DIY Pin-the-Cupcake-on-Birthday-Bear Game

If you read my previous post about making the rainbow pull-string pinata, you know that party planning is in full-swing here, which hopefully helps you understand why I have been absent from the blogosphere for about 3 weeks. Here is a party game that I came up with and designed all on my own, thankyouverymuch. I am pretty doggone proud of myself. (It was inspired by my pin-the-tail-on-Ariel game that I made 2 years ago, however, this one I made from scratch.) This project was much simpler than the pinata, but it definitely helps that I am decent at drawing. Otherwise, it would have been a hopeless endeavor. This cost me less than $12 total, including the cost of the poster board and the cost of laminating. I think it ended up being my most expensive thing I have made for Mia's Care Bears party, but still it is not that bad, especially considering that it is exactly what I wanted, and it wasn't something that I could have purchased.

Materials:

• white poster board
• pencil
• scissors/X-acto blade
• black Sharpie marker
• acrylic paint (yellow, white, turquoise, orange, pink)
• paint brushes
• plate for holding paint
• magenta Sharpie marker
• tracing paper
• boxboard (cereal box)
• markers (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)

Directions:

1. First, I found and printed this picture of Birthday Bear to use as my model. (I did this in black and white to save ink.)
2. Next, I drew my version of Birthday Bear onto a piece of white poster board. I broke it down into shapes starting with the round belly (I think I actually used a plate or something to trace around), and several circular shapes for the head, cheeks, and paws. The poster board had a grid on it which annoyed me at first, and then I realized that it would be helpful in the long one for finding more accurate proportions and placement.
3. I painted my Birthday Bear with acrylic paint, allowed it to dry, and touched it up as needed. Then, I outlined everything with a black Sharpie pen and used a magenta Sharpie to color in the sprinkles on the cupcake.
4. To make the game pieces, I used a piece of tracing paper and a pencil to trace the outline of the cupcake on his belly badge. Then, I cut it out, traced it onto a piece of boxboard (cereal box), and cut that out. This became my template for the pin-the-cupcake game pieces. I was able to trace 11 of them onto the poster board, using up a lot of the white space around Birthday Bear. I colored them with regular old markers, nothing special: 2 red, 1 orange, 2 yellow, 2 green, 2 blue, and 2 purple (since Mia and I had already agreed on largely using rainbow colors for the birthday decor). 
5. I took my nearly-completed game to Staples to have it laminated. The only downside is that it cost $10.60 to have it laminated, but that was a necessary evil for it to a) survive being played and b) spend the rest of its natural life living on Mia's bedroom door or wall.
6. Finally I used scissors to cut him out. For the small section between his arm and leg, I used my X-acto knife to trim this area. I figure that we can use a dry erase marker to write names on the game pieces and then put some rolls of tape on the back, that way the birthday guests can play the game more than once if they want.