When your little girl asks for a Shimmer and Shine themed birthday party, you deliver with jewel tones, saris, and genie lamp favors.
Theme
For fans of this Nick Jr. tv show, you know that it’s about two lovable genies, Shimmer and Shine, their pets, and their best friend, Leah. The show uses a lot of rich, bold colors with cool blue undertones, i.e. blue, purple, teal, and dark pink. Thanks to its popularity, it’s easy to find pre-made decorations with the show’s thematic elements, so you can really mix and match your DIY and “buy” for this party. I decided to go with bought signs and plates, and then filled in the rest with handmade or original items.
Decorations
For the biggest impact on decor, I focused on the two largest surfaces: the wall above the food & cake table and the tables themselves. On the wall I hung the Shimmer AND Shine signs I bought and accented them with large tissue paper flowers in the party colors. (I love tissue paper decorations because they’re cheap, come in a variety of colors and designs, and are easy to make into flowers, fans, collages, etc.) The extra large flowers made a statement and helped cover the space a lot cheaper than more / larger signs. Oh, and the birthday girl kept the ones she liked the best for decorating her room and gave the rest away to her friends. Too cute.
I splurged a bit on the tables because I knew I could use them again for future parties and decorations: saris! Amazon had a rainbow of colors so, again, I picked out a few in the party colors – pink, blue, and purple – with simple gold details. The saris, which have a luster of their own, lent both color and a feeling of luxury to the very plain tables. (I did use gold plastic tablecloths underneath the saris, just in case they got wet and bled due to their highly saturated colors.) After the party, I washed them all in the washing machine with no damage, woohoo!
Adding to the sparkle of a genie party were multiple acrylic gems I scattered across the food table between the dishes. (If you have little ones, keep these out of their reach as they’re a choking hazard. The gems, not the children.) I also had an acrylic gem garland that I would through the lighting fixture for extra pop. To make the most of the sparklies, I made sure all of the window blinds were open to let in lots of natural light.
Favors
I had fun with the favors! I found some costume / toy genie lamps on Oriental Trading and bought enough to give away as favors. While they were more expensive than the average favor bag, I balanced out the cost by filling them with inexpensive candies and stacking them on the island as part of the decorations. Of all the party touches, people commented on the genie lamps the most. When it was time to hand out the favors, the kids were thrilled to pick their own lamp and see what goodies were inside.
Food
We had the usual birthday cake and snack foods, which the kids enjoyed. This time instead of a yogurt bar we had a mini bagel bar, perfect for little hands. As a themed food to add a little fun, we helped the birthday girl make “magic carpet” treats before the party. Just take Rice Krispy Treats, frost them with your choice of frosting (we used chocolate and white), and decorate with fun sweeties such as rainbow sprinkles, pink sugar crystals, and shaped sugar sprinkles. These little goodies were even more popular than the birthday cake!
TIP: For more ideas on how to use Rice Krispy Treats, see our article on DIY Decorated Rice Krispy Treats.
How would you decorate for your genie party?
Happy eventing!
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