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For my son’s knight and dragon themed first birthday party, I wanted some fun food that fit the theme. Since archery goes hand in hand with medieval festivities, I thought it would be fun to make party fruit kabobs that look like arrows. And who doesn’t love eating fruit kabobs?
At first I had no idea how I was going to display them, but then came up with the idea of sticking them into a target board. Both the arrows and the target were a hit! And on top of that, they were both super simple to make.
How to Make Fruit Kabob Arrows and Target
Materials:
For Target:
- PE foam sheet
- Paint
- Cardboard
- Hot Glue
For Arrow Fruit Kabobs:
Creating the Target:
To display my arrow shaped party fruit kabobs, I made a target to stick them in. For the main body of the target I used a piece of PE foam I had laying around from a recent package. Instead, you can use something like these foam sheets or maybe even cardboard. It just needs to be soft enough for a wood skewer to pierce and hard enough that the skewer won’t rip right through.
To start, I made my piece of foam look like a target. I did this by painting a small yellow circle in the middle and red, blue, and white rings around it.
Then, I added supports to stand it up on. I cut two matching triangles out of cardboard and hot glued them onto the back of my foam. Then, I glued a rectangle on the bottom of the two triangles. This allowed my target to stand up at an angle on the counter. It allowed me to pierce the fruit kabobs further through the foam so they didn’t just fall right out.
That was all it took to make the target. Now onto the fruit kabob arrows!
Creating the Arrows:
Making the arrows was also super simple, but making them all did take a while since I made so many. Keep in mind that there will be food placed on the skewers, so make them in a clean place with clean hands.
To start, I cut out a fletching (the thing on the end of an arrow) shape from red and blue cardstock. To keep them looking consistent, I used this fletching pattern. Once all the papers were cut, I folded them in half and hot glued them onto a wooden skewer along the seam. Then, I cut slits along both sides of the paper to create a feather effect. Lastly, I ran my finger down the slits to give them a more ruffled look.
Creating the Party Fruit Kabobs (Putting it All Together):
I made both the target and the arrows in advance, but I filled the arrows the morning of my son’s party. My husband helped my almost 3 year old daughter put grapes, blackberries, and clementine slices on the skewers. They made sure there was plenty of room at the tip of each skewer to push them through the target later. I think my daughter ate more fruit than she skewered and we ended up with a few that were only clementine slices. They placed all the finished ones in a pan in the fridge.
Once the party started, I stuck all the fruit skewers into the target. They were heavy enough that I ended up putting a weight on the base of the target to keep it from tipping forwards. From a visual perspective, I think having less arrows at a time would have been good. But, it was really nice not having to worry about refilling it. I also wouldn’t recommend using clementine slices as they dried out and were a weird texture. Here are some other fruit ideas you can try.
Conclusion of Party Fruit Kabobs
My party fruit kabobs were a fun and easy way to add my son’s knight and dragon theme into the food. So many themed foods for parties tend to be sugary or snacky, so I loved that this was a good way to incorporate something healthy. They were one of the most commented on “decorations” at my son’s party. Make sure to check out some of the other food and decorations I made for his party, including a really neat castle cake. What kind of fruit would you put on your arrow skewers?
