We are excited to share a cute Vintage Race Car party by our friend, Ashley!  We are such a huge fan of race car themed parties and love to see new and fun activities and crafts!

Read on below for all of the party details as told by Ashley….

“Like many crafty moms, I LOVE kids parties. I love kids parties so much I plan them months in advance.  This year for my son’s 4th birthday, I gave him three choices: 1. Super Hero, 2. Race Cars 3. Robots. He chose Race Cars and I was off.  First stop on my planning journey, Anders Ruff for the most gorgeous printables. I can’t imagine a party without their visuals. I chose the vintage race car package but customized the invitations. Since our attendees were mostly from school, I decided to package a small race car in the invitation. The invite turned out perfectly and I LOVED them as did all of the recipients. The invitation also set the tone for all of the fun to be had at the party.

When the friends arrived, they were met with a plastic road to guide them into the party. I used my son’s easel to welcome the guests and decked out the door as well.  I also created tassel garland to add a bit of flair. As guests walked past the dining room and headed to the backyard for the racing, they passed by the gorgous dessert table. I used the matching Happy Birthday sign with racing duck tape. I purchased chevron (my favorite) fabric in black to mimic roads as the table cloth.  The table featured a cake that matched the invite as well as car cookies. I made gear shift cake pops (always a hit) and chocolate dipped pretzels.

One element of my parties that I love and always try to incorporate are photo booths. I love creating a place where kids and parents can capture moments. This year I used crepe paper to create a background and utilized an existing Pottery Barn chair and a few blow-up tire tubes along with my frames (everything looks better when you are holding a frame).

Since this party was very boy focused, I wanted to create crafting opportunities for girls (and boys). So inside we had a table set-up for toilet paper roll car decorating and car painting. The toilet paper roll cars were something I found on pinterest and it was much easier than it looked. My son and I painted all of the rolls (advantage of planning 6 months out was that I could save these rolls) and then I used a knife to create the seat (cut and fold) and added the wheels (while watching TV one night). I think 25 cars took me a total of an hour – all in. Not bad. Then I had sticker jewels for the kids to add to customize their cars.

The canvas painting was a fun, drive by activity. Kids would see the cars in the paint, run it across the canvas and be on their way. The end result is amazing. We decided to leave the cars on the canvas and I added the invitation so my son has a great memory from the party and a cool piece of wall art.

Outside we had race tracks and boy were these fun. I hired a company that brings giant race tracks and tons of cars to the house. The kids had a blast. My son sat at the same track for 45 min racing cars. In fact, he has already requested that we have the same party again next year. Outside we also had snacks for kids (pre packed in kraft boxes) and pizza and salads. Having the snack pre packed and waiting for kids worked perfectly since kids were so enthralled with the racing. They were able to take breaks as they wanted. I used the water bottle labels from AndersRuff to embellish the kraft boxes and they turned out so cute. Additionally, I used wooden spoons and deorated them with race track washi tape.

No party is complete without the goody bag. As I like to say, this is how you get kids to leave the party. I loved these bags. I used muslim bags from Nashville Wraps and added a stamp of the vintage car. I actually created this stamp with the Yellow Owl Workshop create-a-stamp kit. I met Christine at a crafting event and she worked with me to create this original stamp. I then used a basic paint pen to add the kids names in blue. Inside each bag was a roll of masking tape and two match box cars and a note. The tape was to be used to craete custom roads inside on a cold day.
The entire party was a blast and it all started when I saw the gorgeous Anders Ruff printables. Feel free to follow my pinterest board for the party
and my blog to see past parties and how I made that cool stamp.

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Thanks, Ashley, for sharing your party with us!

DETAILS:
– Party Planning & Crafting: Ashley of Crafty Mama 
(Tassel garland, chocolate pretzels, gear shift, cake pops, pinterest inspired toilet paper race cars & canvas car painting)
– Vintage Race Car Invitation & Party Printables: AndersRuff
– Race car decorations, road (roll of black plastic table cloth): Oriental Trading Company
– Orange cones, tire pool floats & streamers: $0.99 store
– Brown snack boxes & Muslim bags: Nashville Wraps
– Race Cars: Hot Wheels
– Invitation boxes (jewelry sized): Michaels
– Fabric: Sew Modern
– Cake & Cookies (they deliver): Bittersweet Treats, Pasadena
– Vintage Race Car Stamp: Ashley with Yellow Owl Workshop
– Race tracks: Playparty LA