We enlisted our entire family to help with decorations and favors. The Creeper/Endermen were made from gum packs. Image courtesy of Debbie Morrow, All rights reserved.

This is the third segment in my series of tutorials for a Minecraft party. Part one went over making a Pin the Tail on the Minecraft Pig (my version in 3D). The second segment went over the gaming trailer, party schedule/plan for an event of over 45 people and it included several links to printables for invitations, skins, and more.

For this post, we’ll go over decorations: tables, centerpieces, banners, and favors/bags.

Table Decorations

For simplicity, we used throwaway green plastic tablecloths. Yes, we could have added large, black squares for eyes, nose and mouth (for a big Creeper), but we had so many dishes of food (with printed Minecraft labels), Minecraft food containers, and 3D table toppers that we didn’t feel the need.

Utensils and Plates

We used plastic silverware but found a nice touch we could have added – Minecraft silverware wraps – but with everything else made in the Minecraft spirit, I chose not to make that effort.

For plates, some dollar stores have square ones. We ended up purchasing a stronger version at Party City, which has coupons from time to time.

Some people have made Creepers out of doubling paper plates. Again, since there was so much Minecraft decorations already, the cost/effort just wasn’t worth it.

You can find free printable labels for food, beverages, invitations, and more, at  Catch My Party. Since I crafted my own invitation for a girl’s party, I used this site for the labels. For banners I went to Family Shopping Bag.

Printing Your Own vs. Ordering and Paper Weight

Although I have my own color copy machine, it is still cheaper (unless you fill your own ink) to have a size-able copy order done at your local Staples or other print shop. If you look in local saver papers you’ll usually find deals on color copies.

*Before sending items to print, make sure they first are to the size you wish by checking preview print AND placing the labels strategically on a page so you could literally print an entire page of labels on one sheet. Book markers and 3D printables can fit in multiples on a single page of paper.To do this, you may need to use your paint program, but it is truly a matter of just cutting and pasting until you fill a page. Again, check the size in the print preview while doing this.

The 3D Minecraft table toppers came from printables from FPFX Games, Pixel Papercraft (where you can literally put whichever character into their search engine) and a store bought kit. Yet honestly, the printed cut outs turn out just as well as the store-bought, if using card stock paper.

You’ll save extra money at the printers by choosing the correct weight of paper. For the juice box/bottle/food labels, you don’t need heavy paper, just the regular printer stock. For building blocks/characters/banners, you’ll need the heavy card stock for them to keep their form or for them to not tear easily when hanging.

Bags, Favors, Minecraft Containers

The favor bags were made from regular green paper party bags from Walmart. I used my paper cutter to cut the eyes/nose/mouth for a Creeper as many others have done. Others have also just used a black permanent marker to draw the facial features.

The favors included the gum packs (see image at top of post) of either Creeper or Enderman made with simple construction paper, tape, and a magic marker. We wrapped each piece like a gift and decorated. The same wrapping technique can be used for tattoo boxes, Now and Later candy, Minecraft trading cards – really anything that is block-ish. We also added some seasonal favors such as plastic spiders, snakes, etc.
The green square plastic containers were found at a Dollar General, in their Spring markdown section. Luckily, each container was purchased for under a dollar and we just needed to add black paper for the facial features to make Creepers. They made great food containers for larger amounts of snacks.

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Originally, we were planning on placing the Minecraft straws made from the same templates used for magnets in the party bags. Yet, when we tried to put them in, their length wouldn’t allow us to fold the bags as much as we wanted.

So we made a Minecraft pig cup with the following: 1 sturdy child’s cup, I sheet of pink paper wrapped around the cup and taped. The face came from a smaller image print of the pig from Minecraft Faces – a site that offers a plethora of Minecraft images. We placed the pig cup/straws along with the other labeled foods.

Looking Ahead in the Minecraft Madness Series:

The last two installments will include party foods, drinks, the cake, and recipes along with a list of other helpful links and ideas.