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!