Moana – kerricreates

This spring, my daughter had the opportunity to participate in the musical Moana Jr. at her school. This meant that I had the privilege of creating some fun “front of house” decor, along with a group of incredibly talented parents and volunteers. One of my favorite items we made was a huge 8 ft x 4 ft floral and glitter MOANA sign that hung above the entrance to the school and made for a very eye-catching advertisement for the show.

I purchased the board at Lowe’s and painted it white. Then I used my Mooka mini projector to trace the letters. I used the free font “MOANAS” and stretched it to make the letters longer so that they fit the length and width of the board. The Mooka mini projector makes projects like this so easy! Within a few minutes, I had the letters traced out in pencil and ready to go.

For the flowers and Heart of Te Fiti we used clear Elmers glue, hot glue, 2 shades of green glitter, and fake flowers that we pulled off of Hawaiian leis in a variety of colors. We separated the flowers into piles by color and mixed the two shades of green glitter together. The Elmers glue was used as a base for the green glittery Heart of Te Fiti and the hot glue was used for the flowers. It took 3 of us several hours to glue all of the flowers in place and then we let the glitter dry overnight. Once the swirl was dry, I brushed a thin coat of Mod Podge over the top to seal the glitter so that it wouldn’t get on everything once it was hung up. #commissionsearned

After the sign was completely dry, my friend’s husband added some hooks to the back so that we could hang it over the entrance to the school. It stayed up for over 3 weeks and even withstood several rainy days, and it still looked just as amazing by the last weekend of the show as it did when we first created it.

If you are hosting a MOANA party, you could make a similar sign on a smaller board or you can even use this concept for a tropical-themed party. And if you are looking for birthday party ideas, check out my Moana Birthday Party post for decorations, cupcakes, marshmallow pops, and more.

We celebrated my daughter’s 7th birthday the first week of June with a Moana Themed Birthday Party. My girl fell in love with Moana after watching the movie in the theater and she’s been belting out “How Far I’ll Go” at the top of her lungs ever since. Her Grandma and Papa surprised her with the soundtrack for her birthday, which made the party even more special to have her favorite Moana songs playing in the background while she swam and played with all of her sweet friends.

I had so much fun planning this party and I’m happy to say that everything turned out just as I imagined it would. I started making decorations several weeks in advance because May and June are always crazy busy with all of the end of school activities, dance recitals, and two kids with birthdays just a couple of weeks apart.

I used my Cricut Expression 2 to make the black and white tribal sewn paper garlands and the HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARIS pennant banner. I also used it to cut some of the pieces for the Kakamora faces. These were all made out of card stock that I purchased from Joann Fabrics. I also found the tribal print material at Joann’s that I used to cover the contents of our two bookshelves.

The Dollar Tree is a great place for inexpensive tropical decorations this time of year and it did not disappoint. This is where I purchased the tissue paper for the giant tropical flowers, the leis, the grass skirts that I used to surround the table, the plastic beach backdrop, plates and napkins, and the Moana and Maui “magic towels” that we gave to the children as party favors. You can also find a lot of beachy party decorations on Amazon.

My favorite part of the whole party, was the Moana Boat and Sail Photo Backdrop (tutorial link below). All the kids were greeted by my daughter and given a lei to wear and the first thing they saw when they walked in was a huge beach scene with a cardboard Moana boat and sail to play in. I even made an oar out of a dowel, cardboard, and twine. We got some super cute pictures of the kids in Moana’s boat. #CommissionsEarned

If you are planning a Moana party of your own, here are three fun tutorial for you as well as a ton of pictures from my daughter’s party. Enjoy!

Moana Marshmallow Pops Tutorial