Gettin' Our Kicks on Route 66

I love summertime!  My family just got back from an amazing road trip vacation.  In our trek across part of the US, so drove along highway 40 and made some stops along Route 66.  These stops became the inspiration for this past Monday's monthly dinner. 

Invite: I used images I found online to place around the edges of the invite.  Then added my text.  The fonts I used were Antique Book Cover and Hominis.

Entry Decor:  I made a Diner sign designed around the signs we saw on Route 66 -- lots of arrows. I wanted to add lights along the arrow, but ran out of time.  I used a 99 cent store black plastic tablecloth along the steps and front walkway to create a road leading up to the door.  The yellow lines are card stock.

Table Decor: Roads, classic cars, and route 66-themed signs were musts for decorating my table.

For my centerpiece, I bought oil funnels from the dollar store in red and white (they were a 3-pack). I printed a large Route 66 sign and put it through the funnel opening.  The classic car boxes I purchased from Ruby's restaurant.  They charged me $1 a piece, but they are obviously free if you take your kids to eat there.

To make the road, I cut out card stock.  A very simple and inexpensive centerpiece that turned out great.

I wanted the place cards to be vintage stops you might find along Route 66, but personalized for each guest.  I started to design the signs on PhotoShop myself and stumbled upon a website (envatomarket) with digital images for vintage motel signs that you could purchase/edit.  This saved me SO much time and it was only $7.  I didn't want each one to be a motel, so I chose stops that used alliteration for each guest (it's the English teacher in me!).  I cut a dowel stick, painted it grey, and made a weighted block with spray-painted styrofoam and a washer.

I used the Route 66 sign image on the napkins as well.

I decorated a side table for the favors and beverage station.  Coco-Cola signs and products were at every stop on our Route 66 vacation, so I knew they needed a place in my dinner.  I bought the Coca-Cola glasses at the dollar store and the bottled sodas at Ralphs.  We used these for dessert after the meal.

I found this awesome metallic United States map at Michaels on sale for $7.  I used yellow electrical tape to make Route 66 and added the card stock sign to the top.  The license plate magnets I made as my favors.

 To make the magnets, I found license plate images online and cropped the letters from them to match my guest's names. I used PhotoShop to put the letters together in the size I needed.  Once printed, I used Mod Podge to glue each image to small pieces of thin wood I found at Michaels.  I painted both sides of the wood grey before gluing to have a cleaner look.  Then I added a magnet to the back.  While the PhotoShop part took time, creating the magnet was super easy.

I created a sign for my "fueling station" and displayed it again with funnels.  I used PhotoShop again to design wine labels to match my theme.  Get your SIPS on WINE 66 for my chardonnay and Hop in the CAB with a classic Route 66 truck for the Cabernet Sauvignon.

For wine charms, I found Route 66 poster images online and made them into charms.

Menu: I went with a standard Diner menu.  I started with ham/cheeseburgers and added a Route 66 topper.  I served the burgers plain, but had bacon, avocado, lettuce, and tomato for guests to add.

I made these french fry wrappers with PhotoShop.  It has a back too, but I didn't get a photo of that.  After designing it, I printed the images on card stock, folded them in half, and glued the two sides. I added a bit of parchment paper to the inside so the grease from the fries didn't ruin the wrapper.

For my fruit salad, I made vintage oil cans.  I created the images on PhotoShop and tried to make them look like the original cans that would be found on Route 66.  The cans themselves are just 8 oz. tomato sauce cans that I used for my family's meals, washed, and then saved.

We used the dollar store Coca-Cola glasses for coke floats for dessert.

Traveling along Route 66 on our vacation was a lot of fun, and it was neat to bring part of this retro fun to a monthly dinner. I think these idea would be fun for a 66th birthday theme, a fun car-themed event, or just for a fun dinner with friends like this one!