My oldest turned 15 a week ago. My mind is still adjusting to that number. I'm not exaggerating when I say it just feels like I was just bawling my eyes out as I registered him for kindergarten.
Anyway, I thought he'd be getting past wanting a themed birthday this year - being such a big bad teenager and all. I was wrong.  And when he said the word "steampunk," my heart was all aflutter!

Not being typical party gear, this required going completely from scratch - a banner, steampunked  water guns for party favors, metallic paper plates/napkins, and cupcakes decorated with cream frosting sprayed lightly with silver edible spray (my new favorite thing!) and topped with mustaches (of course!).

Steampunk Water Guns

The true icing on the cake, metaphorically speaking, were the party favors.  I got the idea from - of course - Pinterest. Simple water guns transform into futuristic/retro Steampunk beauties! 

 I made a dozen, and though the gun base shape was the same, no two guns were identical once I finished. Can I tell you the ridiculous amount of joy I got out of this project?
Seriously, some times I wonder if I've grown up at all.

Materials Needed:

Standard Water Guns (dollar or thrift store)

Krylon 2340 Fusion Spray Paint, Espresso

Rust-Oleum 249131 11 oz Universal All Surface Spray Paint, Oil Rubbed Bronze Metallic

Acrylic Paints, Varied Metallic shades

Acrylic Paint, Black

Paint Brushes, per preference (a detail brush & a larger brush for dry brushing)

Krylon 2444 'Fusion for Plastic' Clear Plastic Paint - 12 oz. Aerosol

I started out with wildly bright dollar store squirt guns.  I was drawn to these particular guns by the shape, the easy fill water tank, and the steampunk feel to the rivets and pipe-like parts.

Hanging all 12 guns along a string so I could get every angle painted easily, I started with a base coat of Krylon Fusion spray paint made specifically to bond with plastic. (note: while this worked flawlessly on the body of the guns, the water tanks have shown wear and tear, peeling down to the green - in other words, not "bonding" like the paint claims. I think it's because the water tanks are soft, flexible plastic.  Next time I'll go for completely hard surfaces when I purchase guns. I don't think soft plastic can ever be completely "primed".  However, the guns still look cool because the bits of green showing through look toxic and quite awesome.)

After the brown base coat, each gun received a coating of metallic bronze spray paint.  If I could have found the Fusion paint in a metallic, I would have skipped this step.  However, I wanted to ensure the bonding of the paint with the plastic.  Thus the brown primer coat, THEN the bronze metallic topcoat.

Now for the detailing. Using acrylic paints in antique gold, bright silver, and true copper, paint the rivets, hoses, pipes, handles, fins, anything that could stand out.   I used a dry brush technique with the gold, silver and bright copper to achieve a non-streaked, true metallic appearance, particularly with the water tank which would have streaked and looked fake to try and paint solidly.

To dry brush, take a very little bit of paint onto the corner tip of a large brush or sponge. I found it helps to play around with it on a piece of wax paper first to distribute the paint a little. Then in quick, almost smashing motions, wipe and blot the paint onto the gun, concentrating on nooks and crannies.

After the color dries, repeat this dry brush technique with black over the whole gun.  I found it particularly helpful with the black to have a paper towel on hand to wipe areas I got over-aggressive with.  The combination of dry-brush and wiping with a paper towel created the exact aged look I wanted - even if it isn't an approved artistic technique ;)  It really made the details pop.

The guns went back on a line for a final clear coat (again, using the paint specific to plastic).  It probably wasn't totally necessary, but I wasn't taking any chances. I didn't want any of my hard work rubbing off, especially since mine weren't decorative, they were for real water play.   They looked SO cool hanging all in a line that I couldn't stop taking pictures.

I was so tickled with the way they turned out! More importantly, all the birthday guests were totally over the moon.  We had quite the steampunk water war in our backyard that night (and ever since!).  I included some close-ups at the end of this post to show how many possibilities can come from one gun.

Banner:
I used card stock I had on hand in browns, greens and copper tones.  The font is called exotica and can be downloaded for free from Steampunk Font. I also used KG Flavor and Frames, another free download on dafont . It has frames, mustaches, glasses, etc.

Since my banner spans a room rather than hanging against the wall, I like to have something fun on the back as well.  I printed off a few steampunky images to throw on the back. 

And the most essential element was gears.  I cut them out of dark brown & copper metallic card stock. The entire banner is simply sewn together using my sewing machine.  It's the crazy simplest way to make a banner, and it holds up really well. One lesson I learned is that the gears that were sewn through at exact center spun around all the time, which was super cool. 

Food

Cupcakes are not the most creative steampunk item I could have come up with, but they were super yummy and I love, LOVE how cool they look sprayed with Wilton Color Mist. The metallic colors are simply amazing!
 

Who can resist mustaches?

And while they've become very vogue lately, they are decidedly steampunk, and make suave cupcake toppers as well as hilarious favors and photo props! Mustache Party Food and Cupcake Picks - 25 ct

Pop the silver metallic cupcakes and some ice cream on gold metallic plates (from the dollar store) and bronze metallic napkins (Hobby Lobby), and you've got stylish steampunk! 

Bonus Photos:

Some more glamor shots of the guns - I couldn't pick a favorite.

Chloe's very first request with her Merida party was the cakes.  Not the costume, not the bows & arrows - the cakes.  She wanted cakes EXACTLY like the one in the movie that Merida gives her mom.  Perfect - except she was SO picky and it had to be exact - and I have no clue how that fictional animated cake came to be.  I did exhaustive research into pastries, cupcakes, all sorts of variations.

There were failed experiments with cookie doughs and pastry - some looked ok, but were thick and brick-like, others were flat and ugly.  I was feeling silly and ridiculous for wasting so much time on a child's party, when I finally figured it out!  It isn't exact, but it's close enough to satisfy my Picky VonPickyPrincess.  It's basically a bundt recipe made in cupcake tins, which makes them so dense that the centers sink and the edges round out and become golden. These are SO, SO yummy! They taste a lot like buttermilk donuts somehow, with a slightly lemony flavor from the glaze.






"Magic" Merida Cakelettes
1 box yellow cake mix
1 3 1/2 oz box instant pudding mix (I used vanilla - could use lemon)
4 eggs
1/2 c oil

Blend all ingredients until smooth.  Fill greased cupcake pan with batter (a little more than 1/2 full for each cup).  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (fork needs to come out clean - make sure they're done, my first batch had extremely doughy centers)

Glaze
2 C powdered sugar
1/4 c lemon juice (scant fourth, don't over-do it)
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp water

Mix glaze together while cakes are baking.

After cakes are done, remove to rack to cool slightly.  While they are still warm, dip/coat/drizzle with glaze.  Back to the wire rack for cooling thoroughly. (tip - put wax paper or something under the wire rack, as the glaze drips)

Filling
1 c chopped strawberries
1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over low to medium heat.  Boil on low for about 2 minutes until filling thickens, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and cool.

Assembly
Some of the cooled and glazed cakes will have centers sunken enough to add filling to as-is, but most will require a little extra shaping.  Using a spoon, scoop out a small divot in the center of the cake.  Add  about a Tbsp of filling to each cake's center, keeping it neat and round as possible if trying for the Merida cake look-alike. (if not, no worries!)

To finish off food - Bear-shaped sugar cookies (I know, they should have been chocolate! I realized after the fact), and a basket of BRAVE fruit snacks for the littles rounded up the buffet.


For Decorations, draped dark brown burlap and plaid fabric look both rustic & Scottish.  Coordinated color napkins, etc, of course. I bought supplies to make clan banners, but settled for throwing up a few Brave posters we had on hand when we ran out of time. Oh, and I came up with a digital decor that was a huge hit.  Using my AppleTV, I downloaded a ton of pics from Brave and streamed them one of the slideshow options, together with celtic music from our iTunes.  It ran on the TV in the background and provided a constantly changing decor and atmosphere.

For Fun! Not much was necessary for entertainment after giving kids bows and arrows, but for the sake of fun and whimsy, we had to make the "magic" cakes actually turn the kids into bears, like it does in the movie.
Super simple craft: headbands from the dollar store, black cardstock, metallic markers that color on black, and a hot glue gun.
Kids cut out "ears" and decorated them with their markers to have fuzzy centers.  Some were silver, some were pink, some purple - really cute.  Then I just glued the ears to the headbands - right side of the ear to the wrong side of the headband, then folding the ear up to stand.  The kids loved them and were adorable too.

FINALLY - the Dress. 

I don't usually make a costume for a birthday party, but since Chloe's birthday lands a couple months before Halloween, it was the two birds - one stone scenario.  Luckily there is a pattern that works almost perfectly.  McCalls 5499 is excellent in every way except the sleeve. That was just some trial and error.  Some versions I've seen do a false elbow inset, but I found it just as easy to have the puffy sleeve underneath be a full sleeve with the over-sleeve attaching with strips at the shoulder, like Merida's does. Around the neck it is just a ruffle though, not a full shirt.

For more pics of the dress and cloak: Halloween Costume post

That's it! I did say that I had a ton more ideas though, and here are some of them that I ran out of time, energy, cash.....for. Still, I'll pass them along in case anyone is interested.  Super cute stuff!

This and other Merida Party Ideas

Disney printable and craft ideas - BRAVE themed

Bear mask, in case you prefer it to ears.

Welcome to Part 2 of the Merida party post!  It seems that blogger finally let me post part 1 in its entirety, and though I've already lost a pic on this post and I've just started writing, I'll keep my fingers crossed that we'll get through to the end.  Because what good are bows without ARROWS?!?  NO good, I say! And of all the tutorials for bows that I found online, I found very little about arrows and had to make it up as I went along, so I need to share and make the world a better place - it's what the blogosphere is about, right?! ;)

Supplies Needed:
Wooden Dowels (I chose 5/8" - the orange tipped ones)
Duct tape
Foam (I used pipe insulation left over from bows, but pool noodle foam or batting would work too)
Paint (optional)

Step 1: Cut dowels to 18".  I bought 36" dowels and cut them in half using a saw.  I sanded the edges a little so they wouldn't be rough.

If you want the arrows colored, now is the time to paint them, before putting the tips and fletchings on.  We faced a dilemma here because we wanted to stay authentic to Brave, and make realistic looking arrows, but we also knew that the arrows were likely to go missing deep in bushes in trees.  Therefore, we opted to paint them neon glow-in-the-dark and attach neon fletchings.  This is the BEST part for kids - they LOVED painting the arrows neon camo - which is a hilarious contradiction in terms ;)

Step 2: Add fletchings. Cut three pieces of Duct tape, approximately 2 - 3 inches long. It doesn't really matter, as long as all three are the same length.

 - Lay the dowel on an approximately 2 1/2"-3" strip of duct tape, leaving about an inch of the dowel at the end to grab on to when shooting (I learned this one the hard way, putting my first flight right at the end).

- Line up a second piece of duct tape, cut to be the same length as the first, along the edge of the first piece, with the dowel coming to the center of the second piece of tape as it does the first one.  Make sure to not let the two pieces of tape touch on the other side of the dowel - leave their sticky sides open.

- Line up a 3rd piece of identical duct tape along the final sticky edge of the original piece of tape.  Smooth to center and the dowel, then match up with second piece of tape and press all tightly to each other and to the dowel.

Looks like this

Step 3: Shape fletchings. Cut each flap into a triangle shape, tapering toward the front of the arrow. (Learned this one the hard way too - tapered my first one the wrong direction and my triangles faced the wrong way.)

Triangles need to look like this

Step 4: Safety Arrow Tips. Cut foam about 1 1/2", then cut in half.

- Wrap foam around tip of dowel.  I used a little glue (E6000) at first, but after a while I realized the tape alone held them on very securely.  *Note, my kids wore through these tips in only a couple of days and we added extra layers of foam.  On subsequent arrows, I started off double thickness and they have been fine - though I recommend checking them regularly as they do need to be re-tipped from time to time for safety.

-Wrapping a strip of duct tape around the fom tip keeps the foam from coming off in chunks when the arrow hits anything abrasive. Then using either electrical tape or more duct tape, wrap the base of the foam, around the dowel joining them securely.

Finished Arrow

Oh, I almost forgot that the arrows do need little notches for nocking them on the string.  You can see it in the Finished Arrow pic, that there is a tiny little groove in the bottom of the arrow.  I just used a file out of the toolbox.

Go to A very BRAVE birthday party - Part 3: Goodies & Fun Stuff