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Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Birthday Tradition


In our family, it is a tradition to make a banner in celebration of a birthday. With my son's birthday coming up, my daughter and I got to work on his 8th birthday banner.

What traditions or special activities are part of your family's birthday celebrations?

Posted by Leslie

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings Craft Event + Save $5 on the Movie Combo Pack


In preparation for Disney releasing Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings, this past Saturday, Joann Fabric had a fairy-making craft event. (Thanks, The Suburban Mom, for letting us know about the event!)


Even though we arrived 30 minutes into the event, we were the first ones there.  From the description online, I couldn't really tell how big the fairies we were going to be.  Once we got there and saw pipe cleaners, I realized the fairies were going to be pretty small, life-sized if you will.


The nice girl, Becky, who was running the craft warned us when we got there that she had yet to make one because they were kind of tricky.  (Oh boy!)  She was only able to use white Elmer's glue because she was no where near an outlet.  When I asked if we could use Glue Dots, she said they didn't carry glue dots in their store...WHAT!?!?!  A craft store without Glue Dots???  Somebody has got to get on that! 


After about 45 minutes and tons of glue stuck to my fingers, she ended up with this little fairy.   It was a fun (and free!) event for my daughter and I to attend together.  It also gave me confidence in my creativity and resourcefulness, as we had to stray from the original directions from the Joann Fabrics corporate office. 



Coincidentally, Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings came out today on DVD and Blu-ray, And Disney Movie Rewards members can claim a $5 off combo pack coupon. 

Posted by Leslie

Image from Disney.com

Monday, June 18, 2012

My Rod of Ribbon - a Quick and Easy DIY Project


I was tired of all of my ribbon spools coming undone and being in a box where I couldn't see them.

So I went to Home Depot and spent a whopping 73 cents on a thin wooden dowel. To make it easy on myself, I decided to use the pre-drilled holes on our closet shelving. I then measured the opening, cut the dowel to size and...

Voila! My new ribbon rod! Now I can finally see all my ribbon options without having to dig through a drawer or box!

Please disregard all the junk in the background...organizing that is on my long list of to-do's!

Happy Monday! 

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Gingerbread House Fun


My kids love decorating their gingerbread house each year for Christmas.  This year, Wilton has made it even easier on Mommy...the Gingerbread house kit at Costco is already assembled.  All you have to do is ice it and decorate it.


Grandma and Grandpa were lucky enough to be here to help with the decorating, too. 


And yes, my daughter figured out very quickly how tasty the icing is!



Oh yeah, I caught her red handed trying to squeeze the icing in her mouth!


 Gingerbread boys and girls were fun to make, too!


Still sampling the icing!




One last taste...


Ta-da!  The finished product! 


Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Rapunzel Princess Birthday Party



Like many little girls, my daughter loves princesses, and especially Rapunzel as of late.  (I am sure the movie Tangled has nothing to do with it! Wink, wink!)

Over the summer, she went to a couple of birthday parties where a princess came to the party to entertain and sing to the girls.  My daughter absolutely loved it.


So, a couple of months ago when I saw a great deal on PlumDistrict.com for a princess tea party, I immediately gobbled up the deal.  Creative Arts and Parties for Kids is a Los Angeles and Orange County based party company that offers a wide variety of characters to make your party special.  And what I loved about the Plum District deal was that it included a tea party with the princess of your choice.  It really doesn't get cuter than little girls dressed up as princesses sipping tea (a.k.a. lemonade) and eating tea sandwiches - with Rapunzel, no less!

Up until about a week before the party, I figured I wouldn't decorate much for the party because Rapunzel would be bringing the tea set and the girls would just remain captivated to whatever she did.  But then I saw the cutest and relatively easy to re-create ideas on TinyOranges.com for a Rapunzel party.  So I had to attempt it, right? 


With some purple felt and yellow craft paint from Michaels, the kids, grandma and I got to work on creating the kingdom flags from the movie.  This was actually a fun project that the kids helped create.


While creating a golden sun stencil from the movie required a bit of patience, once the stencil was ready, the painting was really fun, especially for the kids.


Then there was the all-important braid of golden hair.


I used yellow yarn that I also found at Michaels and decided I wanted the braid to be long - 14 feet long to be exact.  Grandma helped me out with putting this one together, too.  She and our staircase baluster kept hold of the yarn while I continued to loop "strands" of hair for the braid.


I will warn you, this braid project did take a little over 2 hours for me.  But I do feel like it was well worth it and such a cute detail for the party.  Not to mention, I loved the idea of re-purposing the braid as a hair bow and clip holder as well as a decoration for my daughter's room.



(Oh, and thank goodness Grandma was in town to help with all these little details!)

Of course, there was my favorite part of the party - the treats!


The dessert menu:
  • I found darling princess molds to make chocolate covered pretzel sticks. 
  • Chocolate dipped Oreos (with purple chocolate!)
  • The best frosted sugar cookies (recipe from HWTM.com)
  • Pink cupcakes with purple frosting and purple cupcakes with pink frosting (a request from the birthday girl)

I love me some sweets!


As each girl arrived she was given a sparkly tiara to wear (dollar bin from Target) and directed over to the activity table to color her wanted poster of Flynn Rider.


I figured coloring would be a perfect activity as we waited for all the guests and Rapunzel to arrive.


Once Rapunzel did arrive, she sang with the girls, took pictures with them, played games and them gave them etiquette lessons on having a tea party.  (As much lessons as 3-5 year olds can handle!) 


Then it was on to cupcakes and treats, face-painting, and before we knew it, it was time for Rapunzel to head back to her kingdom and Flynn Rider.  Before she left, Rapunzel even had the girls sign a birthday poster with their hand prints, which was yet another activity for the girls to do while others were getting their faces or hands/arms painted. 


Our Rapunzel from Creative Arts and Parties for kids was great.  The girls were captivated by her, and most important to this mom, they listened to her!  Instead of orchestrating everything for the party during the party, I really got to be an observer, which was sooo nice! 


Luckily, I have a few months until I have to start planning my son's birthday party.  Mad scientist, anyone???

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - The Kids Get Crafty



My kids decided to make their own designer pillows today with the ribbon from their Easter baskets and they took time to smell the roses, too!

Monday, May 7, 2007

Martha's at Michaels!

Just when you thought you couldn't see any more of Martha Stewart, she has now popped up with her own line of exclusive crafts for Michaels.

She has developed 650 craft items that fall under 4 categories: celebrate, cherish, share and play. The items are as simple as paper and as complete as party kits.

I saw the ad in the Sunday paper and thought some of the ideas look really cute. I can't wait to go into Michaels and check it out for myself!
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