Cupcake Birthdays and School Valentines

Coming up we have a certain girl turning 8 years old, and Valentines Day.  Nearly-8-year-old-girl is having a small birthday party with her friends at home in a few weeks.  She chose a decorate-your-own-cupcakes party.  Yay, easy!!  (Or so I thought.)  We were talking about activities and favors – I suggested aprons w the attendee’s names on them instead of treat bags, but I got shot down.  Treat bags are in, treat bags are cool.  And not to toot my own horn, but I stuff pretty nice treat bags.

*toot* *toot*

So ok, yay!  Cupcake theme, goodie bags, we can pull this idea out again:

Uh, no.  Nearly-8-year-old-girl put the kaibosh on that.  It’s been  done, that’s so my-sister’s-6th-birthday-treat-bags.  This child is NOT a repeater.  So the search continues….  or begins.  All suggestions welcome.

All suggestions are welcome for this, too:  School Valentines.  Last year we (“we” = “I”) made paperclip bookmarks for 1st grade

and the ever-famous “kid holding a lollipop picture” for kindergarten.

No one wants bookmarks this year (that’s kinda a relief, that was a lot of work!), and little girl wants the lollipop picture again.  That’s a fine idea to me, she only has one kid in her class from last year, so there will only be one repeater.  The lollipops were 10 for a dollar at Walmart, so it’s not terribly expensive, either.

So now we’re looking for some cupcake-8-year-old-birthday ideas and one set of super cool and crafty Valentines.  I’m a little off pinterest right now, I feel like there’s too much junk to weed through these days.  I guess it’s back to google and any ideas you’ve got for me!

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I Spy Bottles

or: one of the 47 craft projects i’ll have to do to get rid of 20 lbs of dried rice.

back in the spring i coordinated the pre-school’s annual spaghetti dinner.  the centerpieces were super cheap and wicked easy (just like me!) – handmade cardstock pinwheels in little buckets filled with rice.

that was months ago, and now i have the bag of 20 lbs of rice hanging out, taking up a lot of space, and with the huuuge potential for a mess.  after asking my twitter pals, the suggestion of coloring the rice and making ispy bottles was the most popular suggestion.

recipe for colored rice:

1 1/2 cup rice, capful of rubbing alcohol, coupla squirts of food coloring.  SEAL THE BAG and shake.  you’d think the “seal the bag” part is a given, but i’ll be picking up purple rice from every nook and cranny in my kitchen for the next 14 years….  you’ve been warned.  once the rice is the color you want, spread it out to dry on a piece of waxed paper.  it only takes 15 minutes, maybe a half hour and you’re ready to rock and roll.

ohhhh, so pretty….

i gathered all the little trinkets i could find, but i had to find 2 of everything… i’m not Noah, i’m the mom of 2 little girls close in age, so everything has to be the same or it’s a whole lotta “why did she get….”  (i hate that)

this is most of it…  also a shell, a christmas light bulb, and one special trinket so that they girls could tell whose was whose.

we used empty Gatorade bottles, cleaned with the wrapper removed, they were just the right size.

(i think she’s counting rice grains.  or figuring the volume of the container.  that’s just the way she is…)

there was much shaking, and lots of “ohh, i see the ___” then the other one would have to shake theirs and find that in their bottle… 

i hot glued the lids on, hunny’s only comment was “you know what’s gonna happen if someone takes the top off…” killjoy.  whatever, they’re closed now.

and now i only have to come up with a craft for the other 19 pounds of rice!

rainbow mobile

ages ago i painted some wooden circles and hearts.  hunny drilled holes in them for me, and then i waited… and moved the little pieces from here to there waiting to dig out some fishing line.  it took a trip to the in-laws and a request to my father-in-law for me to finally get some line to finish it.

(nevermind that schmere on the counter, it’s mod podge and won’t come off. dumb charcoal counters)

i hung it from the cabinet knobs to be sure the pieces were even-ish.  then took it outside.  we have nothing to hang anything from outside.  aaaand it was pouring rain today.

so i came back inside and hung it from a hook in the ceiling in the spare bedroom (we call it the changing room)

and that might be where it stays!

 

buttoned up house plants

i like to have a little treat or prize for my mom and grandma and sister for Easter, since many times when we see any of them, they have a little something for the girls.  this Easter: little plants with crazy button flowers:

 

i saw this in a magazine (parents? family fun?) as a st. patrick’s day craft – some clover in a pot with a rainbow (YAY! RAINBOWS!!) of buttons poking out.  heavens knows i have enough buttons, and i know the 3 ladies that these are for have PLENTY of doodads and things… this is just a little Happy Easter for them to enjoy while they last.

mmm, buttons and wire, what’s not to love?  (p.s., hello carpal tunnel, that’s a lot of twisted wire)

so whimsical and a little silly…

funny, when i bought the plants, i just knew i’d be jealous if i didn’t get one for myself.  good thing an extra just jumped into the cart!

 

yarn egg wreath

i saw a really cute blog post (forgive me, i can’t find it to give it proper credit now), where the writer had made an adorable easter wreath and i knew i had to try, too.  I purchased 3 different sizes of plastic easter eggs and a foam wreath form.  i chose 4 colors of yarn and set to work!  there was a hot glue gun involved.  i might’ve glued a plastic egg or 5 to my finger.  oww, hot.

after winding the first one, i was not terribly impressed – it’s hard to cover the slippery plastic, and still make the shape still resemble an egg.

but i kept going.  i figured that if they all ended up looking like balls of yarn, i’d decorate the wreath with knitting needles and pretend i meant to do that.  then i remembered some little bunnies i bought years ago and immediately had forgotten what i had planned to use them for.  miraculously, i knew exactly where they were, and glued their little bunny butts onto the wreath. 

i’m still not 100% impressed with the way it ended up coming out, but it’ll do for a sweet decoration at least for this easter.

easy and fun winter break craftiness!

well hello there.  i have the plague, so i am how-they-say “phoning in” this blog post. =)  we tried this project out just before valentine’s day, and i’m just now getting around to telling you about it.  so without further ado:

STRING BOWLS! (or some other clever name, you’re really gonna  have to cut me some slack here!)  We’re on winter vacation right now , and this would be a fun activity for the gang that doesn’t have school and is looking for something to do.

i thought they’d be cute to put a little goodie bag of chocolates in, or a small treat… and oh yes, they are.

you’ll need:

a couple of containers – i used an empty sour cream tub and a plastic drinking cup

cover the outside of the containers with plastic wrap and turn upside down

mod podge or white glue

yarn – color(s) of your choice (i had a TON left from my yarn wreaths)

cut a whole bunch of lengths of yarn to about 14-18″ each (maybe 40-50 per container)

dip them one at a time into white glue or mod podge.  it’s going to take a WHOLE LOT of glue, so i think the podge is the way to go here.

wipe off the excess glue so the yarn is covered but not dripping and wrap each piece around the container in some sort of crafty pattern (or non-pattern, that would probably be best) and carry on til you think you’ve done enough.  or you’ve run out of glue.  or you realize there’s mod podge on your sock and your cabinet and your toaster oven and it’s time to clean up quickly.

hello, product placement:

drying on top of the toaster oven:

let them dry *at least* overnight.  when i woke up in the morning and i thought mine were dry, i pried them off of the cups and they were still wet on the inside – i let them dry a another day off of the container, upright.  this also helped them to form a flat bottom.  see, flat bottoms aren’t always bad…

once they’re entirely dry, fill them as you’d like!

i decided to keep my first try, they’re the perfect size to use for my brushes and random crafty bits.

OR! how cute would this be as a mother’s day present for grandma?

(don’t tell grandma, it’s a surprise…)

conversation hearts – part 2

you’ll have to wait for the glamourshots tomorrow when the sun is up, but you know me, i can’t wait to at least show you a little…

i shared just a few with the girls.  this project kept them busy for an hour and they would’ve gone longer, but i wanted to use the markers…

i’m thinking about making postcard sized squares and having them create pictures for family and friends – maybe like a birthday card, or a little piece of artwork that can go on a little wooden easle… how aawesome would that be?!?!  that’s awesome with 2 A’s! =D (but not til i have a new mixer…)

how sweet are these??