Crab Shack Birthday Party
This Crab Shack Birthday theme has crab everything from crab decorations to crab desserts!
Being a Maryland native, my crab cravings begin when the weather gets here. Lucky for me that’s when my son’s birthday is so, for his 2nd birthday (when he was still young enough that he didn’t get the whole birthday thing enough to demand a certain theme — oh, how I miss those days) I threw a Crab Shack Birthday Party!
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Kat & I started off by hand-making each and every invitation. I love hand-making invitations, but it is only realistic if it’s a small party. Handmade invitations just look better than anything you can print out or buy. Layering different paper, material and embellishments make them one-of-a-kind.
For our table backdrop we made custom wooden signs . I purchased the wood plaques from A.C Moore and we stained the plaques with a tea solution (tutorial below). Kat used the Silhouette Cameo to cut out different crab shapes in red and teal glitter paper, and I had fun giving each of them a set of googlie eyes. We scattered those crabs throughout the house as fun decorations.
For the favors I ordered personalized crab mallets from J.O. Spice Company Inc. . I made sure to order enough that everyone could take one home and we could use them for the crab feast at the party! We attached the favor mallets to crab shaped sugar cookies we made. I purchased a kiddie crab pool and crab bushel basket to add to the decor.
How to give your signs a weathered wood look:
Items Needed:
- White Vinegar
- Steel Wool
- Jar
- Tea Bag
- Paint Brush
Put a piece of steel wool in to the jar, pour vinegar until steel wool is covered. Let it sit for 24 hours. Shaking it occasionally. Make some tea, after it cools, paint the wood with the tea water. After it dries, apply a light coat of the steel wool vinegar water. Don’t now over apply, the vinegar water will get dark quickly. Be patient and only apply one coat at a time and let it dry before applying more.
Now on to the best part, the FOOD!
Kat had been eyeing a pin on Pinterest of a watermelon shark and was determined to do it. I was pretty impressed with the results :). Since we were having steamed crabs for the main entree, I kept the rest of the food light. For appetizers we made individual cups of Old Bay Crab Dip with a slice of French bread in each. As sides I made a large cobb salad and tortellini, half of which I dyed blue, with various dressings and sauces.
For dessert we made blue jello topped with gummy crabs that were made out of red fruit slices and red gumdrops. I also made a Sand Cake that I served in a pail with a shovel to go along the beachy theme. We kept the smash cake and cupcake simple and made crab-shaped toppers for them out of candy melts.
It was a perfect 2nd birthday! Sawyer enjoyed his Crab Shack birthday party and the adults enjoyed eating crabs and drinking beer 🙂 I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
best party ever!!
In Delaware we love crabs too and Memorial Day weekend kicks off the crab eating season at our house. We should have one more weekend before the fall arrives. Stopping by from Snickerdoodle Sunday.
This looks like fun!! I wouldn’t mind it as a grownup!!
Visiting and following from the social media mixer linky!! Thanks for co-hosting.
Thanks Helen, it was a fun day!
This party looks like it would be so fun! The food looks delicious!
Absolutely top shelf! So cute and creative! Everything looks perfect done to the littlest detail. You guys are amazing! I hope you will share this at my new link party, Celebrate It! It’s all about celebrating the big and small moments of everyday life. http://bit.ly/1nj5UEJ
Hope to see you there!
What an awesome party. Those crabs in the jelly are a great idea. Great work with all the decorations and food, the theme has been worked in perfectly. This is super cute 🙂
Thanks for sharing at Marvelous Monday on Smart Party Planning.
This is so stinkin adorable! Great Job! I love the fishing net, very clever!
Thanks Laura, it was a fun party to come up with decorations for. The fishing net hangs in Sawyer’s nautical bedroom now.
Oh my goodness, I love this party theme. It looks like so much fun. Thank you so much for linking it up to this week’s Dare to Share, you are today’s Dare to Share Feature of the Day!
Thanks Pam 🙂
What a really cute idea for a party. I will pass this along to my DIL’s for future parties for the grandkids.
Appreciate it Tammy 🙂
This is sooo cute! I love all of the little crab details from the invitations, to the crab eyes in the jello and the little hammer things (whatever those are called)! What a fun party idea 🙂
Thanks Erin! The personalized “mallets” were my favorite part.
What a cute idea for a party! I had that little crab pool about 3 years ago when my son was little… he loved it. Awww it brings back memories.Lesley
Thanks Lesley! They grow TOO fast for sure. Glad that I have pictures to look back and remember all the great memories.
What a cute party idea! I live in Maryland, so this would be perfect for a summer party. Thanks so much for linking up to Your Designs This Time! Have a great week 🙂
Ooo a fellow Marylander! Nice to meet you 🙂 Where in MD are you?
Wow, what a party!! Fantastic job!
This party! First of all I love picking crabs… for that fact alone this party is awesome! But beyond that it is so cute… that pool, I am in LOVE!
Can’t believe it is almost the end of summer…we need to have crabs one more time before it is over!
I’m a sucker for a theme party and this is perfect!!! I just love this and all the details! PERFECT
I know a lot of people on the east coast in New England who would love this post–sharing it later today!
Thanks for linking up to our Betwitchin Party! Be sure to come back every Sunday starting at 6am EST over at OurMiniFamily.com to link up your projects again!
~Cathy Mini~
Awesome, thank you!! We’ll see you Sunday 🙂
Oh, what a fun birthday party! Hope you have a great day!
This party is so cute! Thanks for linking up to Wonderful Wednesday – pinning!
Thanks Rachel 🙂
What a fun party! So much attention to detail. Thanks for sharing at On Display Thursday!
Thanks Leia! It was a fun theme to do.
I love your party. I think crabs are so cute, I even have some crab drinking glasses. I hope you will join us for our Anything Goes Linky, that just started over this morning.
Love this! It’s such a fun party theme! I’m featuring it tomorrow on the Bewitchin’ Projects linky ♥
Thanks Amanda! We’ll be there!! 🙂
How so very cute!
Melinda this is such a cute themed party! I love the crab jello cups and the crab mallets were such a cute take home favor. Thanks for sharing on Merry Monday.
G’day and thanks for stopping by and sharing your link at our #SayGdayParty! How cute!
I hope you have stopped back to Say G’day to another person at the party and reply to my questions posed this week! Thank you!
Cheers! Joanne
Wow! That looks like a lot of work! I’m not a crafty person, so it would probably take me extra long. I love the theme though, I love fresh seafood, someday I have got to go somewhere that I can get it fresh. 🙂
Thanks for linking this up in the BLoggers Brags Pinterest party, I hope you bring more awesome ideas soon!
You throw the best parties ever! Pinned. We truly love having you be part of our party. I hope you get a chance to stop by tonight. It wouldn’t be a party without you! http://loulougirls.blogspot.com/
Happy Monday! Lou Lou Girls
Thanks Kimberly! Of course we will be there 🙂
Looks like the party was a blast!
We appreciate you linking up at Teach Me Tuesday last week! Thank you so much!! Hope to see you again this week!!
http://3glol.net/2014/08/11/teach-tuesday-16/
Have a great day!
Love the party theme and how well you pulled it together! I hope you ate some crabs too! Thanks for linking up with Creative Spark!
I sure did! That’s why I picked the theme, all because I was craving crabs. Lol
Thank you so much for sharing with Adorned From Above’s Link Party
Debi @ Adorned From Above
My son is 4 and he now decides his birthday theme. This year it will be The Hulk. The Crab Shack is such a cute idea and you’re right, you have to get those in before your child has other ideas. 🙂 Thanks for sharing at Savoring Saturdays!