Nautical party

Anchors away for a seafaring party with lashing of fizz and fun adventures
Party favours
Jam jars were used as favour containers which were
labelled "flotsam and jetsam" and partly filled with sand. The
favours including lollipops repackaged with themed labels,
printable colouring-in sheets, colouring pencils and removable
anchor tattoos sourced from pepper ink, were propped up in the
sand. The jars were then sealed with aged maps which were tied on
with natural twine.
Food and favours
Food by Babycakes (Rawene), phone: 021 214 9161
Printables from www.felt.co.nz/shop/darkhorse
Removable tattoos from www.pepperink.com.au
All other party items, stylist's own.

Party games
The party guests enjoyed sailing walnut boats in an old
copper, then dug for "hidden treasures in a bottle". recycled
bottles, each containing a number, were hidden in a copper filled
with sand. the children took turns to dig up the bottles and the
number in each bottle corresponded to a small prize.
For the party finale, the guests headed down to the
beach where they hunted for their own beach treasures, collecting
them into little loot bags to take home. party guests could also
enjoy activities such as stringing shells together to make
necklaces or mobiles, and decorating their own walnut boats.

Party invites
To set the scene, "message in a bottle" invites were
hand-delivered a few weeks before the party, using recycled glass
bottles. The party message was written on the "aged" paper, using a
smattering of sailor speak. Guests were invited to come wearing
something with a nautical twist. The invite also included an
old-fashioned treasure map, with an X to mark the spot of the party
location.

Food and drink
The "nautical" food included sailboat sandwiches, complete
with a salami or cucumber sail and a toothpick mast that held the
sandwich together.
Walnut shell boats with blue paper masts held up by
cheese (alternatively you could use plasticine or wax), floated in
a sea of blue jelly.
The home-made fish and chips were presented in
home-made cartons, and carrot and celery sticks were served in
small glass jars alongside hummus dip.
Driftwood with small holes drilled in it created a
stand for the blue and brown cake pops made from cooked cake mix
pressed into balls and covered in royal icing.
The layered vanilla birthday cake was first covered
in butter-cream icing. fondant was used to create wave-like icing
in graduated colour. even the fruit kebabs had a creative touch,
with the fruit cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
The thirsty guests were refreshed with "buccaneer's
brew" - soda water with a squeeze of lemon served in recycled
bottles, with blue and white straws. later in the afternoon, the
children all cooled off with a home-made feijoa and blueberry juice
popsicle.

Decorations
A friend's bach proved the perfect venue for the party,
with a view out to sea, large wrap-around decks to play on and even
ocean-blue walls inside that fitted beautifully with the blue and
green colour palette.
Conveniently, the bach already had a nautically
themed décor, with an oar on the wall, framed maps and even a ship
in a bottle on the mantelpiece.
The table was draped in white and its front was
decorated with bunting made from the pages of books and maps that
had all been "aged".
Painted cardboard seagulls swooped and dived from
the ceiling above the table and a model sailing ship, driftwood and
old bottles added to the rustic effect. You can download the free
template for the seagulls from Stella's website, www.verydarkhorse.blogspot.com.
Sailing ships, anchors, rope and flags were used as
recurring motifs for all paper and cardboard decorations with a
colour template of blue, black and white. Anchors were drawn on the
wooden cutlery sets with fine-pointed marker pens and little paper
tabs with anchor images were attached to the blue and white striped
straws.
Stella created the labels for the fish and chips
cartons, lemonade bottles and party favour jars. You can purchase
the printables from her online Felt craft store, www.felt.co.nz/shop/verydarkhorse.
Blue and green plates and platters displayed the
party food, which was labelled with ship flags attached to kebab
sticks. The top of the cake was decorated with a "Happy Birthday"
banner made from "aged" card and held up with kebab sticks.

Stella, an illustrator and craftmaker, wanted to give the party a nostalgic Ancient Mariner feel and a vintage style. She started with the invites, using the "traditional" method of ageing paper (soaking it in instant coffee), and that became a design element throughout.
The party was easy and inexpensive to put together, and with a bit of creativity, and some printables, she and her team of equally crafty and clever friends did most of it themselves.

Anchors away for a seafaring party with lashing of fizz and fun adventures

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