Avery's Daniel Tiger Party

Hi friends!  I hope that you are doing well!  We are pretty good.  I'm having a small flair up with my liver but hopefully it will pass soon.

Today, I'm sharing a few things from Avery's birthday party.  My kids LOVE picking themes that I can't just run to the store and buy.  Avery's birthday is a couple days after Christmas and I was just spent so I didn't do a ton of crafting.  I did want to share the few things I made with you.  Most of it came from the PBSkids website.   (I am no way affiliated with PBSkids, I just appreciate that they had a bunch of printables on their site for free.)

First I made this Trolley with print outs and directions from PBSkids.org.  I used a smaller sized diaper box (the box that holds about 100 diapers) and it was too small for the directions they gave.  I'd say a box that holds about 150 diapers would be better.  I also had to freehand cut the red roof part down because after I put it on my box that was too small, the roof looked way too big.  I used the blue Marvy circle punch for the wheels/light and I think I cut the gray paper at about 1.5 inches in width.  The directions on the site and a little vague.

Here's my little Avery Tiger.  I got the sweater from a local moms group when I posted about trying to find Daniel Tiger items locally.  The lady and her husband made this super sweet sweater for their daughter.  They found a sweater like the ones the kids wear on the show and sewed a Daniel Tiger patch on it.  It's so cute and I'm so lucky that wonderful lady saw my post!  I couldn't find tiger pants so these are actually $3 Walmart zebra print leggings that Dustin dyed orange with Rit dye.  I tried finding red shoes but they were all about $30 and I didn't want to spend that on shoes she might wear once.  The buns are supposed to be her tiger ears.  

I didn't get a picture before the party started since I was running around like a crazy person but at each of the place settings we had a couple coloring sheets (print them here) and I tied a few crayons together with Halloween Divine Twine.  I also put little bottles of bubbles which was a HUGE mistake because we were at an ice cream parlor and I wish I would have put Divine Twine on those too.

Here's Avery with her cake that was a nightmare to get.  It's from Bel Air but if you order one, be sure to call the night before or the morning of to confirm that they actually MADE your cake.  We got to the store and they had NO cake for us.  Finally, they said they would just make us a cake and give us our money back but it would take 10 minutes (which was AWFUL because we just swung by to pick it up on the way to the party.)  It's one of those images they print and put on the cake so I'm sure they have them at different stores.  

Here's the favor I made for the party.  I'm trying not to give so many little dollar store toys to kids for goody bags because well I dislike getting them.  I feel guilty throwing them away but they are usually cheap and break.  I've switched to only doing consumable favors (not just food but things like bubbles, crayons, etc... that can be used up.)  I was going to make cake balls but my friend Summer convinced me to do pretzel tiger tails which they do at Disneyland as Tigger tails.  (They actually have this as an idea of PBSkids too.)  I put them in a long bag and tied them with Halloween Divine Twine which looks great at a tiger themed party.  Dustin made the print out that I placed in the basket.

Have a grrrrrr-rific day, everyone!

Christmas Crafting for Kids

Hi friends!  I hope that you are well!  We are doing ok.  We are getting into the Christmas spirit which is good.  I've been baking all week.  How about you?  What do you bake for the holidays?  I made molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and I tried making saltine toffee but I overcooked it a bit so we are calling it "caramel brûlée bites" this year.  ;)

This last weekend, I had my cousin and some friends over for a Christmas crafting night for the kids. I poked around a bit on Pinterest and came up with a couple crafts that we tried out.  The first was a Christmas card made with washi tape.  I saw THIS PIN and decided to do it with washi tape instead so I didn't have to cut tons of strips of paper.  I pulled a bunch of red, green, and yellow washi and we used some brown washi for the tree trunk.  I used a Stampin' Up punch to punch the stars out of yellow sticker paper from DCWV.  That paper is AMAZING for working with kids!  You don't have to put out any messy glue!  It is textured card stock that's adhesive on the back and they just peel off the back like a sticker.

Next up, we did sugar cone Christmas trees.  In a stroke of genius, I gave each kid their own little cup of frosting and plastic butter knife.  Hooray for no mixing colors or sharing germs!  I also asked each kid what color frosting they wanted and added some food coloring if they wanted.  Avery ended up making a purple tree because she's currently obsessed with purple.  This photo is actually the tree that I made.  It looked like fun so I decided that I should make one too.  I'm quite pleased with it.

I think this craft night will become a tradition.  I asked each family that came to bring a craft and a finger food.  We also made beaded candy canes on pipe cleaners, pompom wreaths, and snowman soup.  It was a fun night!

Have a great day, friends!  

Our Halloween Table

Hi friends!  I hope you are well!  We are ok.  It's been a stressful few weeks but we will make it through.  I almost forgot to blog today for NaBloPoMo!  I was about to go get into bed and watch last night's episode of The Voice but I gotta blog!

Today, I'm sharing the Halloween table we set up at church for the Harvest Festival.  Instead of opening up our trunks for Trunk or Treat, we each decorate a table and have the event indoors.  We started this last year because it rained and I guess the church thought that it was a good idea.  I saw the jack-o-lantern totem pole thing on Pinterest and I just loved it!  You already saw the ribbon banner.  The rest of the stuff was things I already had at home.  Maybe next year I will try to win the best table prize but this wasn't the year people.  I went to Target the Wednesday before Halloween to look for some decorations and an employee said "Ma'am, you do realize Halloween is THIS Saturday, right?"  Yes, I procrastinate.  GEEZ Target, help a lady out!

Have a great day, friends!  And don't forget to shop of your holiday items more than 4 days prior to any events!  ;)  

Fun Toddler/Kid Snack and Raise Awareness

Hi friends!  I hope you are doing well!  We are pretty good over here.  The baby is teething but other than that, we are pretty healthy.

Today, I wanted to share these little Valentine's Day treats that I made for Avery to give to her friends.  These are so cute and very well received.  They are fairly simple other than the filling of the bags part.  I had the most success with filling one side, zipping it shut, then using my fingers to create a clamp on that bag in the center and filling the other side then closing it.  I used the snack sized baggies because I wanted them to look more like a dragonfly than a butterfly.  I used a regular sized clothespin and covered the bottom part with washi tape.  I drew on a face with Sharpie pen.  I added pipe cleaners as antennae.  I printed out these cute Valentines (but I think you could use them for handing out a snack at school or a sports event or even party favors.  You can download the Unravel Color Valentines HERE or the black and white ones HERE.  I did the black and white ones since I don't have a color printer.  Then I used some glitter glue to fill in the hearts and dragonfly wings.   I ended up slipping the paper into the top of the clip so I could just hand them out as one piece.

For different ideas on how you can help Unravel Pediatric Cancer, check out their Give Us 12 page.

Beginner Stamping Tips

Hi friends!  I hope you are doing well!  We are ok.  It's finally getting cold here.  And by cold I mean it's about 70 degrees as the high.  But it's cold in the mornings and at night.  

The other day, I helped my friend Madison make a card for a coworker.  While I tried to let her have her own creativity, I did give her a few tips here and there.  In the end, I think all I did was save her from making a few small mistakes that would have made her start over.  I've heard a lot from my "non-crafty" friends and my friends who do pocket scrapbooking or digi scrapping say that they don't know how to stamp, so I thought I'd give a couple BEGINNER tips.  I'm not an expert or anything.  I'm just thinking that if you knew how EASY stamping was you would incorporate it into any crafts that you might do.  

1. Buy a nicer ink pad.  I use Memento Tuxedo Black since I mostly stamp in black (i.e. sentiments and line images.)  The stamp pads from the $1 section might be ok but they will not give you the crispness that a nice stamp pad will.
2. Don't stamp sentiments on busy patterned paper.  The sentiment will not pop and it's just not good. If you want to emboss, that might make it pop but I don't emboss so best of luck to you.  ;)
3. If something seems too small for the scale of your project, just mat it.  Madison had that issue with her sentiment.  A simple mat will give you more area to work with.

I hope these simple tips will get you to pick up those stamps and add a little something extra to your projects.  It's so easy and so fun!  If you have a simple tip that you want to give a beginner, leave it in the comments down below.  If we get a few tips, I will write another post with tips from stampers as a reference.

Have a great day, friends!

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Minecraft Birthday Party (Photo Heavy)

Hi friends!  I hope that you are well.  I've been better.  Not going to lie.  Fingers crossed that I'll be a-okay for Halloween.

Today, I'm doing an extremely overdue blog post.  I'm posting about the boys's Minecraft Birthday Party that happened four months ago.  I don't know why but I always drag my feel on blogging about parties.  I think it's all the editing photos and figuring out what I want to say about the crafts.  Also, let's take a moment to mention that I know NOTHING about Minecraft.  I had to run these things by D and the boys to make sure they were in the game.  If I say something wrong about the game, I'm sorry.  Ok, here we go!

As per usual, Dustin made the invite.  Honestly, it was nicer when he made it but I went in and edited out our personal information and made it not as good.  But you get the idea.

Sorry for the blurry picture.  Actually, none of these are pictures I took.  I get really overwhelmed doing everything for a party that I forget to take pictures.  Brady wanted a portal into the party.  Apparently, Minecraft has portals.  Dustin printed out the sign in this font he found and then we used black and purple streamers to make it look like the portal.

Also for decoration, we had these spiders.  It's just a black balloon and I cut out red rectangles for the eyes.  Then D did the legs with streamer.

For food, we had all food that could be found in Minecraft or food that looks like things from Minecraft.  For example, we had pretzel sticks for sticks, we had gold wrap chocolate pieces from gold ingot, swedish fish for fish, etc...  D created signs for all the food including what you can use them for in Minecraft.  For example, you can use coal and sticks to make a torch.  I think.  I'm trying to read tiny signs in pictures.  

 For the party favors, I bought Green Paper Party Favor Bags and colored Creeper Faces on them.  The kids got to fill a bag with all the Minecraft "supplies" (aka candy) to take home.  Sorry parents but this idea was too good to pass up.

For drinks, we make a Brewing Stand which is a thing in the game.  Our friends had made a lemonade stamp for their daughter's birthday and we asked to use it.  We covered up the top with poster board and our sign.  We added balloons and streams.  On the left is "Creeper Aid" which is lemonade with green food coloring.  On the right, we have "potions" which were a bunch of those favorings you add to water bottles.  We had the drops and the single packet powder things.  There was a tub next to this with ice and water bottles.  This was a HUGE hit.  

My bestie Summer made the boys this cake for their birthday gift.  She spent DAYS cutting out the little fondant squares and making it all fit.  It looked AWESOME!  The kids loved this cake!

Since the cake only feeds 20, I made some cupcakes to look like the cake in the game.  I couldn't find red square sprinkles or candy so I used hearts.  No one seemed to mind.  

For games, I made a Pin the Tail on the Pig.  I just made this out of a poster board and some card stock.  You know you love your kids when you pull out your nice Bazzill cardstock for a pig game.  I put numbers on the tails and had the kids remember their numbers.  

We also had a craft station where you could make your own mask.  We cut 10x10 pieces of foam board and duct taped tongue depressors to them.  I cut out a BUNCH of different colored squares from construction paper and provided glue sticks.  D had to sit there and cut out the eye holes with a pocket knife during the party.  We also had a contest where a judge picked the best mask and they got a prize.  My step brother was in the other room doing homework and he randomly picked the smallest kid to get the prize, it was adorable.  

We also set up a Photo Booth for the kids.  We bought the Minecraft Creeper Head and the Steve Head.  I just used construction paper to make the tree and clouds for the background.  It was the world's easiest photo booth and the kids LOVED it!

 I spent HOURS making this sword because I didn't want to spend the money buying one.  It was an extremely frustrating project and I do not recommend it at all.  I cut all the squares, Dustin cut the foam then it wasn't thick enough so he had to cut another piece of foam and it was STILL not thick enough so he had to put cardboard in the middle.  Yeah, it probably took close to 13 hours to complete.  Do yourself a favor and BUY Minecraft Diamond Sword for the $12 instead.  Seriously.

 This is Brady and Dustin in their matching shirts.  Teehee!

It was a fun party and everyone had a great time.  I told the boys that this was the last year that I'm doing a huge DIY craft party for them.  Sigh... we'll see when next year rolls around.  Plus, I still have a little princess to plan a party for in December...

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