Peanuts Birthday Party

We celebrated Trevor's 13th birthday last Friday with a Peanuts-themed party at the ice rink. It was awesome. 

This is one of the easiest and most fun party themes I've done. The first step was making the invitation. I designed it using PicMonkey. Affiliate links below. 

With the invitations out, I turned my attention to party favors and decor. I started with plain treat cups, then painted each with Folk Art Multi-Surface Paint. I did two coats to get good coverage. When the paint was dry, I used a Sharpie to draw on the details. Can you name each of the characters?   

The top row is Linus, Charlie Brown, and Lucy. The bottom row is Snoopy, Sally, and Peppermint Patty. I filled them with peanuts for the party. They were a hit. 

I'd planned to make Peanuts-themed candy bar wrappers, but I discovered these amazing chocolates from the Vermont Country Store for way cheaper than I could have made them. I bought all that they had (sorry), but hopefully they'll restock them. 

Next, I made a banner featuring the same six characters. I cut triangles from colored cardstock, decorated them with a Sharpie, then used Glue Lines to attach them to yarn. (It's a bunch of chain stitches. I've been practicing since my crochet lesson.)

Here's the completed banner hanging above the cake. 

The cake was really easy to make. Whenever I make a cake that is a different shape than my pan, I cut a piece of paper to the size of the pan, then experiment with how to cut it to get the shape I want. I baked my cake in a 9"x13" pan. To make it into a shirt, I cut a strip off the bottom, then cut that on the diagonal to make two sleeves.  

The sleeves were a little too long, so when I cut the actual cake, I had a piece left over. Good thing, since it allowed me to do some cake quality control. (It passed.) I thought I had cake boards on hand that would fit my cake, but I didn't. So I had to build the cake on a baking sheet.

I used Wilton's gel food colors to get the frosting to just the right shade of yellow. I rolled out Satin Ice Modeling Chocolate between two pieces of parchment and used a sharp knife to cut the zig zag design.   

Far from perfect, but definitely recognizable!

The birthday boy was very happy with how it turned out. Check out the glow of 13 candles! 

Everyone had a really good time, which is all that matters.

 Happy 13th birthday, Trevor!