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Stranger Things was a hit at my house.  We watched it as a family.  I watched the series twice. Ha!  We love it!

My daughter Hailey was especially into it and this year she was turning 11; which was perfect for a Stranger Things party.  If you haven’t seen the show this might be confusing and a little weird.  Stranger Things is a sci-fi series set in the 80’s and is about a boy who goes missing.

Also, check out Stranger Things Ice Cream Sandwich Bar

Using a few strings of colored lights and a yard of mustard colored fabric I made this backdrop.  I used black acrylic paint to paint the letters and taped the lights above the letters.

Here is the invitation Hailey handed out to her friends.  I purchased that Eleven Clipart file on Etsy.

Her guests were greeted with the sign from Will’s fort. I used some wood grain paper, glued it to cardboard, and painted the words with yellow paint.  That wreath was a Halloween wreath that I ripped off the decorations on it for the party.

Dustin’s Energy Snacks are the things Dustin packed in his backpack for their journey- “to keep their energy”. Empty Eggo Waffle boxes are perfect decor.

Pudding Snack Packs for the chocolate pudding they ate at Hawkhigh high school as they were hiding out.

Had to have french fries when Eleven stuffed her face with them at Benny’s Burgers.

 

This backdrop is made from a science fair 3-fold poster.  Did you know there is a Stranger Things generator where you can have any two words in the Stranger Things font?? It’s called MakeitStranger.com.  I used it to create the wording on the backdrop.  We also used it for her invitation! I added a Christmas lights necklace to hang on the backdrop.

I made these upside-down cherry cakes to go with The Upside Down.

I made Eggo Maple Waffle Cupcakes for Eleven’s Eggo obsession. I used Betty Crocker Butter cake mix for the cupcakes, a maple frosting, and topped with a crisp Eggo Waffle. The recipe I used for the frosting was kind of a fail so I won’t link it. I had a “make it work” moment last minute to fix it! In the end, they turned awesome!

Mini cans of Coke for the Coke can Eleven tried to crush with her mind.

I found this walkie talkie image and printed them out and glued them to wrapped juice boxes.

 

I also found this cassette tape image and made a banner with it.

A homemade Demogorgon pinata is perfect for when they were hitting him with a bat in the show.

Here’s a quick recap of how I made it.

We played Find Will. Using a small pool (remember when eleven had to used one to go to the upside down?), you put anything slippery and squishy inside.  I used spaghetti noodles and water beads.  I added some food coloring to make it like the opening of the upside down. There was a small figure inside the pool.  Each girl had to be blindfolded and try to find the figure (WIll).  Whoever found him in the shortest amount of time won.

Get it? Reaching into The Upside Down to find Will!!

 

The girls played the game Left, Center, Right which has nothing to do with Stranger Things. It’s just her favorite game that is easy to play with a lot of people. I hung Christmas lights all over just like Joyce did.

I printed these Stranger Things Photo Props over at Etsy. I glued them on a skewer to hold it a little easier.

Update: I noticed that the creator of the photo props isn’t selling them anymore but here is an alternative I found. Or try this option on Amazon.

The Fujifilm Instax mini was perfect for each girl to take a home a picture! You can get the rainbow film here and the stained glass film here.

We love using craft thread from DNC. The girls got to choose from the Divas, Tie-Dye and Surf’s Up sets.

 

Mike is all about friendship so we had to make friendship bracelets-which is also totally 80’s.

 

The girls loved making bracelets.

I grabbed 80’s candy and added a girly prize with it.

I printed out a waffle with each girls name and glued it on a brown bag to take their candy, prizes, picture and friendship bracelet home.