Train Party: Homemade Decorations

April 21, 2011 By
I’ve had some ques­tions about things we made for the boys’ train party, so I thought I’d share! They were all rather sim­ple and inex­pen­sive to do!
{Train Tracks}
 All you need for this is black elec­tri­cal tape! Such an easy & inex­pen­sive way to cre­ate a nice effect. Every­one com­mented on it! And, the kids have loved play­ing on it!
{Rail­road Signs}
I bought one piece of yel­low poster board & one piece of black. With that, I made one large sign for out­side and mul­ti­ple signs for inside. For the large sign, I free-handed a cir­cle in pen­cil on the back (why is draw­ing a per­fect cir­cle so dif­fi­cult?!). Once the cir­cle was cut out, I mea­sured & cut two strips from the black poster board. For the “R“s, I used my Cri­cut. For the smaller cir­cles, I cut out 5–7″ cir­cles on my Cri­cut and then did the same for the cross-lines and “R“s.
{Train Flag Ban­ners (a.k.a bunting)}
These are SO easy to make & add a nice pop of color! I got some var­i­ous sheets of 12 x 12 paper in our party col­ors. I even found one with trains! For this, I cut the pages in half. Then, cut tri­an­gles from each half (for this one, I do rec­om­mend a ruler!!)! I used a small hole-punch in each cor­ner and laced with thin ribbon.
{Train Cake}
 I was really ner­vous about doing this cake–the engine seemed espe­cially intim­i­dat­ing. But, it actu­ally wasn’t as dif­fi­cult as I anticipated–only time con­sum­ing. Because of that, the cake has it’s own post. So, you can find out all about how to make the train cake here. 
 
{Match­ing Train Birth­day Shirts}

I’m one of those moms that really likes match­ing shirts for the boys! And, with almost the same birth­day, they HAD to have match­ing party shirts, right?! RIGHT! I’m going to con­fess some­thing here–I’d never made/embellished a shirt before. I know. I know. What I learned:
It’s SOOOOO easy!! Dan­ger­ous knowl­edge to have now though, as I might be craft­ing quite a few in the future! 

I got the plain shirt & one­sie at Hobby Lobby for less than $3 each!! Sweet! Then, I also bought a 1/4 yard of train fab­ric & Heat ‘n Bond. I cut some tem­plates to play with from card­stock on the Cri­cut (you could free-hand some­thing if you don’t have an elec­tronic cutter). 
 

Once I had a plan, I cut a square of train fab­ric & adhered heat ‘n bond to it (fol­low­ing the instruc­tions on the pack­ag­ing). After that, I cut out my shapes–a square (rotated to dia­mond) for Big Brother & a cir­cle for Lit­tle Brother. (I adhered the heat ‘n bond first to avoid fray­ing of the fab­ric). Then, I did the same thing for the num­bers (cut from some extra black fab­ric I had on hand). 
After those were cut, I ironed the num­ber on to the shape. Then, ironed that whole unit on to the shirts! And, voila, match­ing party shirts that the boys were ECSTATIC about!! :) (this pic­ture cracks me up!!)

 
So, there ya’ go…a few home­made train party ideas! Thanks for shar­ing in all our train party fun! :)  

10 Comments

Comments

  1. 1
    kc says:
    April 21, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    Love the shirts!!!

    Reply
  2. 2
    Holly Lefevre says:
    April 21, 2011 at 5:29 pm

    I have had a train party for my son and then last year for my daughter.…I love this theme. The tracks are bril­liant! I have tried my hand at that cute cake 2 times now too! Awe­some party ideas.

    Reply
  3. 3
    Joanna says:
    April 21, 2011 at 6:13 pm

    Awe­some!!!! I love every­thing and your cake turned out fantastic!

    Reply
  4. 4
    Tonya says:
    April 21, 2011 at 7:40 pm

    Looks like a fun party!! Love the idea of the train tracks made of elec­tri­cal tape! So fun!

    Reply
  5. 5
    Suzi says:
    April 21, 2011 at 10:10 pm

    What an amaz­ing party, I love the tracks! I also keep check­ing out your dinosaur cake, think­ing about try­ing to attempt some­thing like that for my son’s party next week.

    Reply
  6. 6
    T-Rex says:
    May 27, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    look­ing for ideas for my son’s train party in a few weeks. Did the elec­tri­cal tape leave any residue on the floor?

    Reply
  7. 7
    Sara @ Mom Endeavors says:
    May 30, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Hi T-Rex! :) It did leave a lit­tle residue in a few spots, not all over though. And, in the places that it did leave residue, it came up very eas­ily. We have a slightly tex­tured ceramic tile. Also, we left the tape on our floor for prob­a­bly close to 3 weeks because they were hav­ing such fun with it. So, if you took it off right after the party, it might not leave any at all. Hope that helps! :)

    Reply
  8. 8
    Lili Nassif says:
    June 23, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    Thanks for shar­ing your won­der­ful ideas. My son loves trains, I would love to try some of these for his next bday.

    Reply
  9. 9
    Fiorella says:
    February 25, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    Awe­some ideas! Do you know if you can use the elec­tri­cal tape on wood floors?

    Reply
    • 10
      Sara @MomEndeavors says:
      February 25, 2013 at 9:40 pm

      Fiorella,
      Hon­estly I’m not sure. We only have tile. The only thing I would think you could do is try a spot that isn’t too vis­i­ble and see if it is ok! Good luck!

      Reply

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