Baby Shower Pinwheels | Paper Crafting

My crafting life has been on hold awhile, it's a little bit sad.  I LOVE to be creative, but as is life, I have been preoccupied with other ventures. 

I was super excited to throw a little shower for a friend a few weeks ago.   She will be welcoming her thrid little one, her first BOY so I fel the occasion deserved a little celebration.  I took a few photos I might add later of the decor (I did a retro-book, ABC theme) but I wanted to share these sweet little pinwheels I made.  

I found the best way to make these is two (12 x 2.5 inch) strips of scored paper attached, folded into an accordian.  Then use hot glue to atttach circles in the middle on both sides.  Other adhesive worked at first, but by the morning they had come apart and I had to use some hot glue. 

Until next time...:-)

Valentine Banner: Simple Projects

This was super simple...(the Valentine banner hanging from the shelf)

I found a few packages of colorful tags at Michael's for $1 per pack of 12. 

Add some red letters and jute twine and make a simple, yet super cute Valentine banner!

Fishy Themed Birthday Party: Part One, Banner

I was driving Claire to school one day when I had the idea for a Fishy Themed party to celebrate her fourth birthday.  By the afternoon I had completely planned the party on paper, nevermind that her birthday was six week away!  The pre-planning was really unlike me, but I do have to say it helped me keep my budget in check, know what I was looking for, and it gave me less stress the day of the party.  It also kept me from letting my imagination get the best of me and spreading myself too thin for a party... which I have a tendancy to do. 

Moral: Plan ahead.  It works!

Claire's Birthday falls the last week of June which is nearly always over 100 degrees where we live.  I thought the colors of blue and orange were great for a summer birthday and adding in the 'Fishy' aspect was a fun personal touch because Claire LOVES fish crackers! 

All of the decor had orange or blue included, it was actually pretty easy to find things to match the color scheme...

I made this paper penant banner using a few pieces of scrapbook paper I had on hand and my silhouette machine... it took one hour  exactly start to finish and I thought it looked absolutely adorable.  I strung it with some twine, which gave a nice touch. 

iLoveToCreate: Large Paper Accordian Award Ribbons

My uber-crafty friend Alice volunteered to make the award ribbons for her kid's school family picnic.  She enlisted my help (of course I am ALWAYS up for a crafty challenge!) and after much brainstorming we got to work!

We gathered the supplies:

• Chipboard flower books (found at Tuesday morning)
• Tulip glitter
• Scrapbook paper, scored and folded like an accordian (12 inches long)
• Chipboard/cardboard circles
• Various types of glue: Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue, Hot Glue, and Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Spray 
• Various die cuts, stickers, letters, ribbons, etc.  Anything that you want to attach to the award to distinguish what it is a prize for.

• Cut the scrapbook paper into strips, the large award above uses paper about 3.5 inches wide, the smaller circle in the center uses 2.5 (or so) strips... we did a variety of sizes
• Score the paper with a scoring board.  We have no photo, but this was done ahead of time with a borrowed board.
• Fold the scored paper into accordians... then stop and take photos of all the fun colors and textures.

• Glue 2-3 strips together, end to end.  Hot glue worked best for this step... quick drying time is a MUST! 

• Grab the Tacky Spray and liberally spray the individual chipboards... this should be done one at a time to avoid the spray drying too quickly.  Also, do this outside or in a very well ventilated area.
• Add glitter to the freshly sprayed boards 

• We were making several boards, so we used a variety of colors! 

• While the glitter is drying, take your folded accordian strips and make a circle as shown.  Glue the ends together with hot glue.  **This step is pretty frustrating, enlist the help of a friend if possible ;-) 

• Have your chipboard on hand and ready to go.  Add a circle of hot glue around the outside. 

• Add the chipboard to the BACK center of the now-circle accordian paper.  Hold it in place until the hot glue dries.  The chipboard keeps the circle in place and keeps it from popping up.  If you get to this step, you will understand! 
• Repeat for as many circles as you are making.  Large, small, and in-between they are all the same process.  We used the Quick Dry Tacky glue on some smaller ones and it worked just fine.  This might be a better option if you are doing this project with kids.

• Stop and admire your hard work, thus far.  So fun! 

• Lay out your pieces and arrange them how you would like.  We did large accordian, glittered chipboard, medium accordian, then the top piece on some (left side photo) and on the right we put the glittered chipboard, then layered accordians and chipboards to give deminsion and fun! 

• Add your finishing touches... looped ribbons and this super-cute frog sticker were PERFECT for this 'Frog Jump' race ribbon... but the sky is the limit!!  
• Cut 2.5x12 inch strips of the same scrapbook paper as the accordians are made from, and add them to the back to make the ribbon tails.  

SO CUTE!

iLoveToCreate: Butterfly Mother's Day Card

I saw this cute Butterfly card over at Our Daily Obsessions 

(Photo from Our Daily Obsessions)

and thought it would be perfect for a gift for my Mom and Grandma from the girls. 

(I'm a big fan of handprint projects... here were the girl's Valentines this year to my family.)

There was just one problem.  I didn't want each girl to make one for each Grandma... that seemed excessive.  I also didn't want one handprint from each on each one... that seemed lopsided. 

So, I came up with a little tweak to the idea:  Stack them up!

I put the oldest's handprint in back and the youngest's in front.  I think this totally makes the butterfly look fun and colorful! 

I reached into my iLoveToCreate stash and grabbed the Aleene's Stiffen-Quik for the ribbon.  I love how it keeps the butterfly's antenna sticking straight up!! 

The poem reads:

This isn't just a butterfly, as you can plainly see.

I made it with my hand, which is a part of me.

It comes with lots of love, especially to say

I hope you have a very

Happy Mother's Day

We attached the card with the poem to the butterfly with a mini clothespin and the Grandma's Loooved them!



Cupcake Party: Chef's Hat with Coffee-Filter Flower

This is a craft the kids did at my daughter's recent cupcake birthday party!  The kids would be decorating cupcakes and making pizza, so a chef's hat fit right in with the cooking theme.

The Chef's Hats were found here.  I found them to be of decent quality, however they need to be stapled in the back once they are sized to the child's head.

I saw this idea for the coffee filter flower and modified it to fewer cupcake liners and coffee filters to make it easier for the kids.

Gather your supplies:

• Chef's Hat
• 6 coffee filters
• 3 regular sized cupcake liners 
• 1 mini cupcake liner
• 1 Button
• Plain old school glue

Directions:

• Glue together two coffee filters, turning the second upside down on top of the first
• Glue a third coffee filter correct side upon top of the others... this creates a more fluffy flower bottom.  Let this dry, if possible.

• Fold the last three coffee filters in half and then half again, creating pie shaped pieces.

• Glue the three coffee filters on the flower bottom 

• Fold three cupcake liners in half and then half again, making pie shaped pieces.
• Glue cupcake liners on top of coffee filters. 

• Glue the mini cupcake liner on top of the others. 

• Glue a button into the middle of the flower 

• Glue the entire flower onto the front of the chef's hat. 

• Embellish otherwise, we had the kids add their names to the front with name stickers (photos to come soon).
• Size the hat to the child's head and staple the back... enjoy!

St. Patty's Day: Green Eggs and Ham Lunch

So, my fabulous friend Brooke (who needs to update her blog with this!) invited my girls and I over for a Green Eggs and Ham lunch on St. Patrick's Day... and since I am behind on my blogging, I thought I would post it now before I forget and it never makes its way onto the blog.  Really, that would be a shame too because it was SO darned cute and a perfect St. Patrick's Day theme :-)

Here was the adorable plateing...

• hard boiled eggs dyed GREEN
• rolled ham
• a 'Hope Your Day is Lucky' printable attached to a handmade paper cup with rainbow goldfish crackers
• mini can of Sprite
• Shamrock straw (found at Old Navy)
• 'You're My Pot 'O Gold...' printable attached to a bag of rainbow colored jelly-beans and chocolate gold coins!

Thanks again for lunch, Brooke!  The kids had so much fun!  Can we do it again next year?

And, how perfect would this be for Dr. Seus's Birthday??

St. Patty's Day: {Part One} Breakfast | St. Patrick's Day

I had so much fun with St. Patrick's Day this year.  I had planned out breakfast and dinner and we wen't to a friend's house for a fun lunch.  I am going to do a post for each event!

The girls woke up to leprechaun footprints leading to the kitchen table.  There they found a decorated chandelier, a caraffe of green milk, and two bowls of LUCKY Charms cereal!

The super cute FREE printables were found at eighteen25.

'Lucky U' was found on this post.

I'm so LUCKY... was found on this post.

The puffy tissue balls are from Martha Stewart.