True Blood – Vampire Love Affair

How to host a True Blood or vampired themed party

The up surge of vampire fans over the last few years has spurred new fun foods, gifts, party themes clothing and more. I am more than happy to admit that I am a vampire story fan. My fandom is not new though, more than 30 years ago I became hooked on the mystic and coolness of vampires with my introduction to the book Interview With a Vampire by Anne Rice. I’m a fan of the Twilight books, though not so much the movies. It was not until True Blood that I became inspired to create vampire themed party foods, favors, candy wrappers, t-shirts, mugs, popcorn wrappers and party buckets. Since my guest and I had great fun bringing in season three of True Blood complete with foods, drinks and party favors, I thought I’d share our menu and favor design ideas.

1) Create the mood for your party. I went with red light bulbs in the living room lamps, a black table cloth for the table, black plates and eating utensils. I found these great “You’ve Been Bitten” invitations on Pinterest, you can always design your own using your own themed pictures or words. Decide ahead of time if you want your guest to come in their own vampire themed creations or if you will pick a theme from a particular book or show.

2) Choose the food theme for your party, this will make it easier to create your menu or give your guest food ideas if you are doing a potluck. For my True Blood season three party I went with a Louisiana food theme, which was great as it made it easy for my guest to find potluck food ideas to bring.

3) Choose what style of beverages to tie in with your food theme. I chose to do all blood/vampire themed drinks. All the guest at my party were over 21 so we did drinks with alcohol, like vampire slushies, vampire glamour Jell-o shots and the non-alcoholic Tru Blood beverage.

4) Theme your table decorations to fit your party. There are so many places that have ready table ware complete with the right colors, crazy favors and centerpieces.

5) Be sure to give your guest themed gifts to take home and remember your party by. I created vampire themed candy wrappers, blood dripped martini glasses and bundled them with bottles of the Tru Blood drink.

Some suggested food ideas:
1) Vampire Kissed cupcakes
2) Cajun Shrimp
3) Fried Green Tomatoes
4) Cajun Spicy Meatballs
5) Vampire Glamour Jell-O shots
6) Vampire vodka Slushies

Guest take homes
1) Blood Shot Martini Glass Favors (each included the eye of a shape shifter, fangs, vampire tattoos and a mini bag of blood)
2) Bite Me Bar- Custom vampire themed candy wrappers done up just for my party
3) Tru Blood beverage – can be found on HBO.com

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Tina D. Fermin is the owner of Vampire Love Affair.com which is a TD Gift Solutions, LLC website. Tina is also a big fan of True Blood and other vampire themed books and movies. Be sure to visit her blog often for vampire themed party ideas, food ideas , T-shirts, cups, water bottles, aprons and more all themed with quirky or cool sayings related to vampires.

I love getting to be creative and its even more fun if its creativity that involves vampires!

True Blood and Eye Con have teamed up with a contest for non-alcoholic cocktails geared toward the November True Blood convention.

Here is my take on a non-alcoholic beverage just for those who are fang fans!

Frosted Fang

Easy to make fun drink for the 21 and under set this Halloween.

1 box of tropical flavored popsicles
1 bottle of Tru Blood drink for every 10 popsicles
12 fl oz of lemonade drink for every batch of the above

1) Combine all in a blender with ice to make the desired slushiness.
2) For the full effect serve with vampire fangs in blood rimmed glasses (see recipe below)

Blood Shot Martini Party Favors

Blood Shot Martini Party Favors

The “blood rim” is made from the same kind of mixture as you’d use to make hard candy. It’s actually pretty easy, but you will need a candy thermometer (which you can find at most grocery stores).

Ingredients:
1 to 1 1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Karo Syrup
1/2 c. Water

Supplies needed
1 sheet of wax paper or sheet of foil to cool your glasses on
1 Fl oz bottle of red Food Coloring
Enough plastic or glass martini glasses for each guest. (I got my at my local restaurant store but you should be able to get them at a party store as well)

Directions:
Combine sugar (to get the darker thicker look use at lease 1 1/4 cups of sugar), syrup and water. Cook without stirring to hard crack stage – which is about 300 degrees F. Add food coloring ( about 3 to 4 cap fulls, use cap from food coloring bottle).

Turn down the heat. While the mixture is still hot, dunk the top of the cocktail glass into the mixture to create the red rim. As you bring the glass up out of the mixture rotate it counter clock wise slowly to create the blood drop look as shown on the glasses I did. I was able to do a set of twelve glasses with the mixture on med-low heat. While doing the turning of the glass be very careful, the sugar mixture is very hot.

I would recommend doing these no more than the day before to avoid them getting bumped or knocked over. Allow them to cool on a sheet of wax paper or sheet of foil.

Add ribbon and other fun items to create just the right look for your party.

Party Like A Truebie
Tina D.
True Blood & vampire themed candy wrappers and party favors.

:: How To Host A True Blood or Vampire Themed Party

Tru Blood non-alcoholic cocktail contest

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