Pirate Party Ideas & FREE printables

Why are pirates called pirates?

...Because they ARRGHHH!

Ahem, right ho!  I've been a bit rubbish, so, I thought I'd start with a joke - a bad one, I know.

Mrs Fox's pirate parties are our most popular I blogged about them last year and I promised to put up printables for the invitations and thank you cards and other pirate party ideas.  Since then we have done several more pirate parties and I have re-designed our pirate themed Mrs Fox's Pirate Party Box .  The new designs are illustrated in the image below. At the bottom of this post are those printables I promised.

For whatever reason the Pirate Party is a firm favourite with children, boys and girls alike.  When we run our pirate parties, along with giving the traditional party games a pirate theme we use our very successful Pirate Treasure Hunt, which we tailor to the age range of the children.  Using the map below we hide wooden letters that spell the world PARTY for the older kids, or just use the pictures hidden around the venue for pre-schoolers.  The treasure is always chocolate gold coins in a wooden treasure chest.

Take a look at the range of co-ordinated pirate themed party items in our store and pick the things you like.  Then with a bit of craftiness on your part and the help of our free printables below you can run your own Mrs Fox's Pirate Party.

From here you can download, for FREE, a versions of the; invitation, thank you card & party bag labels. Everything is designed to be printed onto A4 paper. There are conditions of use for all of Mrs Fox’s downloadable files, and here they are, please read:

 

These PDF files are for personal use only.  Design and concept is copyright Mrs Fox’s 2013.   Please do not redistribute the file or sell printed materials for profit. Thank you!

    

Thank You Cards - Click HERE to download

Invitations - Click HERE to download

Party Bag Labels -  Click HERE to download

The labels are smaller versions of the thank you card, we cut them out and stick them onto plain craft paper bags (see the image below).  You can do this, or punch a hole in the top, thread them with string and tie them onto the handles if you prefer. 

You can order Mrs Fox's filled pirate party bags for £4. 50 + p&p each.  Mrs Fox’s Pirate Party Bags contain; personalised brown paper craft bag with name tag, felt eye patch, MYO pirate moustache, beard & telescope kit, treasure map, pirate stickers and sweeties, (chocolate coins, sardines & crazy jelly fish)

There is another way:  

If you would prefer we can personalise the PDF files with your child’s name and the details of your party and then you can print them out on your printer at home, or take them to a high street printer if you would prefer.  We’ll even throw in instructions and the PDF image files you need to create your own Mrs Fox’s Pirate Treasure Hunt & our Piratey Moustache, Beard & Telescope Kit.  There is a flat fee of £5 for this and here’s how it works:

1. Email us  info@mrsfoxs.com and let us know your child’s name and party details. 
2. We'll send you an invoice.  Make your purchase and within 48 hours (but usually sooner) we will email you your Pirate PDF files.
3. You are now ready to print your pirate party.  They can be printed onto A4 paper or taken to a high street printer and include full and easy instructions. 

Or order a Pirate Party Box

Our usual personal service means everything is included with as little effort as possible, we’ll put the whole party box together and mail it straight to your home. 

The Pirate Party Box contains:

Personalised printed invitations, thank you cards & envelopes

Personalised handmade paper bunting

Balloons x 20

Paper plates & cups in red and navy along with pirate treasure map napkins

Pirate hats

Pirate cup cake kit, makes 24

Mrs Fox’s Pirate Treasure Hunt kit

Mrs Fox’s Pirate Party Bags; personalised brown paper craft bag with name tag, felt eye patch, MYO pirate moustache, beard & telescope kit, pirate stickers and sweeties, (chocolate coins, sardines & lollies)

10 red spotty birthday candles

Mrs Fox's will put the whole party box together and mail it straight to your home.  You can purchase the Pirate Party Box for 8, 16 or 24 children right here.  Or if your number of invitees falls somewhere between these numbers please email us and we can send you a quote for a Pirate Party Box for the number of children you wish to invite.

Here’s how it works:

1. Purchase your party box for 8, 16 or 24 children.  (Or if your number of invitees is substantially different email us first)
2. Email us at info@mrsfoxs.com and let us know your child’s name and party details and the number of children you plan to invite.
3. We’ll send your invitations out within 3 days (but usually sooner) and the rest of your party box can then be sent out very soon after.

Which would you prefer?

Mrs Fox's is always happy to work up a new party theme with you.  We understand how busy you are so with Mrs Fox's Party Boxes you will get everything you need to run a party and it's as easy as 1, 2, 3...

Email us now info@mrsfoxs.com

Please pop a comment on the post just to let us know you've found these free printables useful - Thanks, xxx

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At the beginning of a new year

Here at Mrs Fox's HQ (with clean ovens!), we've been looking back on 2012 and thinking about what we did right and what we could do better.  And we have big new crafty plans for 2013?!  January is that kind of reflective time of the year isn't it?

I was looking back at our very first blog post.  I remember writing it bubbling with ideas and good intentions.  With two small children (And Jackie has three!) there is just never quite the time to do it all.   But through 2012 our fledgling business has become more defined and with loads of hard work we've managed to build a website and have really rediscovered the joy of making things.

There's loads still to do on our website; we need to update the information about Mrs Fox's parties, Party Bags and our Party Boxes; which are a great way to save you time and stress on your children's birthday parties.  Take a look.  Everything you need to create a themed children's party, with a crafty nostalgic twist can be delivered straight to your door by Mrs Fox's.  There'll be plenty more blog posts on party ideas and FREE downloads to help you throw great parties for your little uns.

Christmas this year we sold lots of our handmade gifts through Folksy.com.  I can't recommend Folksy enough as a place to find brilliant, original, hand-made in the UK items for you, your children and your home.

We have gone through some of our craft ideas and prototypes from last year and have just added them to our Folksy store.  Pictured above are our lavender ladies to help your little-uns sleep, a pocket sized hand embroidered mermaid, little foxes that we have turned into craft kits, a sleeping princess in a bag that we developed for our Princess and the Pea Party, and craft kits for children.  We are still developing most of these ideas and later in the year we'll be adding even more party-wares, craft kits and gifts to Mrs Fox's Handmade.  So the items in the store at the moment really are one (or two, or three) -offs!  No more once they've gone.

We also have loads of new crafts projects you can do with your children to keep them busy and happy and have finally found a little more time to dedicate to Mrs Fox's Crafty Boxes.  We've been bubbling away at these since Mrs Fox's was conceived and are finally preparing to try out our ideas with you.  We will be revealing more over the next couple of weeks.

Last but by no means least, we have a relatively new relationship guest blogging on our crafts for the marvellous Baba Blog.

The Baba Blog was founded by Leonora Bamford to provide mothers and mothers to be with free expert advice from the UK’s top experts. The Baba Blog also has a host of wonderful guest bloggers who share tips and information on everything from fun family recipes, days out, and craft ideas to new products and experiences.

There is so much to look forward to in 2013.

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Ahoy there!

Cracking fun to work on, this Pirate party!  So much to design and make, loads of new ideas too...

We started work first settling on the colour scheme (not the most difficult task we’ve had) and before I knew it, I was painting red stripes onto a large cut of brown paper which I had previously painted white.  It looked lovely and grainy and so became the overriding theme to gel all the piratey aspects together.  I cut the sheet into triangles for the bunting before painting another A4 size cut of paper to scan in and use it for our PDF invites.  The novelty of drawing, then painting hundreds of stripes soon wore off but I couldn’t stop there and a couple of evenings later, I had completed another very large stripy cut of paper which was to be used as the backdrop in our photobooth.

I do enjoy getting the paintbrushes out so as soon as the stripes had cleared from my eyes, I began painting large clues for the treasure hunt at the end of the party.  The kids would be mostly 4 and under so we devised a simple plan.  Using the letters, P, A, R, T and Y, our clues would be a Parrot, an Anchor, a Rope, some Treasure (under a big cardboard painted palm tree) and a Yo Ho Ho.  The children simply had to look at the printed clues and look about the room to find the actual clues, to which we had stuck little wooden letters for collection.  Once they had done collected all 5, they could claim their prizes – the eagerly anticipated party bags.

The party bags were where we brought in our crafty element and we designed and produced a MYO Piratey Kit; an A4 sheet of paper with beard, moustache and telescope cut outs.  The telescope was ready to go with double sided sticky tape applied and the facial hair cut outs came supplied with elastic pre-cut to size.  

We will make this design available as free download on our website so if you’re looking to pass some time with your littl’un, we have the perfect little crafty activity to spark off a piratey afternoon of play.  With a bit of imagination, a box or an upturned table and sheets can become an ocean going pirate ship – a hidden treat can become treasure to be found using the ‘hot and cold’ game.  Plenty of fun with very little effort.

I had recently discovered a substance called Paverpol and had been desperate to find a use for it so with great pleasure, I spent an evening cutting out felt eye patches and applying Paverpol to the outer side – the inner side was left comfortable, soft and fluffy on the skin and the outer side was hard and shiny.  These eye patches would complete the take home Pirate look and the Paverpol was used again to make some beards and moustaches to be used in the photobooth.  Also in each bag we put a gold foiled chocolate ‘piece of 8’, a chocolate fish, a sugar mouse along with a balloon and a handful of foam stickers (parrots and palm trees, etc). 

We supplied a pass the parcel and a large wooden plank (held up with toilet training steps covered in brown paper!).  Chief Captain Carlyos (mum) made the children walk the plank to get their cake after they had eaten and we made some good old fashioned newspaper pirate hats, complete with skull and crossbones motif and bright yellow feathers.

The last things to go into the party bags were the cupcakes and although I decorated these with black icing and golden pearls, they were made all the more ‘piratey’ using the Meri Meri Pirate toppers cup cake kit.

We hope very much that Captain Miller had a lot of pirate fun on his birthday and look forward to putting it all together for the next little pirate.

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Party Party Party...

Children's parties often fill parents with terror and they really shouldn't.  At Mrs Fox’s we are professional children’s party planners and have come up with 3 rules for parents throwing parties for their young children.  They may not be foolproof, but give them a go...

Number 1:

Don’t try and be perfect - the kids don’t care about perfection, why should you?

The first thing I think any parent should do is to try remembering what it was like to be a young child. Ok the brands have changed and there are a few things you simply didn't have like multi-channel TV, and iPads but childhood is not so different. A birthday party is you making great memories for your child.

Kids love parties. They love that it is their special day.  Kids love parties in halls, kids love parties at home.  Kids love telling their friends they can come to their party and giving out the invitations.  Kids love party food.   They love party games, they love to win treats. Kids love to get hot and sweaty and shout at the tops of their voices. Kids love balloons. (And then some kids hate balloons). Nothing on this list is any different to the parties of my childhood.  

Don’t worry if you don’t have the perfect place settings and the perfect decorations.  Make some of it yourselves and have your child help you.  And the party boy or girls involvement is a great excuse for messy “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” banners and fingerprints on the party bags.  I try out all of my party craft ideas with my own children.

Number 2:

Give yourself time - plenty of time...

So, when planning a party for your child ask them what they want.  And really listen.  And if their request sounds a little random, go with it, it will be original.  A child I know said they wanted “balls” so their mother had a ball pit, balls as decorations, anything that could be round was round; the invitation, the banner, even the sandwiches were round.  The kids loved it. 

If you ask what your child wants and give yourselves time, you can do any kind of party and you will not have to spend a fortune.  If you want to include the children in creating things for the party you might find it takes a little longer, but by including them in the planning they won’t suddenly change their mind 3 days out saying they want a completely different party.

If your child’s idea for a party fills you with dread feel free to improvise around the theme.  If your little girl says fairies and you loath pink, who says fairies are not all the colours of the rainbow.  Even if they are really specific; say “Hello Kitty”; don’t give in to exasperation once you start price checking the Partyware on the internet.  You could buy “Hello Kitty” napkins take 2 or 3 colours from that and everything else could co-ordinate without all those licensed party products. 

Give yourselves time and don’t think of it as a one day exhaustive marathon, but as a gentle and enjoyable jog through your child’s creativity.  And if, like me, in your life BC (before children) you used to be very organised in a slightly OCD project manager kind of a way have a look at the party planning documents which are free to download from our website.  They should help you organise the heck out of any party!

Number 3:

Enjoy it!

Please, please try and enjoy the party, your child will.  They will think their party is the best ever and you are the greatest parent ever for making it happen.  

Ask for help.  Other parents, family, older siblings, tell them what you want them to do before the party starts and be sure they are comfortable with their responsibility.  

Have a plan detailing the order you are going to do things and how long they should take on the day.   We’ve an example of this on our blog.  If you start to run behind be flexible, drop the activity you think most complicated. Have one extra prize ready and if you have time at the end of the party play sleeping lions.  You’ll be exhausted and so will they.  If you have given yourselves time on the day as well as in the planning, you should be ready for anything, but if something goes wrong, probably no one will know but you.

Remember rule number one.  For example, if you are no good at baking, cheat and buy cup cakes.  You can buy the plain supermarket ones and decorate them, use cup-cake kits, or make decorating the cup cakes a party activity.  

Don’t buy too much food, party food will often hardly get touched, it is not a sign that you are a rotten chef, the children are too excited to eat.   We always put the meal in the middle of the party.  If you have helpers in the kitchen, the party tea gives you time to organise the next round of party games.  And we would suggest you have drinks, (and this can just be a jug of water and cups), available throughout the party, all that excited running about is a sweaty business.

When it comes to party games the oldies are the best; pass the parcel, musical bumps, musical chairs, oranges and lemons, treasure hunts etc.  They can all be played and adapted to fit most themes and ages.   I personally think it is still good to have winners in party games.  Just think carefully about the age of the children, make sure those who don’t win still get lots of praise and have consolation prizes on hand.  You can aim for every child to win something and have a big box of treats to bribe and cajol the good times.

And if you think that what you need is perfection, more time, and even more fun then get in touch with Mrs Fox info@mrsfoxs.com, www.mrsfoxs.com  and order one of our party boxes.  Because that is also as simple as  1, 2, 3 

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A Party in the Jungle

Mrs Fox has always found it easier to create a party around a theme, and one of the first things to do is pick the colours.  I usually choose three colours, by defining them I can unify the look and feel of the party.  I try not to do the whole pink for girls and blue for boys thing, so one of my favourite parties is Mrs Fox’s Party in the Jungle.

Mrs Fox created her first Jungle Party for two little 4 year old boys who love animals, Archie and Morrie.  

We had a great idea for the invitation.  We created a kit to make a monkey mask using a paper plate, felt and elastic, and it is one of our very best invitations to date. “The Monkeys are breaking out of the zoo!  They're gong to Archie and Morrie's party in the jungle, why don't you come too?” said the invitation.  When Archie and Morrie gave out their invitations at school the sense of excitement was palpable.



We continued the monkey theme with our Mrs Fox’s No Tears Monkey Musical Bumps game.  We also had a crocodile pinata. A jungle themed pass the parcel. And a jungle birthday cake decorated with the Wild Bunch, four beautiful origami animals that we stock in the Mrs Fox’s shop.

On the day of the party Mrs Fox decorated the hall with a colour scheme of greens and orange, for the the tableware, balloons and decorations.  We created orange and green crepe paper bunting.  We made curtains of trailing jungle vines using garden twine and strands of green crepe paper.   We hung inflatable monkeys from and stuck chocolate bugs onto the vines and the children wripped them to shreds with glee at the end of the party.

Each child took home a drawstring cotton party bag containing, another of the origami animals, pencil, stickers balloon and chocolate jungle animals.  We used a jungle animal themed cup cake kit to decorate individual cup cakes for each child and these were wrapped in little compostable cellophane bags to take home.

We now sell this party on our website as one of Mrs Fox’s Party Boxes - A Party in the Jungle.  Created with care and attention to detail this party has a handmade and home made feel.  We include detailed advice and ideas to add to the jungle fun. 

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A Sunny Afternoon

And our photoshoot for Mrs Fox's Party Bags went really well.  We have a Classic Party Bag, a Party Bag for Girls and a Party Bag for Boys, all three of which should be up on the website for sale by the end of the week.  We are offering a very SPECIAL OFFER via our Facebook page on the Classic Party Bag pictured above.  Until 4th July 2012 we are selling them in packs of 4 for only £20. And if you buy two packs of 4 we will include a FREE set of 10 birthday candles. 

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To help you get organised - FREE downloads

We've been in this party business for a while now and it's amazing what you learn.

On the one hand holding a child's birthday party is the easiest thing ever.  Your child will love the idea of a party, will live for the party for weeks in advance, excitement mounting.  And they will not care how organised, professional, or perfectly managed it is or is not.  

You, on the other hand, will probably worry and fret and feel like there are a thousand things that could go disasterously wrong.  The truth, of course, is somewhere in between.  But it is always worth remembering that no matter what, your son or daughter will think that any party you throw them is the best EVER!

To help you along with the organisation of your event we have put together two documents for you to download.  The first is Mrs Fox's Party Masterplan.  It helps you get organised from one month out and is a geat aid memoir when planning your party.

Download the party masterplan

The second is Mrs Fox's Party Planning Worksheet and this will help you define the party and keep a top level list of guests, menu, activities & music etc.



Download party worksheet

Of course the best way to get organised is to order a Mrs Fox's Party Box.  Our themed party boxes include everything you need to run your party; invites, tableware, games, crafts, decorations, filled party bags and thank you cards.  All delivered straight to your door. What could be easier?

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A Fairy Teaparty and a Bit of Mrs Fox's History

A Fairy Teaparty was the first party Mrs Fox was asked to create.  

Having thrown some great parties for our own little foxes, and helped friends out with theirs, Mrs Fox's was asked if we could put together;

"a fairy party that isn't like all the other fairy parties, not too much pink if that's possible..."  

With these words ringing in my ears I decided to use yellow and lavender, with just a touch of pink.  I made a few fairies to get into the mood; wooden peg fairies, pom pom fairies, bead and pipe-cleaner fairies...



and finally came up with a rather nice paper craft fairy for the children to do at the party and take home in their party bags too.

I'm a bit of a bunting fan, so to create a fairy arbor I made large crepe paper flowers and machine sewed them onto bias binding strung them from the ceiling to help create our magical fairy realm.  This is still one of my favourite, although perhaps the most fiddly, buntings I have made.  

I've tried to write up how I made it in another blog post here.  Inspired by the amazing Disney art director Mary Blair, I'd been watching Alice in Wonderland at the time, my flowers were huge magical monsters...

The next thing I came across were great fairy cake toppers. The cup cakes can be made and decorated before the party and used for the party tea.  Or make the cakes and let the children ice and decorate their own at the party, wrap them and tie with a pretty bow for them to take home. 



The tea table was laid with yellow, lavender and pink paper plates and cups with fairy napkins that match the cup cakes. For a table centrepiece Mrs Fox made a magical giant mushroom.  Made from Papermache it stands on a cake board so is nice and fim, but it has a secret.  The base is hollow and can be filled with sweets and the mushroom cap forms a bowl into which the sweets can be decanted.

 Our ice cream van ice cream cups coordinate beautifully with the rest of this tableware. You don't have to use the little bowls for ice cream, we used them for fruit cups at our last fairy party.   

And the great thing is the ice-cream van box looks beautiful on the table, you can make holes in the top and use it as a stand for lollipops.  I made some great marshmallow lollipops with the little foxes the other day, they are easy peasy! 

And of course we have the fairy party bags;  cotton drawstring bags contained a paper fan, fairy glider, felt-craft accessories kit, myo paper fairy and sweeties. The little guests were thrilled with their hoard.

This party was Mrs Fox's first and created the pattern for our Fairy Tea Parties.  We've changed the party bag a few times and added a few games, but, this is the template for our Fairy Party Box, which is available here on our website. It contains everything you need for a fairy tea-party of your own.

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Our First First Birthday Party

Mrs Fox has just created her first First Birthday Party Box.  Made for little Bianca in Washington D.C. we shipped it earlier this week.
We took as our inspiration friendly jungle animals and used a pallet of soft yellow, blue, orange and white.  The centrepiece of our party box is a hand made  keepsake bunting.  And here's how we made it:-

The bunting is primarily made of craft paper, but hanging from the paper  bunting  are yellow cotton elephants each with a letter  from Bianca's name  appliqued  onto them.  This cotton bunting can be  detached  from the  main  and  restrung onto it's ribbon to be hung in Bianca's room as a keepsake.

We cut 14 paper circles out of craft paper, using a saucer as a template. Then onto the outer edge of eachof these we painted  a strip of white, yellow, orange and blue.  Having cut a scalloped edge onto each circle, we then painted the letters "happy 1st birthday" onto the centre of each.  With 2 holes on either side of the circle we strung them onto 12" of yellow ribbon.



After designing a simple elephant shape on card we cut a front and back and sewed them together  with blanket stitch using embroidery silks in burgundy, each was stiffened with a piece of card  and stuffed with scraps of fabric.
Each letter was then drawn and the shape cut from a different piece of fabric and sewn onto  the  elephant shape.  An eye was added with the same burgundy silks. A loop of  burgundy and  yellow  ribbon attached to the top allows the elephant  to be hung from the  paper bunting.  We  hope  Bianca loves it, along with the rest of her party box.

Mibo's Wild Bunch, paper animals to decorate the party venue;  Meri Meri Animals on Parade cup cake kit; Balloons in co-ordinating  yellow, blue, orange and white; Party favours were sugar mice individually wrapped with a mini elephant felt tag  commemorating  the big day.  So all that remains to be said is;

"Happy First Birthday Bianca!"

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