Frankie’s Pixar Up Inspired Gotcha Day Party
Are you a crazy dog mama who happens to love Disney Pixar Up as much as your dog? Well you’re in luck because today I am sharing the dog party of your dreams! If you haven’t seen Up recently, you might want to watch it again so you can catch all the movie references in this post!
Did you know 2019 was the 10th anniversary of Disney Pixar Up? I’ve been obsessed with Up since it’s release and LOVE the underlying message about finding a new adventure after loss. November 3, 2019 was also the 7th anniversary of adopting our Yorkie mix pup, Frankie. He brings so much joy to our lives so I thought, what better way to celebrate than combine my love for Up with Frankie’s gotcha day party?
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The Inspiration
I decided to browse invitations online and immediately fell in love with this adorable invitation by Design My Party Studio. With just a few adjustments I was able to customize the card to meet our needs. In fact, the whole party was inspired by this design and color palette! My husband and I invited our close friends, family and their pups to join a midday celebration at our house. Instead of gifts we kindly asked them to bring donations for Stonecliffe Animal Rescue, the same wonderful shelter we adopted both our dogs from. We also asked them to dress up in their favorite Disney costumes, but no one complied! So we strutted our stuff in our DIY Up costumes (we already had from Halloween) and made a character lunch out of it! We don’t often host parties in our home, so I decided to go all out and decorate our kitchen, living room and backyard with Up in mind.
If you’ve watched the movie Up a thousand times like me, you’ve probably memorized the mantel decor! I decided to style our mantel with items inspired by the movie. The focal point is a custom made Up house framed art piece. It is made up of 1001 paper cranes that were carefully folded by my family and family friends for our wedding! I added an Adventure Book (similar here), DIY Paradise Falls jar, kaleidoscope and hand painted ceramic bird similar to the items seen on Carl and Ellie’s mantel. I also added a framed photo of Frankie (instead of Ellie in the movie) and incorporated other items I had collected for our home and travel-themed wedding. The talking Dug plush was found on ebay and the four-legged cane was a $5 Facebook Marketplace find we added old tennis balls to. Frankie’s milestone chalkboard was a DIY project I stayed up almost all night perfecting! The design was made using liquid chalk markers and was inspired by the invitation. I love that we were able to share Frankie’s DNA test results this way!
Find out about your dog’s breed and health using the same test we used.
Living Room Decor
Table Decor
Finding the perfect tableware was no easy feat with my perfectionist tendencies. I ended up finding the cutest cloud plates, cups and napkins that perfectly complimented these balloon dessert plates.
For the centerpiece in the kitchen, I painted a wooden birdhouse to look like the Up house and attached balloons in our color palette. I even used artificial grass squares from Daiso to look like a lawn. For the guest tables outside, I kept the centerpieces similar with grass squares and matching balloons. I added grape soda stickers to clear soda bottles and filled them with felt ball balloons (felt balls on floral wire). To continue with the theme, I spray painted house-shaped light boxes turquoise blue and added a mini tennis ball to each setting.
I had a blast dreaming up the Up and dog inspired menu for this party! The food spread consisted of a hot dog bar, pawberry (strawberry) salad, Carl’s canes, Up houses, puppy chow, cookie Dug (dough) ice cream and cones of shame. I used the image from the invitation to design Frankie’s Famous hot dog menu. The menu encouraged guests to get creative with their hot dogs with fun recipes like “New Yorkie dog” (New York), “Terrier-yaki dog” (teriyaki) and “Weiner dog” (bunless). I wanted the condiment display to compliment the fun menu so I made paper dog collars for all the jars. I used silver glitter cardstock for the dog tags and labeled each condiment with it’s name.
Food and Drinks Display
Carl’s canes were homemade key lime cake pops I placed on silver paper straws cut in half. The pops were decorated with lime green candy melts and lime green sanding sugar to look like tennis balls. The Up houses were homemade Rice Krispies treats cut into house shapes. I added colored lollipops to look like balloons and surrounded them with white cotton candy to resemble clouds. My favorite DIY treat was Frankie’s giant tennis ball cake! I baked him a giant meatball made of ground chicken and once it cooled, piped on non-fat cream cheese colored with food coloring. I topped it with balloon cake toppers and a black licorice dog that looked just like him! Frankie was so happy to dig in!
The backdrop was made with cloud print paper and silver letter balloons spelling “PAWTY UP”. Can you think of a better phrase? 😉 The Spirit of Adventure blimp and banner was one time consuming DIY! Lucky for me my husband agreed to take on the blimp! He used this blimp template and gray spray paint for the body. Once it was dry, I hand lettered “Spirit of Adventure” on it’s side and made the “Adventure is out there!” banner using paper and a black marker. My husband helped me hang this up using his stash of fishing hooks and line.
Keeping with the theme, I decided to set up a beverage station inspired by the movie. I decorated a water dispenser to look like the Paradise Falls money jar. We also had the iconic grape soda and two flavors of 7UP! I even added Cricut cut paper balloons to silver paper straws for an extra festive touch!
No Freshly Fuji party is complete without a crafting station! Guests could make their own Wilderness Explorer flags and color Up-themed postcards. My favorite thing on the table was my hand painted “Frankie & Penny” mailbox inspired by the one in the movie. I even used my dogs’ paws to make stencils for the painted pawprints!
Craft Station
I’m a sucker for themed photo booths and this party was no exception. My husband cut out this Up house prop from a thin wood panel using a jig saw cutter. I carefully sketched out and painted it to match the colors of the Up house. The sky background was made using two rolls of turquoise bulletin board paper we attached to our fence. The clouds were made using white foam boards cut into cloud shapes. Polyester stuffing was attached to the cloud shapes with spray adhesive to achieve a fluffy texture. For the props, I DIY’d a few Wilderness Explorer accessories and found an aviator hat and goggles set (similar kids version linked here). It was so fun watching our party guests use different props and pose with the Up house we both worked so hard on.
Photo Booth
At the end of the party, guests left with fun Up inspired treats – Wilderness Explorer hats (filled with puppy chow), chocolate bars (Kevin’s favorite treat!) and tennis balls (for our furry friends). The hats were made using this favor box template. I added the Wilderness Explorer logo (designed and cut with my Cricut Explore Air) to each one. Aren’t they the cutest? Kevin’s chocolate bars were decorated with turquoise grosgrain ribbon and matching round stickers that said “Thanks for the adventure!”. The rainbow “Adventure is out there!” sign hanging above the favors was a fun DIY project I now have hanging in my craft room.
Party Favors
Adventure is out there!
Thanks for reading until the end! I hope you feel inspired to make your own Pixar Up dog party dreams come true! I can’t thank my husband enough for being on board with this project, making the blimp, and staying up almost all night to help make this party happen. We are so lucky to have Frankie in our lives and are so thankful to the guests who came to celebrate him. I did my best to link all of the sources within this post. Send me a message if you have a question and don’t forget, ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!!
Watch me style my Pixar Up inspired mantel!
Watch me paint the rainbow “Adventure is out there!” sign
Thank you Joie for capturing this very special pawty! Photography: Simple Joie Photography
Looking for more DIY party inspiration?
Check out the following:
A girly Terrible Twos Birthday Party for my friend’s daughter.
A sweet pink and yellow lemon baby shower for my friend Joie.