DIY Comic Book Birthday Banner

Materials you'll need for this project:
-3 comic books
-a Sharpie
-scissors
-different colors of cardstock (or white will also work)
-bias tape (you can find this near the zippers at JoAnn's Fabric...pick the color of your choice; I chose red)
-some type of adhesive
-a sewing machine

This is one of my all-time favorite projects that I have ever created for one of my children's birthday parties. It's no surprise that this fun little idea was discovered on Pinterest and that I've been dying to test it out since the day I pinned it. I admit that finding the right comic books for this project is definitely a necessity, depending on what kind of party you are throwing. Since ours was a Marvel/DC mix of superheroes, it was definitely easier to find what I was looking for. Starting with Ebay, I found some really cool comic books that were old school and perfect for this project. However, many of them were bid items and took days for the auction to end. I couldnt' wait that long. Next stop: Toys 'R Us. Yes, they sell comics! At $2.99 a pop, I picked up three different books that would work perfectly.

Follow this link to look at a few photos of how to cut out the comic book triangles. That's right; you just start carefully ripping out the pages you want to make the banner out of and then start cutting yoru triangles. I looked through each comic book carefully before selecting the pages I wanted to use. There were a lot of good choices. I also made sure that I carefully posititioned the triangle shape over the image I wanted or which one I thought would look the best based on the cut.

NOTE CHANGE IN THE DIY PROJECT: If you are reading the link I posted above, I did make a couple of changes to the banner. First, I used different colors of cardstock and backed each comic book triangle. This helped keep each triangle from bending or getting ruined in transport to the party. The idea was genius, if you ask yours truly. It really helped hold the overall shape of the banner and helped tremendously when sewing it with the sewing machine.

Make sure you have the correct setting on your sewing machine.

I used a Sharpie to trace each shape and then used my handy scrapbooking gun to secure each comic book triangle to the cardstock. I pulled out my bias tape and left about 3-4 inches off of one end before starting to assemble the banner. I alternated/patterned out my comic book triangles by Batman, SpiderMan, Captain America, and then the Hulk. Then, I picked up my first triangle and slipped it into the fold of the bias tape. I used a straight stitch setting on my sewing machine and begain sewing across the top. EASY. Once I finished the first triange, I added another one directly next to it and began sewing. For this particular banner, there were ____ triangles total, which was the perfect size to fit across a fireplace mantel or a window.

After sewing the banner, I laid it flat on a table until it was time to hang it for the party. Honestly, that was the best way to store it to ensure that it would look really nice come party day. Hang and voila! It's a really FUN and easy way to decorate for your son's celebration. Bay absolutely adored this banner and wants it to hang in our house forever. I'm pretty attached to it myself.

I didn't end up using all of the bias tape, and after hanging it at the party, I just cut off the excess.

This would also look amazing in a bedroom or in a toy room if you had a comic book theme and of course, if you had the room to hang it. In fact, after writing this blog post a few weeks ago, I decided to hang it on my son's bunk bed across the end against the wall. It looks REALLY awesome! :)

Total Cost for this project: $12.00 or less depending what you have on hand already.
$2.99 for red bias tape
FREE: Cardstock--already had this at home
$2.99 x3 (although could have probably just purchased 2)for comic books

Have fun crafting!

Birthday Banner

This was a super fun project to make. Although I wasted a lot of paper and photo ink, in the end, I now know how to do it wasting less materials. :)

I can totally see my husband shaking his head right now thinking about all of the paper and ink I wasted from his office! LOL

Okay...so when I first saw this idea on Pinterest, I fell in love with it and immediately envisioned how I would make this for Brynn's next birthday party, since she was next in line.

I combed through my photo library (16000+) to find the perfect "face" photos from birth through her fifth year of life. I tried to figure out which faces were about the same distance from the camera and/or about the same size. Then, I edited them and changed the color to black and white.

I then printed out each photo on regular printer paper to figure out how close in size the faces actually were when I lined them up side by side. After re-sizing several of them, some were printed in 4x6, some in 5x7 and some in 8x10. I took some to Costco and printed there, which was, by far the cheapest place to print. I also printed some at home.

I then cut out all of the faces (with her ears attached and some w/ braids intact and lined them up in order from youngest to most current/oldest.

I sorted through my piles of scrapbook paper and found a bunch of different fun patterns to make the hats. I also found a bunch of fun "accessories" to add to the hats, such as little flowers, boa feather material, borders, jewels, stickers, and more. I started mixing and matching the paper w/ the accessories. This was the best part! :)

Then, I cut a triangle shape and used it as a pattern for the rest of the party hats for each head.

After assembling the hats, I had to figure out how to hang this banner. I didn't have the same materials that were shown in the Pinterest photo, so on to Plan B. I attached fishing line to the tops of each hat with scotch tape. Then, I used my scrapbooking gun to secure each baby face to a long piece of ribbon to "anchor" the faces and keep them facing the same way. After some readjusting, Dj helped me hang the banner above our patio doors in the dining room. It turned out perfect.

In hindsight, the banner was a little too long for the area we hung it in. It looked great, but next time, I would make it a bit shorter.

The cost of the project was ink and photo printing, but the rest of the stuff I used to assemble and decorate, I already had on hand.

A fun, easy project that turned out super cute and it was a big hit at the party.

Banner

I'm giddy just thinking about the cuteness this little decoration exhibits.

I crafted something very similar to this little birthday face banner here for Miss Brynn's Bday...can't wait to share it, along with tips on how to make one of your very own for your child's next bday party, which involves less steps than I took to create it for a lot less money & less paper (printer and photo) wasted. It was still worth the trouble, because it turned out lovely.

Thank you, Pinterest for this fabulous idea!

Tutu Bags update

The bags are coming along nicely. They do take awhile to complete b/c I am hand-sewing all of them. I am going to try and re-do the Snow White one b/c there are some issues w/ uneven tulle in the back and it's bothering me. I hope I have enough tulle left over, but if not, I'll just go back to JoAnn's and pick up a little bit more to finish the job. Brynn loves all of them and can't decide which one to choose for herself/her party.

and the boys' favors...

T-shirt super hero capes...more on how to make these later but I must thank Dj for helping me with the stencils b/c it's saving me a lot of time!

Here is a sneak peek! I have a Flash one finished as well (well Flash-Like) but it is upstairs in my bedroom drying. There is a bit of touch-up work to do on the gray Green Lantern one, and I accidentally got a bit of yellow paint on the first Batman cape as you can probably see in the pic...however, I am happy with the overall outcome. I am thinking about making a SuperMan one but the stencil for that one is a bit more complicated than Batman and the Green Lantern. Baylen is now completely in love with these and wants a super hero birthday party...OKAY! :) hahahahaha
At least I know what everyone will get at his party. :)

Princess Bags update

Well, after making a practice bag, I have moved on to trying out the mini princess bags. They take awhile only because I am choosing to sew all of them by hand. I ordered the 6x5 sized bags (in various colors and packs of 4 for $2.99 each) and then went to JoAnn's and bought 3 different colors of tulle to start, along with 2 pieces of sequins. I wasn't going to buy it all if they turned out crappy. Although there is still work to be done on the Snow White one (need to sew down the top of the red sequins) and some trimming of tulle and string, I have finished two this week. Snow White has one more "row" of tulle than the Belle one does, but I chose to do it that way because I think 4 layers is too "poofy."

I think they look pretty cute. I have Cinderella, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine left to make for sure and if I have time, Tiana and Rapunzel. Brynn is loving each one I make and claims each one is hers. I told her to wait until I finish all of them to decide who gets what. They will be used as the favor bags for the girls and then I will stick a princess-inspired bow inside along with a wand and a couple other things I have picked up all summer in the dollar aisles.

The boys' favors are coming...soon. I found a cute idea online, so I am going to attempt to make one this weekend. We'll see how it turns out.

YAY for showers!

Cake pops and new cupcake recipes galore!

This time? Chocolate cake pops. YUMMMM

New cupcake recipes included peanut butter cupcakes made from scratch w/ store-bought chocolate frosting. I used my cool frosting tools from Pampered Chef to make the cool shape on top.

The other new recipe was a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting which I colored pink. They were delish. The frosting was a little runny b/c it was so humid, but I threw them in the fridge for a few minutes to save them.

Lots of compliments to go around and no leftovers at the end. :)

Rapunzel bag Attempt #2=Success!

TA-DAH! The Rapunzel "practice" bag is finished! (well, almost!)

Much to my delight, the second attempt proved to be the best method. While it took me probably about 3 hours to complete this bag, now that i know what I am doing, one can only hope it will take less time to make the actual bags for favors. I am anxiously awaiting my Hobby Lobby order to arrive any day now. The bags I will be making will be much smaller than this one, sized at 6x5. I will sew the tulle all the way around the bags and purchased different tulle for the bags than I used on the sample. (shiny tulle instead for the princess bags--makes it look a bit more glittery).

I pinned three separate levels of tulle and sewed each level individually after pleating and pinning down. I included a bit more white on the top level so it looks more even. This worked out great. I did NOT sew tulle all the way around the practice bag. I may end up giving this bag to another little girl, so decided not to b/c of her size. I thought the tulle on the inside would be too much for her at this point.

I topped it with a row of elastic sequins purchased from JoAnn's (NOTE: Sequins are NOT cheap...bring a coupon when you buy this or look for it to be on sale in the ad on the weekends.) I sewed the bottom of the sequins first and still have the top to do. This was easy and I recommend using the same color thread as the sequins to hide imperfect sewing tactics if you fall into that category. (I sure do!)


Helpful HINT: For up close and personal directions on how to pleat and sew the tulle onto a bag, go here:

http://craftinit.blogspot.com/2011/02/tutu-tote-bag-tutorial.html

That blog was quite helpful.


What's left?

-sewing top of sequins to ensure that it's secure and sewing them on the backside of the bag
-trimming the tulle on the bottom so it's a bit more even
-re-sewing the tulle at each end of the bag if needed


It's always enjoyable when a vision and a "copycat" version of something you see somewhere actually works out and looks super cute. A proud crafting moment, that is for sure. Now the list of girls coming to B's party continues to grow. Seriously girl...haha I am worried what the boys will get because these are SO cute and SO cool. What do you think they would like at at Princess themed party???? Suggestions are welcome!

Tutu bag is coming along

Pleating is definitely the way to go. Now I must decide...to finish it all the way around the bag or only in the front?

Princess tote bag attempt #1: ##FAIL

CUTE BUT FAIL

Yes it was an EPIC fail, actually. I started out making it like I would a traditional tutu using a 1 1/2 inch off white ribbon as the "anchor"...and while the method worked, sewing it onto the bag worked too. However, it was WAY TOO POOFY up top and crooked as you can see. I still needed to sew some sequin strips up there, so this would have made it look too lumpy. I needed it to look flat. Therefore, I scoured Google to see what other tips were out there. Thanks to You Tube, a possible solution was discovered: pleating the tulle. This is pretty easy and it lays FLAT. I should have used my sewing machine, but opted to try it by hand. The pleating and sewing took me about an hour for the first layer. Now I know why people charge so much for them (although they probably use their sewing machines, which I might try with the next bag, which will be a Snow White-themed bag).

I recommend that you use the rolls of tulle, which you can find in the wedding section at Michael's (and probably JoAnn's). They are $2.99 a roll. I am going to try and find some yellow and pink glitter tulle, which I am guessing will be in the fabric section of JoAnn's.

Another recommendation: make the bag using three layers of pleated tulle.

Okay one more: make sure you have pins so you can pin it down while you are pleating.

Because I cut a bunch of purple into long strips to make the first bag, a lot of tulle was wasted. I decided to re-use those pieces and pleated piece by piece because it was not necessary to throw that tulle away. Might as well use it; after all, this was a practice bag anyway. Remember, tulle can also be used for making fun hair pieces, which of course will be attempted later this summer.

Materials:

-while waiting for my 6x5 tote bags (in all colors) from HObby Lobby to arrive, I picked up a bigger purple bag at Michael's for $1.69

-Roll of Tulle (whatever color(s) you need

-sewing machine or a needle and some thread

-scissors

-pins

-Strand of sequins (probably two strands, I am guessing)...haven't purchased this yet, but will soon


By the way...please please please consider making your OWN tutus. They are SOOOO easy to make. (HELLO YOUTUBE!!!) No lie. If you have some time to try it out and LOVE crafting, I say why not?! Use coupons and get the tulle 40% off so it's even cheaper and find some elastic. You can use 1 1/2 inch ribbon or those elastic hair bands can work (that you use when you work out to hold your hair back while it's in a pony tail) b/c they stretch like a waste band. Soooo I am thinking that my beloved niece will get a tutu from me for Christmas and I have the PERFECT IDEA for a color scheme. :) Brynn and C. will have matching tutus. I can't wait! I even might send one to a friend's girlie for her 4th birthday. (pending time and how they turn out)

Pics to come soon of Attempt #2...wish me luck!

Bows are back in business!

Birthday Ideas and Planning

I heart birthdays. I heart birthday party planning. I heart stealing ideas from Etsy and making them myself. I heart ordering things from Etsy when I run out of time or someone else can create something I can't.

I love finding new birthday party themes. Brynn's is coming up in September and we are already planning. I asked her if she wanted a princess party or a cupcake themed party. She went back and forth for awhile and finally settled on the princess theme because she saw this cute Tangled cake at the grocery store. Great. :) It's a go.

#5 will be Princess/Tangled themed...we'll have a little bit of both for the party.

Other themes I want to try and convince my children to have:

-Owl party
-Cupcake or Ice Cream
-Rainbow party
-Honey Bee
-Tea Party (complete with vintage tea cups)
-Rock/Guitar themed/music party
-Batman or Super Hero Party
-Spa Party (@ nail salon)
-Bow Tie Party or a Tie Party
-Monkey or a Safari party
-Hungry Caterpillar Party
-Dance/Ballerina Themed party
-Sweets or Candy party
- Lego-themed party
-Star Wars party
-Pirate party
-Pinaklicious or a Fancy Nancy-ish Party
-Pets Party (dog-themed)
-Circus?
-Pool party
-Monster
-Animal Print Party



Party themes we have used:

-Luau/Hawaiian
-Hello Kitty
-Elmo
-1st Birthday (Pink)--no real theme b/c she was sooo sick around that time

-Cars/Racecar
-Tractor/John Deere
-Camouflage

**Check out the next project I will be attempting for my sweet Bee's 5th birthday--favor bags...depending on how expensive they are. We will see. :) She will probably only invite 3-4 girls, so it could be doable. Tulle is not that expensive at all and making tulle skirts are super easy. I think I just need to figure out how to sew them onto the bag. Luckily, I have a sewing machine, which should help. :) Wish me luck! If I get good at them, you'll be the first to know.

Festive 4th of July bows

These are super cute and easy to make. After you make two boutique styled bows, add your favorite boa feathers around the middle and secure with hot glue. My husband would claim how messy the feathers are, but aren't they just simply adorable? I made these for my sweet Bee for the 4th this year. We decided to get festive!

Birthday Bows!

Someone's first birthday is coming and she needed a couple of bows to match. Her mom asked if I could help out, and of course, I accepted the challenge! :) One's a little bit sassy and the other is sweet and innocent. Happy Birthday, little lady!

Wedding Flowers

I am making bridesmaids' hair accessories for a former student of mine who is getting married in a couple of weeks!!! Hot pink flowers w/ a rhinestone middle and black feathers. Pretty cute!

Cake Pops

I read about them on blogs. I see them in magazines. In photos. I've eaten one at a party. I have been drooling over them for MONTHS. Finally, I jumped on the bandwagon and set aside some time to try them out this past weekend. My busy schedule does not allow me to craft nearly as much as I would like this year, so I had to plan accordingly. Little did I know, I would need way more time than I had scheduled. No worries, we still had quite a few quality pops produced by the end of our cooking experience.

When I saw THIS amazing machine in the Kohl's ad, I knew I had to own it. After all, I recognized it would save me a lot of time, since I am lacking in that department often. All of the blogs show how to make cake pops the "traditional way" and I had a feeling that this would be more of a hot mess than a pretty sucker to look at. I like to be crafty, but I LOVE simplicity.

Now Enter...the Cake Pop Maker! TA DA!!



This little guy is fabulous. For $24.99, you, too can own this lovely machine. With your special purchase, you'll also receive a bonus...not only does it make cake pops, but it can also make DONUT HOLES! :) Google "Cake pop Maker" and you will see a link for a site that sells this exact machine. With the click of a button, in five days, I was the proud owner of the one and only purple cake pop making machine. I had to walk by that thing for two weeks just waiting to tear it open. Finally, the day arrived.

Okay. Now there are some tricks to learn and I'm going to provide you with some of them right off of the bat.

First: read the directions. I mean all of them. They are important. You should follow them. For the most part, they are right on. So that means you have to clean/wash it out before you use it.

After this little guy warms up and is preheated, you can put cake batter mix inside. I just used a Pillsbury cake mix from the box. There are recipes included on lots of blogs and in the directions. I mixed it up in my handy dandy Kitchen Aid mixer while I waited for the machine to warm up.

At first, I was using a measuring spoon to measure the droplets and place into the machine. That became messy and it was too big. I then switched to a regular spoon. I filled it about half way into each little section. That seemed to work better. If you overfill the circles, they spill over the top and it's kind of a mess and you have now ruined two or three potential cake pops.

Luckily for my kids, I had SEVERAL screw-ups, so they were able to taste test about 8 of them. They kept asking for more. LOL




After all of the holes are filled, in about 3 minutes, you'll have your first batch of pops. The bottoms will be darker than the tops, and that's normal. (Read directions, they will confirm this.) I popped them out w/ a spoon b/c that was easier than the little fork thing that comes w/ the machine. Before I took them out, I would test them w/ a toothpick and make sure it was clean in the middle. Sweet. In no time at all, we had lots of cake pops...over 50 of them, actually.

I let them cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes.


Next, after they cool, you'll need some of these...in any color you want.


I used the chocolate/cocoa flavored ones first. I also used some pink. I had some sprinkles on hand already, but picked up some turtle crunch sprinkles from JoAnn's and some white sprinkles as well. Good stuff. The turtle crunch as been a BIG hit so far, by the way.

I placed a lot of the cake pops into a bowl and popped them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to harden. This worked well.

The next step involves melting a small amt. of candy in the micro. Then, dip a sucker stick into the chocolate and place it into a cake pop. Do this with as many as you can fit on a cookie sheet and into your freezer. Let them sit in there for about 10 more minutes or so.


Toward the end of their time in the freezer, melt a larger amount of candy and get ready to start dipping. Having the cake pops frozen on the stick really helps when you get to this step b/c they won't fall off of the stick. I used a spoon, dipped some, and used one of my little candy paint brushes to get enough candy on there. Some were thickly covered while others were just right. It takes some practice. Next time, I am going to get a fondue pot and dip into that.

After you dip it, pour on some sprinkles or a topping of your choice. Then place in the sucker holder which comes w/ the cake pop machine. Let dry for about 10 minutes and voila! You have wonderful, lovely cake pop suckers!


My kids loved them. My friends loved them. Other adults loved them. They are a hit! Give them as gifts. Give them as thank yous or birthday treats. Give them as an alternative to a huge piece of cake. Decorate them however you want. When you look at a variety of blogs, you will see some people are SUPEr creative. (see below...who's this overachiever?)



The best part? You can eat them and be merry. And your sweet tooth will thank you for it.

Now, the only thing I would add to this How-to blog is telling you how long this took me with children helping...3 1/2 hours. Yes...a long time. Longer than I envisioned. However, it was fun and we learned a lot. (Well, some of us learned...others of us ate a plethora of cake pops.) I bet you can tell which ones the kids helped with.



Things I'd like to try next time:

-finding a way to cover the pops with LESS melted candy, yet still cover them.
-looking for more recipes for dipping/candy melts
-trying a new kind of cake. I used vanilla this time...maybe red velvet?
-making donut holes. I know my hubby would like that too...almost as much as he loves the cake pops.

Teacher Appreciation

Finally I had some time to post some pictures from Teacher Appreciation Week. We made chocolate dipped fortune cookies, packaged them up nice, wrote a nice note, and distributed to our teachers at daycare. I did not have much time to get something made for them this year, and almost opted to buy them all flowers or a plant, but decided to try Briana's idea. I just used some of the Wilton coca chocolate, which is super tasty, and dipped half of the fortune cookie into the melted choc. and threw in the fridge for about 10 min. to harden. This was such an easy project. Literally. Easy.

I bought fortune cookies at the grocery store. Next time, I'll make the extra trip to the Asian Market...they are MUCH cheaper at the Asian Market. (along with so many other items...like soy sauce, mango slices, veggies, meat, etc.)

I melted the cocoa in the microwave. Easy. 2 minutes.

I used tongs to dip the cookie into the bowl of chocolate.

I covered a baking pan w/ foil and then let them harden in the refrigerator.

10 min. later, I pulled them out.

I used cellophane I bought in packages at the dollar store. It was really big so I cut it to fit inside the cute Chinese take-out boxes, most of which I purchased a while back in the Target dollar aisle.

I then cut out initials for each teacher and a round tag, tied them on w/ ribbon and wrote a cute message. That is all. Easy.

I saved a few dipped cookies to try and OMG they were SOOO yummy and just the right amount of crunch and sweet. Light and tasty. It hit the spot.

Another Auction Donation

I called this, "A Family Divided" and put a UW and a WSU bow in the same basket. I am excited to see how much it sells for at the auction next weekend! I donated this to our daycare auction, along with a bigger basket full of "Pinkalicious" bows...forgot to take a pic of that one, so will have to do it at the auction next weekend b/f it sells.