A Little Easter Craftiness

I saw these fun yarn eggs on Pinterest and immediately thought they'd make a fun wreath. So I made a BUNCH using yarn in my stash (all leftover from other projects). They got better over time and I eventually picked my favorites to make this wreath. To make the wreath, I connected the eggs with a bit of glue and then reinforced the wreath by putting two rounds of clear fishing line through the middle of the eggs (to help hold the round wreath shape). To make the eggs, see the tutorial on the original post. Make sure you follow the directions to wipe off the excess glue before you wrap the yarn or they won't look as good. I used around 25 feet of yarn per egg. I felt the wreath needed a little something extra so I found the cute little birds at The Dollar Tree.

Happy almost Easter, everyone!

Party time! Star Wars Edition

Back around Christmas, J asked if he could have a Star Wars-themed birthday party. This gave me lots of time to plan and prepare. I can honestly say that this party was a lot of fun for me. J, at that time, mainly knew about Star Wars because of the Star Wars Legos so that's where I started my planning. Right after Christmas, I went to the Lego store to check out their clearance items. I found some great Lego Star Wars Magnet sets (3 mini-figure magnets on clearance for $3.49) and some Lego Star Wars key chains on clearance for $0.98. I bought 4 packs of magnets and 10 key chains. Then I started collecting other little goodies as I saw them. Next, I went on Pinterest for inspiration. So many great ideas out there. This is what I ended up doing.

I let J invite 8 friends from his class. Five ended up being able to attend. So with J and N, we had 7 children which was perfect. The children watched part of a Star Wars movie while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Here is everyone waiting for the last child to arrive:

Our first game was a light saber building contest. I built 3 light saber bases out of black and gray Duplo blocks and gave each team a base. Then I put a pile of red, blue and green square Duplo blocks in between the three teams (I precounted out these blocks so we had an equal number of each color.) They then raced to build their light saber before the other teams.This was a really simple game, but they seemed to enjoy it. It was a quick way to get everyone involved in the party. We picked teams by letting each of the older children pick a "card" and then finding the person with a matching card. The cards were actually holographic Star Wars Valentines that I got on clearance for $0.10. N was a bonus member of the blue team.


Our next game was pin the light saber on Yoda. I saw this idea on Pinterest, but it was originally from this blog. We found a picture of Yoda from one of our coloring books and enlarged it at the copy store. Then we simply cut it out, colored it in, and glued it to a piece of posterboard. I found a sleep mask and J decorated it with Star Wars stickers. The light sabers were cut out of extra large post-its (from the sticky strip--so they stuck easily).
After the "pinner" got blindfolded, we spun them three times while the children said, "Turn, turn, turn. May the force be with you." They thought that was pretty funny and it kept everyone involved.


Our next game was a punchbox. This is an idea I first saw on Tip Junkie. It's an alternative to doing a pinata. You take a display board and cut circles out of it. Then you glue tissue paper over the hole (from the backside so the front looks pretty). Then you put some goodies (I did a mini Star Wars fruit roll-up and two pieces of candy) into a paper bag. Cut the top of the paper bag off to make it shorter, and then tape the paper bag over the tissue paper covering the hole. Then the children simply pick a hole, punch through the tissue paper and get their goodies. I forgot to take a before picture, but here is a picture of J punching the board.
Here's the front of the punchbox after it's been punched:
Here's a picture of the back so you can see how it is done:
The punchbox went really fast, but the children seemed to really enjoy it. N's already requested that we do it again at his birthday party.

To get more info about making a punchbox, there are tutorials here and here.

Next, we did a scavenger hunt. I had rounded up a few different goodies and wanted a fun way to give them to the children--versus just handing the treats to them in a bag at the end of the party. I gave each child a brown paper bag with his or her name on it and read the first clue. Each clue started with a description of their mission as Jedis in training. The second part was a clue to where to go next. Each stop had a brown bag with a treat for each child and a new clue.

The first clue:

The first goodie (a Star Wars pencil with Qui-Gon Jinn--leftover from J's Valentine's) and the second clue:
The second goodie (a glow bracelet "light saber") and the third clue:
The children loved running up and down the stairs to get from clue to clue. They really got into the scavenger hunt!

The third goodie (a pixie stick "light saber") and the fourth clue:
The fourth goodie (a Bossk Lego key chain) and the fifth clue:
The final stop (black playdough and glitter to make galaxy dough).

The end of the scavenger hunt led us to the makings for our next activity--making galaxy dough. This was another idea I found on Pinterest. I followed the playdough recipe here. This was my first time making playdough and I can't say that it turned out great. It was too sticky at first and so I added more flour. Then it was too crumbly so I added oil. The consistency turned out okay, but despite my use of black food coloring--it turned out a bit more like a dark forest green. Not the best playdough and not the best activity. The children seemed to enjoy the idea of it, but not so much actually working the glitter into their playdough. J didn't like it because it was messy. Oh well.

At this point we cleared off the table and served cupcakes, pretzel rods with colored icing (light saber-esque) and juice drinks.
I used the clearance Lego Star Wars magnets as cupcake toppers. I think they looked right cute and the children were excited to get to take them home. B was kind enough to make the cupcakes and icing--white cupcakes with chocolate icing.

After we were done with the cupcakes and pretzels. It was time for these:
I had made a light saber for each child out of a pool noodle. I saw these first on Pinterest too (from here). These were so easy and so inexpensive and I love how fun and soft they are. I simple cut each pool noodle ($1 at Dollar Tree) in half with a serrated knife. Then I covered the cut end with two smaller pieces of duct tape. Then I wrapped the duct tape (I chose the shinier "Chrome" finish) around the pool noodle for a total of 4 rows. Then I used black electrical tape (2 rolls for $1 at Dollar Tree) to add the details. I did the four vertical stripes and then added the horizontal bands at the top and bottom of the duct tape. I think they turned out great and the children LOVED playing with them in the backyard. The parents appreciated how soft and safe they were. Lots of "fighting" and no injuries.
So that was J's Star Wars birthday party. It was great fun! Thanks for reading this giant post. I appreciate your dedication. Happy Monday, everyone! May the force be with you :).

Six!

Last week J turned 6. SIX! I still can't believe he's that old. He seems so grown up these days with his reading, writing, math skills, playing soccer, etc. It's fun but a little crazy.

Anyway, we've had lots of birthday celebrating. His birthday fell over his Spring Break from school so we took cupcakes to school the Friday before his birthday.

J's school requires store-bought treats, but J wanted to make them "Star Wars." Instead of spending a ton on fancy cupcakes, we bought plain cupcakes and made these Star Wars cupcake toppers with things we had at home. J gave me his Lego catalogs and I cut circles out with pictures of Star Wars Legos. Then we glued these onto slightly larger circles cut out of cardstock. Then we taped two toothpicks to the bottom of the back.
I think they turned out pretty cute. And everyone had fun hamming it up while eating them.Even N got to come to J's school and enjoy a cupcake.


On J's actual birthday, he got up early and opened his presents--Ninjago Lego set from B and I and Star Wars fighter pods from N.
He had soccer practice that night and then we had a few neighborhood friends over for cupcakes that night.
Then a few days later we had a Star Wars-themed party. But that will be a post all in itself. Still can't believe I've been a mom for six years. Can't decide if it seems longer than that or much shorter. Happy Monday, everyone!

Homemade Valentines

The boys and I made some homemade Valentines this afternoon.


Can you tell which one I made?

Tooth Fairy Envelope Tutorial

Earlier this month, J lost his first tooth. I knew it had been loose for about a week and I kept meaning to do something to prep for our first visit from the tooth fairy. But I never did. One night as I was reading him his bedtime stories, he just pulled it out. He was SO excited! He rushed downstairs to show B and immediately asked if he could keep it. So we scrounged around for something to put the tooth in (B found a plastic memory card case) and wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking if J could keep his tooth. The next morning J woke up to find a dollar squished into the case with his tooth. After he got over his disappointment over the fact the tooth fairy did not bring him a Lego set (I think he thought the tooth fairy was more like a female Santa Claus), he was excited.

Can you see the gap? It's down on the bottom and the new tooth is already poking up to fill it in.

Despite the fact that J was perfectly happy with his memory card case, I was not. So I bought some felt and went to work. I decided I wanted to make a tooth fairy envelope for J and my sister's two children. I wanted something that didn't take up too much room and something that wasn't too babyish since I know they will keep losing teeth until they are at least 10 or so.

First I enlarged a mini-envelope template and cut it out of paper. I traced it onto my three pieces of felt. For this black "snakeskin" felt I used for J's, a white crayon worked great.



Here is J's piece cut out along with the felt for my 6 year-old niece and 8 year-old nephew.

Next I drew a large tooth on a piece of paper, cut it out to make a template, and cut out three white felt teeth (one for each of the envelopes).

Next I pinned the tooth onto the middle of the front of the envelope. I found it easiest to fold the envelope up before pinning the tooth to better picture where it would go. The two smaller triangles are the side flaps, the large pointy corner is the bottom flap and the rounded corner is the top flap.


Next, I whip-stitched the tooth onto the envelope. I used bright contrasting colors for fun.

My nephew's envelope with his tooth all stitched on!

Next, I carefully folded down and pinned the side flaps.

And then carefully folded and pinned the bottom flap.

Then I whip-stitched the bottom flap onto the two sides. I started in the bottom right corner and worked my way around. I did decorative whip-stitch around the top corner of the flap because I thought it looked nicer than just carrying the thread across before heading down the other side. You could also, cut and tie the thread at the top of the right side and start a fresh thread on the left side if you don't want to do this.

Next I added the snaps. I did the top part of the snap first and then folded and pushed it down so it left an indentation where the bottom part of the snap needed to be attached.

The backs of the three envelopes.

The fronts of the three envelopes.

I really wanted to make something that would be convenient to use and, as I mentioned, not too babyish. I think these fit the bill. These envelopes are flat (so easy to put under pillows), but big enough (approximately 4" x 5.5") that they can hold notes, money, teeth and not get lost.

Here's a template I made if you want to use it. Just print it as a full page photo. Make sure your program doesn't try to fit it to the page and crop off the edges.

That's my little bit of craftiness to share. Sorry for the poor quality photographs. Happy Monday, everyone!

100th Day!

Today is J's 100th Day of Kindergarten. A very exciting milestone indeed.

He's been VERY excited about the 100th Day and all the fun events planned for it.

As part of the festivities, we were encouraged to create a 100th day shirt.

J and I decided to make a 100th Day tie dye.

It was really simple to make. We followed the directions that came with the tie dye kit. The only thing special we did was use exactly 100 rubber bands. J enjoyed counting them out in groups of 10.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty clever and turned out great--so I thought I'd share.

Happy 100th day, everyone!

Christmas Craftiness

Thanks to Pinterest and all the lovely craftiness posted there, I have been in the crafty spirit this Christmas. I want to do more, but here are a few ornaments I've made this year.

I made a bunch of cookie cutter photo ornaments for my mom and my sister. This is a Martha Stewart craft that I've been doing for several years. They are so easy and so cute! Here are a few of the ones I made this year:I like to get the pictures printed in Sepia tone as they give it a warm antique look and can pull a variety of photos together into one unified bunch of ornaments. I use pretty scrapbook paper for the back and always make sure to note the year they were made.


Inspired by a pin on Pinterest, I made this felt bacon ornament for B:
This link will take you to a free tutorial, if you want your own bit of bacon-y awesomeness on your Christmas tree. I used the template there, but simplified mine a bit. I did not put the wire inside and feel that it looks plenty bacon-y without it.

I also got some Martha Stewart glitter (SO lovely) when it was half price at Michaels. This ornament for my godfather and a similar one for my godmother were made with the glitter. I put their names and their children's names and grandchildren's names on them.


Finally, I saw a pin with a little snowy scene inside a clear ornament--so I made this. It has a little Christmas tree and "snow" glitter inside and a cute little cardinal perched on the outside. I swirled the glitter around quite a bit so it looks like quite the little snowstorm in there.

And, of course, I wanted to let the boys do some crafting too. Another pin on Pinterest, inspired these:
The top one is one I helped N make. The bottom one is one that J made. As you can see, J got really into making the antlers. He also wrote 2011 and his name on the back which may be my favorite part :). I bought a dozen of these little balls at the dollar store. We gave a few of the finished ornaments to grandparents and kept the rest for our tree.

That's all the craftiness we've had time to complete, but we have lots more ideas so we may sneak in a little more before Christmas.

May your Christmas be crafty too!