Emoji Birthday Party

As a crafter, I love to make things, and that's no different when it comes to planning parties. I love working on coordinating food and decor around a party theme. That's why I was excited to plan an emoji-themed birthday party for my nephew a while ago. 

At the time, his favorite emoji was the "cool dude" smiley face with the sunglasses, so I used that as inspiration for my emoji cake. I just used a boxed cake mix and white icing mixing with food coloring. Fondant probably would have made a neater presentation, but I went with what I had on hand. Yellow plates and napkins, paired with a pizza print tablecloth and emoji Pez party favors made for a fun tablescape.

An easy DIY project for an emoji party is hanging lanterns. All you have to do is cut out pieces of felt for faces and hot glue them to yellow paper lanterns.

*Tip: Use a stack of coffee filters to hold the lantern while you are gluing on the face pieces. That way, the round object won't roll away as you glue!

This lantern is one cool dude!

I also made the winking tongue-out smiley and heart-eyes smiley to hang over the table.

A homemade emoji banner would be easy to make but I chose to use a gold Happy Birthday banner that we already owned. Some emoji pillows doubled as decor (making great seating on a bench in the dining room) and gifts for the birthday boy.

Party games including emoji jewelry-making and a board game called "Googly Eyes."

Playing "Googly Eyes" the board game.

Here I am with the birthday boy!

Pizza, watermelon, and wings were on the menu as fun, finger-friendly foods.

Some black and white candles topped the sunglasses emoji cake when it was time to make a wish!

Angry pillow photo-ops aside, this emoji party was nothing but happiness and fun! With a combination of store-bought items and homemade touches, it's easy to tailor this party theme to the emoji fan in your life!