Like many children, my son loves playing Fortnite. I don’t know if it’s the fun skins, being able to shoot stuff, or just playing a game with other people, but it’s always on top of his monthly Switch summary for most-played games. But I don’t know much about it, and there is hardly ANY pre-made Fortnite birthday party stuff. So I definitely did a lot of DIY work for this one!
This party was a bit more pared-back decorations-wise compared to my usuals. (See his Mario birthday party for an all-out event!) But the food, cake, and games are still iconic, and Hugo was very happy at the end of the day. From the lobby invitation I designed to include him as a skin to the chocolate-covered Peely bananas, I dove into as many details of Fortnite as I could. Find inspiration for your DIY decorations, a unique Loot Llama-colored marbled cake, and consumable party favors!
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Fortnite Lobby Invitations
I had previously designed a bunch of free Fortnite birthday party invitations and had Hugo choose from my existing templates. When he chose a lobby design, I decided to update it to the current season’s lobby background. I blurred it, though, to put the focus more on Hugo in the foreground. He also picked all of the skins that appeared next to him on the invite! Since he loves cats, he requested one be sitting right next to him.
While I am still old-fashioned and like to mail invitations to family I can’t hand them to in person, the cost of stamps has me wavering! But if you like the feel of a paper invitation too, I highly recommend ordering from Mpix. They’ve been my go-to for over a decade now.
Fully DIY Decorations
There are some pre-made Fortnite decorations floating around out there, but apparently Epic Games is very strict about letting this IP be turned into merch. So for this party, every single decoration was crafted with my Cricut and imagination.
Porch Greeting
As usual, I busted out my trusty easel chalkboard for an easy welcome sign to put on the front porch. One of the only things I really know about Fortnite is there are colorful Loot Llamas, so that’s what I featured on the front. Only players will understand that “Join Our Party” isn’t just a suitable phrase, it’s directly relevant to the terminology of the game!
I highly recommend using dustless chalk if you design your own chalkboard. It’s much easier to clean off afterward than liquid chalk.
On the reverse side, I included a pun related to players “dropping” into their battles. I decided to include a drop box as well.
Entering the Party
This setup greeted guests as they walked in the door. I have a huge empty wall space across from the door that I like to decorate for parties. The cabinet below always holds the party favors and a fun quote.
I used Adobe Illustrator to turn a Loot Llama image I found into an SVG, then cut everything out with my Cricut Maker 3. Despite its large size, a dozen or so loops of gift wrap tape are all it takes to hang a cardstock project like this on the wall without damaging it! (It’s now on the wall in my son’s bedroom.) The emote silhouettes came from a big Fortnite SVG pack on Etsy.
My guests have come to expect my letter board to be out, featuring some kind of quote or phrase related to the party theme. As a non-player, I relied on the information Google provided for this in-game quote: “Who needs aim when you’ve got luck?”
In the Kitchen
Between the food and the cake, my kitchen is the central hub of birthday parties. So it usually gets decorated the most. I kept it fairly simple this time, though, with an easy backdrop over the server and fun streamers. I couldn’t find any Fortnite-themed table covers that looked great, so I went with colors that are heavily featured in the game.
Loot Llamas are purple, teal, and blue for the most part. The “drop” boxes are also blue with yellow writing and golden-yellow balloons. The Fortnite logo is a black-and-white silhouette.
“Drop” Decor
I didn’t have it in me to convert my entire living space into a Fortnite battleground. So I went with subtlety this time and created a bunch of lightweight “drop boxes” to hang from the ceilings all over the house!
I used empty blue paper bags instead of boxes to keep them light enough to hang from the ceiling with tape. Balloon ribbon held yellow balloons to the four corners of each bag. I taped a short fishing line to the top of the balloon to make them look like they were actually floating!
DIY Personalized Fortnite Backdrop
I personalized the Fortnite logo by replacing the game title with “Hugo is 9!” in the Burbank Big Condensed font. I cut blue and purple streamers to surround it because I knew I’d have a hard time getting the cardstock to stick to the streamers. Then I surrounded the backdrop with a simple garland of balloon tape filled with yellow balloons.
Fortnite-Themed Foods and Drinks
This party featured slightly fewer food items than I normally feature, due to the amount of server space they took up. But our guests still had a good variety to choose from, with a mix of classic party food and healthier snacks.
We provided purple plastic plates (they are much sturdier than paper so you only need to use one) and Cuddle Team Leader Fortnite napkins.
Durr Burgers
We set up a burger bar for guests to dress their own burgers, including sliced cheese, ketchup, mayo, tomato slices, and bacon strips! But I did prepare a tray of ready-to-grab Durr Burgers to add to the theme. These featured eyeballs made from mozzarella pearls and bits of black olive attached with toothpicks! And, of course, a green olive right in the center, and bacon hanging out like a tongue, just like the Beef Boss Fortnite skin.
We bought two packs of angus beef slider patties from Sam’s Club (each has 18) as well as three 12-packs of Lewis’ Bake Shop slider buns. I cooked the bacon the day before the party, cutting the slices in half before baking in the oven. They stayed bagged in the fridge until just before the party, when I put them on a plate covered in a damp paper towel and microwaved for a minute or so to reheat.
Pizza Pit
Tomatohead is Beef Boss’s biggest rival in Fortnite, so I added a Pizza Pit next to Durr Burger! The younger kids gobbled this up during the party. I just cooked two party packs of Totino’s cheese pizzas, cut them into fourths, and kept them in a covered serving tray. The crust does get a bit soft/soggy over time, but I personally love a soft, chewy crust over crispy ones.
Bandages
These cans were easy to prepare well ahead of the party and looked so cute! I designed a paper wrap to perfectly fit the short 1.4-ounce Pringles cans I bought from Sam’s Club. After attaching the wraps with double-sided tape, I marked the centers of the crosses with codes so guests would know what flavor each can was.
- O = Original
- C = Cheddar
- SCO = Sour Cream & Onion
Impulse Grenades
Cheese balls would probably work better as grenades, but I wanted to have at least one completely healthy side on the party buffet! I washed the grapes ahead of the party and cut the bunches into smaller serving-size bunches so guests could easily grab several without fishing their hands into the bowl (or deal with grapes rolling off of a spoon).
Peelys
Let me just say how proud I am of this idea! They didn’t turn out perfect, but I couldn’t find a single other picture or post online of someone who’d tried this, so I was flying by the seat of my pants. Instead of regular chocolate-covered bananas, I wanted to use yellow candy melts so that they could actually look like Peely!
Making Them Ahead
First, I put popsicle sticks into banana halves and froze them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. (Make sure you get food-grade popsicle sticks – my Walmart did not have them!)
Then I melted yellow candy melts with Crisco for dipping, and it took a LOT more shortening than I expected to get it thin enough for dipping frozen bananas! It’s because the chocolate hardens very quickly against the ice-cold fruit, so if it’s too thick, you end up with a big blobby mess.
I did pour the melted chocolate into a tall coffee mug so it was easier to dip the whole banana at once, using a spoon to cover naked spots as needed. I quickly attached two mini chocolate chip “eyeballs” before the chocolate fully set, then let them finish hardening on parchment paper.
Important Tips!
I had to do the dipping in two batches because my bananas were thawing before I could get them all dipped! It took two whole bags of melting chocolates for 30 banana halves. Make sure you put parchment paper between layers of dipped bananas before freezing again so they don’t stick together. The good news is you can make frozen chocolate-covered bananas well ahead of time and keep them in an airtight container.
The morning of the party, I quickly transferred the chocolate-covered bananas from the container to a platter, still keeping parchment between layers, and put them on the server right before everyone ate. They shouldn’t be left at room temperature more than 10 minutes or so, or they’ll start melting and banana juice will seep out of the cracks. I put the tray back in the freezer after everyone made their plates.
Slurp Juice
In the game, slurp juice is more of a green-to-blue color. Although I mixed two large bottles of blue Gatorade into a gallon of green Hawaiian Punch, it still just looked… green, haha. I even tried carefully pouring it on top so the colors would stay partially separated, but they were determined to mix. Still, it was very delicious!
Chug Jugs
These little fruit-flavored drink barrels from Little Hug make perfect Chug Jugs, no extra labels needed! I hadn’t had one of these since I was a kid. In the game these are also that blue-green color. If you’re lucky, you might find six-packs of just blue or green ones at your local Dollar Tree. I never could, so I got a big variety pack of the original flavors from Walmart and just placed the blue and green ones front and center.
Homemade Fortnite Birthday Cake
Hugo saw a marbled cake style online he wanted me to do with the colors of a Loot Llama. I’d never made a marbled cake before, so I learned a lot this time. But I’m so proud of how it turned out!
The technique I used also required a Swiss meringue buttercream recipe, and I’d only ever made American buttercream, so that was new to me too. Fortunately, I learned how difficult it is to mess up Swiss meringue buttercream!
The Process
I started out with my meringue too warm and the butter made it soupy. Then I overcorrected and ended up with chunky frosting because it had gotten too cold. But with the help of a hairdryer pointed at my metal mixing bowl while it ran, I was able to get it to the perfectly smooth consistency it’s supposed to be!
For the marbling technique, I followed this YouTube video, and the process is just as magical in real life as it is when she demonstrates! It went from a purply-grey blob at first to a perfectly marbled surface.
Then I just piped black seashell borders using tip 21. I designed, cut, and assembled the personalized cake topper using my Cricut. It features plain black cardstock, shimmering white cardstock, and holographic cardstock, with two popsicle sticks taped to the back for insertion.
Navy and orchid-purple candy melts were used to cover some Oreos on chocolate to put on top, with two of them placed on top of treat sticks so they could hover above the topper after being inserted behind it.
My boy picked strawberry and lemon cake, so I made four layers with alternating flavors, and MAN was it delicious!
Fun Fortnite Party Games
Loot Llama Pinata
It was incredibly difficult to find an affordable Loot Llama pinata! And I think I bought one of the last ones from FactoryDirectParty, because they’re now out of stock. But you can still find a few Etsy sellers that make them!
The pinata was much smaller than I expected, particularly for the price, but it actually held quite a lot of candy since we were able to shake it up into the neck while filling. Since our kids are getting older now, it was actually suitable to have a smaller target for them to swing at.
On top of the usual candy bars, I also squeezed in a few chocolate coins that I’d turned into V-bucks with stickers on both sides. Since my son’s birthday is in April, they were actually Easter coins I found in the seasonal aisles at Target!
Battle Royale Nerf Game
Fortnite is pretty simple: it’s a shooting game. So how could a party game be anything but that?
I happened to have a massive single piece of thick, sturdy cardboard from when we’d bought a new TV the Christmas before, so I wrapped that with a black plastic table cover to make the game. I cut out the title and point values with my Cricut and carefully hot-glued them on, as well as cups and plates for the targets.
The game was very easy for the kids to understand. They each got 5 shots with a Nerf gun of their choice from our massive selection. (If you have just a few kids, you can give them more shots, but we had eight playing!) Hitting inside the cup earned them the point value listed, and hitting a purple plate got them half the points listed for that cup.
For the top three winners, they got to pick their prize in order from first to third place. They could choose from a:
- Loot Llama nightlight
- Boogie Bomb keychain
- or Fortnite hat
The rest of the players each got a couple of Fortnite sticker sheets. All of this was ordered from AliExpress.
Post-Party Nerf Battle
I often have three structured games per party. For this one, however, I knew all the kids would really want to do is shoot the Nerf guns. So after all the party festivities were over, instead of forcing them to do another traditional game, I told them to go in our (fenced-in) backyard and have a Nerf war!
My husband put out a few extremely large cardboard boxes for them to take cover behind. I also gave every child a pair of safety glasses from Home Depot to ensure no one lost an eye (or broke their glasses). Most of the dads ended up going outside to play, too!
Edible Party Favors
Over the years, I have come to prefer consumable party favors over junky toys. I think my guests have, too! Whether it’s literally edible food or something that can be used such as temporary tattoos, stickers, or instruments, they are leagues better than dumb little toys or plastic jewelry that will definitely end up in a dump in a couple of months.
V-Bucks Cookies
Each guest went home with an individual V-buck cookie. I cheated and bought pre-made sugar cookies from Walmart because I hate working with sugar cookie dough. But I did make my own buttercream (the American kind) to decorate them with! They were a decent size and fit well in individual snack-size zippered bags, and I printed and stapled a V-bucks tag to each one.
I also made these well ahead of time and froze them. The morning of the party, I took the container out of the freezer and let it get to room temperature before opening it and putting the cookies out. The great thing about this method is the store-bought sugar cookies got super-soft from thawing with the buttercream on them!
Boogie Bombs
In addition to individual cookies, each couple (plus every child) took home a “Boogie Bomb” – a cellophane bag of M&Ms! While I would’ve loved to give every individual their own bag, it already took nearly $40 worth of candy (in bulk from Sam’s Club!) to fill the 20 bags I was able to make.
Post-Party Thoughts
When Hugo first asked for a Fortnite party, I thought it would be easy to deck out the house. But when it came down to it… there just wasn’t a lot of material to work with! The game is just skins and guns, and how do you really translate that into party decor? So this ended up being one of my simpler parties, akin to his Paw Patrol birthday party or even my daughter’s cat-themed birthday party.
But they can’t all be as crazy as his first Pokemon birthday party, am I right?
Still, I hope you’ve found some of my Fortnite party ideas inspiring for planning your own!
