Brave Movie Party – Princess Merida & Friends – Scottish Themed Birthday

My little girl turned 8. That’s a big thing in our household 🙂  Being 8 is Great!! 🙂

We originally planned on not having a party. Because she would be Baptized this year. However we had to postpone it for family reasons and it will be in a few months. So we had to do something for the big day. She really wanted a BRAVE party after seeing the wonderful Disney Movie – “Brave”

I searched the internet high and low. VERY LITTLE was out there for a Brave party. So I had to use the little bit of inspiration on Pinterest and spin off on my own things. I wanted to reuse as much as possible. I litterally threw this party together in under 2 weeks.  So I thought I would share our party with our wonderful readers in case you too need to have a Brave party. 🙂

(Photo above- our own Princess Merida aka Birthday Girl)  Dress came from Etsy– best seller ever – She got us this dress in record time for her birthday 🙂 Thank you Tootietots!!

Our Goodie bag table- the party goers got to put together their own goodie bags at the end of the party 🙂

Gumballs 🙂

Glowsticks — why?? Because I had TONS of them from a party in the past. We ordered a huge box of glow sticks off ebay for cheap. I keep reusing these glow sticks for lots of parties. Best buy ever. Kids love them 🙂

I also had fun straws. I got them at like 70% off at JoAnn’s a while ago. I picked up a few packs. Their clearance along with a 15% off EVERYTHING coupon = CHEAP STRAWS!! WOOHOO!!

In the movie – Merida follows blue Wisps. So we used tootie roll lollipops just like you make halloween ghosts, we did blue tissue paper to make Wisps.

Here is another photo (sorry from my iphone) Of the wisps up close.

I used a 5×7 frame to make a sign letting the party goers know what the table was for and to take one of each item for their bags. I got the art from Disney website- it is really a “THANK YOU CARD” I used for myself  for this table 🙂

I added a fun wrapper to Hershey bars. 🙂  Called them Bravery Chocolates. I had lots of Hershey bars I needed to use up- so I was able to do so 🙂

Here is a better photo of the Hershey bars 🙂 This turned out so cute!!

The goodie bags- I used kraft bags from the Dollar Tree. Tied on plaid fabric and on my Silhouette machine- I did a trace using the Dun Broach Clan (that was Merida’s clan she belonged to) Had my Silhouette cut out the symbol and glued them to the front of the bags 🙂 I love how those turned out too!!

The container of little chocolates , I relabeled those too 🙂

Hershey Nugget candies 🙂

One other item that went in their bags were these cute Triplet Brother Bears. Merida’s brothers were turned into cubs- and these Graham Cracker Chocolate- Teddy Grahams I put into little baggies with a tag. I made these also for her school class as well 🙂

Front of the bag tag…

Back of the bag tag.

Outside we set up our beach tent. To host our Scottish Highland Games 🙂  All the kids went outside to do 3 games and 1 craft. Scottish families are represented by their Plaid sashes or kilts. I already owned a bunch of red plaid. I used a 60% coupon from JoAnn’s Fabrics and purchased Green/Blue plaid (similar to the movie) And used the fabric alot in this party.

I tied 2 inch x 20 inch strips onto twine just for a swag/garland decoration to the tent. Very easy to do. Every 6 inches i tied on a colored fabric strip.

We created flags. One of each fabric. Simply serging the outside edge and  tying it onto  a 5 foot PVC pipe. I added a cap to the top of the PVC pipe and used a screw in round eyelet , screwed in so I could tie the flag on so it wouldn’t slip. I did a red and a green plaid flag for decorations.

We had 10 kids participating, we made sashes for each of the kids. They measured 11 x 60 inches. Simply cut out and serged the outside edges that was all. For the buckle we just made Dun Broach Clan symbols in our button/pin maker. So they could pin the sashes on and we could form 2 teams. 🙂 AKA Clans.

It was a pool party- and this is our Green Clan (sashes on and the pin to hold it together like Scottsman wear. 🙂

Our Red Clan 🙂

Then the Scottish Highland Games began!!

We started with a Bean Bag throw. We allowed all the teams to throw 4 bean bags each keeping track of points. The team with the most points won 🙂  This tutorial was found here – How to make your own Cornhole game. However I was inspired for this game from this blog – INSIDE THE MAGIC

Spray painted the cornhole game, we added 3 holes instead of 1. Also the symbol again- cut out in vinyl from my Silhouette. I can remove it easily after the party to reuse this game for other parties in the future or my cub scouts 🙂

I created 6×6 bean bags. 4 for each team using 1/2 cup of beans per bag 🙂 I just used pinto beans I got from Walmart 🙂 Easy project 🙂

Kids taking turns throwing the bean bags 🙂

Our 2nd activity at the party was putting together Bear Claw necklaces. A craft that was easy/quick. In the movie (I don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t seen it yet)  Certain people become bears.  So to tie in the BEARS from the movie, we used plastic bear claws.  Beads and leather necklace/straps we got from JoAnn’s. The bear claw bead we got from – CrazyCrow.com very inexpensive and they came EXTREMELY quickly. 🙂 I was happy for that. We were on a tight schedule 🙂 I even purchased extras to make some with my cub scouts soon 🙂

I just cut the leather straps/necklace long enough to do a tie off on the back to slip over their heads. Easy Peasy 🙂

Our 3rd Activity was a HIT!!!  Merida loved to do archery. So we played an archery game that was EXTREMELY popular. Everyone loved it, even the dads and older siblings.

The instructions for the bows came from the blog – Skip to my lou. PVC Bows. We did make a few alterations.
1- I used electrical tape on the center handle (black part)
2- I didnt like their arrows very much.

The arrows are 16 inches and 3/8 of an inch wooden dowels. We simply E-6000 pencil eraser caps to the end for our arrows and used our saw to cut a notch on the back in to help shoot them. They worked great!!

Can you see that arrow flying through the air???? (That is my awesome son in the green swim suit)

Basically the team with the most members to shoot the furthest won a point. After everyone shot 4 arrows the team with the furthest shot won a point till everyone had a turn. Then the team with the most points won. Follow? 🙂  Clear as mud?

Last but not least we saved this for last- was our water shooting contest.  Go to war (water war) and out soak the other team. Sashes were fabric (could get wet) Pins were relatively water proof.

2 – 5 gallon buckets on each end filled with water. The water guns reminded me of an “arrow” like in the movie. I got those at the Dollar Tree. They call them water blasters – FOUND HERE I got blue/green to go with our theme colors. They were able to keep the blasters and their sashes as gifts too 🙂

I was SOOO EXCITED how this BRAVE cake turned out. It is filled with raspberry filling 🙂  YUM YUM. I got the little figurines from Toys R Us. And created the cake. This was our 1st big cake decorated. I am pleased how it turned out. I have to thank PINTEREST for finding this fun cake — Cakes & Cookies Blog. I love the cake they made 🙂 I had to try it too.  Not too shabby for my 1st try.

Florida is HOT HOT HOT. We had lot of cold water to drink at the party for everyone. 🙂 We relabeled all the water with our own labels we created 🙂  Love them too. They were a conversation piece with all the adults for sure 🙂

We did a bbq for the party. Hamburgers and Hotdogs and lots of sides.

However a FEW TIPS…..

There was ONE OTHER goodie bag item I made that did NOT survive the Florida heat. I was SO SO SAD. I would definitely make them again but not use them in a hot environment.

Another blue WISPS candy idea–

(this is from my iphone)

Clear plastic cups filled with blue cotton candy. Wrapped in cellophane and a tag I created. I was so sad the heat KILLED IT. It melted it and turned rock hard. The humidity and heat was not good to the cotton candy. So– I was bummed!!

I was so proud of my tags too – “Follow the wisps…Change your fate”

Better luck next time right??

Also– the chocolate– since it was an outside party on the porch. I had to keep the chocolate items in a fridge and brought out till JUST before the end of the party. For obvious reasons.   Florida heat can put a damper on fun yummies for sure.

It was a great party. 🙂  I am so happy how it turned out. 🙂 I hope our party inspired other Brave Party friends 🙂

I have to thank my wonderful husband for helping out so much. He actually did MOST of the sewing!! HE ROCKS!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG BRAVE GIRL!!!

**Lots of people have asked about purchasing these printables. They are available for purchase. Email us directly and we can give you details. We are working on an Etsy shop but in the mean time feel free to drop us an email. 7 files included and 5 of them are personalized with name and birthday age**