Ahoy thar Discount Dame readers!  Here be the one stop shop fer all yer DIY Pirate party needs.  Okay enough of that, I recently threw my darling son a pirate packed fourth birthday and thought I would share some of my favorite pirate party goodies.

Invitations: Message in a Bottle

These invitations are easy and fun, you can order them from Vistaprint or make your own version.  I added a little extra pirate whimsy by mailing them in plastic bottles that I found here at a great price, although the ones they had available  when I ordered were actually wine party invitations and were greenish bottles.  Everyone loved them and they made quite an impression, BUT they are pricey to mail, I hand delivered most of them but the ones that did go US Postal service cost about $1.90 to send.

Cake

Although I would have loved to make this easy, inexpensive, whimsical Treasure Chest cake my son had other ideas.  He wanted cake pops so we made the Party On! Friday No Bake Cake Pops but dipped them in white chocolate and then partly in red (to create bandannas) and piped on pirate faces.

Favors

Chocolate Covered Coins, Crayons you pick up during back to school time, skull lollipops from post Halloween sales, all make great favor bag fillers.  But if you want to make it a truly memorable party invest in these Little Tikes Pirate Costumes.  How much will these set you back your asking?  You can get a set of two for $1.98.  No that is not a typo, you get BOTH pirate costumes pictured for $1.98!  That’s less than $1 a piece, yeah, you’re welcome.

Looking for a favor for the over four crowd?  Create your own custom water bottle labels.  Here are the ones I designed sans lettering so you can open them up in “paint” on your computer and customize them however you like.  I have some great FREE Oz themed water bottle labels available HERE.

Treasure Hunt

What is a pirate party without a treasure hunt?  Since my son is four and he and his friends are not reading yet I opted to find pictures online of each “stop” on the map and use them instead of written clues.  Each child got a treasure map and at the first stop they received a black pirate mustache ($1 for 6 at Dollar Tree), Stop Two they scored a toy sword, stop three they received a pirate hat, and at the last stop they found a treasure chest with goodie bags featuring silver and gold beads, skull lollipops, crayons, chocolate coins, an eye patch,

a noise maker, and a  compass.

*Everything for the treasure hunt was purchased at Dollar Tree, at Halloween time I found a pirate accessory kit that included the patch, the hat, and the sword for one dollar total, the gold and silver beads were from Dollar Tree as well during Mardi Gras.  The Crayola crayons were from Walmart during back to school and they cost .24 cents each.

Decor

Head to Dollar Tree again, red table cloths, black plates, red party platters, white cutlery put together cost next to nothing but give a very cute look to the party.  They also had some great fold out centerpieces and pin the treasure on the map.  I also found baskets of seashells there that I spread out with gold coins along the table.  These fun Sail and Jolly Roger printables looked amazing on skures sticking out of fruit trays, pizza’s and in drinks.