I never fully appreciated the scope of a child’s full-blown obsession until my daughter met the Octonauts. After an 18-month obsession, my daughter finally had the Octonauts birthday party of her dreams. Complete with a homemade Octonauts crew hat, a creature report and plenty of ocean-themed food, the party was a blast and Captain Barnacles would have been proud.
My daughter’s obsession with the Octonauts is so great that an episode of the Octonauts is a unit of time measurement. How long until we get there? Four Octonauts (which is approximately one hour). For the record, our party was approximately eight Octonauts, and it was perfect.
Of course, it all starts with an invitation (which I designed).
Creature Report
When I started planning the party months ago, I decided that I wanted to turn the kitchen into the Octopod – I wanted partygoers to feel like they were onboard the Octopod.
Those who have seen the Octonauts know that the Creature Report is the coolest part of the show. So the first thing I needed to achieve that was the set of computer screens used to display the Creature Report each episode. The screens made the perfect party background, and I loved the way they turned out. Plus K got a kick out of a Creature Report all about the birthday girl.
Custom Creature Reports are available by order. Email to inquire about price.
Under Water Balloon Canopy
The next most striking thing I did to emphasize the Octopod feel was to create a balloon canopy over the kitchen. The canopy of blue balloons gave the feeling of looking up at the ocean.
It was simple to create, but my husband thought I was nuts when I told him I wanted to hang balloons from our 14-foot ceiling. In the end, even he admitted that it looked really cool. And it really is a cool effect.
We used 29 balloons to create the canopy (one in the package was busted).
DIY Bling Candle
One of my favorite details was the candle for K’s cupcake. I looked everywhere for a pretty number candle for her cupcake, but was sad to find that all of the number candles are just plain ugly. Well, not ugly – but boring and with little options to match a theme. I ended up with one with red, yellow and blue stars all over it.
Then I got an idea – decorate it! So I found self-adhesive blue crystals at JoAnn’s for $1 (and I had a 40% coupon!), and I made some magic. I already had the big clear crystal in my stash, so it was just a matter of a little craft glue and ugly candle be gone. Seriously, I am going to be doing this from now on. For less than $2, K had a beautiful blinged out candle for her cupcake.
Octonauts Printables
Playing with the Octonauts colors of blue and orange and emphasizing the ocean feel, I used accents of blue and with white polka dots as the basis for all of the coordinating printables I created. I made coordinating table tents for food labels and several items for the goodie bags.
Free Octonauts Party Printables coming soon.
Octo-Food
All of the party food was ocean themed. I served:
- Captain’s Chow
- Coral Reef Salad
- Shark’s Teeth
- Sandollars
- Seaweed dip
- Pirate’s Booty
- Buncha Muncha Crunchy Carrots
- Fish Biscuits
- Giant Clam Cookies
- Octopus Puffs
Peso’s Medical Goodie Bags
When searching for ideas for an Octonauts birthday party, I fell in love with the idea of using Peso’s Medical Bag as the goodie bag / treat box. Careful thought went into these goodie bags which contained gifts from each of the eight crew members and an Official Octonauts certificate.
***Update*** Details about what is inside the Octonauts goodie bags as well as three four printables — Official Octonauts certificate, Fish Biscuits Treat Toppers, notepad covers and crew list — are now available.
Octonauts Games
To keep the party running smoothly with a gaggle of Kindergarteners in my house, we played three Octo-themed games: Octonaut Bingo, Pin the Mouth on the Octoalert and an Octopod pinata.
I designed the Bingo and Octoalert games myself, and I plan to make them available as a free printable soon.
My free Octonaut BINGO is now available.
Octonauts on DVD
Of course, not everyone at the party was as Octonauts savvy as K. So to help “educate” them on all things Octonauts, we also had the new Octonauts: To the Gup-X DVD playing in the background. Featuring some of K’s favorite episodes, it was a great birthday gift for K that was also very useful at the party!
Octonauts Birthday Party Supplies:
- Octonauts Shirt from Etsy
- Octonauts Hair Clip
- The Octonauts: Meet the Octonauts!
- Octonauts: To the Gup-X
- Octonauts Stickers (I used as game prizes)
- Octonauts Tattoos
- Octonauts Octopod Pinata
- Octonauts Party Supplies
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What are the Octopus Puffs made out of?
They were Pirates Booty! Easy Peasy.
Hello! I am currently planning my daughter’s 3rd birthday party. She has requested an Octonauts-themed party and I am loving the Creature Report based on the child herself that you have shown in this post. How can I go about having one made for me for a party that is scheduled for early October 2015? Any assistance you are able to offer is greatly appreciated. Thank you !
HI! happy birthday to you daughter. Please email me directly at [email protected].
Hi! My daughter’s birthday is in January and I’m planning on making it octonauts, she loves octonauts, she’d watch it all day if I let her. But I have a question, did having it blue and orange ever make it feel too boyish since the party was for your daughter, I’m planning on making it teal and orange for my daughter since it felt too boyish to me lol but besides that, I love all your ideas! Where do I find the peso medic printable? Gonna make the medic bags as goodie/thank you bags 🙂
Hi Bri – I didn’t feel as if my daughter’s party was “boyish” at all. You can see from the pictures, it was light and colorful and my daughter loved everything about it. She even had bling on her candle. You can get all of the details for the goodie bags, including the printable, here -> https://www.thesuburbanmom.com/2014/09/09/octonauts-birthday-party-goodie-bag-ideas-free-printables. Happy party planning.
How did you make the number six which is hung in the front door, can u shares the process, I am planning my daughters 4 th octonauts themed birthday party
Unfortunately, that is probably the only project I don’t have any pictures of, so I don’t have a tutorial to share. However, this YouTube video does a fantastic job. It looks like she used foam board, I used cardboard from a large shipping box I had lying around (free!). Hope this helps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsQpHPuUVc8
I’m planning my son 3rd Birthday Bash and I really can use your help……
How big did you make the creature report? I am working on one for my lo 3rd birthday but I feel like it is too small to be seen from far away.
The printed portion of the screen was an 8×10, and the orange frame was about 2 inches bigger. Hope this helps!
This is fab. Sadly I’ve run out of time to make my daughters October party quite so fabulous.
Do you have any food printables to share? I would be so grateful 🙂
Cute party! My son wants an Octonaut party this year and would love the ‘Creature Report’ of himself! How did you do this? Thanks!
Hi Celeste – I designed the Creature Reports myself. I sell custom ones, if you are interested. Feel free to email me.
Hi Jen,
The link to the octonaut medical bag plaster printable doesn’t work. Is there any way you can fix this or get it to me? Your party looked amazing, I can’t match it but nicking a few of your great ideas!
Hi Jenni – Looks like the blog that originally posted the bandages is no longer online. Luckily I still have them in my files, so I have added a link to download them in the post here – https://www.thesuburbanmom.com/2014/09/09/octonauts-birthday-party-goodie-bag-ideas-free-printables/
Hi there. I am planning my son’s Octonauts birthday party for this coming Saturday, Feb. 4 2016. I created the medical bag party favor using your ideas (but I swapped out some of the favors for other items. Any chance you would be able to create a modified version of the Octonauts Gift List for me? I would so appreciate it! Thank you 🙂
Oops I meant Feb. 4, 2017
I have been trying to print the food label for Tunips Fish Food with no success. It prints out very large and off to the right. I can’t get one label to print in whole. I’ve messed around with the sizes trying to get it on one page and no luck. Any ideas? Thanks and appreciate any help you can provide.
Hi – make sure you are downloading the file to your computer. Don’t just save the image on the blog, download the image from the link. Then print the file from your computer. This should help.
i would really love your help with planning this theme for my son jayce 1st birthday party on august 16 2017
Hi love your creature report! My son is having an Octonauts themed birthday as well and I love to have the creature report! Thanks!