It’s one thing to design a party around a theme you are familiar with, and another around one you don’t know anything about. Pokémon is all the rage at my son’s school these days. I’ve never been into it, so this was a world I had to learn and quickly try to immerse myself in.
To make it slightly more complex, he requested not just a Pokémon party but a “Pokémon GX” theme. From what I could gather, the GX isn’t so much part of the show but refers to a specific type of Pokémon card 🤷♀️ that is further along in “evolution” and more powerful (but mainly just more shiny, holographic, and therefore fun 😄).
To my knowledge, there hasn’t really been a Pokémon GX party planned before so there wasn’t much to go on. After brainstorming, I decided to keep the overall colors close to some of the original popular Pokémon characters.
To make it a “GX” party, I came up with a craft idea of making their own GX Pokémon cards. I figured they would get a kick out of seeing themselves as a Pokémon card.
To make the craft a reality, I would need a way to print each child’s photos on the spot. After doing some research, I decided on the Canon Ivy instant iPhone printer. It didn’t require any ink as the ink was already embedded in the paper, and the paper itself had an adhesive backer. While the print quality could only be as expected for a small portable printer, it seemed that the colors were a little more true than some of the other competitors on the market. I’m happy to say that we were pleased with the results, and the kids all got a great kick out of seeing their photos print out immediately.
The holographic lamination would be key. I found these self-adhesive ones on Amazon. To make it feel more like a craft, I wanted them to have something to do to make it their own. I ended up designing my own GX card template in Photoshop, customized with each child’s name on it, and printed it on an inkjet printer on clear adhesive vinyl. I also printed the Pokémon card back design on some cardstock via Kinkos.
For the holographic laminate, I also cut them down to size, and then made these into little packs that I clipped together for each child.
All of this would go on top of photo, and voila, a Pokemon GX card! This is how the station and craft turned out.
The only drawback of the craft was it did require a bit more parental involvement than I liked, as the kids (ages 5-7) needed some help with the different steps, so I did get a little stressed! But overall, it was a hit and took up the perfect amount of time before the rest of the party festivities.
For other activities, I had a bounce house (can’t go wrong) and also hired a Pokémon trainer through Royal Entertainers. The kids, having already made their cards, naturally assumed their roles as GX pokemon characters during the Pokémon training that “Ash” led them through!
Themed food was a little more challenging, especially with the multiple restrictions my poor food-allergic son has. Plus, we still wanted to try to be COVID cautious. I ended up not pushing myself too hard on making the food themed, and just based it off of key colors of some of the characters.
Here is how the full party came together!
And there you have it! Our Pokémon GX party. Happy birthday, my sweet son. We love you so much.
That Celebration Life 