My Take Tuesday: Two skirts

I realize it is Thursday, but the plan is to post projects I have made using others tutorials on Tuesday. That is of course when I can get it together to stay on a schedule. I'm getting there I think!

Today I am going to share two different projects because I am so excited about them both.
First up is the Candy Corn Skirt. This tutorial came from Chadwick's Picture Place. I found it on the Dollar Store Crafts Facebook page! The best part of this skirt is that with some luck you can get all your shirts at the Dollar Tree, which I was able to do.

Here is a picture of just the skirt. This was before I adjusted the elastic, so it is even more tapered now with a smaller waist.
Next is this circle skirt I made using the tutorial over at MADE. Dana is awesome, and this is a great tutorial. I'm a novice sewer and I was able to pull this out relatively easy.

The little misses decided to skip her nap, so we were doing the best we could for a photo shoot.
I made the skirt for a wedding this weekend, so if she ends up wearing it to the wedding, hopefully I will get some more cute pictures.

I haven't touched my sewing machine in far too long, so I loved using these tutorials! I highly recommend both of them.

Mario Party Credits

I was so excited that I was able to find some awesome tutorials and ideas for the Mario Party.
I want to share where all those great ideas came from.

First up are the Mario and Luigi visors. UPDATE: The original tutorial has been removed, so I have created the instructions HERE

I saw the idea for the cake at Cupcakes Take The Cake, via Be Different Act Normal. I put together a picture with the layout and the different color counts. It should save you some time if you want to create this cake yourself. I used foam board as my cake board. It was a tight fit but worked great.

Click on the image to enlarge it and it should print full page size.

I found the coloring page at Jimbo's Coloring Pages. You can go a Google image search for Mario Coloring Page and you will find tons! I really like that this one said Happy Birthday.

The Mario Gummies in the picture above were a Dollar Tree score. The gummies are actually individually wrapped inside the box. I wish I had known that, maybe I could have come up with something more imaginative to do with them. In any case, they were a well enjoyed.

That's it for now. I have the Piranha Flowers to talk about still and at least one more post about what I wish I had time to do.
Until next time!

Mario Party: Mushroom Pops in Pipes

Up first are the Mushroom Pops in Pipes! (I dare you to say that 3x fast!)


Back in June, I saw this idea for Marshmallow Pops that look like mushrooms that was featured on Be Different, Act Normal. The originals were made as part of a smurf party. I loved the idea and decided to make it my own.

Original Project here at My Paper Pony

I wanted to serve them individually in terra cotta pots, but I lucked out and found these little ceramic pots in the Ikea 'As-Is' section for $.10 each! I probably looked nuts as I was squealing with delight and loading up 20 of these little pots in my cart.
I spray painted the outside only with Krylon Fusion in Spring Grass.




The original plan was to put parchment paper inside each pot and bake the cupcakes right inside. Unfortunately I ran out of parchment paper and time, so I baked regular cupcakes and stacked them inside instead.

The mushroom face is a large marshmallow that I drew on with these edible ink markers.
For the mushroom caps, I found some Brownie Bites at the grocery store which were the perfect size and shape.

I melted red candy melts in a deep mug in the microwave and dipped the brownie bites.
TIP: Add some shortening to candy melts to give them a thinner and smoother texture. My caps were looking like that gloppy until I thinned the candy with shortening.

Check out the fail down in the corner. I tried white chocolate chips but the brownies were too dense to push them in!

While the chocolate was drying I placed some yellow sprinkles on half of them to replicate the 'Life Shroom'. The other half I used white pearlized ball sprinkles to look like the regular old mushrooms.

I used some wood skewers to hold the marshmallow and brownie bite together as well as stabilize the two cupcakes in the pot.
They were a huge hit.

Here's little Ms Foxy determined to get at that marshmallow with a fork.

Mario Themed Birthday Party

Well the party was last night and it was a huge success! Not only did my husband love it, but so did all of the guests.
This post is going to be mostly pictures of everything and then I'll break down the elements individually in different posts. I'll try not to write too much. It will be hard though, I am so excited to share!
Just for reference, the party was in a church gym to accommodate the people and activities I wanted to have.

Two wii's and two projectors playing Mario Kart and New Super Mario Bros Wii up on the stage.

These doors were open most of the night, so Mario and Luigi greeted you as you walked in the door.

I fabricated two piranha plants. This was my favorite detail of the whole party.

They were filled with none other than .... atomic Fire balls! UPDATE: You can see instructions on how to make your own piranha plants, HERE.

Mario and Luigi visors and Princess Peach crowns.UPDATE: A Tutorial for the visors can be found here: http://www.cuteasafox.com/2011/08/mario-and-luigi-poster-board-visors.html


Boo Balloons were tied to almost all the chairs. (Ran out of time to give them all faces though, my one regret of the night)

Cute coloring sheets, crayons, and Mario gummies on the tables to keep the younger children entertained. Printable HERE

The Food

I wanted to incorporate the food into the theme as well. I got lots of comments on the food labels.





Close-up of the salad. I cut radishes to look like mushrooms.
The Cake

8 bit Mario with 143 mini-cupcakes.

I also made these fun little mushroom's in green 'pipes' for dessert. A full post on the mushroom is HERE

Over the course of the week, I plan to highlight some of the projects I put together and credit all the ideas and tutorials I found online.
We had a blast, but boy am I exhausted now. I think my Hubs felt like he was well celebrated for his 30th birthday!

Leave a comment about anything you want to make sure I cover. I'll try to get to the most popular things first!
I am submitting this party to:

30 sucks!

I'm waiting for my spray paint to dry so I thought I would sneak in a quick post.


Friday is the big party, but Hubs birthday is actually tomorrow. He is taking his birthday off of work, but I still wanted to surprise him with something fun at work. The 30 'sucks' idea has been cropping up all over the blogosphere and I was so excited that hubs was turning 30 so I could use it too!

Here's the close-up!
Don't you love that he has his own Dwight Bobblehead and his very own Dundee!

The lollipops, paper shred, and styrofoam(the lollies are sticking in it) all came from Dollar Tree. I had the metal planter on hand, but I have also seen similar at the Dollar Tree. What an affordable and fun way to say Happy Birthday!

Mario Party coming up.

I know it's been a little quiet around here, but it will hopefully all be worth it when I can share everything I have been working on. My husband turns 30 on Thursday and I have a big Mario themed party planned for him on Friday night. Mario is turning 25 years old this year, you know. My to-do list is way longer than I could ever finish, but hopefully I will get to all my favorite ideas.

I don't have much I can show yet, but here is one of the Princess Peach crowns. (Lots of little kids will be at this party too!)
Plain Paper crowns and rhinestones both from Dollar Tree. :)

I may not be back until next week, so have a good week! I'll be working hard.

Bunco!

I'm hosting Bunco tonight and I am pretty excited. Our group doesn't go all out with crazy themes and all that stuff, but I like to spice things up when I can.

First, I made this appliqued draw string bag so it will be easier to pass the game from one hostess to the next. First everything was loose, then in a Abercrombie & Fitch bag, and now a cute little Bunco bag.


I also decided to make these fun little necklaces. I saw these die party favors at Dollar Tree and knew I wanted to do something. I picked up some beaded necklaces and Voila!

Now it's off to start dinner for everyone.

Robot Costume Parade

My niece is in kindergarten and at her school the kindergartners all dress up like robots and have a robot parade. I don't know how it fits into the curriculum, but I jumped at the chance to help brainstorm some ideas. Really helps the creative juices to start flowing in preparation of Halloween. This is a 5 year old girl we are working with, so we were going for a fairy, princess, fashion robot. I mean why wouldn't you? Right?

My part was mostly in the planning and supply gathering, so I thought I'd show some pictures and talk about a few of the more interesting elements.

Supply List:

• 2 Roasting pans - Dollar Tree - these taper in a little on both ends, which I think helps with arm mobility. I don't know if it did or not, but sounds about right
• 2 purple beaded necklaces - Dollar Tree
• 1 Fiber Optic doodad - Dollar Tree. I about squealed in delight when I saw the fiber optics in the hardware aisle at Dollar Tree.
• Glow necklaces and bracelets - Dollar Tree
  
• An empty milk jug
• Battery operated light strand
• Monogram 'S' - Joanns
• Fairy Wings - on hand, dollar tree, or make some
• Pom-poms for earrings and embellishment
  

Robot Body

• Painted the front purple
• Inserted the light strands by poking holes
• Spray painted the monogram silver
  
• embellished with the beaded necklace around the S
• The front and back of the body are attached with the glow stick necklaces.
  
• On the back the fairy wings are strung through the roasting pan with holes.
  
• The wings were spray painted purple
• There are more beads embellishing the wing junction

The Head

• We cut the bottom of a milk jug and spray painted it silver.
  
• The batteries for the fiber optics are under the jug and a hole was cut to let the fiber optics come out.
  
• The jug is attached to a headband (I believe) to make it wearable.
• The mask was spray painted silver
• Beads were added to the mask and around the milk jug
  

The Shoes

• The shoes ended up being too small, but they are cute and I wanted to show them
• Painted silver shoes
• beads across the strap
• a pom pom on the toes for cuteness

Tutu
I ended up sewing a tutu-type skirt with some purple metallic tulle that my sister had on hand.

Here are a few of the other robots, if you are wanting some inspiration.



I do love the princess robot and that cutie on the far right. On her back she had a sticker that says I love Wall-e. Too cute.

If you need more specifics, or have any questions, let me know. Lets have this Halloween be the year of the robot! Sounds like a blast!

Eclair Cake

I've got about 4 posts I've mentally drafted, 2 I have started in draft already, and now here is one I will actually finish. I'm hosting Bunco on Tuesday, big birthday party for the Hubs in two weeks, and my Brother-in-law is getting married in 3 weeks. I am in go-go-go mode.

On Labor Day my family got together for a little mini party for my Dad who turned 60! Back in August, Bobbie from A Vision to Remember posted a whole month of recipes. The minute I saw the recipe for a Chocolate Eclair cake, I knew it would be perfect for my Dad. He LOVES chocolate eclairs.

I am not going to post the recipe here, since Bobbie has the whole thing with pictures here.
I loved this recipe because it was very easy to have helpers. My son and niece and spread out the pudding and layed out the graham crackers for each layer. They were so excited to say they helped make Grandpa's cake.

Blog posts are kind of boring without pictures, so here is one of the grandkids, grandpa, and the cake.

(50% looking at the camera and smiling is about the best we can do these days. LOL!)

Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway

A few days ago I posted that my sister was a finalist to win $250 towards her required $2300 of fundraising for the 3 day for the Cure. As of right now she is about 100 votes behind first place. EDIT: The voting is once per IP address, not twice like I originally thought.

To sweeten the pot, I will give away a Breast Cancer Awareness washer necklace or keychain to one person who voted.

Here is what you do:
Go here: http://www.allplussizebras.com/vote
Vote for Cedar Bennett. It is once per IP address.
Leave me a comment on this post that you voted. (If you voted the first time around, just tell me that.)

The contest will run until they close down the voting.
If she wins the $250 dollar donation I will be sweetening the giveaway pot. I don't know exactly how yet, but I will make it good. There will be multiple winners as well.
I would be really, really excited if you shared this on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, or wherever you 'hang' out.

I realize not everyone is able to donate their own money, but anyone can click a few buttons on the internet.

Thanks everyone for your support!

Mason Jar Ghost Tutorial

The general consensus was that people would like a tutorial for the Mason Jar Ghost Luminario, so here we go. I decided that for this one, Mr. Ghosty could use a lady friend, so that is what we went with.


Supplies:

• Glass Jar - Mason jar or recycled food jar
• Contact paper(available at Dollar Tree)
• Glass Etching Cream and craft stick for application
  
• Battery Powered tea light (2/$1 at Dollar Tree)
• Face Template

Step 1. Choose your ghost face. I used this one which came from the Family Fun Halloween Edition. Lucky for you, the nice people at Family Fun magazine put their templates online.
Go HERE for a full list. You can also download the PunkinHead font HERE, which is where the original Mr. Ghosty came from.

Step 2. Lay your contact paper over your design and trace.

Step 3. Cut out your design with an X-acto knife or small detail scissors. You could use your Cricut to cut out the design on contact paper if you are using the PunkinHead font and Sure Cuts a Lot software.

Step 4. Remove the paper backing and apply the contact paper to clean and dry glass. (It's a bit hard to make out, but I think you can see it)

Step 5. Apple your etching cream to the whole jar using a stick or plastic knife. I have had that jar of etching cream at least 10 years. The stuff lasts forever. I also haven't etched much, which is why I have some left after 10 years.

Step 6. Let your gooped up jar sit for 5 minutes, or according to directions on the package.

Step 7. Scrape off any extra cream you can and put it back in the bottle. It will work again, so why not take advantage? Then wash off the remaining cream in water.

Step 8. Dry your jar off once all the cream is removed.

Step 9. Spray paint the outside and inside of your lid. I like silver, but you could go with any color you want. If you are doing a pumpkin face, orange would be nice.

Here they are in the light.

Here they are all lit up and spooky!

I've got some plans to add to my collection so stay tuned!