Fantastic Mr. Fox party printables and tutorials

I had a lot of fun putting together a cuss-tastic Fantastic Mr. Fox birthday party for Lars–see my first post about it for a rundown of what we did and what inspired it all (also, check out the guide to playing whackbat). Whether you want to throw your own shindig or just want to print out a few fun Fantastic Mr. Fox movie quotes to hang in the office (you’re welcome, Dad), here is a handy compilation of printables and tutorials for these projects: (1) movie quote posters, (2) fox crowns, (3) food labels, (4) party invitation,and (5) paper-pieced fox for a game of Pin the Tail on the Fox. Projects 1, 2, and 3 are super easy, project 4 requires a bit of Photoshop skills, and 5 requires a lot of paper-cutting and some patience. Just put on your bandit hat (or modified tube sock), and you can tackle anything.

(Note: All of the files linked to in this post are via Google Drive. Once you click through the link, just click File > Download. You can download the files for all the projects together here.)

1. Fantastic Mr. Fox movie quote posters

Because who can’t resist quoting this movie?

Supplies

• Cream cardstock
• Poster file (download via link below)

DOWNLOAD: Fantastic Mr. Fox movie quote posters (PDF)

Steps

1. Open the file in Adobe Reader and print them on cardstock.

2. Cut each page in half vertically.

2. Fantastic Mr. Fox crowns

I saw the idea for fox crowns on Pinterest, but the link was broken, so I had to improvise. I made my own pattern and used it to make the crowns out of cardstock.

Supplies

• Orange (or red or brown or purple or whatever color your fox wants to be) cardstock (plan on two or three sheets for each crown you want to make)
• Cream cardstock (one sheet will yield inner ears for about four to six crowns)
• Scissors
• Tape
• Pattern file (download via link below)

DOWNLOAD: Fantastic Mr. Fox crown pattern (PDF)

Steps

1. Using the first page of the pattern, trace and cut out the outer ears on the orange cardstock and the inner ears on the cream cardstock.

2. Using the second page of the pattern, trace the zigzag lines on the orange cardstock. Tape together two strips for each crown (so, you’ll get two crown bands out of one 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper).

Small children are guaranteed to remove their crown immediately.

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox food labels

I generally think food labels are superfluous. But I couldn’t resist pointing out how my menu choices related to the book/film. What can I say, I’m not perfect.

Supplies

• White or cream cardstock
• Scissors or paper trimmer
• Food labels file (download via link below)

DOWNLOAD: Food labels (PDF)

Steps

1. Open the PDF and print it out.

2. Trim around the lines and fold the labels in half.

4. Fantastic Mr. Fox invitation

The invite is inspired by the color palette, typeface (Futura), and plaid rug on the movie cover.

Supplies

• Photoshop CS4 or above
• White or cream cardstock (or you can order 4″ x 6″ prints online)
• Invite template file (download via link below)

DOWNLOAD: Fantastic Mr. Fox party invitation template (PSD)

Steps

1. Download the PSD file and open it in Photoshop. It will look like this:

2. You’ll be filling the left side of the invite with a picture. Choose the photo you want to use and open the file in Photoshop. If you don’t want to erase the background (and simply have the photo as a rectangle on the side of the invite), copy the entire image (CTRL+A). If you want to erase the background for a cleaner, cut-out image, use the polygonal lasso to create a selection along the outline of the face, then copy the selection.

3. Paste the selection into the Invite file. Size your copied image (using a tool like Free Transform or Scale) to fill the empty space on the left.

4. Make the text layers invisible (in the Layers window, click on the eye icon for each layer). (This is to make sure the action doesn’t affect the text.)

5. Run the Pioneer Woman Soft & Faded action (download the action set for free here; if you’re new to using actions, this is a brief tutorial on how to install and use them).

6. Make the text layers visible again (in the Layers window, click on the box where the eye icon used to be for each layer).

7. Edit the text to customize with your name and other info.

8. You’re done! Now you can convert the file to a JPEG or PDF to print–they’ll fit any A2 envelope.

5. Paper-pieced Pin the Tail on the Fox

I was initially inspired by something I saw on Pinterest but decided to style my own Pin the Tail on the Fox inspired by other illustrations on Pinterest and in particular this paper-pieced art.

Supplies

• A couple yards of kraft paper
• Gluestick
• Cardstock: several sheets of orange, brown, cream, and yellow, green, yellow patterned, and brown patterned (I used the Recollections Spice Market Cardstock Paper 50-sheet pack and the Recollections Mosaic Memories Paper Pad)
• Fox pattern file (download via link below)
• Banner text template file (download via link below)
• Banner tail pattern file (download via link below)
• Brown marker (optional)
• White and brown ink (optional)

DOWNLOAD: Paper fox template (PDF)

DOWNLOAD: Banner text template (PSD)

DOWNLOAD: Banner tail template (PDF)

Steps

1. Print out the pattern and cut out all the shapes from the first four pages of the pattern.

2. Cut out the shapes using the following colors (or something similar, whatever you think works):

Orange:

• head
• right ear, back
• left ear, back
• cheek fur
• right foot
• fingers
• lower hand
• upper hand
• left foot
• tail

Tan

• right ear, front
• left ear, front

Cream

• bridge of nose
• left eye
• right eye
• neck
• tip of tail

Dark Brown

• nose
• pupils
• eyebrows
• smile
• left whiskers
• right whiskers

Olive green

• left iris
• right iris

Yellow

• wheat
• wheat for pocket

Yellow patterned

• shirt collar

Brown patterned

• left jacket collar
• right jacket collar
• jacket body
• top pocket
• bottom pocket
• left pant leg
• right pant leg
• left arm
• right arm

3. Optional: Lightly ink the edges of the dark-colored pieces with white ink and the light-colored pieces with brown ink.

4. Now comes the tricky part: Assemble the pieces and glue them in place.

Rather than dictate a certain order to assemble the pieces, here’s what I suggest: Cut out the outline of the fox from the last three pages of the pattern. Then start inward with some of the smaller pieces (like the eye) and cut that out of the outline. Then, align a larger piece (like the head) underneath the outline and use the hole you just cut out to determine the placement of that piece. Like so:

5. Optional: Draw a simple tree on the kraft paper with the brown marker.

6. Glue the completed fox onto the kraft paper.

7. Optional: For the banner, open the banner text template PSD. Insert the birthday boy or girl’s name. Print out across two sheets of paper, and cut out following the arch shape of the text. Then open the banner tail pattern PDF. Print it out and use it to trace and cut out the tails for each end of the banner. You can use the brown ink to lightly ink the edges of the banner to create a shadow effect. Then place and glue the tails underneath the main part of the banner, then glue it all onto the kraft paper above the fox.

8. Create as many extra tails as you need to play Pin the Tail on the Fox. Have some double-sided tape on hand to put on each tail, then see which player can get the tail closest to the right spot!

I’m still new to this whole tutorial-writing thing, so please feel free to comment if you have any questions. Also, feel free to comment with your favorite FMF quote. 🙂

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