I’m so excited to share this “Capitol Inspired” Dessert Table with you today! It’s from our new Hunger Games Home Viewing Party theme, and was created as part of our current collaboration with Walmart to help celebrate The Hunger Games DVD release this weekend. You can download all the printables from this table for free below!

Have questions on how anything here was put together? Join us for a Hunger Games Twitter chat tomorrow (Thursday 8/16) at 4pm EST. Use hashtag #DistrictParty to join the conversation.

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Shimmery “Capitol Couture” cupcakes topped with theatrical, glitter lined eyes & lips
• Nightlock berry bites, rock candy & mosaic bites that lend an “edgy” look to the table
• Teal & gold Effie Trinket inspired cake, topped with an enormous flower of course!
• FREE Printable movie quotes, including Peeta’s infamous “frosting” remark
• DIY backdrop featuring diagonal stripes and spray-painted flowers

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Here’s the Capitol Sign FREE Printable! Download the rest of the printables below.

THE INSPIRATION

When I first sat down to figure out what direction to go with a Hunger Games inspired theme, I was honestly overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. There are so many different elements to the book (with such a drastic visual contrast between them) and so much opportunity for creativity. I definitely wanted to get the Arena and “Girl on Fire” elements in there, but couldn’t resist all the inspiration from The Capitol either: theatrical makeup, huge hats, Cinna’s gold eyeliner, President Snow’s roses….you get the picture!

SO, instead of trying to mesh everything into one design, the solution was to make The Capitol its own thing and bring those elements to life in a “Capitol Inspired” Dessert Table. The Capitol is used to being “separate” from the rest of the world anyways, right? ;) Here’s a breakdown of some of the highlights:

GOLD POLE “BOOK ENDS”

I didn’t want the table to be perfectly symetrical, but it needed something to help keep things feel balanced, so I added 2 “gold poles” on either end of the table, which were really 2 sides of an inexpensive curtain rod from Walmart that I picked up for $8! Each rod was inserted into a floral foam filled vase to secure it in place, then I tied a piece of sparkly fringed gold ribbon between the poles as extra embellishment.

CAPITOL COUTURE CUPCAKES

The artistic & theatrical makeup is one of my favorite things about the Capitol “style”, so I wanted to find a way to incorporate it somehow. The solution: dramatic eyelash and lip toppers for the cupcakes! These are printable details included in the free downloads, and we added sparkly gold “eyeliner” to the eyes (á la Cinna) and lip liner to the lips. The liner is simply craft glue + fine glitter. You can really use any flavor of cupcake you like, but it would be extra cool to do a CINNAmon cupcake with the gold-lined eyelashes!

The white plates that the cupcakes are served on are also “splattered” with a little bit of body shimmer powder. Another fun way to add makeup to the table!

EFFIE INSPIRED CAKE

Stevi from Hey there, Cupcake! did an amazing job bringing the Capitol/Effie Trinket inspired cake to life! From the gigantic (and gorgeous) flower to the futuristic and industrial vibe of the metallic gold patterns, she was spot-on as always!

GEOMETRIC FLOWER BACKDROP

The fabric on the backdrop is actually a shower curtain that I already owned – but you could use any gray fabric or event sheets to achieve the same base. The charcoal gray felt very “industrial” to me and really made the bright colors from the desserts and paper details pop. I added 3 stripes of silver ribbon to one corner to play up the futuristic/industrial vibe, then used safety pins and glue dots to add a random cluster of spray-painted flowers.

PRESIDENT SNOW’S BROWNIE BITES

These were super easy to put together: store-bought brownie bites that we frosted, dusted with powdered sugar (for the “snow”), and topped with white fondant roses! {You could also use Hostess Cupcakes 100 calorie bites for the base.}

OTHER DESSERTS:

• Nightlock Berry Bites (blackberry Jello jigglers tinted black)
• Mosaic Bites: stained glass Jello with red, yellow, blue, and purple (love the artsy/geometric look of these!)
• Rock Candy: perfect mix of color and “edginess”

SPRAY PAINTED FLOWERS

Effie always has a crazy-huge flower in her hair… so flowers played a big role in the look of this table! We spray painted a bunch of faux flowers metallic gold and blue. I used some old flowers I already owned (leftover from other events) and supplemented with lots of inexpensive faux flowers from Walmart… the great news is that it didn’t matter what the color was, so that opened my options as far as price and style a lot more.

In addition to the backdrop design, painted flowers were used to embellish the plates and vases throughout the table. There are even a few REAL carnations spray painted blue on the tray tray of President Snow’s Brownie Bites. ;)

FRAMED MOVIE QUOTES & PRINTABLES

To me, paper details are always what pulls a table (or entire party!) together… especially when it’s a theme like this where the personality of the characters is so important. I chose a couple quotes that worked with the “dessert” theme to feature, as well as 2 lines between Cinna and Katniss that represented the idea of the Capitol well in general… because everything really WAS all about making an “impression”. Those 3 quotes were displayed in framed (sprayed with the same metallic gold as the flowers), and the buffet labels, Capitol sign, and plate liners were created to match. You can download all of these items for free right here.