LEGO Valentines 2014

 These will be our class Valentines for this year. We decided to put together LEGO rings and a little LEGO play set.

We got all of the LEGO bricks from the pick-a-brick wall at a LEGO store.

 I bought 50 adjustable silver ring blanks with glue pad on etsy.

It's easy to attach a flat 2X2 LEGO brick to the ring with E-6000 glue.

 A variety of unique LEGO pieces can create all different types of rings.

 And the little play set is a fence, bench and 2 red flowers ~ too cute!

I did the same packaging as last year when I made the LEGO mailbox necklaces.

A LEGO minifigure crayon was also added.

I have 50 of these to make, so I better get back to work!

Cat and Art Birthday Party

 Another summer, another birthday party... this year the birthday girl wanted a cat + art birthday party.

So we made our own invitations... I had my teenage son lightly sketch an outline of a cat in pencil on watercolor paper, then my daughter painted them in with watercolor paint.

 White paper bags were decorated with a cat by simply tracing a cat image found here.

 The white paper bags were for holding the piñata candy. I got the idea for making a cat piñata here. And got the idea to use a beach ball here.

 My husband did papier-mâché over 2 beach balls, the second beach ball was one step behind the other just in case the first one did not work out (that way we would not have to scramble at the last minute trying to make another piñata from scratch). The first beach ball piñata did end up working out, so now we have another beach ball piñata for another time.

 My teenage son painted the piñata and gray felt ears were glued on. Then it was filled with 5 pounds of candy!

 Each of the 10 kids got to whack it with a stick at least once. The piñata was a big hit with the kids!

 A dozen gray cat cupcakes were baked and decorated by linnycakes.

 Simple cat plates were made by taping cat shaped paper ears to a paper plate.

 White paper was wrapped around an apple juice box, again decorated by tracing the cat image found here. The cat cookies we bought at Trader Joe's.

 My husband drew cat faces on balloons with black permanent marker.

 Going home with each child was a cat zipper pouch. I sewed 10 of these using the Straight Stitch Society feed the animals coin purses sewing pattern. 6 in pink, 2 in orange...

 The orange ones were lined in white with golden stars... the pink ones in pink with white polka dots.

 One blue cat...

 lined with gray with white polka dots...

 and one gray one...

 lined with gray with white polka dots.

 And it would not be a cat + ART birthday party without art... the party took place at an art center and an art teacher read the book "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" then all the kids used watercolor paper, cray pas, and watercolor paints to create their art project.

 And here is the birthday girl's masterpiece.

Thanks for coming to the party with us!

PS If you are looking for more birthday party ideas, in the past we have had Princess Rapunzel, Ballerina, Octopus, and Yellow LEGO themed ones.

Ballerina Birthday

 Here's the second birthday we celebrated this summer... (check out yesterday's yellow LEGO birthday & if you're looking for more birthday party ideas last year we threw an octopus party & princess Rapunzel party).

This year the birthday girl had a ballet themed party, the color scheme was pink with a little white & a touch of silver and here is how we celebrated...

The decorations:
:: store bought ballerina scrapbooking stickers
:: one roll of store bought pre-ruffled pink ribbon
:: 5 pink ballerinas using this template cut out of pink construction paper

 :: I sewed tutus for my daughter's 2 (doll size) dress forms
:: fish bowl shaped punch bowl filled with one yard of pink tulle

 The sweet treats:
:: pink marshmellows
:: pink & white heart shaped candies
:: pink cookies

 Step-by-step photos on how I created the ballerina birthday party invitations...

Inside the invitations:
Come dance and twirl with the birthday girl!
Ballerina (name) is turning (age)!
Date, time, location, RSVP.
Be sure to wear your favorite leotard!

 The cupcake topper was a bamboo kabob stick cut down to be shorter & store bought ballerina outfit scrapbooking sticker.

 The cupcakes:
:: pink ruffled cupcake liners
:: chocolate GF cupcakes with pink frosting

 20 apple juice boxes decorated with tutus
:: 4" X 8" pink construction paper
:: 2" X 8" pink tulle
:: 7.5" pink grosgrain ribbon
:: double sided tape

 One of the crafts: ballerinas with cupcake liner tutus

 We rented a dance studio & a conference room (for the party room) the first part there was dancing lead by a teacher which included "ballerina says" which is like "Simon says" but ballet themed, the girls also played tutu dress-up using tutus from my daughter's tutu collection.

 The birthday girl got a fancy bun hairstyle.

If you need some ideas for your own ballet birthday party, here are some:
ballerina printables
ballet slipper book mark
diy fun tutus
ballerina tote bag
tutu totes
ballerina pop-up cards
tulle pom party wands
tulle pom poms
Not too tutu tutorial
Ballerina cotton candy party favors

PS I've caught up on my summer blog posts and now I'm going to be taking a little blog break, it'll be pretty quiet around here the next 2-3 weeks as I'll be getting my three kids ready to go back to school, then sending them off to school, then I'll be sewing, sewing, and sewing for Project Run and Play Season 5. Until the next post, take care :)