Yo Gabba Gabba First Birthday Party for $42 (including food)

Once again it has been forever since I posted (it seems like every time I post I say this).  I've been busy planning my baby bears First Birthday party.  

Below are pictures... if there is anything you really want to know the details of let me know and I can post a detailed tutorial, but most of it is pretty self explanatory if you look close (but if not, let me know).

Banners		$1
streamers		$2
Balloons		$1
Goody bags		$2
table cloths		$3
signs		$1
napkins		$3
Plates		$2
Flowers		$4
Macaroni		$3
Velveeta		$5
Hot Dogs		$3
vegetables		$1
cut vegetables		$5
dip		$3
cake		$4
		$42

I made the banners like this so It can be used every year, and for any more children we have I  can just make a new name banner

 

The Gabba Friends banner hanging above our couch :-)

 

 Streamers and balloons to make the room festive

  

 Gift bags with Nick Jr Printables and little toys from the dollar store

 Food Table

Mac & Cheese with Hot dogs, green onion tops, and peas & carrots and Muno dip and Veggies

Muno Dip!  Its just a red bell pepper cut in half with a little dip and a black pepper corn for the eye

More Decorations

The cake.  Home made with the recipe off the back of the cocoa powder can and decorated using a coloring page and this tutorial

Smash Cake.  Home made using just a little of the cake batter in the can of a sweetened condensed milk  then frosted with the leftover frosting from decorating the cake.

Coloring space for after we're done eating (free printables from nickjr.com)

Birthday Present :-) home made Gabba Friends, not perfect, but ordering them from the Gabba Store was 15 bucks a pop and it cost me $20 total for the whole set :-) (not included in total price, just thought I'd show you how much you can save if you make them yourself)  It took me 6 weeks, making one guy a weekend, but one guy a week is totally manageable to do during nap time.

All in all I think it was a successful party :-)

Happy Crafting!

Christmas Center pieces

Once again... Its been forever since I posted here...  we just finished up hosting the Christmas party for the Mom's circle at church, and I just thought I'd share the centerpieces I created.





If you cut a half circle out of poster board, then cut the circle in half and you can make two cones.  I first covered one in gift bows.

 And the other with garland and it looks like a mini tree :-).

 A pre-made garland tree and added bows

Another with ornaments.

Some gift boxes glue guns together.

A yard light and some quilt batting as the north pole.

And of course, a visit from Santa.

Juice Box Cosies

Hey all!

I recently started being in charge of crafts for the children during the moms circle at church, so I thought I'd share my kids crafts too

Our first craft was Juice Box Cosies


I started with the small Foam Sheets  ( about 6" by 9").   Cut in half the long way

 Then cut it at about 7 1/2 inches through both strips.  This will make 2 juice box cosies.

 Take the small piece and put hot glue on half of one end

 Then put that half over the edge of the long piece as shown below.

 Put the juice box in the cosie (so you can get the dimentions right) and fold the edges up like below.

 Put glue across the front of the bottom piece.

 and wrap the front around the juice box.  Then flip it over and o the same thing across the back

 Then run a strip of glue up the back seam and your done!




 TA DA!! 

For the craft with the kids I took a bunch of random shapes and let the kids make their own Juice box monsters for Halloween!  They had a blast :-)

Check back for more fun kids crafts



Happy Crafting!

How to make a cute skirt out of jeans

 What to do when my favorite pants get a hole in the crotch... Turn them into a skirt of course!

 Cut the bottoms of the pants off just below the knees.

 

Cut the inseam out of the pants.

Seam rip the inseam open up to the zipper on the front

and up to about the bottom of the pockets on the back.

Fold over and pin the front seam to make a straight seam.

Stitch it!  (I did two paralell rows of stitching to mirror the style of stitching on the rest of the pants)

Do the same thing on the back seam (ignore the millions of pins below, I was also sewing a patch to reinforce where the hole was :-) )

Stitch it!

 
Cut one inseam and the bottom hem off of the leg pieces you cut off before.

Place the resulting piece of fabric inside the skirt, fold the edge and pin it to both legs

Stitch it!

Do the same thing on the back with the other leg and cut the extra fabric out from the back of the seams.

 Fold the skirt so the inseams are lined up.

Cut across the bottom to even the hem out

 Fold and stitch the hem.

Perfect for looking out at the falling leaves with the baby bear!

Isn't that Sew Cool!

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Dishwasher Detergent

 Ok... so I posted my recipie for Laundry Detergent earlier, so I figured I'd give you my dishwasher detergent too.

What you need:

1/3 cup Borax
1/3 cup Washing Soda
1/3 cup Salt

2 packets Lemon Kool-aid

Bowl to mix it in (i used my food processor because I made this just after making the laundry detergent so it was out and already covered in cleanser powder and its easy to get it well blended this way.

Mix everything together....

 TA DAA!   its that easy :-)  Use 1/2 - 1 Tablespoon per load depending on your dishwasher and how dirty your dishes are (I use a heaping half tablespoon).

Make sure to store it in an air tight container as it has a big tendency to clump.  It still works just fine clumpy and they disolve just peachy in the dishwasher, it just looks kinda janky.

 

If you really want to keep it from clumping throw a silica gel packet (like comes in shoe boxes or inside new purses etc) in the container to absorb any moisture. 

If, when you are using the detergent you get a kindof dusty/mineral film on your dishes (i only notice it on the plastic or clear glassware) it means your water is a little harder than mine (I made my soap weaker so I could show you below).

 The film wipes off so you can see pretty easy, I wiped off the top of the glad box above and the left side of the measuring cup below.

If that happens add another package of Kool-aid (the citric acid in the drink mix helps everything rinse cleaner).

Another option to help everything rinse better is to put white vinegar in the jet dry compartment in the dishwasher.

Hopefully this helps.

Its so much cheaper than store bought detergents and it doesn't take much time at all to make.

Isn't that Sew Cool!

Happy Crafting Everyone!