large zelda pixelated cut-out party decorations

As I've previously mentioned, finding Zelda-themed party decorations is difficult. After Googling for awhile, I headed over to Pinterest and did a little browsing, finally, turning up a link that led to the Let's Explore Blog, and a really fabulous Alice in Wonderland party Amy put together for her daughter Delaney's birthday a couple of years ago.

One of the projects Amy and her husband created are these great, large-scale cardboard character cut-outs. Here's a link to my Pin, featuring the Mad Hatter cut-out from Delaney's party.




Of course, the best part of Amy's project is that it's infinitely adaptable. You could use this project for literally any character or theme. For our theme, old-school pixelated Legend of Zelda, the project is even more simple, because the grid used in the tutorial for plotting the design is the perfect way to make pixelated designs. Just find an image, and follow along on your cardboard! Eventually, I had these figures of Link and Zelda:




But first I had to acquire some cardboard, for the figures as well as the cardboard forts I'd planned to build (more on those in a future post). I headed over to a department store and asked about appliance boxes, and instead, the guy at the receiving dock offered me these large 4.5 x 8 foot sheets of corrugated cardboard, which I was told arrived with pallets or something and are usually recycled right away. Instead, I shoved six of them into my husband's car somehow.

This is how they looked in my tiny kitchen (with a shoe box full of recycled rupee crayons on the back counter):




Here's my kiddo standing by a newly-painted Link figure, for size comparison.




And here are some more shots of the figures (Link, Zelda, and an Octorock) decorating at the party.








These take about three hours, start to finish, and if I'd had a little more time, I would have loved to have made a few more. Luckily, as I mentioned, this project is infinitely adaptable, so I'll start even earlier next year and make six or eight figures for birthday number three!


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)



Linking up to:

Young House Love, Bower Power, The Great Indoors, and Hi Sugarplum, who are all co-sponsoring the winter Pinterest Challenge! (I'm borrowing their graphic:)

once upon a time . . .

. . . I ran a bookstore. And I used to make elaborate displays with box cardboard and packing paper, and signs on chalkboards. I found these photos the other day, and wanted to share. These are all free-hand and took between one and three hours each.


From the last book of a Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket:










From a display of new summer books:




To advertise a book club discussion of Suite Francaise:




From the side of a magazine rack near the children's section:








To advertise pre-orders for the final Harry Potter book:






From an appearance by PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk, to advertise her book Let's Have a Dog Party:




To celebrate our second anniversary at the store:




To advertise a shelf of books by our favorite publisher of quirky books:






To advertise our book club meeting for Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys:






To announce the party celebrating our store's closure after three years:




To make the chalk boards, I used a quart of chalkboard paint, painted over foam core board (in the large frame) and on repurposed bare wood shelving for the smaller board. In three years, it never chipped or flaked; good useful stuff! I'm hoping to use it again soon to put some chalkboards on the bebe's bedroom door.

Have you used chalkboard paint in any unusual applications? Share links in the comments section below.


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


Pin It