love is in the details: Another fun party game

I made these colored pieces in preparation for another game I have planned for the party on Saturday. This game will be a variation on one we did in 2009 for a Super Mario birthday party we had for Cole.

These little plastic pieces (made from Shrinky-Dink paper) are placed individually inside of balloons blown up with air that the kids must take turns popping, in relay fashion, in order to find the piece. The original premise was to be the team to collect the most pieces once the balloons were all gone. With the Mario theme, the coins and mushrooms represented points, just like in the video game and the collection of a bad guy meant the deduction of points.

The kids had a blast with this game because everyone was familiar with the Mario Bros. game and it needed little explanation. Grab a balloon, run to the other side of the yard, pop the balloon, collect the piece and place it in the jar, run back to the start and tag the next person to take a turn. Everyone knew which pieces were good and which ones were not. The exciting part was not knowing which pieces you got until it was popped and it had to count- no matter what!

Here are a few pictures of the Mario party game. These pieces took a little longer to make that the squares and circles for the COLOR part, BUT, it wasn't so bad and I'll tell you why.

#1- Shrinky-dink paper is transparent so you can use a picture, trace it and color it in.

#2- The repetition of drawing the pictures over and over makes the process faster with each one.

#3- Most kids love to draw and color and are great helpers for this type of project.

(I had 6 kids helping me make these one Sunday, we knocked them out in to time

and had fun doing it!)

I like to have a glass jar for collecting the pieces in.

Here I am counting the bounty!

This time, the game has a COLOR spin to it. Since I have made a number of circles and squares in 6 different colors, the team that collects a full set of one shape with each color represented, wins! Of course the rainbow shapes will replace any given color if they obtain one. Games like this one get the kids running and burning off a ton of the sugar I give them at these parties! LOL!

So, here's how I went about making the plastic pieces for the COLOR party. (Same technique as the Mario party, just with a simpler design.)

First I colored strips of Shrinky-dink paper with colored pencils. I scribbled on the color quickly on the rough side of the paper. (Neatness and perfection are not essential as the color will condense when they shrink up.) Then I cut them into 2 different shapes and placed them, rough side UP, on a piece of cardboard.

Next, I placed them in the oven that was preheated to 325 degrees F, and we watched in anticipation for 2-3 minutes as they curled and shrank into a much smaller version of their original state.

Once they flattened out, I immediately removed them from the oven to cool on the counter for a couple of minutes. Here is how small they became.

Now they are hard little colored shapes... small enough to shove into the opening of a balloon, but not so small that they cannot easily be seen the in the grass once the balloon is popped.