Moustache Bash

We had a fun & simple get together for my hubby's 30th birthday. I was nice & didn't make too big of deal out of the fact that he is 30 {only because I want the same done for me in a few years}. My favorite part of the party was our moustache photo booth. I used brown & black felt to make the moustaches. Then I glued them onto sticks. I just googled moustache silhouette in the images section to get different moustache templates.

I set up my camera & everyone had a blast. It was so much fun!

{I don't want to take the time to get everyone's permission to post this on the blog...so I will only post a few of the pictures, but you get the idea.}

A Super Party!!!

As I mentioned before...I am trying to simplify birthday parties. Our superhero party wasn't SUPER simple, but when I went the extra mile...it was for the kids. We made capes & masks out of felt for all of the kids. That was a hit! I had the capes, masks, letters, & the emblem ready to go. Each kid got to pick their color of cape & letter...then we glued them on with fabric glue.



Then, we had an obstacle course for our "Super Hero Training". They loved the obstacle course. We had a slide, hula hoops, a balance beam, & some tunnels for the kids to climb through. They LOVED it!!!



So, part of my "simplify" plan was to order cupcakes from Sam's Club. I have done this before & they are tasty & pretty cheap. I ordered red, royal blue, & bright yellow. My sweet Dad picked them up for me while I finished some things at home. When they arrived...I had a box of pastel pink, yellow, & blue cupcakes. Uh...not what every 6 year old boy wants at his birthday party. I think it bothered me a bit more than Kaden...however Preston refused to eat a pink frosted cupcake. Oh well, Sam's Club is going to make it right...so I can't complain too much. It just didn't do much for my presentation! I forgot to get a picture of all of the cupcakes before we ate them...so here they are after the fact!



I made a fun banner out of felt that I can reuse. I am going to make one for each family member.



Here is another picture of the banner & the party stuff. I love the colors!!!


I made some cute "POW!!!" & "BAM" designs to put on the goodie bags.



The biggest design went on the front & the little design went on the back to seal up the fold. You could print them out using stickers or print them on regular cardstock & use tape.

Pinwheel Cupcake Toppers

I am in the process of planning a Superhero Party for my 6 year old. I have a tendency of wanting to go over the top, but can't justify spending the $$...so then I end up over doing it with the things that I make. I have been thinking about this. Who am I decorating for? Am I decorating for the birthday boy or to impress everyone else? Does he care if I have awesome coordinating centerpieces? I don't think he cares about that. So, I am going to try to simplify this party. I am going to try to use things that I already have around the house or other ways to simplify the party & make it all about Kaden. Here is my first simplified project.

I usually make the boys a super cute coordinating birthday cake, but end up being stressed & on edge finishing the cake before the party. So, to fix that I am going to order cupcakes from Sam's Club {simplify...simplify}, but I wanted to make some cute cupcake toppers for the party. At first I was going to make fondant or gum paste stars, but didn't have anything for them. I have seen some cute pinwheel cupcake toppers & I already had the paper for them...SCORE!!! I couldn't find a tutorial on how to make them. So, with a little trial & error...I thought that I would share it with you!

You will need:

3x3 inch squares of paper {double sided would be great, but mine is one sided}
brads
picks or sucker sticks {my picks are from the party store, but you can find sucker sticks at most craft stores}
double sided tape or glue

Here are my 3x3 squares.


I liked to poke a hole in the center of my square...that way it was easier to gage where to cut. Cut a slit from each corner, but do not cut all the way through the center. Then poke a hole through every other corner like pictured below.


I found it easiest to line up each hole with the center hole before starting to put the brad in. You don't want to crease the fold.


Starting at one corner...place the brad in. Work your way around & then put it through the middle hole.


Here is the finished pinwheel's back.


At first, I used double stick tape to keep the pick attached, but ended up putting glue on top of that to make sure it stuck. You might have to decided what works best for you.


The finished product. I will post pictures of the picks in the cupcakes after the party in a few weeks.


Stay tuned for a few more things I will be doing for the party. It will be fun & cute, but simply...just like the kids like it!

Aargh!!!

I took a break from sewing & crafting to get some scrapbooking done. If you want to see the pages that I have done, go to our family blog.

Preston is having a pirate party next month. I like to prepare a little ahead of time. Plus, we are heading out of town for a little over a week in June, so I want to be ready. Today, I made his party invitation. I wanted something cheap & easy. So, here is what I came up with.



I made up the wording in Photoshop Elements 7. You could use Word also. I made mine to a 4x6 size. I used the font Missed Your Exit. It is a free font from Kevin & Amanda! They have the most amazing fonts. If you haven't checked them out...DO!

I printed out the invitations on brown masking paper that we had left over from painting our house. You could also use brown craft paper from the roll. I like the masking paper because it is thinner & gives it a good feel, but it was really difficult with the printer. The paper was so fine that it jammed up a few times.
Masking paper & kraft paper are both super cheap. Look at Walmart or the Dollar Store in the shipping section for the Kraft Paper. The masking paper will be in the painting section of any store that sells painting supplies.

After the invite was printed, I took a candle & burnt the edges. I recommend doing this outside on the cement or something. I started in the house & it was stinky & I was worried about the smoke alarm going off. Burn small areas at a time. If you do too big of a spot...it could get out of control.

We crinkled up one of the invitations to see which we liked better & it was unanimous that we all like the invites that were not crinkled.

Walla! Awesome pirate invitation that cost me NOTHING!!!

**Stay tuned. I will post pirate party projects as I get them done. Tomorrow...I should be able to post the banner that I made!

I ♥ to bake!

Today I got to make my brother's girlfriend's birthday cake. I ♥ baking! Happy Birthday Bri!

Fun & Easy Party Banner

Thursday was hubby's birthday & I had to get a banner made. This was super easy & I ♥ how it turned out. We did a Zac Efron party...it was too funny!



Here is the template that I used. If you can open it & edit it...that would be GREAT to personalize it or change it up. I used this page for my pictures. I printed the pictures on plain white computer paper. Then I printed out the banner template onto scrapbook paper cut down to 8 1/2 x 11.



I will also include the HAPPY BIRTHDAY part of it. I cut my 12x12 scrapbook paper down to 8 1/2 x 11 so that it would fit in printer.








After I printed out my banner & cut it out...I glued the bottom of the triangle to ribbon & let it dry.

Monkey Birthday!!!

Last night we had Kaden's monkey party. It was so much fun. I had a really hard time finding decorations so I made my own banner. It was a lot of work, but I like how it turned out! We also had blue, yellow, & brown balloons. My favorite thing was using bananas as the balloon weights.



Kaden FINALLY got to wear his birthday crown. He was so excited. If you want to see how I made it...just check a few posts below.



I had a cake planned, but Kaden wanted these cupcakes instead. I think they turned out pretty cute. I got the idea from Taste of Home, but did a bit of substituting. The ears & face are just cut up Nilla wafers.

Dinosaur Birthday Cake

I was searching for a dinosaur cake for Preston's third birthday & I found THIS really cute dinosaur cake. I think that my version turned out pretty well. It was actually really easy. Preston was so excited!!! He came over to see his cake & he got really excited because he "gets candy on his dinosaur cake". I really love making these cakes!