A Hobbit Birthday: Middle Earth Party Decor & FREE Invitations Template

For her 5th birthday, Babs requested a Hobbit-themed party, because she is her mother's daughter and a complete Nerd. 

So I went overboard with the theme, no surprise there.

Hobbit Door Invitations

To start the festivities off right, Babs and I crafted our own Hobbit Door Invitations.

Supplies

• white or cream heavyweight paper or cardstock
• green construction paper
• ivory copyweight paper
• glue
• stapler
• 3 different reddish-brownish coloring utensils

Instructions

• Use a coffee cup or small bowl to trace a 4 3/4" diameter circle onto the heavyweight paper/ cardstock.

• Download this template for the base. Change information as desired. Print some testers to be sure all your information fits in your desired circle size. I alternated fonts and took screenshots of Babs' name and 'our precious' in Hobbiton font and Bilbo Hand font, since I can't download/install cool fonts into Google Docs. Or maybe I just don't know how?

• Print the invitation template onto ivory paper. Use a cup or bowl to trace 3 3/4"-diameter circles around each text group.

• Glue each invitation-circle centered on one heavyweight-paper circle.

• Draw alternating diagonal lines (or just straight lines, who cares!) for the bricks around the doorframe. Color in 3 alternating reddish-brownish colors.

• Cut corresponding circles using the same round object from green construction paper. Draw lines and a gold doorknob in the center for the door. Center the green circles over the ivory circles and staple twice at the left edge to create the door.

You can alter the template to be bigger if desired, but the 4 3/4" base circles were nice because they fit into 5"x7" envelopes.

Woodland Bunting

From four green & brown print fabrics and a solid ivory muslin, I cut a whole bunch of triangles roughly 8" wide & 8" tall. Make a slit in each corner. Thread yarn or ribbon through the slits so the ribbon is on the wrong side of the fabric. Hang for a delightfully woodland decor.

Happy Birthday Banner

I scoured my Extensis Fonts Add-on for the perfect Middle Earth font. I wound up mish-mashing a bunch of fonts, to hit the right mix of Middle-Earthy and readability.

Download the letters here.

Decorating Crowns

Using these templates, I printed crowns onto yellow construction paper (cut them to 8 1/2"x11" size, before putting them in your printer).

Given markers and jewel stickers, they could've sat at the table for far longer than I let them.

Goodie Bags

I had some metallic-y fabric in my stash and a zillion buttons, so I decided to make party favor bags for all of Babs' friends.

I used this tutorial as a guideline, except I made small 1/2" slits roughly 1" below and perpendicular to the cut edge.

Balloon Dragon

We stuffed red balloons with prizes like Tootsie rolls, dragon tattoos and stickers. I tied balloon ends together in pairs and slung each pair over a long yarn to create the body. I taped this dragon face template on the front balloon, slung two pieces of red tissue paper over the body for wings and freehand drew a tail onto a sheet of red construction paper.

The idea was to bring it on the floor and let the kids squeeze an orange rind over the balloons to pop them. That trick worked when I tested it a few weeks prior, but it DID NOT WORK FOR THESE BALLOONS?? I have no idea why.

We ended up having to put a pin in the tip of our foam sword and let the kids jab the balloons to pop them. (Stressful, dangerous & not advisable.)

Spider Web & Sucker Spiders

I taped some Halloween spider webs across a corner and wrapped little dragon toys in webs. (You know, like how Bilbo & the dwarves got wrapped up by the spiders in Mirkwood???? It made sense to ME. The 5-year-olds, not so much.)

Babs and I made sucker spiders to guard the dragon packages, and the kids had to very carefully choose one bundle to pull from the web & unwrap.

Ring Toss

For stability, I tied a foam sword onto our paper-towel-holder. If your sword is lighter than ours, you could just put the hilt into a mason jar. A couple glow sticks put together made the ring.

Smaug Horde Cake

I used this gluten-free cake recipe, but in a 10" pan instead of an 8". It was a pretty large cake and one (2 sticks of butter) batch of buttercream was just barely enough frosting for this bare-bones frosting design.

But the gold and white nonpareils made up Smaug's treasure horde, with clusters of mini M&Ms for emeralds, rubies and sapphires. And yes, I forgot to take a picture of it before it got demolished.

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It was probably more fun for me crafting things to theme than it was for the kids to enjoy them. Let's be honest, 5-year-olds don't give a crap about themes. They'd have been happy with cake and candy and just running around.

But it was a fun, albeit exhausting, day for everyone. And Babs is already making requests for her party theme for next year.