Crafts and the Tooth Fairy

It took me till 1:15 am to finish a massive craft session putting together what I hoped would make for a very happy morning for my daughter, now one tooth short of a full set :)  

It's was second night in a row I stayed up late sewing, the first night I sewed through my finger (true story) while turning a used potato chip bag into a coin purse why?? haha.  This time I was more succesful!

She spent the whole day anticipating her first visit from the tooth fairy, so I knew I had to make it special.  Y is one smart cookie and I'm pretty sure I've only got about a year or so before she cracks the tooth fairy/Santa code (the combination of her smarts and my inability to lie without being super awkward!), so I enlisted the help of good ol' pinterest to help me (you're so cool like that, Pinteres <3)

Part 1:

I instantly fell in love with this adorable tooth fairy doll:

The only problem was I did not plan ahead, I had mere hours, so I couldn't order one of these amazingly fabulous dolls, I HAD to buck up and make one :)

It took me two episodes of my guilty pleasure, Duck Dyansty for me to muster up the motivation to move from the couch to the sewing machine and give it a go.  I used scrap fabric for the body and dress and felt for the hair.  My wings are far less fabulous then the ones in the doll above, and to be honest I didn't have any tulle so I actually stole a couple pieces from a handmade tutu in the girls' dress up closet and then just sprayed them with glitter hair spray (haha this is resourcefullness at it's best!!).

I think she turned out fabulous (it was touch and go there a couple times and yes, I did resort to fabric pen face instead of embroidery . . . but still, so cute, right?!):

Part 2:

I'm sure you've seen this simple idea all over pinterest: spray tooth fairy dollars with glitter hairspray

Source: A Mindful Momma

Part 3:
Tiny Envelope with mini letter!  This is pretty self explanatory, you can easily make a mini envelope by cutting out a rectangle with triangles coming off all four sides (does that make sense?).  This is also your chance to plug some reinforced encouragement for good dental hygiene :)

Under The Sea Mermaid Themed Birthday Party

Well, it's official, I am now the parent of a 5 year old.  Crazy!!  I'm not really sure how that possibly could have happened in what -- to me--only felt like approximately 2 seconds!!  But it's true, my little Y has is half a decade and we threw a glam fabulous hand-crafted Mermaid/Under The Sea themed party to celebrate.

I have this horrible inability to really get anything done until it's crunch time, so I spent the 2 nights before the party crafting like crazy!  I had 3 hyper kittens to keep me company (i.e. try to destroy everything and anything I made out of tissue paper) and was able to watch an entire season of Daria during these late night crunch sessions, so it could have totally been worse :P

So the first and favorite DIY decoration I want to share is the paper lantern jellyfish.  I first saw it here via pinterest and LOVED the idea!  At the beginning of this month I also happened to be in Ikea where they sell these awesome half-round paper lanterns for only $6 bucks a piece!!  Woohoo!  Of course, they needed eyes (everything is cute/better with eyeballs :P haha  look at the blogname, folks! )  So I used craft foam to create gigantic eyes and eyelashes and hot glued them on!  My honey hung them from the ceiling using command hooks (my favorite) and elastic string so they sorta bounced around ever so slightly :)  Seriously, I love these!  As I'm typing this it's been 3 days since the party and they're still hanging in my living room . . . can't bring myself to take them down just yet :P  

I created two focal walls for the party.   The first is my entryway wall (where I usually have all my family photos).  I took down all the frames and covered the wall with 3 rows of shiny, reflective turquoise blue wrapping paper (2 rolls at $3.99 each from Hobby Lobby).  I then covered it with sea creatures I made out of glittered scrapbook paper ($0.99/sheet from Joann Fabric) all with googly eyes (of course!) and seaweed AKA ruffled crepe paper streamers (2 rolls-one in each shade of green at $1.00 each from Hobby Lobby).  I hot glued everything to the wrapping paper, pretty easy and pretty cheap!  

The second wall I did was behind the food table.  I used a pretty aqua velvet fabric piece as the backdrop and safety pinned two columns of plastic greenery (the greenery was my splurge at $17.50 for the piece, that I split into 2 . . . oh it was painful to cut something so expensive :P haha).  I then hot glued saftey pins to these fabulous plastic sea creatures from Oriental Trading and  pinned them to the fabric as if they were swimming in the seaweed.  

The centerpiece is just a piece of cardboard with 8 layers of fringed tissue paper!  I am, btw, now in love with making tissue paper fringe!  If you have a rotary cutter you can make it so quick and easy!  Plus, I just used ugly tape across the top of each layer and it didn't matter because the tops are totally covered by the layer above them!  The letters were cut using my Cricut and I just hand sewed embroidery thread through the top of each one to make the banner.  

The menu:

Whale Crackers

Starfish Sandwiches (vegetarian Chicken Salad)

Clam Cookies (btw they have the alomette cookies at the Dollar store! and also I found pearl white sixlets at Hobby Lobby)

Octopus Cake Balls (which the rockstar girlfriend of my litter brother completely made for me)

Mermaid Punch (not shown)

And, of course, the cake:

Can you deal with how pretty that is?  Okay, so I totally came to the realization a couple of weeks ago that while I can make/decorate OK cakes and I could probably do my own, that it would take me forever and I would never do it as beautiful as my sweet friend, Tami from Wishes of Whimsy.  She is awesome!  So, I decided to stick to my strong points and outsource my cake to my friend.  And boy am I glad I did!  I showed here this picture from HWTM and asked her to make it one layer instead of two.  I love what she gave me even more than the inspiration picture!  That's edible glitter gumpaste making up those seaweed pieces and the number!  When she delivered this beauty to me the night before I happily hung up my cake decorating apron for good :)  Tap into your creative friend resources, mama's!  You don't have to do it all!  

I could have cried when I cut it open to see she even went to the trouble of making it an ombre' layered cake.  I secretly wished for that, but did not ask, she read my mind!

  

For activities, the kids made ocean themed terrariums using dollar store hinged jars, river rock, cactus soil, succulent plants, brightly colored aquarium rocks and small sea-shells.

I had intended to also have a carnival style fishing game for goodie bags using a tension rod in a doorway draped with a large crinkly blue fabric but just plain ran out of time!  

All in all a successful party and bittersweet day for this mama :)

I'm linking up with:
Gingerly Made
Gingersnap Crafts
Sugar & Dots
Lil Luna
Katie's Nesting Spot
Somewhat Simple
House of Hepworths
The 36th Avenue
The Frugal Girls

504 Main
Sun Scholars
Today's Creative Blog

Impress Your Kids: Turn their favorite bedtime story into a nightgown (or shirt)

Here's a project that's sure to knock the socks of your little ones!!! (maybe even the not-so-little ones too!)

**If you have boys or simply don't want to sew, change it up and just transfer the image to a ready-made child sized tshirt!  Same affect!!**

What You Need:

Adult size tshirt in plain white (I got mine at JoAnn's for 3/$9)*I used the "junior fit" shirt because I prefer the neckline*

Lesley Riley's TAP Transfer Artist Paper (this stuff is awesome!!! gone are the days of shiny hard iron-on transfers!!)

Your Favorite Bedtime Story

A well-fitting nightgown or at least a tshirt to use as a template

To Sew the Easy Nightgown:

1.  Turn tshirt inside out and lay flat on a surface

2.  Lay the nightgown or shirt over the adult shirt with sleeves tucked under (not shown, see next pic): also I'm using both  a tshirt and nightgown as a template (shirt for sleeves and gown for angle of body)

3.  Cut outside of the shirt "template"

4.  Cut sleeves using the sleeves of the shirt as a template (make sure you keep the hemmed edge in tact (saves you the step!)

5.  Pin and sew up sides (leaving hole for arms).

6.  Pin new smaller sleeve into new arm hole with right sides facing and sew.

7.  Yay!  Shirt is now nightgown!!

For your Image:

1.  Scan your favorite image from the story.  I used picmonkey.com to bump up the contrast for stronger colors.

2.  Print onto your transfer paper (be sure to remember to mirror the image before printing which is usually under the printing properties button, this only really matters if you have any kind of text in the picture).

3.  Cut closely around image, place and apply according to the directions with your transfer paper.

And there you go!  My girls were CRAZYYYYY for these!  When it all comes down to it, they really are my target audience for all these kid projects and this one totally succeeded in impressing them :)   

I'm linking up with the following:
Somewhat Simple
The Frugal Girls
House of Hepworths
Katie's Nesting Spot
504 Main
The Shabby Nest
Gingerly Made
Sun Scholars
Gingersnap Crafts
The 36th Avenue
Sugar and Dots
Lil Luna
Today's Creative Blog
Tip Junkie
Skip To My Lou

Whatcha Workin' On?

*This is a new blog series, where I'll post the project of the moment :)  Look for these posts every Monday! 

An Un-Valentine Gift ;) DIY

Now, I totally have some romantic, Valentine-y handmades in the works.  However, before we get to them, I wanted to throw in an "Un-Valentine" gift for those who might not be feeling the ooey-gooey, lovey doveiness of it all :)  Because, who hasn't been there :)  

This is a variation of the potty pops block I posted about last year.  

Here's how I made it:

All you need is a scrap piece of 2"x4" (oh, and also, awesome fyi: if you go the the scrap section of Home Depot they might have some scrap pieces in random lengths, I got several almost 4' lengths of both 2x4 & 1x3 for only 50 cents a board!!), some paints, a drill, and some suckers :)  The paints I used were Martha Stewart Craft Paints in Glossy Beach Glass & Metallic Gold.

I used the font "cream puff" to print out my lettering just on regular computer paper.  Then, taped it over my painted block and traced along the outside of the letters pressing down hard with a pen.  Once the paper is removed, I painted in the indentation with gold.

Depending on the size of your block you can mark where and how many holes you want for suckers along the top.  I didn't drill as horribly crooked as it appears, I merely used too big of a bit so they're leaning against the edge (a look I kinda like :)).

You can sand the block to give it a weathered look and spray with a glossy clear coat for longevity.

Don't share this cynical sentiment but like the pun?  Just add a doesn't into the phrase :)  (maybe even on the back of the block making it reversible for the fickle ;)

Naptime Bliss:

My oldest and I are taking it easy while the little tykelet takes a much needed nap.  

Much to my excitement, I've discovered Y (who is now nearing 5), will actually watch some old movies with me . . . as long as there's dancing and especially if there is a dog.  We're watching our second Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers film of the week right now.  I am madly in love with them at the moment.

She's building beds for her dollies while periodically looking up pretending to absorb the plot, and when the music starts she drops everything and moves to the center of the floor mimicking the dance moves as best she can (it's pretty epic in adorableness).  Meanwhile I'm sipping a cup of decaf coffee that is actually probably more peppermint creamer than coffee (guilty) and thumbing through my favorite old cookbook finding tons of gems I never noticed before.  

A pretty perfect afternoon indeed.

Everything Christmas: Step By Step Easy Photo Gift Wrap

This is an extension post to my portion of the White Box Challenge on how to easily and very cheaply get your own custom black and white photo gift wrap :)

I'll try to be super thorough but some of this might be silly redundant (sorry!):

To Create Your Photo Paper

1. Go to Picmonkey.com
2. Click on "Create A Collage" at the top of the page
3. On the left under Layouts choose Square Deal and choose the 4 squares by 4 rows option.
4. Click The Photos icon and click "open photos" to upload the photos you want to be on your paper.  I only chose 4 and repeated them in a pattern, but you can do whatever you want.
5. Since the roll of paper I was going for was a size 18"x24" I only filled 3 of the columns.
6. Once you have filled the 3 columns full of your pictures you can click on the little artist's pallete icon on the left and adjust your spacing in between the photos and whether or not you want the corners rounded.  You might also choose some level of gray for the background *remember these will be black and white so you can't choose a color*
7. At this point save your collage as a .jpg file.
8. Once it's saved click the X in the right corner which will take you back to the picmonkey front page, now click "Edit A Photo" and open your collage.
9. Using the crop tool you can type in your dimensions and crop off the unused column for a rectangluar proportioned picture.  
10. You can also change your collage to black and white so you can tell what it will look like, add any text or other items (they've got some cute Christmas/Winter themed graphics right now).  I added the "snowfall" effect by clicking the snowflake at the bottom of the left column and then clicking Winterland at the top.
11. Once you have edited it to your liking save the image.  You can change the dimensions as you're saving to 2700x3600 pixels.  Save as a .jpg file

To Print Your Photo Paper:

1. Go to Staples Copy & Print Page
2. Click Oversized Prints
3. Click "Begin" under Engineer Prints
4. A Screen will pop up where you will make and view your paper.  Click the blue "Add File" to upload the completed paper you saved (step 11 above).
5. Make sure you have your quantity and pages both set to 1 (mine is defaulting to 3)
6. Under "Print Options" Click "Media" to choose your size (I chose 18x24 for only $1.79 to fit a standard shirt box).  MAKE SURE YOU check the box that says "Fit Content to Paper" and change your orientation to Portrait and you should see your roll of paper ready to go!
7. Click Add To Cart and check out.  You can pay in store or pay online with a credit card.  Be sure to pic a date that does not have a rush charge (2 days out for me, however they finished it and I got the email saying it was ready to be picked up that same day).  They'll email you when it's ready! :)