The Dreamworks Trolls movie makes an awesome kids birthday party theme.
For my three children’s annual birthday bash, we decided to throw a Dreamworks Trolls party. The movie had just come out, and they were all excited about the colors, the characters and the music. With the recent release of Dreamworks Trolls World Tour, these rainbow themed decorations would also be a perfect fit.
Here’s some inspiration for you to create your own colorful Dreamworks Trolls party!
I will admit that this year was quite tame in comparison to past parties we’ve done. And by “we” I don’t mean my husband and I, although he always graciously goes along with whatever crazy overboard plans I get in my head and knows better than to tell me to “take it easy.” No, I’m talking about my two sister-in-laws who share my passion and extravagance when it comes to party planning.
But in an effort to keep things small this year, I took on the party planning by myself. And while I didn’t have the luxury of their help this time, I can’t exactly say that I flew solo because my 4 year old had a lot of input and devoted her afternoons to helping me make decorations out of tissue paper.
My quest for the perfect theme party started as it always does – Pinterest. There I found inspiration and tutorials for decorations, food, cakes and games and filled my board with anything that fit the theme. [Click here to follow my Trolls Birthday Party Pinterest Board]
And what actually came together was this…
D E C O R A T I O N S
A Trolls party means rainbows and bright colors. In an effort to save money on decorations, I opted for making a big impact with the cheapest supplies I could find- tissue paper and plastic tablecloths. I also decided on doing printables rather than buying ready made banners and games. It was a bit more work, but as a stay-at-home-mom who loves crafting, it was worth it for me.
Tissue Paper Tassel Garland
This was tedious and time consuming to make but it had a huge impact and added tons of color throughout the house! I made the tassels little by little over the span of a few days and was surprised at how many it added up to when they were all hung. In total I did two dozen of each color and was able to create a garland that was roughly 16 feet long and wrapped around my entire dining room!
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- For a great tutorial on how to make these tissue paper tassels check out The Creative Bag Blog
- Of if you’d rather purchase them ready made, check out this Etsy listing by PaperFlowersStore
Tissue Paper Pom Pom Clouds
Of course what’s a rainbow without a few white puffy clouds to dot the ends? I made white tissue paper pom poms in three different sizes and grouped them in the corners where I hung the garland. Command hooks worked the best to hang both the poms and the garland on the wall and I used thumbtacks for the ones that were attached to the ceiling.
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- Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on making the tissue paper pom poms in various sizes from Two Twenty One.
- Take it a step further and decorate the clouds like Cloud Guy!
Plastic Tablecloth Ceiling Canopy
This rainbow ceiling canopy was made by using six cheap plastic tablecloths from the dollar store. It’s impressive scale gave our party area such a unique and beautiful look. In fact, we all loved the way it looked so much that it hung in our living room for months after the party!
How To Make It:
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- Open all the tablecloths and lay them across the floor lengthwise in the order you want them to be (ex. the colors of the rainbow).
- Next, gather all the tablecloths on one end and tie them together with some string or an elastic band.
- Tie the gathered end to your center point using string. (I used our light fixture, but you can hang them from any chandelier, or a hook with balloons, etc.)
- Decide how wide you want your canopy to be and attach some double sided tape to the length of it. (I hung ours over a bay window, but you could spread it out across a single wall too.)
- Taking one tablecloth at a time, press it against the double sided tape, ruffling them slightly as you go. It does NOT have to be perfect, just pinch a small section and stick and so on.
- In order to make sure that your tablecloths are evenly spaced, start with the middle and work your way out. If you’re really concerned about the spacing, measure and mark your walls before starting. Thankfully this canopy is very forgiving and slight differences aren’t easily noticed.
- Make sure not to pull the tablecloths too tight. Let it hang down a little bit to give it a nice draped effect.
- Once you’ve finished sticking all the tablecloths, trim the excess off to give it an even look. You can even add another layer starting from under the ceiling drape to cover a bare wall.
Since this Trolls party, I’ve done more ceiling canopies, including a few other parties I’ve decorated for my nieces. Here are a few examples:
Printed Trolls Characters
I wanted to make sure that the Trolls party theme was evident, and not just a generic rainbow party. The kids always got so excited to see Trolls party decorations at the stores, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a tacky party banner. I searched for a way to make the Trolls party come alive that was within the budget.
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- I bought a downloadable clipart package on Etsy. I inserted different pictures of each Trolls character into a Word document and printed them on card stock at our local Copy & Print Center (or you could use Canva).
- Then, I simply hung them up with twine and clothespins across one wall. I love the way they turned out, and the kids were so excited to see their favorite Trolls characters hanging up on display.
G A M E S
In addition to the beautiful decorations, we played a few Trolls party games. Since it was a combined sibling birthday party, we had kids of various ages there. Trying to find activities that would engage all of them and yet be fair was a challenge. I splurged on a Trolls pull string pinata and candy because I didn’t have time to DIY one. Some of the other games we played included unwrap the prize ball, freeze dance and other musical games to the Trolls Soundtrack, and Trolls party bingo.
Trolls Party Bingo
I downloaded this free printable Trolls bingo game from Best Toys for Kids and it was a huge hit! I again trusted my friends at our local Copy & Print Center to print and laminate it and they did not disappoint! I even forgot to specify that it needed to be cut into pieces but they took care of all of that for me and the end result was a very professional looking bingo game.
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- Laminating the set is completely optional, but I felt like it was something my kids could play over and over again so I paid the extra for it (and it wasn’t much anyway).
- Use small candies as Bingo markers (we used M&M’s) and then whoever gets BINGO gets to eat their line!
