DIY Robin Hood Birthday

Kids, Travel

Check out our fun DIY Robin Hood birthday!

boy dressed as Robin Hood for birthday

Both kids love the Disney Robin Hood movie – with the adorable foxes Robin Hood and Maid Marian, bear Little John, lion Prince John, and snake Sir Hiss – especially my son. There’s something about the cute characters, catchy songs, and archery that really pulled him in. For his 5th birthday, he chose Robin Hood as his party theme.

Pin the hat on Robin Hood birthday game

During our small party, we whacked a Prince John piñata, played pin the hat on Robin, and enjoyed cupcakes decorated with Robin style hats and targets.

Of course, we needed themed hats, so made some Robin Hood and Maid Marian hats from felt.

Child playing with bow and arrow

The kids loved wearing their hats while practicing archery with some kid-sized archery bows.

This isn’t our first “interesting” birthday theme. Check out our mermaid penguin party and Sisu (from Raya and the Last Dragon) birthday theme.

Here are some of our favorite Disney crafts:

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Here are some of our favorites from the DIY Robin Hood birthday party:

Pin the Hat on Robin Hood

Draw Robin Hood from book

Draw a large Robin Hood on a piece of paper or foam board. Color, or let the kiddos help color Robin Hood. Cut hat shapes from construction paper.

Child playing pin the hat on Robin Hood
Child playing pin the hat on Robin Hood

Tape Robin Hood to a wall and play pin the hat on Robin Hood.

DIY Robin Hood Birthday: Prince John Piñata

For the last couple years, we’ve enjoyed creating, then destroying, a birthday themed piñata. I’ve learned that the kids don’t want to whack their favorite character, so we’ve tackled Chick Hicks (from Disney’s Cars), a lightning bolt, and a house.

For our Robin Hood theme, my son chose Robin’s nemesis – Prince John – for the piñata. My dad, Gpa tackled the Prince John piñata, following the same method as our other foam board piñatas.

foam board structure of Prince John piñata

For a rounded piñata, Gpa didn’t follow an outline. Instead, he formed the head shape by bending and gluing foam board strips together and added a lot of internal supports. Then he picked up our regular process for paper mache re-using scrap paper and brown paper grocery bags.

Making the piñata is so fun (and messy)! The kids love helping design the piñata, glue the foam board strips together, apply the wet, gooey paper mache, and (usually) painting the finished piñata. For our Prince John, I spray painted the piñata instead of using craft paint. This was much faster and covered really well. Since I used spray paint, the kiddos didn’t help paint.

Robin Hood Hat and Target Cupcakes

Robin Hood hat and target decorations on cupcakes

Supplies:

Make Robin Hood’s Hat

Place outline of hat under wax paper for cupcake decorations

Find an image of Robin’s hat – we used a Robin Hood book my parents saved from when I was a kid. Trace or draw an outline of the hat and feather on a piece of paper – the size hat will fit on top of a cupcake.

Place the image on a baking sheet, then cover with wax paper.

spread melted candy in outline

Follow bag instructions to melt the colored candy melts, each color in a separate bowl. Dip a knife into the melted candy (we used green), then spread on the wax paper, filling in the outline of Robin’s hat. Add a feather with a different color (we chose red). Candy should be about 1/8″ thick.

spread melted candy in outline

Let candy cool.

The candy decorations can be made a day or two before decorating the cupcakes. Store in a cool, dry place on a flat baking tray until ready to use.

Bake Cupcakes

Follow your favorite recipe (box mix works just fine) to make the cupcakes. Let cupcakes cool to room temperature before frosting and decorating.

Decorate Cupcakes

Make a batch of your favorite buttercream frosting recipe for buttercream (or buy some from the store). Cover cupcakes with frosting, adding food coloring if desired.

Add candy melt hat decorations to cupcakes

Add a dollop of frosting to the cupcake top so the hat has something to lean against. Place candy hat on the cupcake. Be gentle; the candy pieces are delicate and may crack or break if pressed directly into the cake.

add sprinkles to outer ring of frosted cupcake

For the cupcake targets, we placed a kid’s medicine cup on top of the cupcake to protect the inner circle of the target. Add blue sugar sprinkles around the outside ring.

add red candy melt in middle of cupcake

Remove the medicine cup and add a circular red candy melt to the center.

DIY No Sew Robin Hood Hats

Robin Hood hats made from felt

Supplies:

fold up brim on hat

Fold a piece of felt (8 1/4″ x 12 1/4″) in half widthwise (forming a rectangle 8 1/2″ x 6 1/8″).

Fold one of the free ends up 1 1/2″ to form the “brim”.

draw diagonal line on brim of hat
cut diagonal brim on hat

Use a ruler to draw a diagonal line from one corner of the brim to the other. Cut along the diagonal line to create the “brim.”

secure brim on DIY Robin Hood birthday hat

Secure with low-temp hot glue. Repeat on the other side.

fold down corner of Robin Hood hat

Fold the back corner down about 2 1/2″ from the back end and 2″ from the hat bottom. Secure with hot glue.

fold down front of Robin Hood hat
trim excess on folded hat
secure fold with hot glue

Fold the front corner down about 1 1/2″ from the hat bottom. Trim the overlap and secure both flaps with hot glue.

add feather to hat

Add a feather with hot glue.

DIY No Sew Maid Marian Hat

Supplies:

My daughter also wanted a hat – she chose Maid Marian’s veiled pointed hat.

Fold brim for Maid Marian hat
Glue brim for Maid Marian hat

Fold a piece of felt (8 1/4″ x 12 1/4″) in half widthwise (forming a rectangle 8 1/2″ x 6 1/8″). Fold one free end up about 1″ to form a “brim” and secure with hot glue. Repeat on the other side.

Cut middle of Maid Marian hat

Make a cut 2 1/2″ long down the middle of the folded edge.

Mark edges of hat

On the fold, make a light mark 1″ from both ends.

Fold triangle shape to get a crease

Fold diagonally between the bottom of the cut and the pencil mark to make a crease. Push the triangle into the hat – kind of an origami move.

Turn triangle inside hat

Push on the fold so that it inverts and creates a diagonal line from the bottom of the cut and the 1″ mark.

secure with hot glue

Add hot glue inside only the top of the inverted triangle (don’t add glue to the bottom of the inverted triangle to give flexibility for the hat to open and close). Repeat on the other side.

fold outside to create point

Fold one corner to create a point and secure with hot glue. Repeat to form the second point.

add tulle with hot glue

Cover the hat with a piece of tulle or another light fabric to create the veil. Secure the tulle onto the hat with hot glue.

Robin Hood Bow

Robin Hood birthday bow made from cardboard tube and shoelace

Supplies:

  • paper towel tube
  • utility scissors
  • duct tape
  • heavy string or shoelace
cut paper towel tube for DIY Robin Hood birthday bow

Cut the paper towel tube along its length.

roll tube
secure tube with duct tape

Roll the tube into a tighter roll and secure with duct tape.

cover tube with duct tape for DIY Robin Hood birthday bow

Cover entire roll with duct tape.

poke hole in tube
thread shoelace

Make holes through the tube at both ends. Thread a length of heavy string through the holes and secure with knots. The bow doesn’t actually work, but that hasn’t stopped my kiddos from shooting pretend arrows all around our house.

Robin Hood bow and quiver from cardboard

We also made a quiver by cutting slits in a rectangular cardboard box and adding a canvas belt.

If you have a Robin Hood fan, try some of these ideas for a DIY Robin Hood birthday. Let us know how it goes!