Because we wanted to incorporate all of my son’s favorite video games, we decided to not theme the party specific to one game. When searching for inspirations, I really didn’t find much that was tailored to all video games. So I selected some of the most clever ideas from some of my favorites and came up with a few of my own! Hope you like what we created and can get inspired for your own gaming party aboard a Game Truck!
Here are a few details to help you create your own Game Truck party!
INVITATIONS
We started with these printable invitations that I created. I wanted to incorporate the look and feel of our Game Truck so I based all of my designs on green & black. I printed the invites out and put each one in a black & white striped party bag and added a sticker that said “You’re Invited”. We hand delivered most of the invites, but for those that were further away, we put the whole invite into an envelope and mailed them off.
VIP BADGES
I love to personalize items for our guests at every party, and a fun touch for this Game Truck party was to create VIP All Access badges for each child. I picked up some badge holders at my local office supply store and created the printable badges to put inside each one. We lined them all up on a table outside where the Game Truck would be. As each guest arrived, they found their badge and wore them to board the Game Truck.
PHOTO BOOTH
Who doesn’t love a photo booth these days? The kids really love them! So I hung some fabric on a pvc pole and used two of my light stands to create the backdrop. There is a great tutorial here on how to make a backdrop really quickly and easily! Or you can just tape fabric or bulletin board paper to a wall and that works just as well. Then I created some printable photo booth props for the kids to hold. We had Pacman & the ghosts, power up stars, mustaches, Donkey Kong & speech bubbles. And we dug through the costume box and pulled out a Super Mario hat & an alien mask to add to the fun. I’m sure you have some old costumes from Halloweens past that would make the perfect props, so look around and see what you discover to add to your photo booth.
FOOD
While the kids were on the Game Truck, the parents enjoyed some snacks. Video game themed snacks of course! We had Pacman brie cheese & crackers, Power-up Star fruit, Hothead Hummus & Fire Flower Veggies. I found this brilliant idea on Pinterest. I am so thankful the original creator of these veggies assembled into the Fire Flower posted their idea. BRILLIANT! And so yummy! I love when healthy food can be themed as well. We also enjoyed a “Hydration Station”. I served water with fresh limes in it. I wrapped a black & white striped ribbon around my drink dispenser to tie in my colors. And I wrapped my glass bottles with printable water bottle labels and party straws with cute party flags. And I personalized my art hanging above the table with green wrapping paper and pennants from my personalized banner. My son asked if we could leave this up for a while, so we will. (smile!)
DESSERT TABLE
After the gaming was finished, we had all the boys come inside to sing happy birthday and enjoy the treats! We had delicious cupcakes from Gigi’s Cupcakes. They were called Tropical Spritzer and they were baked with Sprite in the batter. And my friend Lauren from LIV Creativity made our fabulous Pacman fondant cupcake toppers. They were the hit of the party! We also had Mario Mustaches made from this mustache candy mold. I used ice cream cups turned upside down to hold them up. I just drilled a small hole in the center and cut out circles of glitter paper to cover the bottoms (which were now the tops) of the cups for a finishing touch. Space invaders cake pops were made using this space invaders ice cube tray. Did you know you could use those silcone ice cube trays to mold melted candy too? It works like a charm! My cake was lined with chocolate Wii remotes made from this candy mold and topped with fondant Pacman and his ghost friends.
I have been wanting to make these piranha plant candy holders ever since I came across this tutorial years ago and wished I had them for my son’s Super Mario party. So I finally got to make some and they were the perfect touch! They held atomic fireball candy and the kids loved them! I also baked some Kirby cookies. I got this cookie cutter in the shape of Kirby and just tinted my cookie dough to the right shade of pink. As much as I love the decorated sugar cookies from the amazing bakers out there, I do not possess those skills, so this idea worked like a charm for me. And a nod to the old school gamers out there (including myself), when I saw these Atari Controllers I had to have them for our party! They are tin containers filled with gum. Some of the kids knew what they were but all the parents knew in an instant! A little nostalgia is always good for the soul.
I created the backdrop for my dessert table by using a vinyl backdrop that looked like white washed wood planks. I used my Silhouette to cut out my son’s name and to create space invaders from black glitter paper, and then used washi tape to create lines to look like them shooting. I just love how it all turned out. A personalized banner from Minted that said “LEVEL 9” hung on the front of my table and printable table tent labels were added to let our guests know what they were being treated to. Each gamer received a black striped party bag with their names printed on them to fill up with treats from our table. It also made it a lot easier to keep up with which one belonged to them.
FAVORS
After sweet treats & birthday wishes, each guest was given a Game Truck water bottle with their name on a striped tag (again a good way to keep track of their belongings). I ordered these from my local Game Truck franchise. The kids loved them and they are really well made and durable! We also were gifted with a Skylanders character & Alien Attack Appgear game. So I wrapped a ribbon around both and tied a printable favor tag to them. These made a great gift! For an added favor, we made gumball tubes with stickers that said “GAME OVER”. So easy and fun to do! These would be perfect for any video game party.
So this is the first year I wasn’t the entertainment for all of my son’s party guests. And honestly, it was so nice to let our game coach take over and I could sit back and enjoy the company of my friends while the boys were busy gaming on the Game Truck. We will definitely be doing this again! So what are you waiting for? It’s time to get your GAME ON!
SOURCES: STYLING, DESIGN, & PHOTOGRAPHY: AMY OF AMY’S PARTY IDEAS | INVITES & PRINTABLES: LULU COLE | PACMAN FONDANT TOPPERS: LIV CREATIVITY | CUPCAKES: GIGI’S CUPCAKES | PARTY BANNER: MINTED | PERSONALIZED TABLE RUNNER: MINTED | TABLECLOTHS: TABLEVOGUE | ATARI CONTROLLERS: COST PLUS WORLD MARKET | GUMBALL TUBES & FAVOR TAGS: LULU COLE | KIRBY COOKIE CUTTER: WARPZONE | GAMER T-SHIRT: TRULY SANCTUARY | ICE CREAM CUPS, CUPCAKE CUPS, & PARTY STRAWS: PINK LEMONADE PARTY
This is stunning! Detailed to perfection! Love it!
Thank you Juli!!!
PERFECT!!!!!
Too sweet Keisha!!!
Love it! Every single part is just perfect!
Thank you Brittany!!!
This is the ultimate boy party. I have adult sons and a granddaughter that would love this. Your backdrop is great and I would love to know how you did it. Great work Amy, I’m sure this party was the talk of the town.
Thank you Sandra! You are so sweet! The backdrop was actually very easy! I ordered a vinyl photo backdrop from Bubblegum Backdrops online and added the space invaders and my son’s name to it with foam dots. I cut those out of scrapbook paper with my Silhouette machine…which I LOVE!!! It was really so easy and I love how it turned out!
I love your picture. You are beautiful! Your picture is evidence of how handsome your parents are!!!!!!!!
Your Dad
Jim Croushorn
Amy I love the Game Truck idea, do you prepare any of these items for others and sell them? My party is in Oct 2013
I absolutely love this entire set up!! Do you sell any of the other items? If so, I am very interested in purchasing them. My party is scheduled for November 2013. Thank you!
hi,
absolutely love everything about this party! could you tell me if you made or where i can find the chevron tray liner(under pig cookies) and chevron stand under the piranha plant on your cake table? tia!
I really loved the invite, which set the tone of the party and was a great introduction to the lime green and black color scheme, which energized the atmosphere. The display table was filled with great favors and accessories, but the Pacman cupcake stand was the highlight for me. Every character was displayed so colorfully. Everything looked perfect, and you even got the kids to eat broccoli…amazing!
Where did you find the Atari controllers?
Your ideas are WONDERFUL. My son turns 10 in June and I will be doing a Video Game Truck party and will use some of your ideas and will be purcahsing some of your designs!!! DO LOVE IT and thank you for helping me get a “clue”!!
Thank you! You are too sweet! I am so glad you found me 🙂 Hope your party is a blast!
Hello,
I’d like to know where you purchased the sport bottles?
Hi Melissa! Thanks for asking. I purchased these from our Game Truck franchise that I hired. They have several promotional items available for sell to add to your party. I chose these water bottles. Hope that helps!
Great job!!! Where did you get the green pipes and piranha plants?
Hi Amy.. Could you please custom make this party for me? I love love it glad I came across your designs. PERFECT!!!
I am trying to message you on Etsy, but I can’t get it to go through. I want to purchase the invite, but needing to know turn around time. One. Late. Momma. Thanks!!
Hi Kristi! I’m sorry you are having trouble. I think if you can click on this link, then you can click on the listing you want and then you should be able to “ask the seller a question” and that will get the message to me. Also, you can just purchase what you need and I can get it to you tomorrow 🙂 Thanks for asking! Amy
Love this party idea! Where did u get the cake pop stand? How are they stuck in there?
Hi Chrystall! I am so sorry I didn’t see your comment until now. For what it’s worth, I actually made the cake pop stands from small cardboard boxes that I added scrapbook paper to and then drilled small holes for the cake pops to stand in. 🙂
I’m trying to make your cupcake for my son’s birthday party. What type of food coloring did you use for the colors? what actually did you use for the eyes, nose, mouth and mustaches to built Mario?
Hi Poptop! I am so sorry I didn’t see your comment until now. I did not actually make the cupcake toppers. I ordered them from etsy from this shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LIVCreativity She took a little break but it may be worth asking her if she is still creating them. As for the Mustaches, I used a chocolate mold and you can get that here: https://amyspartyideas.com/mustache-chocolate-mold
I do hope your party was a blast!
Hi! I love your party, it’s so clean and well put together! Thanks for the links on how to achieve the look!! Would you mind sharing what you used to get the green stick to stay in the pipe, and how the pipe itself is staying put on the stand underneath it? Lastly, do you remember what kind of bowl you used for the mouth of the plant? Thanks again in advance!!
Hi Wendy! Thank you for your sweet comments! So, for the piranha plants, here is link to the tutorial that inspired mine. http://www.cuteasafox.com/2011/08/piranha-plant-tutorial.html
For mine, the tubes were actually pvc pipes and a fitting piece on one end from Home Depot. I spray painted them green but thought they would look more real if I printed out an image of the graphic of the pipe. So I actually printed out an image of the pipe from the game and cut it to fit. I used 2 of the pipe base image to go around the tall bottom part and 2 of the top image to go around the top part. I will link the images below and you are welcome to use them. I printed them on legal size paper at home (8.5″ x 14″) and just cut them down to fit. Then I used spray glue to glue them on.
https://amyspartyideas.com/pipe-top
https://amyspartyideas.com/pipe
For the leaves, I used green felt and hot glued a pipe cleaner to the bottom of each which allowed me to shape the leaves.
The pipe in the center is a piece of PVC plumbing pipe that I picked up at my local big box hardware store. I covered it in felt and then to secure it, i had a piece of Styrofoam stuffed in the bottom of the large pipe to stick the dowel into.
The bowl I used was actually from Party City. They have these large plastic round containers that twist open to make two halves. One half is clear so you can see into it when it’s closed. It’s meant to fill with candy and small favors but I just used the two halves as my base for the bowl. I shaped and formed the felt to cover them and make them more oval. I hot glued everything in place. (This was the most difficult part of the whole thing….not because it was hard but just because it was a guessing game how to fold the felt and secure it to get the shape i wanted. Just keep working it, it will come together!)
Here is a link to the container at Party City. It seems you can only buy in bulk online but in the store, you can purchase a single one which is all you need. https://amyspartyideas.com/ball-container
Hope that helps!
ADORBS!!! You have some serious patience!!! ALL of your work is just fabulous!!!
My wife told me that she would like to celebrate our son’s birthday at our house and she would like to have his friends invited as well. I like how you did the VIP All Access badges so that the guests could access the game truck. I will share this article with my wife so that she can think about renting a gaming truck as well.