April is a CRAZY birthday month in my life. My husband, his father (who we live with), my daughter, and myself all have birthdays in April. There are even more April birthdays in my extended family.

A few years ago my oldest son wanted a Lego Star Wars theme for his birthday. The only problem was that there weren’t any Lego Star Wars party products on the market at that time. I had to improvise.

I bought Star Wars action figures and stuck them on a store bought cake.

For the Lego part, I bought Lego candy from the mall candy store, and stuck the pieces on store bought cupcakes.

Not super impressive, but it worked for him.

Another year my son wanted a Super Mario birthday theme. More specifically, he had just gotten the game, Mario Galaxy for Wii, and he asked for a Mario Galaxy birthday party.

Great.

Another theme request for which there were no party products in the stores.

So once again… I improvised.

I made those Mushroom cupcakes myself. Yep. I did. I can do cupcakes.

Now when it comes to layered cakes… that’s another story. I’m not there yet due to lack of counter space… and patience.

The cake itself was an Albertson’s signature cake that I ordered. It was supposed to be a Dora Magical Mountain cake or something like that, but it totally reminded me of the worlds in Mario Galaxy.

So… I ordered it, and asked the decorators to leave off the characters.

Then at home I found Mario characters on Google Images and printed them, pasted them to cardstock, cut them out, taped them to toothpicks, and stuck them in the cake.

I also piped some frosting eyes on the star shaped candles, to make them look like stars from the Mario games.

Now looking at this picture, I realize the only star I got right with the eyes, was the top one. Ooops! Oh well… no one noticed at the time.

It was good enough for a little boy’s birthday party.

Now…

Do you want to see a SERIOUS custom Mario cake?

Prepare yourself.

This is a Mario Kart Wedding Cake.

Incredible right?!

I cannot get over the beauty…

the perfect whimsy…

the magnificent details…

Just incredible!!!

This completely edible masterpiece was brilliantly designed and sculpted by Beth from Let Them Eat Cake in Costa Mesa, California. More fabulous photos of this cake, the wedding, and hand sculpted bride and groom Miis, are available for viewing on the Bride and Groom’s Flickr page.

And check out these AMAZING Mario and Luigi cookies made recently by my friend Amanda at iambaker.

I don’t know why I only think about decorating sugar cookies at Christmas time. This is such a great way to incorporate a sweet treat into a party theme.

Aren’t they FANTASTIC?!

My son would have gone crazy over having these at his party! Amanda makes all kinds of amazing goodies, and has done several beautiful cookie sets to match event invitations and decor. When you get done here, hop on over to her blog and have a look. She provides a whole lot of inspiration for making parties and important occasions, special and personalized, with custom treats.

For the Mario Galaxy party I did for my son, not only did I improvise on the cake, but I also improvised with the party ware.

I found that great party hat at my local party store, and once again using Google Images I printed a Mario pic, cut him out, and glued him on.

And for the plate… I’m getting to that.

Here are some examples of the several I’ve made.

The possibilities are endless.

If you can print it, you can make it into a character plate.

I’m thinking of using this slightly doctored pic of Papa for his birthday plates next year.

Perfect don’t ya think?

Happy Birthday Papa Norge! Grrrrrrrrrr!!! We are vikings!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!

And I would love to do some custom plates for a fairytale themed party for my daughter.

These photos are from Puddin Pop Designs Blog. She created an incredible custom Little Red Riding Hood Party for her daughter, complete with custom costumes, pinata, decorations, desserts, guest book, A Walk to Grandmother’s house game, and more. You name it, she made it. You’ve got to go read about the details and see all of her pictures. I just LOVE this idea, and she told me her daughter is already asking for a Goldilocks and the Three Bears party for next year. I can’t wait to see what brilliant things she comes up with for that one.

Here’s a plate I made for my youngest’s first birthday.

Miffy was his favorite character at the time but I couldn’t find Miffy party supplies anywhere. There were all kinds of things available online, but they all needed to be shipped from Sweden or Japan where Miffy is much more popular, and I couldn’t stand to put money out for the crazy shipping costs.

So what did I do?

You got it!

Once again… I improvised.

And here’s how you can too!

Here’s the trick.

You buy your colored plates, and you buy the same size set of clear plates.

With a good color printer, print out any images you need for your theme.

This is where your imagination can really run wild.

You can go so far beyond kids birthday parties with this, using personal photos to celebrate family reunions, sweet 16 parties, Anniversary plates made from a wedding photo, hilarious pictures of friends or relatives, birth announcements for baby showers, … sky’s the limit!

If you can print it, you can plate it!

I like to use a cake plate as my tracing template for the image that will go onto a dinner plate. It’s a great size.

Use a clear cake plate so you can see your image through it, and determine exactly where you want to place it on your image.

Using a pen, marker, pencil, crayon… whatever… trace the plate to create the circular image.

Cut out the circle, and then using a glue stick on the backside of the paper, give the image a light coating of glue, making sure to put glue particularly all the way around the edge. Then stick it to the center of one of the colored plates.

Next apply some glue just to the bottom round edge of a clear dinner plate.

Attach the clear dinner plate to the colored plate.

And there you go!

A clean, smooth, shiny, FABULOUS, custom dinner plate.

Of course you could follow the same steps and create custom cups too, but I’ve never bothered to take it that far. Regular party cups and napkins that match your color scheme work just fine.

Taking advantage of available store bought products that match your theme and colors, and mixing them with custom elements you’ve created, offers the best of both worlds for parties with ease and originality.

For popular character themed cupcake toppers and much more, check out my online store. Every purchase made there helps my family financially with a commission, and we appreciate your business SO MUCH!

And by the way… they have now made Mario and Luigi party supplies available. I have them for sale in my store here.

Party on!

(This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Somewhat Simple, Frugalicious Friday, TidyMom, Trendy Treehouse, Metamorphosis Monday, Made it Monday, The Girl Creative, DIY Project Parade 10, Motivate Me Monday, Craft Schooling Sunday, It’s So Very Cheri, Making the World Cuter, Made By You Monday, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Talented Tuesday, DIY Day, Boardwalk Bragfest, What You’re Workin’ With Wednesday, A Little Creative Therapy, Blue Cricket Designs, Penny Pinching Party, Look What I Made, Make It Yours Day, Fun to Craft, Tatertos and Jello)

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