I made the cake. My mom always made my cakes when I was growing up, and as long as I am able, I'll make my kids' cakes (not that there's anything wrong with a "bought" cake--I actually enjoy cake decorating).
To make the background, I covered a cake board with blue scrapbook paper. I drew the hill and coins on cardstock with with a Sharpie (one of my favorite tools!), cut them out, and attached them to the background with pop dots (sticky foam that make the pieces stick out). For the blocks, I used cardstock to construct a box, drew on the bricks, attached the gold squares, and attached the box to the background. The Mario is a sticker that I stuck on cardstock and cut out. I taped toothpicks to the back and stuck him in there. I got the sticker from a Mario magazine that I lucked into finding at Wal-Mart the day before I made the cake!
Here's my "Mario" with his cake:
I used eyeliner to draw mustaches on all of the kids (except the girls...they were NOT in to facial hair).
I wanted to get a pinata, but our local party store didn't have Super Mario anything. Instead, I bought an Iron Man pinata (because it was already black around the sides) and I painted it to look like a chain chomp.
Here's me with the chain chomp pinata:
I also made the invitations for the party. I made a scene similar to the cake on cardstock sized to fit those long envelopes. I'll post a picture of those shortly...
