25th Birthday: Presents From Friends and Family

I was really ever so grateful for the presents I received from my friends and family. They had put some thought into what I might like. I got some lovely surprises as well as a few things I had asked for.

Here is my presents in pictures...

Vintage Carnival Party: Magic Mirrors Game

This was one of my fav games to make. I created this game mainly on Photoshop and edited photos of celebrities to create that magic mirror look.

This was certainly one of my most visual games and also one of the most time-consuming to design. I believe it was worth the effect though.  I wasn’t completely sure of the level of difficulty I had made for the quiz. Luckily it was ok but some of the guests found some very tricky.

Vintage Carnival Party: The Stocks Game

This game was developed around the idea of choosing someone famous who you would want to put in the stocks. The stocks are a historic game where someone is imprisoned and things are thrown at them, normally sponges or vegetables.

This was my inspiration that I made into a paper game. I choose a variety of images of annoying famous people. Circle three of your favoured people to stock and discuss.

Vintage Carnival Party: Clown Costume Game

Another drawing game inspired by fancy dress and high fashion. I developed a story to attract interest at the start of the game. Basically the rules are as follows draw a new and improved outfit inspired by the disaster outfit shown on the left of the page.

Vintage Carnival Party: Draw From Memory Game

This drawing game was inspired by items that can be found at a vintage carnival, I included candy floss, rollercoaster, ice-cream etc. The aim is to memorise one card at a time and when the card has been hidden draw from memory.

This is great for artists and people who are good at drawing from memory. It’s fun for anyone though and I’ve found a mixed ability adds interest to the game.

Vintage Carnival Party: Music Video Clip Quiz (Carnival of Rust)

I found this music video on YouTube and thought it would be really cool to include it in some sort of game. I’ve include the video in this blog post; I thought you guys would be interested to see it.

I only recently came across this song/video but maybe others have heard of it before. The concept for the music video is very interesting. I love watching it and the song is quite catchy too. The game rules are simply that you must fill in the gaps from an edited copy of the lyrics written down.

The feedback I was given from my friends was that the game was a cool idea and the song was good too. Also my friend mentioned the boy band The Wanted did a song at a vintage carnival which is a little better known and that could have been used instead.

Using a well known song for this game might have worked better but I played the video and people got a chance to listen to the song for the first time. It has inspired me to do similar games in the future, for example using well known songs/videos with lyric fill in sheets.

Vintage Carnival Party: Apocalypse Of The Killer Clowns Game

The basis of this game is to memorise the clown’s faces to their names.  First people are given the chance to memorise the name against the face and afterwards the names are taken away.

This game is a unique and includes humorous clown images found on Google. Combining a classic memory test with fun images makes a really entertaining game.

Vintage Carnival Party: The Mime Game

There were a few games we did not get a chance to play and this was one of them. The inspiration came from mime. I designed a pack of cards with various actions labelled on the reverse.

The idea is to pick a card up and act out an activity. I tried on the most part to make the actions relate to a carnival, for example bumper cars, rollercoaster, making balloon animals etc.

I believe this game would work well with drama groups and children. I hope to use this particular game at a youth group I volunteer at.

Vintage Carnival Party: Photo Booth Game

The rules behind this game were a little more complex compared to other games I had made. Luckily my guests got the hang of what to do quite quickly.

Take turns to put a card from the pile, hide it from the others. The card will have a face on it, you must imitate the expression. Other people in the group must watch the expression and match it up to the main board. The quickest to guess which celebrity face they are imitating wins a point.

Vintage Carnival Party: Ice-cream Combos Game

I wasn’t sure if this game was going to be a hit, there isn’t really a exact aim to this game but my guests seemed to be really engaged with the idea.

The idea is to pick a card from each pile to pick ice-cream flavours, topping, sweet topping etc. It was fun to see the different combinations.

I played this game again with the youth group and it was highly entertaining. This game is great for all ages and is simple to play.

Vintage Carnival Party: High Fashion Face painting Game

This is a drawing game based on costume and makeup. Unfortunately we did not have time to play this game but this is a great game for those artists and creative people out there.

I designed similar games for a beauty party I organised, including nail art and tattoo art. For this game, the idea is to draw a face paint design in the style of vintage carnival. It incorporates high fashion and is popular with girls who are girly and like fashion/beauty.

Vintage Carnival Party: Carnival Couture Game

This inspiration for this game from a range of fashion images I found on Pinterest. These images were based on vintage carnival/circus/burlesque etc and thought they fitted well into my party theme.

I create a mood board with these images and guests have to answer questions and put a counter next to an appropriate image. This was a great conversation starter and people laughed at some peoples answers.

The game did not last very long, but was a fun one to play. This game would work well with other themes and if you were to make a similar game, you could make up your own personalised questions.

Vintage Carnival Party: Battle Of The boys Game

As a tradition I’ve included this game each year at my party for a couple of years now. The idea of the game is to tick a male celebrity from each row either a,b or c. Add up whether you have mostly got a,b or c and find a fact about the guys you go for.

I enjoyed picking the male celebrities for the game and finding nice images of them for the game. I try to add guys which are relevant to this year but also add a few celebs that have been around for a bit longer.

With the theme being Vintage Carnival this year, I decided to make the game to be about picking a date for the carnival. The answers at the end relate to the kind of activities you might get up to on the carnival date.

Vintage Carnival Party: High Striker Game

High Striker is a popular test your strength game found at vintage carnivals. The idea is you hit a point with a hammer, the counter goes up to the top and if you have hit it hard enough a bell will ring.

Using the popular game as inspiration, I decided to create a paper game using humorous questions relating to your strength. Points are given if you are strong, and points are taken off if you aren’t. After completing all the questions, add up the points at the end. Compare results with others and find out who is the strongest.

Vintage Carnival Party: Pick and Mix Game

My guests were really receptive to this game, even though the idea of the game was quite simple. On one side of the poster there was a selection of pick and mix sweets, guests pick their top favourite 5 and after they have done this, the poster is turned over to see a related word.

The 5 words are supposed to reflect their personality. I picked words which I thought would relate to appropriate sweets, for example banana sweets the word was bananas, marshmallows were soft etc.

This game could work for children, late teens and even young adults who like eating candy. To create this game, I Googled pick and mix sweets and luckily there was a selection to choose from. Having an image for each enhanced the game too.