Race Car Birthday Party!

It's been WAAAAAAY to long since my last post...especially since my last "crafty" post.  Trying to do better!  Life seems to have gotten super-busy lately and I feel like I haven't been able to spend nearly the time creating fun things that I used to.  (sigh)

But a birthday party is a good (necessary) excuse to get my craft on!  The Noise Maker, who lately has truly earned that name, just turned three years old.  Can't believe it...my baby is getting so big!  He LOVES cars.  And when I say "love", I mean it's the only thing that holds his interest for more than about 5 minutes.  The kid might end up being a mechanic he loves them so much.  Anywho...

He specifically requested a "race car" party...not "Cars" (the movie) which would have been MUCH easier to produce given the amount of commercialized party goods out there!  So, I decided to go with his favorite colors (orange and green) and searched the web for ideas.  NOTHING.  No one else's kids like orange and green I guess.  So, I started from scratch.

One idea I did find online was the "street" table runner (above)...thanks Pinterest!  I cut a black plastic tablecloth into thirds lengthwise (to use for three tables).  Then I added pieces of white duct tape for lines down the middle.  Instant race track!  The party store had some inexpensive toy cars that I placed on the "road" for entertainment at cupcake time.

Laid over a bright green tablecloth, the race track really popped.  I used black "charger" paper plates and topped them with black and white checkered flag plates.  Orange napkins tied with checkered ribbon held the utensils.

We had the party at a park, where the kids could play on the plaground equipment, in the splash pad (it's already splash pad weather here in South Texas!), or run around in the grassy fields.  We had several other activities for them to participate in as well...

My favorite were the race car stampers that the kids could run over the giant ink pads and print tracks onto paper with:

I got them from Orietal Trading.  The wheels remove for easy cleaning and the kids seemed to really like them!

We also had a race car Bean Bag Toss game, which I got on clearance at Oriental Trading:

We also had race car sticker pages and race car tattoos for the kids.  For food, I made green and orange cupcakes with checkered flag toppers (Oriental Trading), race car shaped pretzels (Wal-Mart) and apple and grape cars (idea found on Pinterest)...

The Noise Maker had a slight "accident" with his cupcake...he tipped the plate it was on and it actually fell onto his forehead where he got a tiny little burn. Oops...mom of the year, here.

I also wanted to share the super-cute car shirt my friend Shera (aka Sew Sweet Princess) made for him...how stinkin' cute is this?  Thanks, Shera!!!

Despite the candle incident, he had a blast and I think his friends did, too.  I forgot to take a pic of the party favors, but they were little baggies with a HotWheels car, mini play-doh, race car tattoo and candy.

Happy Birthday to my Little Man...I love you, buddy!  :)

A Dora Cake...

Going through some old photos, I found this...

Never posted the good ol' Dora cake I made for the Mess Maker's 4th (family) birthday party.  This was HARD!  She wanted a "Princess" Dora cake, not just a Dora cake.  The only Princess Dora they make is the one with the yellow dress...  "But mama, I want a pink dress!"

I think I made it work, but this took some real effort I tell ya!  Fondant flowers, colored, cut and embellished by yours truly...over the entire dress.

Thought when I finished that it was perfect...until I noticed a slight "lean"...and then a bigger lean...and then the whole thing looked like it was going to be one massive landslide.

Oh well, lesson learned...

USE CAKE SUPPORTS!!!

Mickey Mouse Birthday Invitations

I've had several inquiries on the Mickey invites I posted HERE.  So here are the sizes/cartridges I used to create these:

1. Black invitation base: Mickey Font Cartridge

-Cut the Mickey Tag at 5 1/4"

2. Red "Shorts": Plant. Schoolbook Cartridge

-Cut the circle with shadow feature at 4"

-Cut circle in half with paper trimmer...this provides the front half circle where you adhere the buttons, and the back pocket where you include the party info.

3. Buttons: Wild Card Cartridge

-Cut the button (icon feature) at 9" (sounds huge, but they obviously come out small!)

4. Letter "K": Mickey Font Cartridge

-Cut the white using the "shadow" feature at 1 1/2"

-Cut the yellow in regular mode at 1 1/2"

I glued the front red half-circle on with tape runner and then added the buttons with foam dots to make them look dimensional.  On the back, I used Scotch Quick Dry to put a small strip of glue along the bottom edge of the half-circle, leaving the middle and top open to slide in the party details:

(I used the Mickey and Mouse Deco fonts, downloaded from dafont.com)

At this size, the invitations will fit into a standard invitation-size envelope.  There will be room on each side in the envelope, but the size was needed to acommodate the height of the ears.  You could make your own square envelopes, but who wants to pay the additional shipping???  :)

Happy Birthday Banner Card

The inspiration for this card came from one in Paper Crafts Magazine (Jan/Feb 2011) HERE.

I used my Cricut and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge to make the banner, and the Accent Essentials cartridge to make the frame for the sentiment.  The sentiment is a stamp set from CTMH (Card Chatter-Birthday).

Thanks for looking!

The Noisemaker's MICKEY PARTY!

My "baby" boy turned two and because of his intense LOVE of anything Mickey Mouse, we went with it for his party theme.  We have an AMAZING park close to the home we'll be closing on in just one short month...and we invited all of the Noise Maker's and Mess Maker's friends to help up celebrate!

In true Household CEO fashion, I did make a lot of the things we had at the party, most with a little inspiration from the web...

Invitations:

The details are on a piece of carstock stuck into the back pocket (on the other side).  I got this idea from Lisa at Lisa's Handmade Cards (truly talented lady!).  With the help of my Cricut and Mickey Font catridge, these were a breeze!  The buttons were cut from the Just Beacause cartridge.

Cupcake Toppers:

The inspiration from these also came from Lisa's Handmade Cards.  I used the Mickey Font cartridge on this one too, and attached the pieces to lollipop sticks.

Mickey Shirt:

I wanted a special birthday shirt for The Noisemaker so I whipped up this one with the help of (once again) my Mickey Font cartridge and some freezer paper...I cut the image from freezer paper, ironed it on, painted, and ta-dah!

Treat Bags:

I cut some black cardstock to fit the tops of the bags and added a strip of red polkadot paper.  I printed the journaling on my printer and attached it on top.  Then I cut some "gears" from my Accent Essentials cartridge to mat the Mickey Mouse heads on (printed from the web) and attached them with a foam dot.  Fun Mickey toys and treats for the party guests!

We also had a book exchange in lieu of gifts...what fun!  He definitely had a good time...even if he won't remember it!

Dora Birthday Cake and Party!

Me: "What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?"

The Mess Maker: "Dora."

Me: "What kind of Dora cake?"

The Mess Maker: "PRINCESS!!!"

Can I tell you how HARD it is to find Princess Dora birthday party supplies?????  Luckily, it wasn't hard to make a Princess Dora cake which I think made the Mess Maker not notice the fact that all of the princess-themed decor wasn't actually Dora!

To make this cake, I used the Pampered Chef Batter Bowl.  One cake mix is baked directly in the bowl and then inverted.  I baked another cake mix in two 9" round cake pans.  I stacked the round layers, placed the dome layer on top and placed a Dora doll on the top. 

I iced it in pink (it HAD to be pink!) and then added fondant flowers I cut with some flower-shaped cookie cutters and sprayed with edible food coloring spray.  Super-simple and yummy!  Oh, and the cake was PINK (of course!)...strawberry.  Mmmmmmm....

Paw Print "Zoboomafoo" Birthday Invitations

A friend of mine has a daughter that is about to turn four and loves the show Zoboomafoo...so she requested Zoboomafoo invites.  If I'm being honest, I had never heard of the show before she mentioned it!  So I looked for it on On Demand, and it's really a super-cute, educational show!

Anyway, she wanted zebra print and hot pink as the color scheme...and she requested a paw print.  Now I have a pretty big collection of Cricut cartridges...I consider it a slight addiction.  But believe it or not, not one of them had a paw print image.  So out came the Design Studio and George and I was able to come up with a basic paw print and backing:

The base of the invitation is half of a 81/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock, cut lengthwise.  The two folds are made by scoring the base of the invite at 2 3/4" on both ends and folding toward the front.  I addes pieces of zebra print paper to both of the front flaps, and also inside of each flap.  The inside wording was printed on my computer with the Happy Sans font (LOVE IT!):

(I put an envelope in front of the party details to protect privacy)

Once I completed the base of the invitation, I added the paw print cut from black and pink glitter cardstock, with a tag (from George) that says "party!".  Looks like a WILD TIME to me!!!

P.S.  She hired someone to bring a live Lemur (just like the one on Zoboomafoo) along with some other critters to the party...how fun is that???  :)

Have a creative day!

"Royal Cupcakes": FCCB Challenge #30 Natl. Bake & Decorate Month!

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is called "National Bake & Decorate Month": create a project that has something to do with baking...and if we have the Cricut Cake, we can use that to create something tasty as well.  Well, I don't have the Cricut Cake.  :(  But that didn't stop me from whipping up something tasty!!!

I made some chocolate chip cupcakes and decided to dress them up a bit in honor of this week's challenge.  I have to brag a little on the super-cute graphics...because I didn't make them!!!  My friend Tommie, from OhMyGluestick! designs graphics that you can use for party decorations, including these little "party circles" which I used as cupcake toppers.  This set of four designs is from the "Alice In Wonderland" set (which was one of the featured free sets a while back!) and features the ace, spade, heart and club.  How fun would these be for a card game get-together or royal-themed party???  OMG! has an Etsy shop with TONS of graphics for party decor, and she does custom designs as well.  Go check her out!

Okay, to complete my cupcake toppers, I punched each image using a 1 1/2" circle punch.  Then I used my Cricut to cut a 1 3/4" circle (George & Basic Shapes) to mat the image and a 2" scallop circle (Storybook) to mat the circle.  I added stickles to the dot borders on each image to give them some sparkle and added a rhinestone in the center of each.  To finish, I attached them to lollipop sticks and tied coordinating ribbon around the sticks.  Super-easy and super-quick, and I think they're pretty stinkin' cute!

Hope you'll visit both OMG! (for fabulous party decor ideas) and Fantabulous Cricut to enter your own "Bake & Decorate" project. 

Have a creative (and yummy) day!!!  :)

DIY Party & Holiday Decor By OhMyGluestick!

I know sooooo many people who say they aren't "crafty" and wouldn't know where to start on handmade party and seasonal decor.  Well, if you like the idea of having a "handmade" component to your party decor, but don't know how to go about doing that, I have a solution!

My friend, Tommie, from Oh My Gluestick designs the most AMAZING graphics that you can buy, cut/punch out and use for your own parties and seasonal decorations!  She can make custom invitations and then design party circles, treat bag toppers, and more...all coordinating in the color/theme you choose! 

The best part about it is that she emails you the graphic and for one (VERY reasonable) price, you can print them off as many times as you want!  This saves you from having to start from scratch, yet allows you to have the hands-on experience of making your decorations, all without breaking the bank!

For the Party Circles, just use a scallop or circle punch to punch them out and then glue to popsicle sticks or hang from ribbon as tags or decorations:

From this:

To this:

Or this:

HERE is a tutorial on how to use the Party Circles, from OhMy Gluestick.

For the Treat Bag Toppers, just print, fold in half and attach to the top of a treat bag for a custom, coordinating party favor!

How easy is that???

Other products offered by OMG include water bottle labels, party hats, banners, door decorations, cake toppers, and of course invitations and announcements.  Visit OMG's Etsy shop HERE for more info!

**All images are from Oh My Gluestick and are copyrighted.**

Monkey Birthday Invitations!

A while back, I made some pink monkey birthday invitations for my niece, Avery, for her first birthday:

My friend Jen asked if I could make some Monkey invitations for her son's sencond birthday. Soooooo, I thought to myself, "why re-invent the wheel"??? I just modified the original pink one I did, and made them for a boy! I made them very similarly, using my Cricut "Create a Critter" for the monkey cuts and the "Accent Essentials" cartridge for the green accent that mats the sentiment.  The monkeys "swing" on the leaf ribbon added to the top of each card!  They're attached with little metal rings that allow them to move freely on the invitation.

I used the same patterned paper (Hobby Lobby) in blue instead of pink. Everything else is the same as on the pink ones. I made 20 of these bad boys. Whew! Hope she likes them... :)

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!

Horse "Happy Birthday" Card

My grandma was having a hard time finding a horse-themed birthday card for one of her great-grandkids that loves horses...so I made her this one to give him!  I made this one a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" card since kids like big cards!!! 

I used Create a Critter for the horses (using the "flip" feature on one of them), and used Melin's Face Tutorial for the eyes.  I inked the white card base with two colors of blue ink to make the sky.  Then I tore two colors of green cardstock to make the hills.  I snipped narrow strips into a 3/4" x 8 1/2" strip of the lighter green and ahdered it in front for grass.  Then I hand cut the fence poles, inked them and adhered them over the grass, adding twine behind them to complete the fence.  The clouds are also from Create a Critter.  For the "happy BIRTHDAY" I used CTMH stamps and inks (as well as for the inking on the individual pieces).

I hope he (and my grandma) likes it!  Thanks for looking and have a creative day!  :)

Cupcake Birthday Invitations

A friend of mine asked if I would make her daughter's first birthday invitations...such an honor!  She wanted cupcakes, so I scoured my manuals and let her decide which cupcake she wanted.  She picked this one from Once Upon A Princess.  It's actually the first project I've made with this cartridge!!!

She wanted pink and green with a little bit of "chocolate" thrown in.

I used Bazzil's Swiss Dots in a light green shade for the top layer of the cupcake liner and a solid green underneath.  The base of the invites (welded together in Design Studio) are white.

The pink layer of frosting was embossed with the Cuttlebug (Divine Swirls folder).  I inked everything and then added pink rhinestones on top and finished with a sheer pink bow.

Happy 1st Birthday Jacqueline!!!  :)