Buenos Tardis: Doctor Who Goes Mexican

Buenos Tardis, everyone…. That’s what you get when Doctor Who goes Mexican.   Talk about an odd pairing!  But it’s been a long school year, and somehow, I needed to combine the theme for this year’s Marching Band season (Doctor Who) with the mexican buffet that was being served at the end-of-the-school-year Band Banquet.  If I haven’t mentioned this before, I’m what you call a “band parent.”  That means, when my daughter is out marching on the field during half-time at her High School football games, I’m selling hotdogs and hamburgers in the concession stand.  And when the band is competing at various invitationals, I’m chaperoning and helping in any way possible.  This year, we “band parents” got to lug around a giant tardis…and I didn’t even know what a tardis was!  You have to be familiar with the British science fiction series, Doctor Who, to know that it’s a time machine in the form of a police telephone box.

Speaking of time travel, let me take you back a bit, and show you how this bizarre Doctor Who/Mexican party theme came together.  I had seen painted mason jars used as centerpieces on Pinterest, and decided I’d paint some myself.  They sell mason jars at the dollar store, but it was actually cheaper to buy them by the case at Walmart.  Plus, the jars at the dollar store are smaller.

I bought the most inexpensive can of blue spray paint I could find and gave each jar a couple of coats of paint.

Once dried, I used my trusty acrylic craft paints and went to town.

It just so happened, we had a mexican-style fiesta at my church a couple of weeks earlier, and I saved many of the paper flowers, so I was able to re-use them.  They’re made from tissue I bought at the dollar store.  Here’s a great tutorial on how to make them:  http://www.ehow.com/video_4790377_make-mexican-paper-flowers.html

I then painted a giant sombrero and mustache on some leftover pieces of insulation foam board I had from another project.  This is a great material to use for painting props because it’s lightweight, and can easily be cut with a blade once you’re done painting.  You can find them at the hardware store.

We used fishing line to hang the sombrero and mustache on the giant tardis, and just like that, we had our Buenos Tardis: Doctor Who Goes Mexican theme!

Just for fun, I thought I’d throw in some pictures from the fiesta, so you can see some other DIY projects.

The signs on the drinks are picture frames from the dollar store, painted with chalkboard paint and various colored spray paint.  They’re attached to the vitroleros (jars) with twine.  The sign in front is painted foam board from the dollar store.  And the banner you see on the wall is also hand-painted.

With back-to-back events, it’s nice to be able to re-use many of the same things.  Combining Doctor Who with a mexican fiesta was definitely a time saver.  And once again, it proves necessity is the mother of invention.