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There are three girls, three boys, one puppy, and one teacher. Their names are Gil, Nonny, Goby, Molly, Oona, Deema, and Mr. Grouper. Anyone who has a toddler and gets Nick Jr. on their TV probably knows who I am talking about. If not, meet the Bubble Guppies: a rambunctious set of mermaids and merboys, as well as a mer-puppy. They sing songs, dance, and tell stories all from the comforts of the bottom of the ocean. It is kind of an odd show, especially when you stop to notice that there is wind blowing the trees, or that they are growing vegetables, or that four legged animals have been given fish tails. Yes, the farm episode featured a cow with two front legs and a fish tail. Whether or not this will confuse my son in the future is up for debate, but I am willing to risk it. These cute little characters sing catchy tunes about stuff my son (and my eight year old daughter--shhh, don't tell) loves like airplanes, playing outside, and even dinosaurs and archaeology.
Needless to say, my son is having a Bubble Guppies birthday party. This particular theme involves a bit more creativity than usual though as Nick Jr. does not sell party items for the Guppies. They do, however, have a slew of printables on their website that will cover just about anything you will need. From invitations to party hats to table decorations, they have it all.
Now, I always like to have a backdrop sort of thing behind our table to take pictures and this year was no exception. Since I couldn't buy these little guys anywhere, I got creative. Here is what I came up with:
The background paper is wrapping paper I got at the dollar store. I then printed out images of the main characters and cut them out. Make sure you get them roughly the same size so they look right. Then I looked at one of the backgrounds in the images and got some ideas on how to make the rocks and coral. I matched the colors to the picture I found online and then used a variety of papers (construction, scrapbook, and card stock) to make the rocks and coral. One tip, when making the layered designs on the rock and coral: It is easiest to cut the two colors out together and then trim your lighter color to fit how you like on the darker color. I also made some wavy sea weed, which I put bands of glitter glue on to give them a little shimmer, and some bubbles which I outlined in dark blue to help them pop. I arranged everything before I started gluing so I was sure to get it on there the way I wanted.
I also made a cover for the fireplace (see above) as this is where we normally open presents. I used the same wrapping paper as the other background. The banner letters were printed from the Nick Jr. website. The characters I just found online. I added bubbles that I found at the local craft store. The balloon banner I did with fishing line. I got four different colors of balloons, blew them up to different sizes, then used a needle and fishing line to string them together. My first attempt at any sort of balloon art. I think it looks pretty good.
Other decoration ideas:
- Pearly bites cookies: These look like seashells with pearls. I made a few changes to the recipe. I used Pepperidge Farm Lemon Cookies
for the shells, canned strawberry frosting, and Wilton candy eyeballs
anchored with a little royal icing. Very cute, see above.
- Blow up a bunch of various shades of blue, white, and silver balloons and hang them on the mantel and elsewhere to look like bubbles.
- Many floral departments in local grocery stores will blow your own balloons up for you for a cheaper price. Take your leftover balloons from the mantel design and blow them up with helium. Weigh them down and let them line the walkway to the front door.
- Use green streamers, twist, and hang vertically on walls to look like seaweed. Add some cutout paper fish or seashells.
- Use fish net from party stores and decorate.
- Put seashells around the house or make a little diorama out of a glass vase with sand and seashells.
- Really, anything ocean related can be used easily.
- For other ideas check out Bubble Guppies on Facebook. People have posted pictures of their parties.
- There are also a ton of items on Etsyand Ebay.
