Growing up 80’s Totally Awesome Party!

This past week­end I cel­e­brat­ed my 34th birth­day and though I don’t usu­al­ly do this, I decid­ed to throw myself a par­ty! If you know me per­son­al­ly or fol­low me on Face­book, you might already know that I’m absolute­ly obsessed with the 80’s and have always want­ed a themed par­ty to cel­e­brate this decade! I thought this would be the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty now that 80’s and neon style is TOTALLY back! Since it was MY birth­day, I opt­ed for self-indul­gence and focused on all the ele­ments that brought me back to when I was grow­ing up. This real­ly was the most fun I’ve ever had shop­ping for par­ty sup­plies because of all the AWESOME mem­o­ries they evoked!!!

For the invites, I decid­ed to re-cre­ate one of my favorite and essen­tial items as a kid grow­ing up in the 80’s: a Trap­per Keep­er! Uti­liz­ing graph­ics that I pur­chased from the “Awe­some 80’s” col­lec­tion on Etsy by Maree Tru­elove, I designed the binder, which I print­ed on pho­to paper to give it more con­struc­tion and sheen, and added a small adhe­sive vel­cro. The details of the par­ty were print­ed inside on lined paper that was attached to a stack of 4x6 index cards to add to the thick­ness. I had fun with all the col­ors and fonts that I down­loaded for free on the internet!

The oth­er side of the table dis­played 80’s but­ton Oreo pops, slap bracelet can­dy strips, bub­ble gum and 80’s elec­tron­ic “bytes”! I was inspired by some Screech marsh­mal­low pops I had seen in the Saved by the Bell par­ty from Nicole at Mil­lion Dol­lar $mile Cel­e­bra­tions {one of my fave par­ties!}, so I dipped marsh­mal­lows in choco­late and con­fet­ti sprin­kles and styled them with dif­fer­ent fon­dant hair styles of the 80’s! Can you iden­ti­fy the do’s: the hair band, the Flock of Seag­ulls, punk mohawk, the rat­tail, the side pony tail and, of course, the mullet!

I want­ed the back­ground to resem­ble school lock­ers to dis­play some 80’s mem­o­ra­bil­ia, so I came up with an idea to draw them with chalk and have one open with the actu­al items com­ing out of it. With the help of my dad and hus­band, we cre­at­ed an 8x8 black­board by paint­ing two wood­en boards with chalk­board paint and attach­ing them togeth­er, along with a shelf and hook. The “inside” of the lock­er includ­ed my per­son­al faves that I either owned or pur­chased at thrift stores, from toys to books to elec­tron­ics. I pur­chased the super cute 80’s pho­to­booth props from paper & cake and uti­lized a cou­ple of the but­tons to dec­o­rate the back­pack with safe­ty pins.

The open door of the lock­er was dec­o­rat­ed with cut-outs of 80’s teen mag­a­zines, but­tons uti­lized as mag­nets and pho­tos of moi and my young friends!

I could­n’t have an appro­pri­ate 80’s par­ty with­out dress­ing up! I set up a “Boda­cious Beau­ty Bar” in our guest bath­room, which offered all the make-up, acces­sories and hair prod­ucts need­ed {inside a Caboo­dles box, of course!}. Choic­es of sun­glass­es, press-on nails, jel­ly bracelets and stick­er jew­el­ry not only made me gid­dy, but my daugh­ter was beside her­self with excitement!

For din­ner, we served cheese­burg­ers with the Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” 80’s slo­gan in lit­tle neon school bins, along with chick­en nuggets. I want­ed to re-cre­ate the McNugget Bud­dies toys from the 80’s McDon­ald Hap­py Meals, so I down­loaded the pho­to­booth props so gen­er­ous­ly offered by Oh Hap­py Day {thank you so much to Cre­ative Juice for the fab tip!} to dress up the lit­tle nuggets! Refresh­ments includ­ed Ecto-Cool­er Hi‑C and Pac-Man ener­gy drinks!

For activ­i­ties, I had a Slam Book from the Sweet Val­ley High book series to fill out our picks for the most pop­u­lar, most like Jes­si­ca Wake­field and make pre­dic­tions in the “Crys­tal Ball” sec­tion! I also found paper “Swatch” watch­es to be dec­o­rat­ed with neon puffy paint and cans of neon sil­ly string for “graf­fi­ti”! The favors includ­ed neon pens, minia­ture note and address books and erasers.

We could­n’t get all gussied up in our RAD 80’s out­fits and not have a pho­to booth! We had a TOTALLY AWESOME time with the fun props from paper & cake and took some GNARLY polaroids!

I had such an incred­i­ble time strolling down mem­o­ry lane, re-liv­ing my child­hood and cel­e­brat­ing my birth­day! I have to say that one of the best parts was how my daugh­ter, Anabelle, was so excit­ed to dress up, sing and dance to 80’s music and said to me, “I wan­na have an 80’s par­ty, too!”… I guess my work is done.