Jered's 18th BDay

One of my son's turned 18 in Oct. this year and I have been bugging this kid for the last 13 years to let me throw him a Halloween themed birthday party, and he always said no. This year, his girlfriend thought it would be a good idea to have a Halloween themed birthday party...doesn't matter how I got it the point was I got to throw him a Halloween themed birthday party.  Now I had all these plans, and I was going to make so many decorations and goodies, but unfortunately I started back at work Oct 9th...and I couldn't hang.  Although I didn't do all that I wanted to, I think that he had a good time and his friends did too and that's all that matters!  But here is what I managed to accomplish. Most everything I saw on Pinterest so just check out my Pinterest Halloween board if you are interested in doing any of these.

I made little goodie bags shaped like pumpkins.  They were filled with chocolate candies. I didn't hand them out, we just left them on the table since these were big kids  :)

Mummy and eyeball cupcakes.

Finger shaped sugar cookies, don't worry that's not a real one in the middle, it's a prop.

Since I made cupcakes, I went with a small cake.  It's better with the bigger kids, they seem to be messier with cake than cupcakes...go figure.

I made candy holders out of glass candle sticks and glass votive holders I bought at the .$99 store.  I then made faces on my Cricut with vinyl.  Really easy, really fast.  I filled them with the appropriate color candies to represent Frankenstein, ghost, and pumpkin.

I made trophies for the costume contest.  This was a challenge and not as easy as it seemed on Pinterest, of course.

The whole little spread.

Dragon Ball Z Party

I'm back.  I started working and boy is it way harder than I remember.  I could have used a little more time off, but oh well!  Now I'm playing catch up with my blog that I wasn't very good at to begin with and I'm craving that creativity even more :(  Anyway!

It was my son's 9th birthday and he wanted a Dragon Ball Z party.  If anyone is familiar with it, and I doubt it, it's very hard to find anything Dragon Ball Z that doesn't cost you an arm or a leg.  At the time of his party I was still out of work, but already officially hired, so I was (and am) counting pennies.  I decided to make whatever I could.

I started with the goodie boxes.  I used my Cricut cartridge Sweet Tooth Boxes and made these cute little Chinese take out boxes. ( I know it's Japanese, but Origami was to hard!)

The baby blue was for the girls and the purple was for the boys.  My son specifically asked for Gohan, but I thought the girls needed another girl.  I put some fortune cookies, candy, Dragon Ball Z characters I found on ebay, and Dragon Balls in there (bouncy balls)

I tried to make some Dragon Ball cake pops, using dyed white chocolate, but they weren't exactly round. They tasted good and they all got eaten.  I had them as a centerpiece on each table and at the main table.

Next I made some candy sushi.  It's way harder than it looks.  I took the idea from this website, http://pinterest.com/pin/53480314296200758/, but I had to improvise on how I made them.  I ended up just rolling the rice krispie treats with gummy fish inside, cutting in half, then wrapping the fruit roll ups around them.  The kids loved them, a little too sweet for the adults though.

Finally was the cake.  I tried this method of course from Pinterest, http://pinterest.com/pin/53480314295742969/, and it worked wonderfully.  I would recommend it to anyone that is fondant challenged like me.

Here's the overall pic.  I was limited because it was at Pump It Up and they don't let you put anything on the walls or ceilings, so I kept it simple. My son and his friends had a great time and that's all that matters!

Minnie Necklace

I just have to start by saying, why does everything look so easy to do on Pinterest, then when you try it, it's so darn difficult.  Take a simple little thing like a Minnie necklace made from washers.  Should be easy, two small washers for her ears, one for her head.  Modge Podge some scrapbook paper, add string, maybe a bow, easy peasy...not!  Just as an example here is the pic on Pinterest, and the link http://pinterest.com/pin/53480314295662514/

Now here are the pics of my project.

Now I wouldn't call it an epic fail, but it's not where I thought it should be.  It was hard to cut the paper to size, apparently they have many, did I say many, different washer sizes.  Who knew?  Then the Modge Podge didn't work that well to hold the paper or the washers in place.  I needed a stronger glue.  The wire I used was low gauge floral wire, way to hard.  Needed something more bendable.  I ended up using super glue for the bow.  That was the only thing that worked well.  Anyway, birthday girl liked it and that's all that matters.  I'm definitely going to try and try again until I succeed.  Any advice would be much appreciated : )

Halloween Wine Glasses

I saw these on Pinterest and I loved them!  Since I'm hosting Bunco at my house in October I thought it would be great for all those wino's ; )  I followed this site's instruction http://pinterest.com/pin/53480314295981566/ .  I didn't dilute the paint like they recommended, and I just used regular acrylic paint.  It was easy but messy.  Lucky for me I used glasses with black stems.  I had to keep flipping the cup around so the paint didn't drip down the stem or get to close to the edge of the glass.

I'm definitely going to make more, but I used the black stem glasses because I didn't have a full set.  You know, just in case I jacked it.  Now I have to go find some black stem wine glasses.

To Do List

I've noticed lately that I have several craft projects all over my craft room.  I should say my husband noticed.  He said I should really finish one before I start another.  I told him it depended on what tool I was using for the project. He didn't get it, anyway.  He was kind of right.

I had seen several cool organizational ideas on lists, like shopping, to do, cleaning , etc.  I took a crack at it.

I took a 5x7 picture frame that I wasn't using.  I cut a lined paper to the right size and put it in the picture frame.  Not like I ever stay in the lines, but it gave it a good background.  I found some velvet type paper that I had and I covered the frame.  It was harder than you would think because the glass was glued on the frame.  I had to wing the opening of the picture.  Then I added some flowers in the corner, found some letters and spelled out To Do on the top.  I added some velcro on the side and attached my pen.  It has turned out to be really handy.  I put it right above my main desk, so I look at it every time I go to craft.

Now I have no excuse to not finish a product before I start a new one...right ; )

Epic Fail!

Yes Pinterest is great, but...not everything is as easy as it looks.  I've done ok, up until now trying to mimic some of the things I've seen on Pinterest, but by no means are they as good as what you see up there.  This is a prime example.  I've come to call it, my Epic Fail!

I took a shot at some more "artistic" types of coasters.  If you've seen my Mickey coasters they came out pretty good.  Tiles with scrapbooking paper and mod podge...how can you screw that up, right?!  Well I wanted to go for something vintage for my aunt's birthday.  She's a big wine drinker and I've never seen a coaster at her house so I thought I'd try the photo transfer on tiles using the medium gel.

1st of all, my printer decided not to print out quite as dark and clear as it usually does, after many tries. 2nd, don't use glossy photo paper.  It's too thick and doesn't peel off properly. 3rd it takes forever for the gel to dry, way longer than 24 hours.  4th, the tiles I used were very porous and just didn't seem to want to take the pics.

As you can see the wine bottles and grapes barely are noticeable on the tiles.  I'm going to give them to my aunt anyway.  It comes from the heart, right?  : )

I'll try it again and try to fix my many errors.  Hopefully it works next time.  I have 4 more tiles to test it on.

Ahoy Mateys!

My cousins birthday just passed.  Yes I have a lot of cousins!  We have at least 3 birthdays a month, I guess I should be posting more cards then : /  Anyway, she is a pirate fan, so I did my best at a pirate card.

I found some chipboard like material that already had this pattern so I thought it was perfect.  I cut it using the My Community Cricut Cartridge.  I downloaded the best pirate font I could find and used my best pirate accent.  I ripped the paper and used some brown ink to try and give it that pirate map look.  I tried burning the edges for the real look but almost set my house on fire...lol!

I cut out a sinister hook from the Disney Classics cartridge and now I can't remember where I got the treasure chest.  I think it was Spongebob, maybe it was My Community again.  There were several to choose from.  I'm a regular at MyCutSearch. com to try and find what I need quicker. I actually did 2 layers of the chest and cut the top in half and just glued the edges so that I could squeeze the gift card in the treasure chest.  I need to stop being lazy and start buying some real presents!  She liked the card and the gift though  : )

Dessert Stand

Ok, I have seen these things all over Pinterest.  In so many different variations.  I decided to give it a shot.  I found the platters at Michael's in their clearance section.  I paid maybe $3 for the 3 of them.  The candlestick holders I got at Dollar Tree and Target.  Another $3.  I mixed mod podge with some blue food coloring to try and get the sea glass effect.  I think I used to much blue.  I was trying to go with the top plate.  Again I'm just preparing for my daughter's Ariel themed birthday.  You can never be too prepared : )  Then I just super glued the platters to the candlesticks. I also added a lazy susan mechanism on the bottom so it gave it some lift off the table and it spins.  Since the lazy susan mechanism was metal I added some felt circles so it wouldn't scratch my table.

I know the candlesticks look crooked, but I think it's just the angle that I took the picture.  Once I finished it, I realized I had no where to put it.  All my cabinets were full, so it sat on my table for like a week, but it looked good as a center piece on my table, even without sweets ; ) So many more variations I need to try!

Happy Birthday To Me : )

Last Thursday was my birthday.  My husband took the day off and we took a ferry from downtown SD to Coronado, had lunch with my oldest son and his girlfriend, my Dad and my stepmom, then my Mom was waiting for me at home with some presents and my little ones : )  I'm waiting to celebrate big for my 45th bday in 2 years.  I want a Willy Wonka party.  My husband has strict instructions to make it fabulous! It's my bar of chocolate!

Anyway I was too full from lunch so I didn't want cake. I decided to make a cheesecake parfait.  I've been wanting to try it because my daughter is going to have an Ariel party and I wanted to mimic an ocean type of dessert. Graham cracker crust for the sand, no bake cheesecake with blue food gel as the water, and homemade whipped cream as the waves.  Green licorice as a decor to signify seaweed (the licorice got eaten pretty fast so not pictured.) I need to work on presentation still, but my oldest couldn't stop eating them and asked me not to make them anymore because they were to good...success!

The pictures came out better too as my oldest took the pics using Instagram.

Princess Hair

My youngest child is 4 and she is my only girl.  Yes she is very, very spoiled...but that's another story.  I've never been much of a girlie girl.  I was a tomboy as I grew up and kind of stayed that way, with 4 boys I kind of had to be. When I had my daughter it all changed.  I'm forever buying dresses, I learned how to make hair accessories, I actually tolerate shopping now, and I'm always on the look out for a good hairstyle for my daughter.

We were doing our normal french braid down the side when my daughter said she wanted it to circle her head.  At 4 she is very decisive and won't hesitate to tell you what she wants, or what you want ; )  I remember seeing a similar type of hairstyle on yes Pinterest.  I gave it a go from memory.

I basically french braided it all around her head.  Then I made a normal braid in the middle and made it into a bun.  It's a little messy as it is quite difficult to get a 4 year old to sit for very long and her hair isn't even everywhere yet.  She has a lot of baby hair still..  After seeing her in that style all day I decided I wouldn't do it again.  A little too mature for a 4 year old I think, but it turned out ok though.  What do you think?

Halloween Decorations

In my attempt to avoid cleaning house : )  I've seemed to find more time to craft.  And with my addiction to Pinterest I have found the coolest things.

Now I've seen light bulb crafts all over Pinterest and we have a huge collection of blown out light bulbs since we have no idea where to recycle those in Chula Vista.  So if you know where please share : )  The problem is we don't have the normal size light bulbs. We have flood bulbs, which are kind of shaped like a beaker.  Not very many crafts out there for those, at least that I can find...again sharing is always welcomed.  I did manage to find this cool Halloween decoration though.  http://www.oureverydayearth.com/creative-homemade-halloween-potions/  I made just a couple of changes to them.  I spray painted some of the bulbs, and instead of printing on them, I cut out vinyl on the Cricut...I love using vinyl!  I really like the way they turned out.  My son helped me come up with some names and of course loving Harry Potter the way I do I had to use some of his potions : )

Here they are.  (I'm still working on the art of product photography.)

Coasters

Yes I am a procrastinator!  I do everything the last minute and may even be late often.  I have been since college...writing my papers the morning they are due : )  With this in mind, as I prepared to go to Bunco yesterday I realized it was not only my birthday month but one of the other ladies birthday month as well.  As she and I are the youngest on the Bunco Babes (average age is 50 something...that's being kind, lol...and I'm 42 and she's 32) we have what I like to think of as a bond. I didn't want to show up empty handed, so there was a craft that I've been dying to try.  I even had all the supplies to make them...tile coasters.

She is a huge Disney fan.  Visits Disneyland practically every week, so I dipped into my Disney scrapbook paper and made these coasters.

They are all over Pinterest, but I chose this site to work from http://blog.hwtm.com/2010/07/diy-tutorial-mod-podge-tile-coasters/ . Their tutorial was really easy, glossy white tiles from Home Depot, cut the paper to size, apply paper with mod podge, a layer of mod podge over the paper, finished it with lacquer, then felt on the bottom. I managed to do them in 30 minutes.

I really liked them and someone in the family is going to get some coasters for Christmas : )

Here are some closer shots of the coasters.

(I should have centered this last one, oh well, next time.)

Birthday Cards

I finally got around to doing something crafty.

My cousins birthday is today so I made him a birthday card.  He's a little boy so super heroes are key! Given the release of Dark Knight I decided to choose Batman and the fact that I have the Cricut cartridge ; )

I got some inspiration online from some different cards, but I wanted to stick with traditional Batman colors.  I also had that puffy sticker that I thought gave it some cool pop.  I also lifted Batman from the card with the 3D photo adhesives.  The eyes were so small I didn't even try to cut them out, I just used my white paint marker.  It was even hard to do that.  I just did a small word bubble for the sentiment inside, but overall I liked the way it turned out.

It was also my nephews birthday a couple of days ago and I was lagging on the card, so I actually even whipped that one out finally.  He's a huge Charger fan and he's saving for a car next year as he'll be getting his permit, so I wanted a little place to leave some cash in the card too.

This is the front.  I found a Charger font free online and downloaded it and took the lightning bolt from the Cars Cricut cartridge.

I ended up making a pop up card because I wanted the car to stick out.  The only cartridge I had that had a sporty looking car was My Community, but I liked the car.  I did it in Charger colors, and there is no layering on that image so I winged it.  I put a little sun that does have another eye but was covered by the top.  I used a little cloud to hold the cash.  The road is just a black piece of card stock marked with white marker paint, you can see it's a little crooked ; (  Below is the picture of the card laying flat.

I don't think he'll notice the card, just the cash, but I had fun making it.

Hot Dog!

The other day  I had a huge sweet tooth.  Which is the norm for me which is why I started baking.  I love eating all the baked goods!  I couldn't figure out what to make.  Then  I remembered my kids were going to go swimming with their cousins the next day, so I decided to make them some cookies.  Of course they couldn't be just any cookies.  So I decided to make Hot Dog cookies!  I got the idea from where???  Oh yeah Pinterest!  One of these days I'll come up with ideas of my own ; )

Here they are:

They are just sugar cookies shaped like buns, then some food coloring for the hot dogs.   I didn't have any white frosting to dye yellow and I didn't feel like making a whole batch for just "mustard".  I used piping gel instead.  I think they turned out ok.  They tasted great!

I'm trying to find a better place in my kitchen to take pics, they always come out so dark...any ideas?

Happy Anniversary!

My husband and I celebrated our 1st anniversary of marriage this last week.  It's really been a tough year, with our son's cancer, but getting married really put a dab of sunshine in that year.  He really was my strength through the whole ordeal and I feel so lucky and blessed to have found him.  Although we've lived together for 5 years and also have a 4 year old Princess Diva together.  We still feel like we are in the honeymoon phase. I hope that it always stays that way in our many years to come together.  Thank you baby, love you!

Enough of the mushy stuff.  I was lagging on card making for some reason, must have been my over zealous 4th of July, but I did manage to make him a picture frame.  Of course I got the idea from Pinterest and I absolutely loved it.  I think I did a pretty good job.

I got a plain wood frame and organized black and white pictures around the frame.  I used an exacto knife to cut off any edges and I used mod podge to keep the pictures in place.  Then I put mod podge over the pictures for a finish.  This picture probably doesn't do it justice, but check out other samples on my Pinterest.

I also made him some profiteroles.  He loves them and I took a recipe off of foodnetwork.com.  I love Emeril and Paula!  I think they came out a little flat and  I think I'll try a cream puff recipe next time.  Not sure what the difference is between the two, but I'll find out soon enough I guess : )  They tasted awesome though!

4th of July

This 4th of July I was feeling more creative than usual, so I went on over to Pinterest.  I'm totally addicted to Pinterest, it's my new favorite site.  I love the ideas you get from it and I love being able to save ideas I find on the web in a convenient location.  I'm a visual person : )

So this is what I was able to create.

Hair bows for my daughter.  Thanks to http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-A-Full-Mini-Korker-Hair-Bow/?ALLSTEPS.

I made pinwheels for the kids and they doubled as a table centerpiece.

I made some mad hatter cupcakes from one of my favorite Disney sites http://family.go.com/food/recipe-1018483-mad-hatter-fourth-of-july-teacakes-t/.

Then my mom's favorite recipe, fruit tarts.  My husband wants credit for the blueberry star shape.  He did a great job though : )

I had a good time making all this stuff.  Hopefully I get motivation like that again soon!