Hunting Themed Birthday Party

This past weekend my husband turned 30.  He has been really interested in hunting lately.  In the past 3 months he's passed a hunter's education course online, purchased a rifle, rebuilt his grandfather's rifle, wrote out plans to build his own wood gun cleaning box, and passed his in-person Washington State Hunter's Course.  Kyle has spent a lot of time on this and I am proud of him.  I am also very excited for the potential meat we'll have in our freezer this next fall and winter!  

With him being so enthusiastic about this new hobby, and his birthday coming up, I thought what better theme to plan his party by.

Inspiration

To gather inspiration I, of course, created a Pinterest Board, and was pleased to find some great ideas.  Since Madisyn is not the most fun to take running around to 8 different stores to find all the supplies I wanted to gather, I decided to bite the bullet (he he, no pun intended) and just purchase everything on Amazon.  Find my shopping list below, and see my photos for details on how the supplies were used.

• Mossy Oak Camo Burlap
• Hunter's Party Balloons
• Summit Backyard Safari Camo
• Hunter's Camo Plates and Napkins
• Party Rings

Decor

I used the Camo Burlap as a table cloth (after I gifted the burlap to Kyle for future use camouflaging himself in action).  The Balloons were scattered in threes around the house and three out at the mailbox to help friends find the house.  (Madisyn thought it was her birthday when she got to ride in the truck with 15 balloons in her face!)  The Safari Camo was the perfect length for a window treatment and looked adorable.

handcrafted. stylishly

As for the handcrafted touches.... 

• Happy Birthday Banner
• "30" signs
• Tree Branch Candle Holders
• Moose and Deer Head Silhouette Glass Candle Holders
• Two Photo Holders,
• Fabulous Faux Bear Head and Antler Sticks

All this teamed up with some vintage oil lamps from Kyle's Grandma Nadine and a beautiful vintage kettle, made for a festive birthday mantle.  

I used my beloved Silhouette Cameo to cut "Happy 30th Birthday" letters and two moose and deer heads for the banner.  Camouflage printed scrapbook paper from Joann's and card-stock layers were all glued together.  To give a unique finishing touch, I machine stitched the edges of each square with a Hunter Orange zigzag stitch. 

Jute string ties each square to another through punched holes. I also made Two 3x4 inch signs and two 12x12 inch signs with the same design that just said "30".  I attached ribbon to the back of the large signs so that they could be hung- one on the front door, and one on the window behind the food table.

I also used my Silhouette to cut the same animal heads out of brown vinyl and applied them to some Votive Holders- they turned out SO CUTE!

The awesome mounted bear head and antler sticks are creations of my sister.  Emily is the owner of and designer behind Lola Floral.  Lola does floral and decor for weddings and events and has become quite the sensation in the Seattle Area!  Yeah, Emily!  I am so proud of her.   The bear and the antlers were created for a recent event Lola participated in- to view some breathtaking photos, visit Lola's flower brained blog.

I could not pass up the opportunity to make a "beer cake" as I found on pinterest.  It was fun to make and I used one of my little "30" signs with a rustic fabric bow as a topper!

Food

With everything looking so pretty (in a very manly way), its time we discuss food.  So, Kyle's birthday is February 3rd.  Which, does happen to fall on Superbowl Sunday every 7 or so years.  This, his 30th birthday, just happened to be on Super Bowl Sunday.  With that being said, this was a Hunting themed Super Bowl Party.  So our food was snacky- in traditional Super Bowl Fashion.  

I prepared Pulled Pork for Pulled Pork Sliders, and Crock Pot Mac and Cheese.  I also successfully made 3 of the 4 food pins from my inspiration board (Buffalo Chicken Bites, Milky Way Muddy Buddies and Peanut Butter Cup Brownies) and they were all delicious. I also saw a pin to put veggie sticks in a cup with hummus or ranch dip at the bottom- I thought this was a great way for people to have a self contained snack!

Thank goodness for good friends, Heather and Candace brought two items I couldn't pull off myself.  Heather made yummy Corn Dog Bites (Kyle LOVES corn dogs).  
Candace has made BEAUTIFUL cakes for parties we've attended in the past- and I knew when I saw the idea for the camouflage cupcakes that she could pull them off for me, and boy did she do a GREAT JOB!!!  She even topped them with shot gun shells and the cute hunting themed rings from the shopping list above.  The tutorial she followed can be found HERE. 

This was such a fun theme to explore, especially since there wasn't much out there already on the internet!  I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the details and found some inspiration to plan a party outside of the traditional themes!

Love this theme and don't want to reinvent the wheel?  Well, you are in luck- I've listed a Decor Set on my Etsy site HERE, enjoy!