such amazing parents. I wish I also had that much of space around my house but we live in an apartment so I have booked a pretty event venue for my daughter’s birthday party.
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