Shark Birthday Party!

 Shark Birthday Party!

We recently held a fun party for my grandson, so I wanted to share the pics:

It was obviously a shark/nautical-themed event. Here are some close-ups:

I made this "life preserver" with a 16" styrofoam wreath form, rope (from Lowe's), and red duct tape. I added the card stock letters, which I cut on my Silhouette Cameo.

My son's fiancée set up this great balloon arch, and stacked up the beach balls to welcome guests.

My son's fiancée also painted the "surf boards" on foam boards, and she hung dollar store plastic tablecloth covers and a fishing net on the backdrop holder.

The "anchor ropes" are red licorice set on top of brown sugar "sand." I found the red and white gummy watermelon rings, aka "life preservers," on Amazon. The candy shark tooth necklaces are from Oriental Trading Company.

It was easy but time-consuming to make the watermelon shark. To form the teeth, I used the v-shaped garnishing tool from this set (Amazon.com: Norpro Garnishing Tool Set of 5 Spiral/Slice/Curl/Crinkle Fruit and Veggies: Garnishing Knives: Home & Kitchen):

I cut out the shark fins on grey card stock, using my Silhouette. Then I glued them onto toothpicks.

The "Shark Attack" snacks were gummy sharks from Amazon. The "Sea Foam" was white cotton candy, and the "Bait" was red Swedish fish.

The "Ocean Water" was a blue sports drink, which we topped with red and white plastic fishing bobbers. We couldn't get the bobbers to float white-side-up, and didn't have time to figure out a fix. If you know how, please share your tip in the Comments.

I used large paper maché letters from Hobby Lobby to make this sign. I painted some letters, and used scrapbook paper (adhered with Mod Podge) on others. Then, I hot-glued on the cute nautical wood accents, also from Hobby Lobby. I did the same for the numbers below, but glued some rope (left over from the foam life preserver) on the zero:

That's it! Like the sign says, "Thanks for swimming by!"