A variety of Mario Brothers Mushroom cupcakes
Update: Our party was a smashing success, and dozens of other parents have posted their stories too! Also, there are finally some cute mario party supplies to help supplement these ideas. If you need the supplies you can support this page at the same time by ordering them here.
My son turns six this month and would like to have a Mario Party Party. It’s a fun idea really, but I’ve noticed that mario birthday party supplies and favors are a bit hard to find. (Not anymore!)
So this time around in addition to posting my ideas as to what worked and what didn’t, I realized I could check with you! Here’s what I’ve got so far:
(I’m updating as I come up with ideas, and there are tons of other mario party ideas readers posted in the comments below!)
- Mushroom cupcakes made with red icing and white candy spots or orange frosting and red candy — or green frosting with white, for that matter — maybe all of them? Let the kids decorate?
- Ice Cream shaped like a star using a star shaped cake pan
- Star shaped mylar balloons for party favors – just add eyes! I gold star shaped mylar balloons, 20″ across for 99 cents here, or you can get a 3′ star shaped mylar balloon for $2.99 . These also make excellent additions to any mario-themed costume
- Chocolate (Or bubblegum) coin hunt
- Pizza – oh and set the table with a red/white checked tablecloth
- Mini Games (haven’t figured out which ones yet but stuff like a beanbag toss, frisbee throw, etc. would probably work – I should go play mario party with the kids for more ideas)
- Yoshi Egg Piñata
- Mushroom Invitations (pattern posted below)
I did find some red newsboy/cabbie caps that’d be adorable on the kids. A bit over (my) budget for mario birthday party favors but it’d be fun for someone I’m sure. Maybe I could make some out of .. I dunno, foam visors and fabric? who knows
So anyway.. If you’re looking for mario party ideas for your kid, there are a few, and if you’ve got some I’ve not thought of, please feel free to contribute.
Old School Mario Mushroom
There are some cute Mario Birthday Party invitations available now along with favors and other party supplies, but if you want to make your own, here’s the pattern I made for our party. These look like the 8-bit mushrooms you might remember from Super Mario Brothers. Print caps.pdf on orange, red, or green cardstock. Paint the spots.
Print stems.pdf on white cardstock, and then print envelope.pdf on goldenrod 4.25×6.25 envelopes.
Cut out the caps and stems. Fold forward along the dotted line on the cap to form a tab to glue the stem to the mushroom cap. Let the glue dry first, then put the cards in a heavy book to get their folds crisp.
You could do the same thing with a smoother mushroom look, but I think the 8 bit pixelated thing is a bit fun and unexpected. Enjoy!
Chain Chomp Pinata idea by Heather & Joe - this is awesome!
Heather and Joe sent in this awesome Chain-chomp pinata idea. Very clever and cool! “I used a dollar store beach ball so I could deflate it for reuse after! I also used black construction paper for the final layer so the color would be stronger. It hung with an old light fixture chain. It turned out great! we had already hit it a few times before we remembered to take a pic.whoops! ”
Vinyl Mario Peel & Stick Wall Stickers - out of my price range but SO COOL!
And I totally love these wall stickers. I can’t afford them, but if I could I would totally turn my apartment’s living room with it’s nearly black wall into World 3-1, and then it’d be like having a Mario Party every day!
Have fun at your Mario Party!
My sons were Mario and Luigi for Halloween and we just bought the white painters caps from our local craft store for like 50 cents each and Rit dyed them. Then we nout an iron on with the letter "M" and "L". It was very in expensive and would work for favors too.
Thanks Hope – great tip! I tried making a hat out of red foil wrapping paper and cardboard. It was OK but not what I was hoping for.
I did end up making some very cute 8-bit mushroom themed invitations though, and the coin hunt (aka, throw a hundred gold chocolate coins into the back yard from the deck and turn the kids loose) was super fun. The mushroom cupcakes were also wildly popular.
where can you find party suplies out there that have mario on them? I see people selling them on ebay for gosh awful prices. What shops sell them?
I couldn’t find any shops that carried mario supplies. I recommend picking up some italian themed party supplies – which you can get anywhere. Then add in a few mario-ish decorations you print or make yourself.
I am having the same problem right now with my son’s sixth b-day that just HAS TO be Mario themed. We like the mushroom cupcakes and chocolate coin search. We also are going to a pizza place in town that is known for it’s "tubes". A fun playland for kids with the largest tubes and tunnels in town. So we will be able to pretend at least we’re in Mario land.
That sounds like it’ll be lots of fun. I’ll have to get the personal details off of my invitations I made so I can upload them here for anyone who wants to use them… they turned out very cute.
Oh – one other thing that was fun for a photo background – I took a black tablecloth and used a sponge to print teal bricks on it, like the underground parts in old-school mario.
One thing I found out about 6 year olds is that they are pretty good at entertaining themselves. I had other games planned for them (such as mario in the middle – put a mario had on one kid and have him try to catch the ball being thrown back and forth between the others – the last person who touched the ball before mario catches it becomes mario) … but between decorating the mushroom cupcakes and the coin hunt, they had themselves completely entertained the entire time.
I was looking for Mario themed items for a game party/my husband’s birthday. So far I have found that http://www.evite.com has a couple of Mario invite designs.
Hello, like all of the other mothers out there, I have a son turning 5 in a couple of weeks and just has to have a mario party! I cannot find anything! I did have a lady who makes chocolate lollipops on ebay, make me some mushroom and yellow star lollipops. I am making him some mushroom cupcakes and also making the centerpieces myself. I had the idea to get some mini plastic terra cota looking pots, paint them green and print out some large fire flower stickers, that I plan to glue onto posterboard. All you do is get some of that green florist sponge and stick it in the pot, then you stick the fire flower posterboard cutout into the sponge and add some green paper easter grass shreds and you have really cool centerpieces. Really cheap and will look great with on a checked tablecloth! Still on the hunt for some more ideas though. Thanks for your great ideas.
I’m loving the fire flowers idea! Woo hoo! In fact, I’m really loving ALL of these ideas.
If anyone wants to send a file for me to post here (like a pattern for anything) just drop me a note in the contact form & I’ll email you.
My son is turning 4 and loves to play Mario Party on the Wii. I am searching for ideas for his birthday and was happy to find your site. I had a different game idea–I am going to place stars all over the house and have them go on a search for stars.
Wow. You all have such great ideas. My son is turning 3 and one of his first pronounced words was Mario…and when I write out his name and ask him what it says he replies "Mario" so he’s getting a Mario party too. I may have to use some of these Ideas and even add a few new ones. I’ll let you know later what I do.
To Velda:
Yes, Velda everything is homemade! The goomba is a papercraft we downloaded. And, yes, a lot of cutting. Thank you for the compliments, it was both my husband and I. We started planning a couple of months before. It’s a lot of work, but my kids enjoyed the whole process. My birthday boy never even asked for a present. He was just excited about everything we came up with. Parents wouldn’t leave the party! They wanted to see what we’d do next. It was a lot of fun. We also had a "store" they could purchase "stuff" with the coins from Yoshi’s egg hunt. I hope we could be of help to people for their kids’ parties. There just isn’t anything for Mario to purchase. And if you have a computer and ideas, you can make it! Jessica…post a link for pictures! I would love to see your son’s party!
Well congrats. It’s beautifully done.. I take it you’re a print designer? How did you cut out those cards so well? They are amazing!
And I would love to see other peoples pics. If you don’t have a site to upload them to and want them posted here, you can email them to me at myname at novapages.com (I don’t want to post the actual address to be harvested by spam bots)
Someone said they got painters hats at your local craft store? what store was that? i have been looking everywhere for them, mario party here too!
Hey there! My son is turning 5 in April is LOVES to play Mario Party on the Wii…and of course that’s what kind of party he wants. I never thought that finding party things would be so hard! has anybody bought the Mario items from Ebay? I’m thinking about getting the Edible Image, but really would rather find something local…
Sorry Amanda – I haven’t tried them. Have you had any other feedback on the edible images or did you find another solution? Let us know!
You’re very welcome! I’m loving all the input from other moms too.
If your kids are into sponge bob, I just posted ideas for a quick and inexpensive spongebob party too, complete with a really simple sponge-bob pinata, under the Crazy Ideas category here:
http://novapages.com/index….
And hey, the giftbag idea I used for the spongebob piniata could very easily be applied to a mario party too – just decorate it with a big question mark instead. Fill it with chocolate gold coins, atomic fireballs, feathers, etc.
For an awesome cupcake do the Mario Brother’s Mushroom!
Hi all! I too am having the same problem with not being able to find anything in mario. I order invites off ebay. My son is turning 5 in July and loves Mario. I found a handmade mario pinata off ebay too that is totally adorable. The picture does not do it justice. I think I am going to put some gold coins in it and something else. I am going to use it on one of the tables until it is time to play. He got a trampoline for his birthday and I thought maybe an individual bouncing game where they catch something too might be fun. A lot of the kids are quite a bit older so I just don’t know what to do. Have fun and good luck to all! Karen
Now we can all just print and fold to make Mario Characters!
Nintendo Paper Craft
Also you can make original Mario level look-alikes here Super Mario Brothers Papercrafts at http://nerd-craft.blogspot.com
Took me FOREVER to find these links so hopefully they help someone out. Enjoy!
Yay! Thanks Sam. My little video-game fanatic that started all this also happens to be a big fan of Origami and Kirigami.. He will love this! Downloading the .zip NOW before it gets removed
Wow, can I just say, those models are freakin awesome!! These papercrafts must be the ones Michelle mentioned earlier. Too bad the site is so ad-laden.
You are welcome. I stumbled on this one also. http://www.cubeecraft.com/ I’d say that about exhausts the googling. Have fun!
Awesome blossom.. they will love this! When I have a minute I’ll have to post links on my links area too. Thanks again!!
Hi Megan – Relay races? Let’s see. How about an egg and spoon race, where you’ve painted the eggs with green spots to look like Yoshi eggs? You could boil the eggs (I’d be too chicken to use raw eggs with six year olds) and then paint on spots using a q-tip with green food coloring mixed with a little white vinegar.
And your kid might not remember when Mario caught feathers in addition to mushrooms, fireflowers, and stars, but you could do a feather relay race where they have to keep a feather up in the air across a short distance without dropping it.
Hey there – well the kids decorated them, so they were a little funky .. between the bumpy frosting and the extra toppings, they were not much like mushrooms by the time they were done expressing their creativity. Still, they had a great time. Next time we do cupcakes here I’ll model a few for this article.
One thing with the cupcakes: Use white wrappers (of course) but use more than one so they look extra white.
If YOU want to make them so they’re better-looking than what the kids might do, you might consider cutting spots out of fruit leather, or if you iced them red, cut spots out of white mystery-flavored AirHeads.
Also if anyone feels like sending a photo, I’m happy to link to it or post it here. But I’ll see if I can get around to it one of these days. Maybe for Halloween since my kids are heading out in Mario and Peach costumes.
Great ideas!!! Our pary is going to be in a hall so we have some room. Doing mushroom cupcakes, red & green and will use mentos for the white spots. Found a video on You Tube for making hats out of poster board. http://www.youtube.com/watc… Also doing a Yoshi’s egg on the spoon/obstacle course with cardboard boxes decorated as brick boxes. Or doing the stuffed egg with confetti idea and doing an egg toss with partners using the stuffed eggs. Doing a gold coin hunt…person with the most gold coins wins a prize. Also, musical chairs…going to download Mario music to use for the game. And lastly, find Wario or Bowser…winners get prizes.
Check out Oriental Trading! I just ordered Red & Green holiday baseball hats to make Mario & Luigi hats and furry stick on mustaches. The are on sale for 9.99 a dozen right now!!http://www.orientaltrading…. They also have crowns that work for Princess peach hats for girls too.
Excellent ideas Cheri! Ethan and Mary were Mario and Peach for Halloween this year, and I’m telling you the Mario mustache made the costume. It was so big on him we actually cut it up so part of it could be bushy eyebrows for him. Giving mustaches out as party favors is a fabulous idea.
Another idea: We painted eyes on golden star-shaped Mylar balloons, and then tied them on the kids for the costumes… the stars would work really well as party favors as well.
Alright folks, my kids are asking for another Mario party, this time for their shared birthdays. I’ll blog about how that turns out. I just ordered some mario party supplies too … not all of them mind you, since I’m into making my own stuff. But I’ll post reviews of those as well once I get them
Hi Velda! Its my first time here and googling for ideas on Mario party for my 4 year old. Your site is really very very helpful. Im getting a lot of ideas here. Im looking for some templates or cut-outs that i could use for the party decorations. There are several links shown here but the address seem to be incomplete so its not directing me to the right site (?). Im particulary looking at the one suggested by Sam for print and fold to make Mario Characters!
Can you direct me to it please? Will greatly appreciate it!!!! Thanks again!
Oops! Looks like those Mario craft links died on me. No worries though! I’ve got new ones for you at nintendopapercraft.com – which has lots of Nintendo characters to fold as well as nerd-craft.blogspot.com ‘s Super Mario Brothers level dioramas. Hoping that helps!
Thanks soooooo much Velda!!!! This is gonna be a big help! Luv it!
No problem Alona! Thank you for saying thanks!
I am having a Mario Galaxy party for my soon to be 8 year old next month. I picked up some gems and coins for the kids to find. I figured on making gold foil stars for putting all over. There will be an obstacle course for the kids to go through. The big thing was the favors and cake. Stuck there. Also, what about a craft? Do I want to do that? Thanks for your help.
Pingback: Mario Birthday Party 2009 :: novapages.com
My boys were Mario last year for Halloween. I made their costumes by making denim overalls (very difficult, LOL, little did I realize). I sewed big yellow buttons for the button part of the overalls, and they wore red sweatshirts and white “magic” gloves that I got for 99 cents at Walmart. For the hats though, I just bought NE Patriots red ball caps. I covered the Patriots symbol on the front with a M decal that I made with craft felt. I used the Heat & Bond Lite to make the M stick permanently onto the background, and then I hand-sewed the M emblem onto the hat. That way, when they no longer want Mario hats, I can remove the M emblem and they have Patriots hats! This year, my 7yo wants a Mario birthday party, so now I’m working on that. Love that papercrafts website. Craziness.
Great ideas! Searching for Mario party ideas lead me to this great site!
I’m glad you like them! There certainly are a ton of ideas here! I almost need to split this article into several pages so the server (and your eyes) can handle it… but it is totally worth it to have all this info on one page. I love that so many people have contributed so much information here.
Wow..some great ideas for my son’s upcoming bday party!! Just thought I would add another idea I found while researching for games, decorations, etc. Remove the wrappers from aero, caramilk chocolate bars and make new labels on the computer with mario clip art. They make great thank you or goodie bag treats.
i printed characters, wrote clues on back, and lamenated them for a great outdoor scavenger hunt. every fourth clue led them back to me for a “minigame” #1-filled approx 100 white plstic eggs(covered in colored dot stickers = yoshi eggs)with various plastic coins, 10 of which were gold. they had to find the gold coins to get the next clue #2-drew king boo on lrg foam board, cut out mouth, and tossed thru orange “fire balls” – had to make 5 total #3buried princess peach in sandbox to dig up. Her clue led to “beating bowser” to win – used soccer ball pinata covered with bowser faces. covered cake table with gold foil coins and stars. filled homemade “?” boxes with same, plus some cheap star tattoos and mario stickers found on ebay. for the most part used easily found and ready made items. 8yr olds loved it!
What great ideas! The Balloon Boo’s and mushrooms are ingenious
And yeah that Celebrations Express (Aka Birthday Express) has some really fun mario party supplies (and I’ve got a free shipping link here on the site), and Think Geek has some fun favors too. Totally love the techno remixes too – in fact I always play the Super Mario Bro’s techno whenever my kids are supposed to help clean up and it gets them really excited. And they’re not even five anymore. hehe. It sounds like your Mario Party is going to be a smashing success!
We have had Mario on the brain for weeks. My son’s 5th birthday is this month.
We have Mario Scratch off- Made with business cards and a scratch off dot ( really cheap; like 7 dollars for 50 dots) the one with the right age (5) wins a prize.
Ordered a Mario Pinata ( ebay; his choice)
Ordered Mario figurines (ebay ; 13.99 inc ship; US stores wanted $40.00 for 6 I got 13) these will serve as my cupcake tower decor. Oriental trading( cannot find hats)but we got gold coins- colored lollipops,white eggs ( yoshi’s egg hunt)
sold gift boxes will stick shipping labels to them) will also add labels to water bottles as part of thank you gifts. Also made cupcake piks with circle dots and a small popsicle stick.
Making Chocolate lollipops w edible images that say Jack’s 5th Birthday w mario characters on them. Got papergoods from Birthday express-
Made several pirahna plants using foam balls,dowels,floral tape and white modeling clay. to place in yard and on table . ( thanks for the checkered tablecloth idea. I am also making boxes in question marks and bricks – We have an obstacle course and a bounce house ( bowsers castle)
Pizza- spagetti, salad and cheese sticks – for menu- Cupcakes and Luigis for dessert
Still looking for a “warp tunnel” idea- ( thought of a large drum ( they are so expensive)
But thats that-
As party favors for the bigger kids I gave out real venus fly traps and put a label on it with a mario clip art and a message saying “thanks for coming to my party!” For the younger kids we gave out glow in the dark stars, coloring pages and star shaped cookies with the two black dots as eyes.
I haven’t posted in a while, but we did a Lego party for our son back in November 2009. So I decided to do a blog and I just added some pinatas that I have done. There is a Toad, Bob Omb and Boo Pinata. Also check out the rest of the pics at my husbands photo stream on flickr.com, search SGA Creative. I’m thinking of maybe selling my custom pinatas on etsy.com or something. What do you think? Thanks. By the way I love the ideas for Mario parties. Mario Galaxy is coming out soon…that means more parties!
I forgot to post the website for some good ideas. craftypartyideas.blogspot.com
My son is turning 7 in a couple of weeks and this has been a huge help! I am doing a Mairo Kart relay and thought someone else may enjoy our take on it:
*3 Teams:
Luigi: my son and the boys
The Princesses: the girls
The Bad guys: the older kids (so they dont feel left out.;)
*3 cradboard boxes(appropriate sizes)with top and bottom removed. Painted in 3 different colors with car details (very optional! lol)
1 Green (for my sons favorite color & character)
1 Pink (for the girls)
1 Black (for the “bad guys”)
*2 string/rope shoulder straps attached to each box so that the boxes hang on their shoulders when they are inside.
Divide the 3 teams in half
(we’ll have 6 total teamates/team 3 on one end, 3 at the other)
1 half at one end and the the other at the oppostie end of the “race track” (yard) facing each other and GO!
The first child runs to their teammate at the other end of the yard and then they have to pass the car on and then the next child has to run back to the other end of the yard (repeat depending on number of kids) first team to cross the finish line wins!
MY SON IS TURNING 5 IN A MONTH AND I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW HOW THE “?” BOXES ARE MADE. THANK YOU AND I LOVE ALL THE IDEAS ON THIS PAGE
LOLLLLL, i love how everyone is like “my SON is turning FOUR and he wants a mario party”…
then there’s me, a GIRL, turning SIX…
TEEN.
:’)
and i personally think that a mario party IS THE BEST IDEA EVER!!
love all the ideas! think i’ll deffo be making those cupcakes! ;D
Hey there Jessica! I think I replied via email, but just so everyone’s got it, check out the Paper Polyhedra here: http://www.korthalsaltes.com/model.php?name_en=cube
Love those ideas, Ana and Michelle
We are doing a Mario party at a local pizza place. Since thy provide plates, cups its easier on me. I will be doing a red tablecloth with white paper cardstock “M” glued on. Dk green paper favor bags with white dots and card stock bottoms, black skinney eyes, for mushroom bags. Yellow Foil Star Ballons I found at party city. I will cut and glue with rubber cement, black felt skinney eyes. Found gold chocolate coins at CVS. Wilton has a marshmallow fondant recipe you can make for a few bucks. My 8 year old wanted the fondant cupcakes with the mario shapes to look like Mario World. You can get icing color to add to the fondant.
These are some good ideas, im living over seas and difficult to find mario products. I decided to print some posters, primary colors, i made a few ? blocks filled with some sand and used them as balloon holders, ive also printed a brick pattern cut and pasted on a box for a cake stand, i bought red sash bags and stuck iron on decals i made saying game over thanks for playing and a mario pick, i also found a mario hat pattern and sewed mario and luigi hats.Im making the cake, printed water bottle labels, made a star pinata, i had a sand up mario made. If you would like the patterns or picks email me and ill be happy to share.
Nancy
mysweetboys003@gmail.com
I’m doing Mario Kart for my 6 year old as well and the only idea I came up with not already posted was using 1/2 a banana w the peel splayed out on a tray. We’ll see how that works out.
You’re very welcome! Thanks for the comment & your mario party ideas! Here’s hoping the ideas here make your super mario party the best ever!
Hi,
I was wondering about the mario envelopes. Will the invitations fit inside? The envelpe size looks a bit small for the mushroom caps.
Thanks,
Jenn
Sure! If you’ve got your own blog send your link right along. I am careful with who I link to here so the place doesn’t get too spammy, but I’m all over sharing ideas. Or if you’d like I’d be happy to post something here for you too. My kids haven’t been into Indiana Jones just yet but I am sure they will be soon!
Oh and I was just looking around in my links and found this as part of a fairly cool table decoration for a Mario Galaxy party.. the multi-colored star sprays remind me of the little star bits you collect for your lumas
I thought about that too, but these look like each decal ‘block’ that’d make up the 8 bit world would be just about 8 and a half inches tall and wide with some pieces taking up the space of two. So essentially it looks like it would be the cost of getting the images together, plus cutting and pasting time, as well as a good $30-50 in copies. They’d be hard to use more than once unless you laminated them, and by then the direct cost would be way over what it’d take to buy them outright.
But another option that’s cheap and good for a party is to just buy a black or blue plastic tablecloth and make yourself a brick stamp out of a large sponge. I have done that. Quick, cheap, and by the time the party is over it’ll be ready to be thrown away. Kinda messy and hard to hang, but that’s OK.