Garden Apron Party Favors

Garden aprons and 2 things you might not know about me.

 

First, in addition to being a thrift store shopper, we {the husband and I} are flea market groupies.  We go to 2 flea markets a month and have befriended several vendors. 

One vendor, I begrudgingly befriended, after I shunned him for a few months because he ignored my inquiry to buy his Richard Scary Puzzletown characters. 

I begrudgingly befriended him when I noticed his lovely collection of vintage fabrics.  He had yards and yards of fabrics priced to sell.  All the vintage loveliness below, approximately 30 yards of fabric for $12!

My husband, who either knows me too well, or not well enough, suggested that I should turn this vintage floral fabric into gardening aprons for each guest we invited to Grace's garden themed birthday party.

How many guests, did you ask, had we invited to Grace's garden themed party?  14.

Of course, after he made that suggestion, he quickly retracted his suggestion claiming there was no way I would be able to finish 14 aprons.

When challenged, I will do what it takes to prove you wrong.

As soon as we got home from the flea market, I started cutting, ironing and prepping the aprons.

Each apron included pleating detail.  I mean, I can't just make aprons to prove my competency to my darling husband.  This required wowing him. 

One day later, 14 pleated garden aprons were complete.

 

All 14 aprons were then nestled inside the flower punch box.

Once they were punched free, 14 little girls enjoyed our garden party in their vintage flower aprons.

Celebration Flag Tutorial

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of guest posting at Sew a Fine Seam, where I shared a quick and easy sewing project perfect for any party, wedding or celebration.

Celebration flags!

To make some of your own celebration flags, you'll need to gather the following supplies:

Begin by folding your fabric in half.  The fold will act as the back of your pennant.

Using your pinking shears or cutter, cut out a pennant (or a skinny triangle) shape.  The point of your triangle should be on the opposite side of the fold.   

Open up the doubled over pennant shape you cut.  Center the dowel rod in the middle of the pennant.  Fold the pennant over, lining it back up.  With your nail, press down on the inside edge of the dowel rod to create a crease.  This will help guide you when sewing the pennant.

Head to your sewing machine.

Sew starting from the folded over edge at the top of the pennant, down to the tip.  Turn your pennant, at the tip, and continue sewing the bottom of the pennant stopping at the crease mark you made.  Turn and continue sewing following the line of the crease mark back up to the top of the pennant, creating a pocket for the dowel rod.

Insert dowel rod into the pocket you created.

 Optional:  add a ribbon bow.

What is not optional, waving.

These festive flags can be used instead of rice or bubbles for a wedding procession.

Or simply as fun party props.

These make me feel like celebrating.  I just folded laundry...seems like a good enough reason for me to celebrate!

Bunny Themed Punch Box

Pinatas, with all their stick wielding fun, have been a popular party pass time.  'A Casarella, though, is doing her best to take down pinatas and replace them with punch boxes and she isn't even using a stick to do it.  Her tutorial for making your own punch punch has gone viral and I can see why. 

Instead of getting a bunny shaped pinata, and subjecting said bunny pinata with a lashing, we decided to make a bunny themed punch pox for Grace's Bunny Themed Birthday Party.

I decided to share just a few tips for making your own punch box (for the full tutorial, you'll have to visit 'a Casarella).

Finding a thick box is the key, it makes it easier to cut your holes and cover.  I found my boxes at Aldi, the thick cardboard boxes their produce comes in AND, I painted it white, with regular household paint.

To personalize the outside of your punch box, incorporate your theme.  Since Grace's party was a bunny theme, I cut out some 2 inch bunny silhouettes and grabbed double sided tape...

And I gently placed them centered in the punch box hole.

Though I used bunnies, the possibilities are endless to personalize the punch box but even plain, it still makes for a fun party game.

 

The kids, well, they certainly liked being encouraged to 'punch' something and retrieve a prize. 

*I filled the punch box with prizes I found at Goodwill.  Right after Easter, Goodwill got in a shipment of new Target brand Easter toys (stuffed animals and crafts).  I was able to find a prize for each punch box hole for  .50 cents, spending $6 total on prizes. 

This is our second year of opting to go pinatas-less and I suspected, though I haven't started to plan for next year's party yet, that we'll have a punch box for Grace's 6th birthday as well. 

Grace's circus themed birthday party.

For a more detailed tutorial on how to make your own punch box, visit the very talented Elena at 'A Casarella.  

Bunny Favor Bags

Beside for cake, a birthday party is not complete without goodie bags.

What kind of goodie bags do you need for a bunny birthday party?  Bunny party favor bags, of course.

To make your own, gather the following supplies:  brown paper lunch bags, glue stick, bunny silhouettes {cut out of black cardstock} and white pom poms.

These are so easy to make, you could even put your little one to work making them.

Glue the bunny silhouette onto the front of the paper bag.  Then glue the white pom pom onto the 'tail' of the bunny silhouette.

The only thing left to do...fill them.

Each of our guests went home with one of the following a homemade cotton ball bunny tail, bunny ears and a bunny shaped silly straw. 

Thank goodness we had our bunny theme picked out early, we were able to take advantage of after Easter sales!

Make sure to hop back to see more party details unfold throughout the week.
Make sure you hop over and check out the rest of Grace's bunny themed birthday party.

Baby Shower Backstage Passes

When planning a ROCK a bye baby shower, it's the little details that will truly leave the parents to be feeling like rock stars.

These DIY ultrasound picture backstage baby shower 'All Access' VIP passes not only will make the parents to be feel like rockers but are also a great keepsake.

To get started gather the following supplies:

Lanyard {I found mine at Office Depot}
Badge holder
Pic-Monkey {or photoshop}
Your imagination

Since this is a baby shower, celebrating the 'premiere' of the baby to be, I wanted to make sure the passes I designed used one of the couples' ultrasound pictures.

I imported their ultrasound picture into PicMonkey, converted it to black and white and added a border to the bottom of the picture

Then, I played around with adding some color, text and stars.  This is where you can get creative and let your imagination inspire you.

When you have a design you are happy with, print it out {I used copy paper}, trim it down, insert it into your badge, clip it to your lanyard and there you have it custom backstage passes.

The passes were then given to the proud mom and dad to be...who, after all, are the only ones that truly need 'all access' to their baby to be.

Baby Ultrasound Picture VIP ALL ACCESS Passes. 

A unique shower accessory for a 'rockin' baby shower.

To see more ROCK a bye baby shower details, simply click here.

Party Punch Box

What is a punch box you might be asking yourself.  Don't worry, I had no idea until I saw it being pinned and featured everywhere I turned.

 
The woman that made this latest trend go viral, Elena from 'a Casarella, has pinatas all over the world crying, 'don't forget about me'.

A punch box holds all sorts of prizes inside and the only way to get them out, punch through the holes.  How much fun is that?

  

Can you guess what I used to make my own version of this punch box? 

TURANO boxes from Aldi.  They were sturdy, easy to cut and FREE!  

'A Casarella has an amazing tutorial on how to make one.  There is no use to reinvent the wheel, so go and check her post out for all the details.  And, make one for your next party!

This punch box fun was 100% inspired by:



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C is for Crayon

In preparation the arts and crafts birthday party we had for Grace. I had feverishly started working on party favors months in advance (mostly because, I admit, I am crazy). One of which, personalized crayons.

I used alphabet silicone ice cube trays as a mold for my crayon letters.

If you are looking for the same ones I used, you can find them here.

There are so many cute silicone ice cube trays out there, please don't feel limited to use the alphabet mold. Just do a search for 'food safe silicone ice cube trays' and see what you find. I just found these...

You can buy them here. How cute would they be for a dinosaur themed party?

Grab your crayons, I found Crayola worked the best something about the color to wax ratio they use compared to generic crayons, and start to peel off the labels.

When your crayons have been peeled, start to break them into pieces and stuff your silicone mold. I used about 2 1/2 crayons on average per letter. I also stuck with similar colored crayons for each individual letter.

Preheat your oven to 225. Set your silicone molds on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes.

This is the hardest part...wait until they have completely cooled off and solidified. If you get tempted to take the letters out before they have completed hardened, which I may have done once or twice, the result is not pretty, sad little broken letters.

Can you guess what name I was making? If you use generic crayons, you may want to try and mix the wax, which will rise to the surface of your letter, using an opened up paperclip. If you opt to do this step, you need to do it immediately before the crayon starts to solidify.

If you opt to use the letters to create personalized party favors, like I did, spell out the name, using your crayon letters on white paper and take a picture.

Once you have all your names photographed, open up a word document and insert your picture into a text box. I added 'personalized crayons' under the picture of the name, so there would be no question what their gift was. Print it out and use it for a gift tag.

Then put your crayons in a clear party favor bag, attach your gift tag and admire!

*Avoid reusing any molds for their original purpose (ice cubes or baking), if they were used to melt crayons.

Be sure to check out the Arts and Crafts Party we used these personalized favors for.