Waka-Waka! Leveling Up for a DIY Pac-Man Birthday Bash
If there is one thing we love at HypedNHandmade, it’s taking a classic retro theme and giving it a massive, modern DIY glow-up. When my daughter decided she wanted a Pac-Man birthday party, I knew I couldn’t just get by with yellow plates and black construction paper. By now, my family is conditioned to expect a fabulous and fully coordinated celebration for their major milestones. This retro theme was no exception, and bringing my vision to life took lots of late-night crafting sessions, incremental adjustments, and a ton of patience. Here is how we brought the 8-bit world to life!
The Showstopper: The 6'x6' Photo Wall
An elaborate and on theme photo wall is an absolute must for all family birthday parties. When I thought about this event, I knew the wall would be big and time-consuming. I decided to make a life-sized Pac-Man game board. Bringing this game board to life was no easy feat as this was my largest cricut project to date. I spent hours cutting and hand-assembling every single element to scale. We had the iconic blue maze borders, and of course, the stars of the show:
The Ghosts: Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.
The Power-Ups: Precisely layered cherries and pretzels.
The Hero: A perfectly round, bright yellow Pac-Man.
Before I could put this project together, I had to make the large black base. I used two rolls of black Kraft paper and scotch tape to make the background. Next, I painstakingly matched up the large game border pieces. It took me four days to figure out exactly where each piece went. Hand-assembling all those pieces onto the black backdrop was like putting together a giant, colorful puzzle, but I knew that seeing the birthday girl’s shock and excitement as she posed in front of it made every second worth it. Once the border was put together, I carefully placed the white dots and game pieces around the board.
The Island: A Delicious Game Board
With the game board complete, I could shift focus to the most critical element of the party, the food. As I thought about the menu, I wanted to include her favorite foods, displayed in line with the overall theme/aesthetic. I mean, why have a regular food table when you can have a Pac-Man game board? I transformed our kitchen island into a giant maze using black paper and blue painter’s tape.
We used the "dots" as placeholders for the snacks. I made sure to leave room for the real star of the show, the cake! One of my absolute favorite party hacks is using a plain frosted store bought cake as a starter and then adding custom decorations for my theme. For this party, I used a store-bought cake and cupcakes as a starter. For the cake, I cut a "mouth" out of the round cake to create Pac-Man and then used the fronting from the slice to fill in the open spot. For the cupcakes, I made a batch of marshmallow fondant and food coloring to make little ghost toppers for the cupcakes.
We arranged them so Pac-Man was "chasing" the cupcake ghosts all the way across the kitchen island maze. It was a total hit with the kids (and the adults, too!).
For the rest of the food, we had a Pac-Man shaped pizza, sandwiches, Caesar salad (the birthday girl’s favorite), and charcuterie.
The Uniforms: Custom Family Tees
If you’ve read my previous posts, you know I can’t host a party without some custom apparel. I pulled out the Cricut again and made Pac-Man shirts for the whole family. The Birthday Girl had a special design with the game board. Her sister had the ghosts, and her Dad and I each had Mr and Mrs Pac-Man making their way toward each other. There’s something about matching shirts that makes the birthday day look so cohesive and fun.
High Scores and High Energy
Since it was an arcade theme, one of my friends lent me their Pac-Man tabletop gaming system for the party. It was so much fun watching the kids and our family navigate the "stress" of being chased by ghosts and battling for the highly-coveted high score.
But, because a bunch of kids inside a house need to burn off that cake energy, we took a field trip! We headed out to a local ninja gym to let the birthday girl and her sister get their wiggles out. It was the perfect bonus level to end the day. They climbed, jumped, and ran until their power meters were empty.
As with all my events, this party demonstrates that you don’t need the largest budget to create something magical. With a little bit of fondant, some rolls of vinyl, TONS of patience, and a lot of heart, you can turn a Saturday afternoon into an unforgettable masterpiece.