Felt Garland

For my sister’s baby shower I created 2 felt garlands to help spread the colors around the room. It was my first time to create these but it certainly won’t be my last.

Since turquoise and hot pink were the colors of the shower I used those but also added a bit of yellow and white to make it more interesting. All of the felt (except for the turquoise) was the hard felt that is not floppy.

I grabbed 3 spice jars from the pantry and traced their tops in order to create circles. I used 3 different size circles for this garland.

I then cut out my circles and sewed them together with my machine. Sewing them together was by far the easiest part of this project.

Here’s one of the garlands at the shower (my sister is preparing for major renovations so hence the paint samples everywhere).

I really loved these and think they would be so fun across a nursery, a play room, or even a classroom. I’ll definitely be making a few more for different occasions.

For the shower’s food flags, go here.

For additional photos of the shower, go here.

 

Food Flags

For my sister’s baby shower we decided on the colors of hot pink and turquoise. Our theme of the event was “What will the baby be?” or “?” since Amanda is choosing to wait to find out if she’s having a boy or a girl.

One of the items I made for the shower were food flags.

I didn’t actually get any pictures of them at the shower but I dressed up our breakfast to show you what they looked like.

I started with a piece of card stock which I printed various lines onto it.

Click here in order to download this form.

Next I cut the paper into strips of the same size.

I then took a paper strip and a tooth pick and glued them together by placing some hot glue onto the paper and folding the strip together.

Finally. I used my scissors to cut the strip into a triangular shape.

And voila – stripped food flags!

In addition to the striped flags, I also made solid colored flags using some of the material I used in other baby shower projects.

I’ve never used food flags before but definitely will in the future since I think they added just an extra detail to the food table.

(For my 1st post about this baby shower click here.)


Crafty Confessions

Chef In Training Tuesday To Do Party

I’m Back

I’ve been missing from here for the last several days since I was furiously preparing for my sister Amanda’s baby shower.

I was in charge of decorations so I’ll be sure to share that with you soon.

I left on Thursday night and flew back on the 7:20 am flight on Sunday. Early flights always seem like a good idea until the night before.

So I’m tired and plan on settling into bed early but I wanted to leave you with a few shots from the weekend.

and what did my baby prediction test say the little one will be?

though most people still believe it’s a little boy 🙂

Hope you are having a wonderful Monday 🙂

A Fart Cake

Two years ago my son had a bowling party so naturally I thought I would make a bowling cake.

Instead, I made a fart cake.

When asked what kind of cake he wanted me to make in true little boy humor he declared, “I want a fart cake.”

So I pondered. And pondered. And pondered.

And finally we came up with this… A Bowling Fart Cake…

Where’s the fart part you ask?

Take a close look at Alex’s rear end…

The green fart smell than inundates poor Andrew who is sitting at the back of the lane.

Earlier in the day we took pictures of the boys, shrunk them, and used them on the cake.

Add in a bowling bowl and chair made out of fondant, two signs printed out, and your fart cake is all done.

Trust me when I say this cake was a huge hit with eight year olds.

Oh, and the cake tasted great, I decided not to take the theme too far 🙂


HookingupwithHoH The 36th AVENUE button A Crafty Soiree

Angry Bird Cakes

My boys recently had a combined birthday party and they requested an Angry Birds Cake.

Actually they requested a cake with angry bird lacrosse players who were shooting goals on opponents. It’s nice that they think so highly of my cake decorating skills but I said no. Instead we compromised with… 3 Angry Bird cakes.

Thanks to my good friend Duncan Hines the cakes were made in a jiffy.

I used one of my favorite baking tools…since I always have good results with it.

For the frosting layer, I went simple again by using frosting from a can. Place a desired amount of frosting in a bowl, add coloring, stir, and spread with an icing spatula.

Love, love, love this coloring. I always buy it at the cake shop (which has a retail section).

After frosting cakes, I always place them in the fridge to let the icing set a bit. I also drop the temperature in the house by about ten degrees since warm frosting is impossible to work with. (I place the cake in the fridge after each different color frosting is applied.)

To get the oval shape for the white bird I cut pieces of cake and added them to the circle cake. Putting frosting between the different sections helps hold them together.

Now onto the fancy frosting with an unfancy tool.

I like to use a metal icing tip and place it inside a ziplock bag which has a small hole cut out of the side. Simply place the icing into the bag, twist the bag, and start frosting.

For the larger sections of color I simply place the icing all over and then smooth with the spatula.

For the bird feathers I cut shapes out of black card stock and pushed them into the sides of the cake.

And for my most important tip…if you have a “helper,” be sure to provide her with her own cake and frosting bag.

Here she is actually frosting blueberry muffins since her decorated cake had already disappeared into her tummy and I needed some more time.

The final products – Red Bird, Green Pig, and White Bird.

Easter Synopsis Part 2

Let’s see, where were we when we last left off…

7:24 am – Oldest Bunny decides to change attitude

7:27 am – Shoes are on and baskets are empty – let the games begin. First up, the front yard.

7:38 am – The backyard. Happiness overtakes sleepiness when candy bar is found.

7:39 am – “There’s even an egg up here!”

7:47 am – The examination begins.

This is the dumper. Each egg is opened and emptied into a pile.

The examiner. Each egg is opened. Looked at. And closed again. The candy will be removed at each eating session. This technique is quite frustrating to Momma Bunny when she’s searching for a quick treat in the pantry.

The Eater. Open an egg. Eat whatever’s inside – all of it – as fast as you can.

8:02 am – Yep, she’s still eating.

8:25 am – Momma Bunny jumps into the shower throwing Dad the kids outfits, yelling that they need to leave in 35 minutes if they are to get to the 9:15 service.

8:30 am8:55 am – Pleading, negotiating, threatening all take place.

9:14 am – Bunny family slides into pews two rows from the back.

9:17 am – Momma Bunny pulls out a pad of paper and a pen for Littlest Bunny to play with.

9:19 am – Momma Bunny is tracing Littlest Bunny’s hand for entertainment.

9:24 am – 30 pieces of paper later Littlest Bunny decides she needs a new distraction so Momma Bunny pulls out some magnets and paper clips.

9:26 am – The priest tells all of the children of the church to answer him this question, “Doesn’t the church look beautiful now with all of the flowers in it?”

Middle Bunny shouts out, “No!”

Momma Bunny quickly brings her hand to Middle Bunny’s mouth while Poppa Bunny gives him a stern look.

9:28 am – Oldest Bunny and Middle Bunny start arguing over who gets to hold the hymnal so Momma Bunny takes hers and gives it to the Middle Bunny. Momma Bunny and Poppa Bunny just stand now and move their mouths as if to show they have memorized every Easter song.

9:30 am – Littlest Bunny starts talking loudly. She is escorted to the front yard by Poppa Bunny for a prolonged botany lesson.

9:58 am – Church is over and Momma Bunny is ready to leave. Unfortunately, Littlest Bunny has been outside for the last 30 minutes watching the egg hunt being set up so there is no chance of that.

10:04 – Littlest Bunny mentally prepares for the challenge ahead.

10:05 – Middle Bunny and Oldest Bunny talk strategy with the Littlest Bunny for the hunt. There is talk of pushing and shoving if deemed necessary.

10:08 am – The hunt begins. Littlest Bunny is not keeping her eyes on the prize.  This frustrates Middle Bunny and Oldest Bunny who are doing their best to form a human wall discouraging other Bunnies from snatching eggs in the vicinity.

10:11 am – The victory walk.

10:14 am – Champions Easter egg hunters

10:30 am – Bunny family arrives home.

10:31 am – All designated Easter clothing has been stripped off and thrown to the ground by little bunnies.

10:32 am – Momma and Poppa Bunny tell the bunnies to go put some clothes on and stay upstairs. Momma and Poppa Bunny have designated this time as mandatory quiet time.

10:33 am – The Bunny children just laugh at their parents. They know their sugar high will last until right before dinnertime when all three will meltdown at the same time at the sight of their dinner.

Easter 2012 is deemed a success!

Spring Break is Over

Spring break is over today but we had a busy week doing a lot of kid chosen activities.

*First haircut

*Went to see the movie “Tin Tin”

* Trip to the zoo

*IKEA trip for lunch and closet supplies (OK, so not all trips were kid chosen)

* 3 days of half day soccer camp

*Having a friend over to play

*Dinner & Painting Class for Mom with her friends

* Watching 3 Netflix movies

* Eating green St. Patrick’s Day pancakes

* Making Rainbow cupcakes

* Lunch date for mom and dad (Believe me when I say the kids enjoyed this one too)

*Everyone in family to see “Big Miracle” movie (Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski movie about saving three whales – comes highly recommended from our family)

* Dinner at In & Out

Yes, it was a good break.

But if any one of my three wake up tomorrow morning sick and can’t go to school, I will not be pleased.

Mary Poppins Party Activities

In order to celebrate my daughter’s 3rd birthday – Mary Poppins style – we came up with a few related activities that 3 year olds would enjoy.

First up, drawing on cardboard with chalk (relates to Bert and him drawing chalk pictures in the movie).

Next up, a Mary Poppins bean bag toss. We have used these boards for many many parties. We just take off the old pictures or glue right over them with the new themed pictures.

Third, racing around with stick horses (relates to the carousel horses and when they race in the movie).

These were a huge hit. I’m putting together a tutorial on how I made these.

Next, pin the bow tie on the penguin (come on, do I really need to tell you what part of the story this is from?)

Lastly and the biggest hit of the party, chimney play! (these are supposed to be the chimneys that the chimney sweeps pop in and out of when they sing “Chim Chimney Cha-roo.”)

We bought five large cardboard boxes and two small boxes for about $6.00. My husband then connected them all and cut holes on the top in order to give the small boxes a place to sit. In order to make the entire thing stable, he screwed 3 pieces of wood together in the shape of a “C,” and then put it at the beginning of the box and then another one at the end. The 3 pieces of wood touched three sides of the structure – the bottom space where the kids crawled through didn’t have a piece of wood. 

Traffic jam

Even the big kids got in on the action.

Caroline had a good time popping through the top of the structure yelling, “Cha-roo!”

So those were our Mary Poppins party activities – I also bought sugar cubes in hopes of doing a relay race with a “spoonful of sugar,” but decided against it at the last moment. Another activity we didn’t use a bunch of musical instruments I had gathered. I thought the kids could play in a band like the one that plays while Mary Poppins receives her prize for winning the horse race.

Altogether I spent about $60 on the entire party. I would have spent about $40 had I planned ahead and used coupons to purchase many of the items. Oh well, I like to think I do my best work at the last moment.

Soon I’ll share her cake and the decorations.

For Mary Poppins hat instruction go here.

Mary Poppins Hat

I’m pretty sure everyone guessed from this clue that we had a Mary Poppins 3rd birthday party.

And if you have a Mary Poppins party, you have to have a Mary Poppins hat.

1 – Go to Target and buy a $1 bin Easter hat.

2- Do nothing with the hat for days since your daughter insists on doing her best Minnie Pearl impression.

3 – Confiscate the hat when she’s not looking

4 – Deny you have any knowledge of the hats whereabouts

5 – Take off pink ribbon

6 – Spray paint it black

7 – Glue on some fake cherries and flowers from the dollar store

8 – Find the hat and present to your Mary Poppins obsessed daughter.

9 – Delight in her joy of wearing the hat and singing,”Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”

I apologize ahead of time for the fact that you will now sing this all day long 🙂

Go here to see the Mary Poppins party activities

Happy Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras!

I have so many wonderful memories of Mardi Gras from growing up in New Orleans. I remember some of the costumes I wore, the ladder seats we sat in, scavenging the ground for beads, watching the St. Aug band play, and eating Popeye’s chicken.

Those memories spurred me into having our own little Mardi Gras party despite the fact that we are 600 miles from the real event.

Like most parties I host, I was planning on decorating and cleaning right up to the minute when guests walk in the front door.

This time that plan backfired on me.

Our party was set for 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon. I thought…plenty of time to cook and work on things. That’s a great plan exept that I became sick at 6:00pm the night before the party. I mean, I went down quick and was in bed by 8:15.

In came my superhero husband. He cleaned and cooked up a storm. Without him there would have been no party. I was still in bed when it was only one hour until the party and went back to bed about an hour after the party.

So, our decorations were minimal. Not my best work but it is what it is. After all, I’m pretty sure everyone was there for the crawfish pasta and king cake, anyway.

My mom sent the adorable mask along with Mardi Gras plates, napkins, and shirts for the party. The mask was placed in a flower vase filled with purple beads. I added the gold signs which read, “Let the Good Times Roll,” and the same in french,”Laissez Le Bons Temps Rouler.”

The only other decoration I put up for the party was the “Parades” sign. I actually wasn’t able to finish the sign since I got sick so the last parade, Crescent City, has a lighter coat of paint than the others.

And no I haven’t gone back to complete the sign. I got things to do.

I remember getting up early on Mardi Gras day to get to our spot on the parade route. First came Zulu and the thrill of them throwing decorated coconuts, Rex with the huge cow float, and then the truck parades, Elks and Crescent City, which each had over 120 floats in a row.

Steps in creating the sign:

1) Paint large board purple

2) Print out the names of the parades and arrange on the board.

3) Take the slip of paper with the parade name on it and turn it over. Color the letters with a white crayon (you are coloring on the back of the paper).

4) Turn the paper over so that the crayon will make contact with the board.

5) Trace the letters with a pen onto the board.

6) Lift the paper up and you will see a faint outline of the parade name.

7) Color inside the letters with paint.

Go here to see our Mardi Gras wreath.

Do you have any favorite Mardi Gras memories?