Fun with modeling clay

Happy Friday everyone!

From unicorn, polka dot cat, yellow dog, guinea pig #1 and guinea pig #2, lizard and the king cobra snake. :)

*Z did his own, Kalla had a little help with hers. ;)

A Summer Brights Bridal Shower

I was asked to host a bridal shower (which ended up being a coed 'Jack n Jill' shower) at my church. So I gathered some friends to help and here is what we did.

The inspiration...this Mike & Ike's candy. I started here and built my decor and menu around it. I found these 2 vases at Walmart and use it for the food table centerpiece.

The decorations: I went totally disposable. I used those thick paper white table cloths, then I used a roll of lime green wrapping paper down the center for both the food table and gift table. We used nice clear plastic square plates and red and yellow cocktail napkins. And I made a paper circle garland for the tables with my 1" hole punch, scrapping papers and my sewing machine. I also made this Mexican paper craft from Martha's website with tissue paper in matching colors for other decoration not pictured.

For the beverage we served sweet tea with orange slices. For the food we had nuts and fruit...

these incredible mini cheesecakes with apricot jam (I only got one half so I've got to make them very soon for me!), mini cherry tarts...

and these very cool cucumber tea sandwiches.

And I made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting and candy fruit slices on top.

Thanks to all the ladies who put up with my control freakishness and helping make the food! :)

And on a crafty note, here is the gift I made.

You know the whole no-wrapping-rule....I did get something off their registry, put it in a basket with some candle votives and a homemade somthin' somthin'.

His and Her towel instructions here. Used these bubble letters for template.

A Birthday Bouquet

I made another tin can vase for a friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago. I really like these as gifts because what girls doesn't like flowers and it's so nice to have a fun container to use when the flowers die.

This time I added a cute Happy Birthday sign on a wooden dowel using scrapbook papers and stickers from Target.

The coordinating papers I got from a little scrapbook kit from Target. I mod podged it all on. :)

Kids Crafts: Lizard Climber

I used to have one of those wooden bears on a string that would climb the wall if you pulled on the strings...do you remember those? Anyway, we have this fabulous book The Usborne Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do. Z loves it and find projects he wants to do from it. This was one of the first ones...since it involves one of his fav animals, lizards! It was super simple to make and he just made another for his little sister (Maressa) today. You don't have to make a lizard but it also shows a cute ladybug and cute spider example.

To make it we used a piece of poster board for the lizard. Z copied how the lizard was drawn in the book. Then used stickers to make spots.
Once you have your critter like you want, you turn it over. Cut two 1 inch pieces of straw and tape them on. You also need to tape a penny toward bottom of the critter so it will have some weight to it. We used yarn, but any string will do. Cut your string about 3 feet long. After you pull your string through the straws, tie a bead to the ends. This is so when the lizard is not in use it won't fall right off the string, so make sure your beads won't fit through the straws.

Now hang on a door knob and pull the strings one at a time to see your lizard climb! :)

Thank you.....target dollar spot!

A week before Kalla's party, I found these stamps in the dollar spot at Target. I thought they would be perfect for K to do her thank yous. So we got out some blank cards and a pink stamping pad and mommy's 'rainbow' one and went to work. She was able to make all the cards and I just wrote in the details of the note. Making thank yous become less of a chore when you add crafting/stamping to it. :)

Make an easy quick gingerbread cottage

This is my take on a summer non-Christmasy type gingerbread house. We did this also at Kalla's party. I got the inspiration from this by Martha's no bake cookie cottages. I figured they would make adorable fairytale type cottages.

Supplies needed are graham crackers, icing and decorations. I found these cool chocolate 'rocks' and the colorful fruit wedges at Walmart. The pretty candy flowers I got from Bake It Pretty.
For the icings, you want a royal icing that will harden for building the cottage (I found this bottle of cookie icing at Walmart on clearance). The cake decorating icings can be used for decorating.
We also used a bunch of miscellaneous bulk candy and sprinkles to decorate. I made the 'grass' by taking a bag of shredded coconut and adding green food coloring and toss with a fork til thoroughly colored.

Here is how I built the cottage:
To make one cottage, you need total 4 rectangle graham crackers. Break 2 in half to make 4 squares. Carefully cut the top half of 2 crackers to make the sides of the roof (I used a serrated knife) and one skinny piece for the very top (I used my broken piece pile to cut my skinny pieces from).
To put together I found it easiest to lay the squares for the sides down and put a line of icing along the top edges and then press the edges of the tall sides onto them. Once you've secured the bottom, repeat that idea for the squares for the roof and place them gently on the sloped edges. I always had a gap at the very top so I used the skinny piece to place on top. Once the whole thing is secure, begin to decorate. It is easiest to put the frosting on the piece you want to place on your cottage.
Then play the candy with the icing 'glue' on them to the cottage where ever you please.

We built them on sturdy paper plates to let dry and take home. Other fun ideas to add would be the gumdrop mushrooms shown in this article.

A few last tips:
If you are doing this for a group project of party like I did, you might want to consider putting the cottage together ahead of time and letting the kids do the decorating (I didn't do this as I ran out of time, but would of gone smoother/quicker on party day). Also it took me several boxes to get enough for 12 cottages as many of the pieces were already broken when I opened it and they are easy to break when trying to cut as well. Be prepared for lots of scraps (I saved mine for afternoon snack times).

Kids Crafts: Lollipop Magnets

One of the crafts we did at Kalla's Six is Sweet party is a lollipop magnet. Here is the one Kalla made at her party.

These are the supplies we used to make them:

*large wooden craft stick
*magnet strips

*circle chipboard coasters

*letter stickers

and this awesome scented paint~found at Walmart.

I also had glitter and glue available and many girls made theirs glittery too.

Before the party I glued the craft stick to the back of the coaster. Then the girls used the stickers to put their name on the stick and freely painted the coaster. The magnet strip was placed on the back of the craft stick. And you're done!

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Girl

a day late! :)

Yesterday was

PRESENTS

One of her favs a requested pink webkinz jr puppy (she has a bunch of regular webkinz, but loved the jr site when her little brother got one.)

PARK

Chasing the ducks (and feeding them too!)

POOL

The Six is Sweet Party: Sweet Success

We had K's Six is Sweet party this past Saturday morning. It was by far one of the best girly girl parties I've had. I've got a good many pics, but not as many as I'd liked as it was a little crazy with 9 giddy girls and a few siblings (and a couple of grumpy, this-is-icky-girl-stuff boys I know of...I had to remind Z of his 'cool-all-boy-football' party in 2 months ;) Anyway I will briefly tell you what we did and I'll do some how to's on our party crafts tomorrow or Wed (tomorrow is actually K's bday and we have a full day planned....going to Krispie Kreme for doughnuts and then to the park downtown to feed the ducks, then to the pool that afternoon/evening).

**You can find the links to my inspiration/party decor ideas and party favors and our invitation in this post. **

DECORATIONS:
I purchased a cheap polka dot sheet set from Walmart and a hot pink one on clearance at Target for the table cloths. On the food table I put the hot pink flat sheet and layered the polka dot fitted sheet over it. The gift table was the pink fitted sheet and the dining table the flat polka dot sheet. Also on the gift table was a small basket of candy necklaces handed out to each guest upon arrival.
I had the idea to cover the birthday girl's chair with the pillow case and I made her the sign (which btw she now wants to hang in her room :).
The giant candy is simply round paper lanterns wrapped in cellophane and hung with fishing line. They were $2 each at Hobby Lobby seasonal section.

This candy garland was my own idea. I took white sturdy paper plates and wrapped them in bright colored tissue and twisted and tied on each side and then strung together.


PARTY SHIRT:
I found this super cute candy/sweet printed Japanese fabric on etsy and bought a fat quarter and appliqued a six on a tee and it just happened to match her very fav skirt. Now I've got to get it all washed because I was informed this morning she NEEDS to wear it for her actual birthday tomorrow. :)

Cupcakes per request. Chocolate with pink icing please mommy. I wanted to stick lollipops in them, but they were too tall for my cupcake tower.

ACTIVITIES/CRAFTS:
We did 2 crafts. We made lollipop magnets that were painted with yummy smelly paint and glitter of course!

We also did gingerbread houses.

Some were heavily helped by the mommies.

Some didn't get finished and some went ~splat~. All had fun. :)

I will post a how to on the lollipop magnets and houses this week. I strongly suggest making a cottage style gingerbread house this summer if you are like me and don't have time to make them during the holidays. Kalla actually got too excited to play with her friends and just made the lollipop, so we will make a house ourselves before back to school. I'm thinking it will be a great when-the-cousins-visit activity and I have plenty of leftovers!!!

FOOD:

Didn't get good pics of the food table. We had yummy raspberry lemonade (Simply Lemonade brand) that was a huge hit. With colorful straws of course! And we had K's request pizza, cheese cubes, lots of fresh fruit and carrots/celery with dip. I made chicken salad croissants for the mommies.

To accompany the cupcakes we had K's fav ice cream, mint choc chip. And a friend told me about this INGENIOUS tip she read in a magazine...line a cupcake pan with paper liners and put scoops of ice cream then stick in the freezer. Pull out to serve. Now you've got easy single serving ice cream!! It was brilliant!

PARTY FAVORS: We did a mini candy buffet. I used large canning jars to hold the candy.

I took clear plastic cups and punched a hole on the sides with a hole punch and put a ribbon handle on it. Then the girls got to fill them up when it was time to go. Also gave them the bare books and erasers.

All this made.... One happy Six year old! :)