A Star Wars Birthday Party

My son is turning 6 and wanted a Star Wars Birthday Party.  I was a little scared because I had never seen or ever planned to see Star Wars or pretend to know anything about it.  Luckily, he told me this about 6 weeks ago so I had some time to do some research.  And I had my awesome right hand man (my hubby) who happens to be a Star Wars fan.

 

The Cake: (try to ignore the seams in the fondant)

Make a regular 9 x 13 cake.  Cut into 3 strips and lay end to end.  Frost the "light" part of the light saber and cover with Marshmallow Fondant.  Then frost the handle with gray frosting (vanilla frosting with a little black food coloring) and pipe black frosting for details. 

This was a team effort with my husband.  He is awesome!

They ate their cake along with their Yoda Soda.  Yoda Soda is this... green Kool Aid.  And if you can't find green Kool Aid like I couldn't last night at Walmart, buy the invisible Kool Aid and add green food coloring.  It was really cool (and simple) and the kids loved it.

 Party Favors:

Buy a pool noodle, cut in half and wrap the handle with duct tape and electrical tape.  It's that easy!

I also had bags for the kids with glow sticks, glow in the dark stars, and "asteroids" which were actually a Cosmic Brownie, a fun size Milky Way, and Fruit Snacks wrapped in aluminum foil that they had to hunt for.

 The Jedi Mission Training Check List:

It was nice to have this to let the kids see exactly how the party was going to go.  And on the other side we had a picture of Obi Wan (?) that they could color while we waited for the other guests to arrive.

When we were finished with our list, we did cake and ice cream and presents.  It went great!  However, it was harder for the kids to make their own light sabers than I had anticipated.  We basically just ended up making them for them.  If I were to do it over again, I would have made them beforehand.

After taking the Jedi Oath, they were awarded this diploma.

We took a picture of each child receiving their diploma. I'm going to print the pictures and send it to them with their thank you card. 

I was a little nervous about how this would all play out but it went very well.  The kids would have been perfectly happy if we had just given them the foam light sabers and just let them go for 2 hours.  They were totally into that part.

Christmas Stockings and Hanger

Not only are my Christmas Stockings finally finished.... but so is the stocking hanger!
I ended up changing the stocking with the big white ruffle. It looked too out of place. I am proud of my stockings but I am in love with my stocking hanger. I really love how it turned out. Mainly because it was so easy. Much easier than the stockings. I'm still trying to get used to the fact that once this baby is out, we're a family of 5. That's crazy!

Here's a close up.

Countdown Blocks

Okay, I know that there's not 11 days until Christmas... thank goodness. But these sides had the cutest papers and looked best in the picture.

These were super easy to make. I bought a 4 x 4 and a 2 x 4 and had them cut into 4" blocks and the bottom is 8". Then just sand, paint, mod podge the paper on, print the vinyl off and stick it on there.

I was planning on making a bunch of these for gifts for Christmas gifts but I'm on bed rest right now and only managed to make one set. Which I probably shouldn't have done :)

If anyone is interested in making these, I have all of the supplies that you could buy from me. You would need your own paint and mod podge, though. But for the blocks, vinyl, and paper, I would sell this for $8. Let me know if you're interested!

Christmas Stocking 3/5

Boy, I sure am taking my sweet time finishing these! I also need to make my new stocking hanger. Hopefully sometime soon.  Especially since those are about the only Christmas things that I don't yet have up.  I love this time of year!

Happy Early Birthday & Christmas To Me!

Is it just me or can you hear angels singing, too?

Ok, so my birthday and Christmas aren't super close but they're here early a few weeks this year. I am so so so excited to have this. And now I can make all of the Christmas presents that I need to, so technically I had to have it early, right?

Once my new projects are done, I'm debating whether to post them or not if they are going to be Christmas presents. I won't say who they're for but then it still kind of ruins the surprise. We'll see.

The best part about this? I got this for almost half the regular price on Amazon!

Christmas Stockings 2/5

While I was blog hopping this morning, I came across a blog called The Bird's Papaya. She made this ADORABLE ruffled cowl scarf (which is my next project) and I decided that was the perfect idea for my next stocking. Off to work I went and this is what I came up with. I know the white kind of stands out a little bit but I think it's fun. It kind of reminds me of Santa's beard.

2 stockings down, 3 to go! The only problem is, I'm trying to make them match while making them all different. Any ideas are very welcome!

Decorative Pillows

The Before:


The After:


I bought these white pillows a long time ago to go with my black and white duvet. But I've never loved them and always wanted to do something different with them. I found this fabric at Joann's and didn't immediately think of the pillows but when I did, I knew I had to do it. I also saw this flower ribbon at Joann's and fell in love. I knew exactly what I was going to do when I saw it. Now I just need a new duvet to match :)

My next set of Decorative Pillows that needed a touch, came from our guest bedroom.
The Before:

The After:

I made fabric flowers from scrap fabric like I did with the Christmas Stockings.  Instead of using buttons, I used a brad and poked it through the center.  It was so easy!  I used a safety pin to fasten these to the pillows so I can change them out whenever I want!

You can get the tutorial for the flowers from My Blonde Ambitions, she does a much better job explaining and takes much better pictures than I do.  There is one thing that I do differently, though.  Instead of hand sewing it, I throw it under the sewing machine.  It doesn't look as neat or nice but it's fast and very secure.  I'm not the best hand sewer.

Christmas Stockings

The new baby won't be here by this Christmas (hopefully) but I wanted our family to have new matching stockings.  I wanted to do this last year and just never got to it.

This is one of five that I need to make.  Actually I wanted to make more just in case of future kids, then I would have matching ones, but now I'm not so sure.  It's not that it was hard, it's just that it was more time consuming than I expected and I'm a very impatient person :)

I want to make each one different but I'm not sure what I'm going to do on the others yet.  I was going to wait to post this until I had all of them done but it might take me a while and I wanted to post this just in case anyone wanted the idea for their own!  But I will post the others when they're finished.

I took 4 pieces of paper and taped them together.  I drew the pattern free handed (if you couldn't tell) and cut the pattern out.  I cut the decorative piece out and put all of the outside stuff on first.  Then I sewed that to a piece of felt that would make the front inside.  I cut out another piece of felt to make the back.

UPDATE:
After I posted this, I wasn't loving the button look on the pleats at the top.  It was too plain.  Then I remembered a tutorial from My Blonde Ambitions to make super easy flowers.  I hadn't ever made them before and now I love them! They are really easy and I just used scrap fabric that I had.

Holiday Wreaths

I haven't been super crafty lately.  In fact, I haven't been doing much lately at all.  I've been having some major contractions for the last couple of weeks that have been keeping me down.  I still have 10 weeks left so this isn't a good thing.  I did, however, manage to make these super simple wreaths for really really cheap.  Gotta love Hobby Lobby!

 Total Cost? $3.50!  The wreath and berries were all 50% off, the wreath costing $1.50 and the berries stems each costing $1.  It's very simple and it's hung on my bedroom door that just adds that fall touch that we're missing here in AZ.

I was lazy and used the same berries for this wreath.  Total cost? $10.25.  This wreath cost me only $3, the berry stems were $5, and the Christmas ornament was $2.25

Pumpkin Pots

 Here are the boys decorating their pots.  My kids didn't quite get the idea.  

(Excuse the messy house in the background.)

The finished product!  From left to right: Steve's (my hubby), Mine, Carson's, and Landon's.

Even though the boys didn't paint jack-o-lantern faces, they sure had fun painting them.

We bought the pots at Home Depot for 87 cents a piece.  So this is a super cheap craft.  

I first spray painted them orange and let them dry.  Then we just used kid's washable paint to make the faces.

You can put sticks and leaves in the top to look like a stem but living in AZ, we don't have many trees, especially ones that have branches thick enough to fit into the hole in the top without falling through.

Spooky/Thanks Blocks

 For Halloween you have Spooky on one side...

And for Thanksgiving, you have Thanks on the other side.

This is definitely one of my favorite Super Saturday projects.  We made them last year and I was so excited to get them out this year.

Clip Board

This is the most basic project but I wanted one. I know people like to embellish these a little more and do tons of ribbon at the top, but I like things kind of simple.

That's the same paper that's on the boys' backpack and hat hanger but I love it. I actually have one more project I need to post where I used it.

This was super easy. I bought a clip board at Walmart for $1 something and then just used paper and rick rack that I had and mod podged them onto the clip board.

Plastic Bag Ghosts

My kids are really getting into Halloween this year and we don't have a lot of Halloween decorations. My 5 year old had the brilliant idea of looking through our recycle bin to find things to make decorations out of. We have tons of plastic grocery bags that we recycle so we decided to make ghosts out of them. Cute, huh?

How to for 1 ghost:
About 7 -10 plastic grocery bags
Black marker
Ribbon
Safety Pin
Yarn

Draw a ghost face on one grocery bag. Ball up the rest of them except for two and put them inside to form the head. Place the leftover two grocery bags in the back of the ghost, open side down, and tie the ribbon around all of the bags to form the neck. Cut all of the plastic bag loops to make it look raggedy. Put the safety pin in the top of the head and tie the yard into that to hang up.

Backpack & Hat Hanger

I love to be organized. But with two boys and a husband (sorry hon), this isn't the easiest thing to accomplish. I was sick of my boys throwing their backpacks and hats on the floor and I was determined to figure out a way to stop it.

I was previously using this as a stocking hanger at Christmas time. But that only serves a purpose for a month out of the whole year! So I took off the hangers and mod podged this adorable SEI paper to it and put the hooks back on. I really wish the picture did the paper justice. It just doesn't. I wish I had a whole crate of this paper and I would do everything in their room with it! I still have a little more and I'm trying to decide what would be best to do with it.

And now, I have an excuse to make a new Christmas Stocking Hanger!

Mod Podged Letters

I've had some mod podge for a while but haven't done much with it. I decided I wanted to do these for my boys' room and really, how hard could it be? How about, not at all!

I can now happily say that I'm a Mod Podge Addict. Pretty sure there needs to be an MPA Support group. All I want to do now is find things around my house that I can Mod Podge.


Sorry these letters are on the floor instead of hung up. My boys' bedroom wall is currently yellow and doesn't look great in the picture. We'll have to take care of that wall soon!

Here's What You Need:
Cardboard Letters
Paper
Scissors
Ribbon
Mod Podge
Sponge Paint Brush

How to:
Trace the letters onto the paper. Cut it out. Brush a thin layer of mod podge onto the cardboard letter and then on the back of the paper letter. Smooth paper onto cardboard and press out any wrinkles or bubbles. Then apply a thin layer to the front of the paper. Let dry 15-20 minutes and apply another layer. When that's dry, get your ribbon and apply mod podge to the back of the cardboard where you want to place your ribbon. Push your ribbon down and apply a layer of mod podge to that. Let dry and add another layer.

Making An Old Dresser New

I got this dresser as a Christmas gift from my parents when I was about 14. It came as a matching set with a desk and corner piece. I've already redone those and they are actually serving as my computer desk. But I've had this as kind of an extra piece. It was actually my aunt Amy's about 20 years ago. Now it's in my nursery.

The Before


The After

Sorry the picture's crooked!

This was a pretty easy project. Obviously took off the old handles. Puttied in the holes because the new ones weren't the same size. Sanded everything down. Repainted. Drilled new holes and put new handles on. Voila! It's basically brand new.

Infant Car Seat Cover

Even though I'm only 25 weeks along, I have already started seriously nesting.  Craft Nesting.  That's a thing, right?  Since I'm on my third boy, there's not much else I can do that I haven't already done.  Or so I thought!

 

I didn't have one of these with my other two boys, it wasn't quite "in" yet.  But I found an awesome tutorial for it from Make It Do's blog.  

Sorry to all those who make and sell these, but there was no way I was going to spend $40+ on one of these.  I only spent about $15 to do it myself.

Here are her instructions:

Here is what you need to complete this project:

• 1 1/3 yards 100% cotton fabric or flannel for top
• 1 1/3 yards 100% cotton fabric or flannel for backing
• Sew on Velcro (I prefer not to use Velcro with adhesive, as it gums up my needle.)
• fabric marking pen (either water erasable or disappearing) or fabric marking pencil

And here’s how:

1.  Cut top and backing fabrics 35″ wide x 42″ long.  If fabric has a directional pattern like my top fabric, make sure to cut it so it goes in the right direction.  If you are piecing either the top (like I did) or backing, make sure the finished dimensions are still 35″ wide x 42″ long.

2.  Create curved corners by placing a bowl in the corner and tracing with fabric marking pen or pencil, as shown.  Cut along tracing line.   (This curved corner is more than just decorative, it serves to keep the cover off the ground on the corners.  Next time around, I would use a larger bowl and take more off for the curve, as the corners in the front of the car seat touch slightly.)

3.  Cut straps 2 from backing and 2 from top 4″ x 9 1/2″.   (I was piecing the straps, so my “back” polka dot fabric was 2″, and the “top” fabric was cut 6″ thereby making my finished strap the same dimensions.)

4.  If you want to do any piecing (like I’ve done), make sure finished dimensions are same as above.

5.  For the main body of the cover, place right sides of front and backing together, stitch together using a 1/4″ seam, leaving a small opening.  Note: all seams are 1/4″ unless otherwise noted.

6.  Clip curved corners and turn right side out.  I like using a chopstick all the way around the seam, as it makes for a nice edge.  Press well.

7.  Using a scant 1/4 seam, stitch all the way around the outside edge to give it a finished look, and to close the opening.

8.  To make the straps place right sides of front and back fabric together.  Stitch around, leaving one end open.  (There are few added steps if you are making the straps pieced on top, like mine.  I stitch down the length, leaving both ends open,  I pressed the seams out, turned it right side out, and pressed so the straps looked even.  Then I turned it wrong sides together again and closed one end.  Then continue to step 9)

9.  Clip corners and turn right side out.   (Again I use chopstick)  Press well.

10.  Close opening.  Repeat steps 8-10 for second strap.

11.  Fold straps to check placement of Velcro, pin and stitch into place.  I made sure the end which I closed the opening was on the inside and therefore hidden.

12.  Press straps in half, to act as a guide.  For placement of stitching on the straps (to adhere the straps to the body), measure 4 1/4″ inches in from both sides and draw a line with fabric marking pen as shown below.

13.  For placement of straps measure 19″ inches from the top and 11 1/2″ from each side.  There should be about 5 1/2″ between each strap and about 21″ from the strap to the bottom.  If you are visual like me, see Illustration for strap placement.  Pin straps into place.  Stitch and then reinforce stitching.  (The stitching will be one inch apart, and I stitched in a box shape.)

And it’s done!  Remember, you really can use your imagination to embellish this cover.  You can add buttons, rickrack, or ribbon.