Tyler's 8th Birthday- Basketball theme

Well, the basketball party is now officially over.  Tyler had a great time, and I had a fun time putting it all together.  Basically everything was basketball.  Orange and black were the two main colors, with a little white thrown in here and there.  Here, take a look:

Now, it is a little dark, mostly because the orange balloons are hanging right under the only light in the dining room.  Some didn't notice, so I will clue you in, the table is supposed to look like a basketball too.  Ok, maybe a little cheesy.

Printable basketball happy birthday banner I put together.  Feel free to print it out and use it if you'd like.

I did learn something about putting the little "holes" on the basketball.  Don't do it when the icing is wet. My cupcakes looked more like spikey basketballs.  I really didn't have time to fix them, they needed to go to school with Tyler the next morning, but he didn't seem to mind.  Also, don't try to do the black lines when the icing is getting warm, because they come out all squiggly.  So for the cake I did it a little different.

 I iced it then put it in the fridge for an hour or more.  That way the icing got a little harder.  Then I used the end of my icing tip and put the little "holes" on the ball.  I also let the black icing get cooler, and the lines went much more smoothly.  Lesson learned.

Then, as I went to wrap the presents I realized that I didn't have any wrapping paper, or bags that were close to the colors, except this red in the background, or close to the theme.  So the two at the top I just used the back side of the red wrapping paper then drew a couple of basketball stick people on the paper. It worked.

 The backboard and hoop, I just used poster board, then bent a hanger and taped orange paper around it for the hoop (my budget was already spent at this point).

So, there you have it.  Tyler's 8th Basketball themed birthday.

Melissa