tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33707639404809873382024-03-05T01:47:17.924-08:00Geeky CraftyI'm a little bit geeky, a little bit crafty, and a whole lot cheap. Here you'll find my musings on craft geekery, all on a thrifty budget.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-80352417969658101302013-09-20T05:13:00.000-07:002013-09-20T05:13:40.742-07:00Tween Teal Room RemodelMy daughter had a big birthday this year - 10! And that called for a big birthday gift. We converted her pretty, pretty princess pink room into a room more reflective of her current tween tastes. Since she loves all things peacock, we went with a palette of aqua and teal with pops of green and purple.<br />
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I also wanted to use this opportunity to improve the functionality of her room, so that meant making a few frugal changes in her furniture. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this, so I tried to modify what we all ready had or rely on thrifted and discount finds as much as possible. I'm so happy with the outcome. Take a look...<br />
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We took her walls from pale pink to cool aqua. I agonized over the color choice. Too dark and it could have been depressing. Too light and it could feel cold. I ended up finding just the right color from Behr at Home Depot. I always seem to end up picking Behr - something about the saturation and clarity of their colors just feels right to me. We kept the high white shelves in place - they are so useful for displaying pictures and knickknacks while keeping lower surfaces less cluttered. The area under her bed is useful for extra storage. I found some great bins at Michaels to corral nail polish and doll clothes (and does that not say it all about being a tween - halfway between little girl and young woman - sniffle sniffle...) as well as stuff she doesn't need to access daily, like her gear and bathing suits for synchronized swimming.<br />
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We modified the arrangement of the room slightly by moving the bed away from the wall and giving her a good sized nightstand with lots of storage. She is a big reader and needed a place to keep her stack of books and collection of bookmarks. The nightstand was originally in the guest room and I thought it would be a good fit for her. I painted it white with green in the cubby and did a harlequin pattern on top using painters tape to help form the design. That lamp was originally hers, but it is now sporting a deep purple shade - a Goodwill find courtesy of my mommy.<br />
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Above the nightstand is a piece of custom art that I created from a thrifted frame. It was originally a pale peach frame with a colonial blue matting surrounding a poem extolling the virtues of grandmothers. I snapped it up because I liked the oval shape and that it had a mat all ready. Once I got it home, I cleaned it up, primed it, and spray painted the frame lime. For the mat, I painted right over that bad boy with acrylic paint and then slapped on a top coat of glitter for good measure. I then went to wordle.com and fiddled around until I created something that would fit. My tween is really into synchronized swimming, so I populated the wordle with terms from the sync rho world. I was so pleased with how it turned out. All told, it cost $2 and took less than a hour of active work time.<br />
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Hanging from the window is a ribbon chandelier that I made from lots of ribbon and a small embroidery hoop. The curtains were a close-out find at Ollie's - sheer white with aqua polka dots. Only $5 a panel!<br />
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Her desk resides on the other side of the bed. With a few modifications to the area, it's a little more functional now. I covered her original French memo board with a pretty piece of calico that I found at Walmart. Where the sheer lavender ribbon is stapled to the board, I hot glued iridescent rhinestones. The pegs holding buckets were originally in our nursery (AGAIN with the sniffling). I repainted them aqua and wasn't happy with the aqua on aqua look, so I tried to put a opalescent top coat on one to see if I liked it. I'm still not sure how that will end up - I may just scrap aqua and go purple with those. On the other side of the memo board are fabric-covered cork boards in pretty thrifted frames (only one is up in this picture, but eventually there will be two - the other one is aqua and as previously mentioned - aqua on aqua it too much aqua). I'm a big fan of using walls for vertical storage to keep horizontal surfaces clear. I hope that this helps her to keep her desktop clean and open and ready for work.<br />
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After I mounted all of the desk stuff, I found out that my hubby had bought a custom lattice-style memo board for the room at a craft festival. He was so proud of himself because he NEVER buys decor (or anything really- he is completely averse to shopping). I'm thinking we might put that on her closet door since the desk area is full. Funny story - the craft festival was in North Carolina - my inlaws live there - and when my husband inquired about the color choices, he was informed that (cue pretty southern accent), "his daughter might like this seafoam green and they also have a very nice Richard Petty blue." Huh? I've heard of a lot of varieties of names for different hues of blues, but never a "Richard Petty" blue. Apparently that's a race car driver's signature color? Can you tell we are not race car fans? Does one call oneself a race car fan?<br />
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Moving to the other side of the room, we kept her 9 x 9 storage cube and swapped out the pink bins for blues, greens, and purple. She originally had a 3-shelf bookshelf, which was woefully inadequate to hold all of her books, so we swapped it out for a tall bookcase. We modpodged scrapbook paper onto the back of each shelf to give it some personality. The books case is large enough to hold lots of books and her American Girl dolls. Yay - they don't have to live on the floor any more! I swagged the <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/06/rock-climbing-party-part-3-party.html">name banner</a> that I made for her birthday party from curtain to curtain - it adds a nice touch.<br />
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Above the cube is a peacock painting we stumbled across at Ross - love it! And for only $7! Next to the 9 x 9 cube, we put her teal saucer chair and a little aqua storage ottoman - both from Target. The ottoman is just big enough to hold a fleecy throw. With a little lamp on the adjacent shelf, she now has a cozy reading nook to curl up in.<br />
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At right angles to the reading nook is her closet and then a little alcove just the right size for her dresser. We mounted a thrift store mirror that was originally an awful pink and gold color - with a coat of glossy white spray paint, it's perfect in this space. And then - the piece de resistance... the custom accessory organizer. It's made from a thrifted calendar holder. I removed the back and sanded it down and then stapled chicken wire to the frame. Next came a coat of primer and some lime spray paint, followed by affixing some cotton batting around the back to prevent the chicken wire from scratching the wall. After that, I attached the lavender ribbon and screwed little cup hooks around the edge. I am so happy with this piece. It's fun and functional. My tween can now see all of her accessories at a glance. They are in one central location and are not occupying any horizontal space. Clips are attached to a ribbon knotted through the wire. Headbands are tucked into the wire openings. Necklaces and bracelets dangle from the hooks. Tiny items are corralled into a hanging bucket. And pony tail elastics are color coded and loaded onto shower curtain rings suspended from hooks. This project was worth every ounce of sweat. If I ever make one again, I will remember that it's easier to snip chicken wire with scissors than wire cutters and it's easier to install screw hooks if you drill a little hole 1st (yes, I am that clueless about hardware) and I will try to find a frame with wider edges so there is more space for stapling.<br />
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Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-37837658005808777462013-09-18T05:05:00.000-07:002013-09-18T05:09:50.919-07:00Skylanders Party Planning - Part 7, THE PARTY!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">At long last – I present to you... the summary of our Skylanders party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Yes, it has been over two months since said party took place, but better late than never, eh?</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The activities went over really well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids loved moving from station to station and acquiring crystals and gems to fill their customized pouches (tutorials on how to </span><a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/05/rock-climbing-party-part-2-favors-and.html"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">sew them</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/01/ah-my-very-first-blog-post.html"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">stencil them with fabric paint</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> here).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The </span><a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/04/skylanders-party-planning-part-3.html"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">archery targets</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> looked great and the </span><a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/05/skylanders-party-planning-part-6-flame.html"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">flame arrows</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> were really fun as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Next time I would trim the flames down a bit to make it easier to nock the arrows.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The treasure hunt to find the treasure rocks went well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I was really pleased with how the treasure rocks turned out. I used this tutorial: </span><a href="http://theklincks.blogspot.com/2012/09/logans-skylander-birthday-party.html"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Treasure Rocks</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The kids loved the ice orb smash and the tongue grabber game.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The wall of streamers was meh. I ran out of time and wasn't able to put up as much as I wanted. If it had been finished, I think it would have been fab. Even incomplete, it added a nice pop to the yard.</span></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was very pleased with the rest of the décor. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Streamers behind the food table provided a colorful focal point.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was happy with my goofy centerpieces. I used my </span><a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/04/skylanders-party-planning-part-4-mod.html"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">elixir bottles</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and filled them with colorful beads for ballast.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have to say that tissue tassels are definitely my new favorite thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the party, I snipped the tassels off of the string, sorted by color, strung them on pipe cleaners, and hung them in the craft room to use for another time.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Sadly, the </span><a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/03/skylanders-party-planning-part-2-elixir.html"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">portal punch</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> was a fail – I forgot that the pumpkin lights really only work in the dark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the punch was good and the portal cardboard surround I made had a strong presence on the table.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We had too much food, as usual, but I don’t care – I love having the variety available. Pizza, chips, water melon, and pineapple for lunch. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The sweets table turned out really well, although we did end up moving it indoors to escape the oppressive humidity and voracious mosquitoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> We made marshmallow pops dipped in pop rocks. I displayed them in a diner-style shaker filled with pom-poms.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We also had chocolate dipped pretzels, a mini-cake with a simple buttercream stripe pattern topped with the logo on strwas, cupcakes with character and logo toppers, and my personal favorite - the Chompie Truffles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought the red fangs made from candy cane jimmies (sorry – showing my Delaware roots – jimmies are sprinkles) were fun.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was also excited to serve pre-scooped ice cream. I bought mini-mason jars and put a scoop of vanilla bean in each the night before. It was so easy to pull them out and stack them up on the sweets table. I have a thing about sticky hands and drippy sticky containers, so I will be doing this from now on. This little step easily reduced my stress level by several clicks.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0eNKi6HzFuQ/UeXvZb9dWcI/AAAAAAAACRs/wAwc6DvREr8/s1600/20130713_99_44.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" closure_lm_835076="null" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0eNKi6HzFuQ/UeXvZb9dWcI/AAAAAAAACRs/wAwc6DvREr8/s320/20130713_99_44.JPG" vsa="true" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pjhe_04BPuQ/UavVuK_HI4I/AAAAAAAACG4/23lFrOCu-PA/s1600/20130528_99_19.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" closure_lm_835076="null" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pjhe_04BPuQ/UavVuK_HI4I/AAAAAAAACG4/23lFrOCu-PA/s320/20130528_99_19.JPG" vsa="true" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">They were filled with the same red and gold cello used for the flame arrows, which was very frugal of me, I think.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Trigger Happy Chocolate Coins</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Double Trouble Gumball Orbs (still leftover from Easter - will we never be done with these freaking gumballs?!?)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Pop Fizz Pop Rocks (Dollar Tree)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Zap's Sea Slime (Target Dollar Section)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">And Hex's Bone Erasers (no pic of those, unfortunately. They were in the Target Dollar section with the grilling-themed stuff.)</span></span></span>Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-75955334477444173392013-08-04T19:33:00.001-07:002013-08-04T19:33:46.643-07:00Go WEST!!!So... I've been a bit remiss with the blog lately. I can explain - you see, I've been really, really freaking busy. Between birthday parties and a long trip out west and a room remodel and renovations on the house, plus all the regular stuff like laundry, cleaning, and making sure everyone gets fed and loved, oh, and being a full-time scientist leading a major testing effort as well, yeah, I've been a bit busy. I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, thankfully, and I'm eager to get back to the blog and share some stuff. First up - some of my fave crafty things spotted on our trip. <br />
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We spent a little over 2 weeks tooling around the great American West (Arizona, New Mexico, a teeny bit of Texas, Colordao, Utah, and a teenier bit of Idaho), and let me tell you - it was splendiferous. And BIG - holy cow, was it big. Coming from the East Coat where you can hit most of the states in a single day, it was shocking to drive across those massive states for hours and still be miles away from anything. And it was also really, really hot. And you know how everyone always says, "But it's a DRY heat"? This is true. You know what else is a dry heat? An oven. Yep. You know you're in trouble when you have to sprint across the pool deck to avoid burning your delicate north-eastern tootsies. Or open the car door with your hand tucked into the hem of your shirt to avoid burning your delicate north-eastern finger-ies. (Why is there no "tootsies" equivalent for fingers?) Anyhoo, we perserved through the heat and were rewarded with absolutely stunning scenery and unforgettable experiences.<br />
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First up - Roswell, New Mexico. Just as cheesy and weird as I hoped it would be. One of my favorite things - this store, named "UFO and Alien Stuff". Hmm... I wonder what they sell there? I love a business that avoids ambiguity.<br />
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In Santa Fe, which is now on my list of favorite places in the world, along with New Orleans, Caen, and Martinique, I wandered into a jewelry store and saw this beauty on the wall. A longhorn skull bedazzled with turquoise chips. That is EXACTLY what a jewelry store in New Mexico should have on the wall. I applaud you, Jewelry Store - you've done that steer proud. I don't actually recall the name of the store. See? This is what happens when you use ambiguous names. The Jewelry Proprietress should take a page from the proprietor of UFO and Alien Stuff.<br />
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Another from Santa Fe - every business and residence we saw had chiles strung up to dry outside. They take their chiles VERY seriously. After having eaten some, I see why. Delicious!<br />
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I was surprised to learn that there is a Colorado-style pizza. I've heard of New York style, Chicago style, but never Colorado style, so we had to try it. It was pretty tasty and we thought it was cool that they serve honey on the side to dip your crusts into. I never would have thought to do that, but it was really good and the kids loved it. We didn't need any dessert after. (Although we had dessert anyway. I mean, let's not be crazy here.)<br />
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And finally, I saw these old tubs used for a salad bar and thought it was very clever. I love things that are clever. And I also love a salad bar. So this was a double whammy.<br />
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I don't have any pictures, but we happened upon a farm / craft market in Salt Lake City and there were all sorts of cool things there. I sampled some mojito salsa - Delish! There were pretty cake stands make from colorful wood platters and pedestals. There was also a vendor selling fresh lemonade served with striped paper straws. I desperately wanted one, but we never found the booth. Sniffle. Paper straws! I want.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-7693781774615548922013-06-07T12:18:00.000-07:002013-06-07T12:18:15.926-07:00Rock Climbing Party - Part 3, THE PARTY!My daughter just celebrated her 10th birthday. I know this is the ulitmate cliche, but where did the time go? My beautiful little Gerber Baby has grown into a beautiful young lady, poised on the edge of tweendom, growing like a lovely sunflower - I love her to pieces and am so proud of the independent, smart, caring person she is becoming. <br />
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<br />We celebrated this milestone birthday with a joint birthday party with her dear friend, E. Both girls turned 10 within a few days of one another (which is remarkable in our district, where tons of the kids are "red-shirted", i.e. parents opt to hold their kids back before starting kindergarten, which means that kids start school at 6 instead of 5. A lot of the 4th graders in her class were 10 at the beginnging of the year. I had never heard of choosing to hold your kids back before moving here...). Anyhoo, both girls wanted a rock climbing party, so we doubled up on the fun with a duel party. Their joint party was a great success. The two birthday girls had an amazing time climbing and being feted by their friends. Here are some of the highlights.<br />
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<br />Pizza and drinks were included in the package, so our only food contribution was birthday cake. For E., there were from-scratch cupcakes with Etsy flamingo toppers. For my M., I made a <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/06/checkerboard-kit-kat-cake.html">kit-kat cake with peacock-colored M&M's on top</a>. I made the cake from a butter recipe mix, but amped up the fun by using my checkerboard pan. I finished it off with a cardstock pennant and sound some cool Wilton candles with blue and green flames. (I set the orange and red candles aside to use at the Skylanders party next month...) To make the moment special for both girls, we sang to each one separately.<br />
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<br />The cake table served as the focal point for decor. It was topped with a (wrinkly! boo!) white cloth (a thrift store sheet that I repurposed). I wish it wasn't so wrinkly - how do you get linens to a destination without wrinkles? The cloth was adorned with handmade name banners for each girl (denim triangles with <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/05/rock-climbing-party-part-2-favors-and.html" target="_blank">iron-on letters</a> sewn to seam binding). <br />
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I made a little vignette with <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/04/glittery-initials.html" target="_blank">glittery initials</a>, some sentimental baby pics, and a fun pic of both girls together with a birthday message added in Picasa. The backdrop was made from my <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/04/making-tissue-paper-tassel-garland.html" target="_blank">tissue paper garland</a> mounted with zip ties from Dollar Tree. I had planned to mount them on painted wooden dowels, but that didn't work. I improvised and zip-tied them to the pipe railing instead - it looked awesome!<br />
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Scattered on the table were the various favors - a water bottle and free climbing coupon provided by the facility, little cello bags filled with shimmer gumballs (last minute addition when I remembered that we had a ton leftover from Easter) stapled with a scrapbook paper topper, and <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/05/rock-climbing-party-part-2-favors-and.html" target="_blank">monogrammed favor bags</a> filled with pop rocks, a carabineer, and a little thank you note mounted on pretty scrapbook paper. The note read "Thank you for your generous donation. We're so glad that you were able to help us celebrate our 10th birthdays. E and M". We went with a generic thank you since there was no way to know who gave what to the birthday girls. This was because our girls opted to not receive gifts and instead asked guests to consider bringing an item to donate to their chosen charities - a local food cupboard for M. and local animal shelter for E. This really warms my heart. Once upon a time, I was one of those poor kids RECEIVING food from food cupboards like this one, so it makes me so happy that our family can give back and also that my child WANTS to give back. Not every kid would be willing to pass up birthday presents like this, so kudos to you, E. and M.! To make transport easy, we brought plastic bins to serve as the donation receptacle. Each birthday girl made a sign for their charity to add to the bin.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-6799413892846883172013-06-07T12:01:00.002-07:002013-06-10T10:18:26.318-07:00Checkerboard Kit-Kat CakeAs I've mentioned before, I am <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/01/cake-fails-and-triumphs.html" target="_blank">cake-challenged</a>. When I need a cake, I try to put a lot of thought into the plans to make sure that it's something I can do successfully. My oh-so-practical daughter helps me to stay <strike>humble</strike> on track. We'll look at cakes online and she'll say, "Do you REALLY think you can make that, Mommy? Remember the castle cake..." She'll totally discourage me from trying something if she thinks it's too ambitious. She is wise beyond her years.<br />
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So for this birthday, I wanted to do something that was fun and likely to be a hit with a group of kids, but most importantly, was within the scope of my abilities. I saw something called a Kit-Kat Cake on Pinterest and thought that with a few tweaks (making a checkerboard cake and swapping the regular M&M's for specialty ones in her fave colors of aqua, lime, teal, and purple), it would fit the bill.<br />
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As mentioned before, I always like to do a demo cake if I can. Once again, it was well worth the trouble and expense. I realized many things... 1st that 1 box of cake mix was not enough to yield cake layers tall enough to match up with the Kit-Kat sticks. I also ran out of blue batter and it was very hard to match the hue later with only a small amount of batter (see the dark greenish bit in the center - that was trying to be blue). <br />
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I also did not have enough Kit-Kats! For the demo, I purchased 4 of the king-size ones and was short several sticks. Doh!<br />
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Learnings here - this cake needs 2 boxes of mix to yield taller layers. One box-worth of batter should be tinted green and the other box tinted blue. 2 cans of frosting would be good as well. And 5 king-size Kit-Kats are definitely be in order. The amount of M&M's was good - about a pound.<br />
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I also learned that I should not do the frosting and Kit-Katting too far in advance. The demo cake was made a day before eating and even though it was stored in a sealed cake carrier, the Kit-Kats definitely had a stale taste to them. For the real cake, I baked it a day before, let cool overnight, and frosted and added Kit-Kats just a little before.<br />
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To achieve the checkerboard effect, I used my handy-dandy checkerboard cake kit. I received it as gift from my hubby for our 1st Christmas as husband and wife - aww! It consists of three round pans, each with a detachable plastic insert that looks like a 3-ring bulls eye. The idea is to alternate the layers of color - 2 pans should have the same pattern and the third should be the opposite. So if 2 pans are blue green blue, the third should be green blue green. You add the batter, remove the inserts, and bake normally. When assembling, put blue green blue on the bottom, then green blue green, then top with blue green blue. When the cake is cut, it looks checkered. My tip for adding the colored batter... spoon your batter into a large ziploc baggie, snip off a end (make a deep snip - about an inch), and pipe it in. It's much easier than trying to spoon or pour the batter into the rings. Another tip is to choose a recipe that makes a fairly thick batter - the ring inserts are not attached to the bottom of the pan, so a really runny batter would seep under the inserts and ruin the effect. I made this with Pillsbury Butter recipe mix (don't judge!), which yields a really nice, thick batter and a sturdy, dense cake.<br />
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Here's the finished product.<br />
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I was very pleased with it! After baking and cooling overnight, the assembly of the cake only took about 30 minutes. That let a little time to pop it in the fridge before leaving for the party (it was 94oF and HUMID on the day, so we wanted to chill it a bit as a preemptive strike against melty fosting.) <br />
The checkerboard effect was very cool - I love my checkerboard cake pan! I wish that I had taken a close-up of the inside of the cake, but as I mentioned, it was 94oF and HUMID and - surprise! The facility wasn't airconditioned. So I was a little off my game with heat delirium. Sorry! You can sort of see it here...<br />
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And lastly, I topped the cake with a homemade pennant. I used twine and scrapbook paper to make it. I wanted to spell out my daughter's name, but she insisted on "10" and "M" only. This being my 1st go-round with a cake pennant, they ended up a little wonky. I wasn't sure that the straws would stay up unsupported, so I threaded bamboo skewers through the straws for extra oomph. Unfortunately, the skewers I brought were longer than the straws, so I had to deeply angle them to not show. Next time - shorter or no skewers are the way to go.<br />
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This cake was a HUGE hit with kids AND adults. I'm adding this to my easy showstopper arsenal... Kit Kat Cake, meet <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/01/cake-fails-and-triumphs.html" target="_blank">Rose Cake</a>!Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-66566859698124124932013-05-31T07:50:00.001-07:002013-06-01T17:21:19.776-07:00Girl Scout Journey CelebrationMy daughter's Junior troop recently completed their Journey to earn their Get Moving badge. They spent the last year diligently working on it, learning about energy and conservation along the way. The Journey concluded with an event at a local park to celebrate their accomplishment. Because I love parties, I volunteered to assist the mom leading the event. She was gracious enough to let me be her collaborator on the project. It was so much fun to share this project with her - thanks, T.! We are kindred party-planning spirits!<br />
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To honor the journey, we stuck with an earth and conservation theme and worked to bring in lots of color as well as upcycled and reclaimed elements with some pretty vintage touches as the cherry on top and is that a run-on sentence or what?<br />
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<b>Food</b><br />
<u>Dirt cups:</u> Chocolate pudding and crumbs with whipped cream, enclosed in mason jars - the ultimate eco-friendly party tool. T. gussied them up with cupcake wrappers on the lids for a punch of color. She stacked them in a beautiful dark wood crate, which I <i>totally</i> covet!<br />
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<u>Earth cupcakes:</u> Modified from this <a href="http://birdonacake.blogspot.com/2012/04/earth-day-cupcakes.html" target="_blank">post</a> (skipped the heart center), these were a hit. Topped with a simple buttercream, they were quick, easy, and festive. Side note - when I tinted the batter, I wasn't thinking and did more green than blue and it irritated me all day that my ratio of "land" to "water" was skewed. Did I mention that I'm a geek? Anyhoo, regarding the frosting - I did hear from some girls that the frosting was a bit too sweet. Does anyone have a buttercream recipe that's less sweet? Mine is 2 sticks butter, 4 cups powdered sugar (which I reduced to 3 cups), and a splash of milk and a bit of vanilla. My favorite frosting is the cooked frosting recipe listed <a href="http://www.joepastry.com/2011/heritage-a-k-a-boiled-a-k-a-flour-a-k-a-cooked-flour-a-k-a-gravy-a-k-a-cloudburst-frosting/" target="_blank">here</a> - it is TO DIE FOR, but I was worried it wouldn't hold up in the heat - even the buttercream got a little flat and melty and buttercream is MUCH stiffer than this cooked frosting. (And in case I wasn't clear - this frosting = AMAZING.) But if you make it, do yourself a favor and <u>do not use store-brand butter</u>. Name-brand butter only. You may also want to do a practice run before trying to make it for an event. There are some traps that can make things go <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/01/cake-fails-and-triumphs.html" target="_blank">very wrong</a>.<br />
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<u>Fruit Skewers:</u> T. and I split them up and each made half. I really liked that approach because we ended up picking different fruits, which made for a nice variety in terms of taste and color.<br />
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<b>Decor</b><br />
The food table was covered in a blue cloth (originally, it was covered by T.'s creamy vintage lace tablecloth, but the high winds knocked over a pitcher of lilacs that some idiot put on the table (moi!), so we had to improvise. Food was arranged around the aforementioned crate <i>(me want!)</i> and accented with some pretty pansies and a sweet little doily. In lieu of water bottles, T. brought a beverage dispenser filled with cool water. We supplied plastic cups which were cobbled together remnants from other parties. We also made sure to bring recycling bins to the park. The paper straws added a nice pop of color. The final touch was a simple banner that T. put together with twine and vintage napkins - the napkins were draped over the twine and pinned in place. Even in teh high winds, it held together nicely. The vintage napkin banner was just the right little touch to bring some vintage elegance to the setting.<br />
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The girls sat picnic-style on blankets spread under trees to enjoy their treats. The idea was to have jugs and jars of lilacs scattered around, but it was just too windy. The lilacs were grouped in a pretty basket and used to accent the food table instead.<br />
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<b>Activity</b><br />
In keeping with their focus on recycling, the girls made jewelry from reclaimed hardware. We have a Tool Thrift Shop in town where donated items are resold at low prices. All proceeds go to a local senior living facility. I was able to find a ton of washers in various sizes. A quick coat of primer and they were ready to be enameled with nail polish. I found several sets of mini bottles at Big Lots and Marshall's and the girls went to town making unique pieces. We provided hemp twine in bright colors to string the finished product.<br />
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<b>Awards</b><br />
The event concluded with the leaders talking with the girls about the highlights of the Journey followed by passing out their patches. For a fun presentation, the patches and a seed packet with a vintage-inspired label were bundled into a colorful bandanna hobo pouch tied with jute twine. Because the whole troop earned the same patch, there was no need to personalize the bandanna pouches. In retrospect, we should have considered handing them out rather than letting the girls pick their own. I noticed that while the leader was speaking, some of the girls were more focused on creeping closer to the bandannas to ensure that they could be the 1st to pick their color. Oops!<br />
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Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-37909242324404034092013-05-24T05:56:00.000-07:002013-05-24T05:56:38.362-07:00Patriotic Rag Wreath<br />
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It's almost Memorial Day! I love Memorial Day. I love the cookouts and the kick-off to summer, of course, but I also really love the flags and parades (I ALWAYS cry when I see the veterans march by - thinking about what they've given to us and what they've been though to keep us free and safe) - just the whole patriotic spirit and sentiment of the holiday - honoring those who serve and keep us safe. To all the service men and women out there - thank you. My husband and I have not served ourselves, but we have a long history of warriors in our families, from my husband's grandfather who was a D-Day paratrooper in WWII and my grandfather who served in the Air Force in Korea, all the way back to ancestors in the Civil War (we have ancestors who served for both the North and the South, actually) and Revolutionary War (again, we both have ancestors on both sides - I find that so interesting).<br />
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So in the spirit of the holiday, I decided to try my hand at a patriotic rag wreath. I choose this style because I am trying to be very frugal (we are saving for a trip to the Southwest this summer and a renovation to the outside of our house - looking forward to not being the ugliest house in the neighborhood anymore!) and wanted to use only items I had on hand all ready. I'm feeling very frugalista. I didn't have any wreath forms, but I did have an embroidery hoop. I thought that a rag wreath would really fill out the hoop nicely.<br />
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For the rags, I pawed through my fabric bin and found some muslin scraps, a red calico with white hearts, and 2 blue calicos - one royal with a subtle leaf print and the other more of a cadet blue with vines. I went with both, thinking that the slight differences in tone would add some more visual interest. I ironed all the fabrics and cut many, many strips of each. Each strip was about 7 inches long and 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch wide. I wasn't precise with the cuts.<br />
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On a whim, I also pulled out my bin of wooden shapes and was rewarded with the perfect find - several star cut-outs in 2 different sizes. I used 5 and painted them red, gold, and blue. I wasn't thrilled with the red and blue, so I tried to do an antique-y layer of gold over top. I was going for a streaky, weathered look and was only marginally successful. But hey, it works.<br />
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After supplies were assembled, I parked myself on our soon-to-be-demolished-and-replaced-with-a-screened-porch-and-concrete-patio-deck with a frosty glass of iced tea and my rags and went to town. Each strip was knotted once on the hoop. I tried to be random with the colors (which is hard to do, btw. I find myself wanting to make a pattern in spite of myself). Every few rags, I would smoosh the ties closer together to ensure that the wreath ended up nice and full. Be careful with the smoosh step - you could get a splinter! I did and it was not fun. :(<br />
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Once all the rags were tied, the painted stars had dried and I simply hot glued them on. I used a bit of red-edged cream ribbon tied to the top to serve as the hanger. This ribbon, incidentally, was saved from an Anthropology gift bag. When I recycle those sorts of bags, I always save the ribbon handles. Depression-Era-Chic, baby. Thanks to my handy ribbon storage system, it's easy to see what I have available and I'm MUCH better about not buying the same colors over and over because I can't remember that I have them. See that post <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/01/carft-room-organization-ribbons.html">here</a>.<br />
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There you have it - a fun, full, free(!), patriotic rag wreath.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-48340367538968512092013-05-24T05:21:00.001-07:002013-05-24T05:21:53.231-07:00Summery Popsicle WreathI love wreaths. I really, really do. It makes me so happy to come home to a dressed-up front door. I had a hankering for a new summery wreath, but wanted something different, so I started thinking about special things that say summer to me. Flip-flops are cute but I wasn't feeling it. Flowers - boring. Butterflies - maybe, but I would need a butterfly punch and I wanted to try to make this from things I all ready had on hand. I also wanted to use an embroidery hoop as a base rather than buying a new wreath form. Popsicles? YES! We always have craft popsicle sticks around. I could make them out of felt that I had on hand. And they would be big enough to cover an embroidery hoop but not too heavy to weigh it down.<br />
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Step one was making a pattern for the popsicles. I folded a piece of card stock in half and trimmed it into a rounded rectangle.<br />
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Then I cut out the felt, 2 pieces at a time. I went with bright, fruity colors - orange, grape, watermelon, mango, lime. Using a strand of embroidery floss in matching colors, I ran a seam around the sides and top, leaving the bottom open to stuff.<br />
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I didn't have batting to stuff them with and give them some dimension, so I filled each with a folded scrap of fleece and it worked nicely.<br />
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After stuffing, I inserted a popsicle stick and used it to push the fleece filler up to the top. Then it was time to seal the bottom with the stick included. Just another quick seam and done.<br />
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The embroidery hoop was wrapped with a colorful strip of fabric. I didn't fuss about the raw edges - left them as is.<br />
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Arranging the popsicles on the hoop was the most challenging part. I was afraid to commit to gluing until I was sure it was OK. I ended up overlapping the popsicles slightly, which meant that I had some exposed hoop at the top, but I liked it that way. I think that if I had filled all the way around, it would have needed some more support to keep the top of the wreath from pulling forward.<br />
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Finished with a skinny ribbon bow to hang and voila! An original, fun, free(!), colorful homage to the cool queen of summertime treats. <br />
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Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-84366446841432904972013-05-24T05:01:00.001-07:002013-05-24T05:01:51.585-07:00Skylanders Party Planning - Part 6, Flame ArrowsThe Skylanders party planning continues! I made the flame arrows for the Flameslinger Fire Element game mentioned <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/02/skylanders-party-planning-part-1-dollar.html">here</a>. These were super easy, super fast, and I think the kids will LOVE them.<br />
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First, I assembled my supplies - 12 Dollar Tree suction-cup arrows and packs of metallic cellophane shreds in gold and red. Then it was time to fire up the glue gun. For each arrow, I used 4 gold and 4 red shreds and draped them over my fingers. I fiddled with the shreds to get it so that they were all different lengths and then pinched in the center and twisted a bit. <br />
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I wedged an arrow between the edge of the counter and my fancy and not at all unsightly "glue gun tray" and dispensed a blob of hot glue onto the arrow near the suction cup. <br />
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Working quickly, I applied the center of the twisted shreds to the glue and wrapped one side over and the other side on top and pulled them taut. Once the glue sets you are done.<br />
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They are stored in a bundle with a plastic bag on top to keep them from getting dusty. It took me about 10 minutes from start to finish. Not too shabby!<br />
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Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-82726272023240212672013-05-15T07:03:00.002-07:002013-06-01T17:19:09.229-07:00Rock Climbing Party - Part 2, Favors and Personal Growth<br />
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So my daughter's joint-rock-climbing-birthday-party is fast approaching and we're putting the finishing touches on everything. This has been a lot of fun to plan and also, an unexpectedly good learning / personal growth opportunity for me. Working with another mom who does not share my over-the-top tendencies has made me realize some things about myself. Here's the story...<br />
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For favors, I was planning:<br />
<ul>
<li>Pop Rocks</li>
<li>Carabineers</li>
<li>Water Bottles</li>
<li>Rock Candy</li>
<li>Pet Rocks</li>
<li>Custom Artisan Cotton Candy Clouds</li>
<li>Chocolate Rocks or Boulders</li>
<li>Rock-Shaped Bouncy Balls</li>
<li>Gumball Rocks</li>
</ul>
When I showed the other mom the list, she was agog and said that it seemed like a lot and that the kids would probably be happy with just Pop Rocks and a Carabineer. This was the thought that popped into my head: "Who cares? It goes with the theme!"<br />
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This is probably not a healthy line of thinking. I realized that I have gotten to the point where I am focused more on the theming than the desires of the guests. Not to say that my favors wouldn't have been well-received - I'm sure that they would have been. But I'm now trying to make a real effort to scale back on the volume. Meaning, just because I have several good ideas doesn't mean that they all have to be used. To that end, favors for this party will be:<br />
<ul>
<li>Pop Rocks</li>
<li>Carabineers</li>
<li>Water Bottles (which is included in the venue's package)</li>
</ul>
I think that the kids will love them, they still fit the theme, and they won't break the bank. To put my own spin on it and to utilize my new found technique of cutting fabric on my Cricut (yes, you can cut fabric on the Cricut - huzzah!), I made personalized muslin pouches for each guest. It was cheap and easy and didn't even take that long.<br />
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Cut your muslin into strips large enough to double over and have seam allowance on the sides and a wider allowance at the top to hold the drawstring.*<br />
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Fold in half. Zip a quick seam up each side.<br />
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Iron your seams flat and fold down the top far enough that you will be able to thread your cording through.<br />
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Stitch around the folded top almost all the way around - leave a small opening for the cording. Thread the cording through and knot the ends.<br />
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Iron heat bond** to the back of your fabrics to be cut for initials.<br />
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Peel off the white paper backing*** and then apply to the Cricut sticky mat. I put my needle to 5, pressure to highest, speed to lowest. I used the Classic Font cartridge and did 2" letters.<br />
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Once cut, apply letters to muslin pouches and iron on.<br />
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*When you decide on the width, think about whether it will be big enough to fit on your sewing machine. Mine were too small and I had to do the seam around the top by hand. Not terrible, but not ideal either.<br />
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**Be careful with this - it's easy to get confused and iron the heat bond to your ironing board cover or worse - to your iron. Don't try this if you are tired or distracted. <br />
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***Don't forget this step - you will have a huge mess on your mat if you don't remove the paper. Also, your letters won't cut well.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-281899372701120472013-05-15T06:21:00.000-07:002013-05-15T06:21:59.600-07:00Skylanders Party Planning - Part 5, Mod-Podge Woes, Faux Leather Treasure Chest, Neon Balls, and a Portal Punch PossibilityI'm chunking through my Skylanders Party to-do list - whoo hoo! The party isn't until July, but we have big vacation out West planned for June, so I'm trying to be proactive. Next up...<br />
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Treasure Chest<br />
This chest was a thrift store find. It was originally cream with grapevines and a bit of a crackle finish. I just attacked it with some brown spray paint. <br />
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I LOVE that the crackle finish is still visible but now looks like textured, pebbly leather. I will pretend that I knew all along that this was how to make spray paint look like leather. It will be our little secret. Kay?<br />
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Next step is to rub the nail heads and clasp with some dull gold glaze. Once done, this will hold the party favors and the kids will need to do a treasure hunt to find it. I all ready wrote and printed the clues. Sample clue: Find your way to a very tall tree, around the trunk you'll find clue #3. <br />
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I wrote all the clues in verse </div>
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could anything be worse?</div>
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Than someone who thinks she's a poet</div>
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and doesn't really know it</div>
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that she's not?</div>
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For the <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/02/skylanders-party-planning-part-1-dollar.html">Wrecking Ball Tongue Grab Magic Element Challenge</a>, I found 2 large flat platters at the Dollar Tree. I thought that these would work to hold the gems to be grabbed and the shallowness of the lip wouldn't interfere with the game.<br />
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To make them more fun, I mod-podged on pictures of Wrecking Ball with 2 different catchphrases. <br />
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I'm having a lot of trouble with my mod-podge lately - lots of wrinkling. I think that I need to switch to card stock instead of regular copy paper. So be forewarned - these are not perfect. I just have to accept this with a sigh and move on.<br />
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For <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/02/skylanders-party-planning-part-1-dollar.html">Trigger Happy's Coin Toss Tech Element Challenge</a>, I found some red and gold bins at Dollar Tree and hit them with some mod-podge as well.<br />
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Wrinkled again! Doh! The kids won't mind, right?<br />
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And finally, I modified and gussied up the Dollar Tree boomerangs originally shown <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/02/skylanders-party-planning-part-1-dollar.html">here</a> with some brown paint and mod-podge. You can see one in the front here:<br />
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Meh. Not my best work. But I think that the kids will get a kick out of these more so than a plain old tray, bin, or boomerang. Note that the boomerangs are meant to fly with a helicopter attached, but the kids tested them and they work just as well sans copter.<br />
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While I had the drop cloth out for the treasure chest, I also took some time to paint some foam balls found at Dollar Tree (again with the Dollar Tree!). The idea is to use my <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/04/skylanders-party-planning-part-4-mod.html">frosted glass bottles</a> and make funky centerpieces. I used bright green, orange, aqua, and purple to turn these plain balls into... <br />
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...these bright balls. Aren't they fun?<br />
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I might do this again and make a wreath - I love how colorful they are.<br />
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And finally, at a store you might have heard of called Dollar Tree, I found this little foam ring, which doesn't look like much, but will hopefully work for my vision of a <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/03/skylanders-party-planning-part-2-elixir.html">Portal Punch</a>. <br />
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The color changing pumpkin light fits PERFECTLY in the middle and my punch bowl will be supported on top. If this works, if will be fabulous!Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-33795530573677532362013-04-26T06:17:00.001-07:002013-04-26T06:17:41.848-07:00Glittery InitialsFor my daughter's joint-birthday-rock-climbing-party, I thought that it might be fun to have an initial for each birthday girl to place near her cake on the cake table. In addition to being a fun design element, it would allow for guests to know which cake is for which birthday girl, provide another opportunity to bring in the party palette of blues and greens (the fave colors of each birthday girl), and would later do double duty as bedroom decor and a fun memento of the event for each girl.<br />
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For this project, because I wanted the letters to be free-standing and not too big, I searched high and low for just the right kind. I went to A.C. Moore and Michael's, but was underwhelmed by their options. Most of their letters seem meant to grace a wreath or hang on a wall, not stand independently. I trudged off to Joann's as a last resort and was THRILLED to see that they have a HUGE selection of letters, both hanging and standing styles, in a variety of materials, fonts, and sizes. I found the perfect sized 3-dimensional cardboard letters for each girl and the price was great as well - with a coupon for one, I ended up paying less than $4 total.<br />
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Back at home, prep work involved removing tags and stickers from the letters and then assembling a variety of blue and green acrylic paints from my collection. I painted each letter using lots of different shades for depth. I painted all sides of the letters just to be safe.<br />
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While the letters dried, I used my paint plate to experiment with glitter and sequins to figure out which route I wanted to take for embellishments. Sequins were just too much, so scratch that. I then tried aqua glitter thinking that it would accent both the blue and green hues and bring a little unity to each letter while still letting them be different. It was OK, but not exactly right. Whitish-clear glitter didn't have enough oomph. The blue iridescent flake glitter was the CLEAR winner. It picked up and enhanced the best of the green and the blue for both hues. My mama always taught me that you can never go wrong with iridescence and she is right every time!<br />
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After drying - I gave them overnight, but they were dry much sooner - each letter received a coat of glossy mod podge and a liberal sprinkling of that gorgeous, flaky iridescent glitter. I let that sit for a bit and then came the top coat of glossy mod podge to seal the glitter in. (Nothing worse than errant glitter floating about the house.) I probably should have let the 1st coat of mod podge sit overnight - while applying the top coat, I did end up shifting a lot of the flake glitter around. If I do it again, I'll wait longer for the glitter to set.<br />
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(Mog podge is not fully dry here - those white streaks are gone in the finished project...)
Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-18528373033281860932013-04-25T05:44:00.002-07:002013-04-25T05:44:17.998-07:00Making a tissue paper tassel garlandMy daughter and a friend are having a joint birthday joint in June at a local rock climbing place. I'm really looking forward to it overall, but in terms of decor was feeling a bit stymied about how to bring some personality and prettiness into that cavernous space. Obviously, I can't decorate the whole building, so I decided to focus my efforts on a single table, which will be used for the cakes and favors.<br />
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The table will be in the party loft area, which is in the center of the space and is rimmed by a half wall with a top rail made of pipes. My plan is to use zip ties to vertically mount 3ft. wooden dowels to the pipe rail. I can then swag a garland from the dowels. I decided to make tissue tassel garland because I have an overabundance of tissue paper and they looked pretty simple to make. I am here to tell you that they ARE in fact very simple to make. This may be the easiest and most impactful decor element I've ever made and they couldn't be cheaper. I am a tissue tassel convert!<br />
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First step - assemble your tissue. We have a party palette of blues and greens, so I pulled everything from kelly green to teal to powder blue and some white mixed in to boot. (Disregard the red in there - I didn't use that. I didn't use the prints either - too distracting.)<br />
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For this project, I pulled out my latest craft find - a large rotary cutting mat. We have a second-hand craft store in town (I know - LUCKY!!!) and I got it for about $2. Now that I've used it, I wish that I had bought one sooner. It's so much less wear and tear on my hands and wrists, which are all ready in bad shape from all the computing and pipetting that I do at work (yes, I am a craft geek and an actual science geek as well - I'm an all-purpose geek, really...). Now that you have your supplies, it's time to dive in.<br />
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Pull out a sheet of tissue and spread flat. Cut it in half. Go all the way up - I paused here to take the picture.<br />
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Take one half and fold in half.<br />
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Fold that half in half the other way.<br />
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Zip through with your rotary cutter, slicing up to about 1inch from the fold line at the top.<br />
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Make your cuts as thin or wide as you like. They don't have to be perfectly even and it's OK if you get overzealous and slice some off. You won't miss them in the final product. Once you've fringed it up, open it flat and start rolling or pleating the un-fringed area. I've done it both ways and neither is easier or prettier than the other, so your choice.<br />
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Do try to shake the fringes out every couple turns or it will get twisted up. It's harder to untwist the fringes at the end, so be scrupulous about this now.<br />
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Once you've rolled/pleated the whole thing, start twisting the unfringed area tightly to compress into a thick ropey line. Now twist the ropey line into a loop and twist the bottom of the loop closed.<br />
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You are now almost done. All that remains is to seal the loop. I've seen washi tape, glue, hot glue, string, and my personal choice - tiny hair elastics. I found 2 kinds at the Dollar Tree - black and an assortment of blues and clears - perfect for my garland. (I saw all clear ones at Walmart, but they were $3 for 75 - no thanks, Walmart. I will take my business to the Dollar Tree.) I'll be keeping my eyes open for a set of clear ones at the Dollar Tree - I'm sure it's just a matter of time... <br />
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I like the elastic approach because it's quick and easy and cheap doesn't require that I sit near a power source for the glue gun or have to wait for drying time and also no burning my hands - yay! This means that I can twist absentmindedly whilst watching Buffy the Vampie Slayer reruns (yes, I'm that kind of geek as well. And incidentally - BtVS is probably the best show in the history of the world. FYI. I resisted at 1st because - really? It's called Buffy teh Vampire Slayer? No thanks. But a good friend made me watch it and OMG - it's amazing. Smart, funny, scary, sexy, romantic, devastating, heartbreaking, thought-provoking... I could go on... and on... and on... sorry). Anyhoo, reagarding the elastics, I could also theoretically reuse them when I trash the garland. Just pull off and save the elastics for another time.<br />
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I'm not going to string the garland until the party is closer (will use either twine or this teal rope that I got from the second-hand craft store - $0.50 for the whole roll!), so for now I'm storing the tassels in bunches threaded on pipe cleaners. The bunches are hanging on a hook in my basement. <br />
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I did also cut a hole in a shopping bag and drape it over top to avoid dust and fading - tissue paper fades like crazy.<br />
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Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-83563646285973915902013-04-22T08:19:00.001-07:002013-04-22T08:19:12.170-07:00Girl Scout Snack for Birdfeeder MakingI was the helping mom for my daugher's girl scout meeting last week. They are working on completing their energy and conservation-themed journey this year and as part of that, were making an assortment of bird feeders and bird houses to place around the area. Helping mom duties include providing a little snack and since I can't do anything like a normal person, I decided to make a snack with a bird feeding / bird house theme. (Is anyone else obsessed with themes? I think I missed my calling - I should be working at Disney World.) Here's what I made...<br />
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<strong>Bird Seed</strong><br />
This was surprisingly delicious. Mixed Corn Chex, Rice Krispies, hulled pumpkin and sunflower seeds, Craisins, golden raisins, and some mini-chocolate chips. Yum! This is now my go-to recipe for trail mix. And it works for kids with nut allergies but still packs a protein punch.<br />
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<strong>Pretzel "Twigs"</strong><br />
Cheap, easy, and they really do look like twigs.<br />
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<strong>Gummy Worms</strong><br />
You know, for the baby birds in the nest! Only one per girl so we didn't get into a sugar-high situation...<br />
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<strong>Water</strong><br />
I stopped short of making custom water bottle labels, because that would have been excessive, but also mostly because I ran out of time.<br />
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I pre-portioned everything in dixie cups for efficiency, and while it may not have been the best approach for a meeting focused on conservation, it was definitely efficient. In my defense, we recycled everything...Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-72604228150486552922013-04-22T08:02:00.001-07:002013-04-22T08:02:18.352-07:00Skylanders Party Planning - Part 4, Mod-Podged Shields and Elixir BottlesOne advantage to having a late, freezing-cold spring like this one is that I haven't been distracted by nice weather and have instead been holed up in the craft room, diligently working on projects for upcoming parties. Here are the latest projects for the Skylanders party... gussied up Dollar Tree Frisbees for the Undead element challeng and the 1st step to transform Orangina bottles into Healing Elixir bottle centerpieces.<br />
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<strong>Chop-Chop's Shields</strong><br />
As mentioned in this <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/02/skylanders-party-planning-part-1-dollar.html">post</a>, I bought some blue Frisbees with plans to turn them into "shields" for the Undead element challenge. Chop-Chop has a shield that he flings at his enemies - at the party, the guests will fling the Frisbees at an as-yet-to-be-determined target and hopefully not at each other. Anyhoo, I found an image of Chop-Chop that I modified in Photoshop Elements. (I subtracted the background - that is all that I know how to do in Photoshop. Pathetic, I know.) I then pasted the image into PowerPoint, fiddled with the size a bit, and printed on cardstock. Traced a circle with a cereal bowl, cut it out, and got out the mod-podge. This is how it looked just after mod-podging.<br />
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This always happens with mod-podge and I always get panicky ("OMG - this looks terrible! I've ruined it!"), which is silly, because it always ends up fine. The Frisbees ended up looking like this...<br />
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Perfect and beautiful. Thank you, mod-podge. I am pleased. I will work on my panic issues.<br />
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<strong>Elixir Bottle Transformation, Step 1</strong><br />
As mentioned <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/03/skylanders-party-planning-part-2-elixir.html">here</a>, I was originally going to fill the Orangina bottles with blue fluid and serve them as drinks.<br />
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This was before I served said Orangina at my egg hunt and nearly everyone took a bottle home with them. I thought about starting over and buying more, but Orangina is kind of expensive and, let's be honest here, I really don't need those calories, soooo I modified my approach. Instead of serving drinks, the 4 bottles that didn't walk will become centerpieces. I plan to fill them with a funky arrangement of colorful balls on pipe cleaner stems (more on that later). For the 1st step - turning the bottle blue - I found a <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/117430980369532277719/albums/5627371865887623601/5627371888843692402?authkey=CKTl3sOwv8Kq2QE&banner=pwa&gpsrc=pwrd1#photos/117430980369532277719/albums/5627371865887623601/5627371888843692402">cool idea</a> on Pinterest to use diluted glue and food coloring "paint" to make glass look like sea glass. Note, this treatment will not be waterproof! It was, however, very easy.<br />
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Place 1 part glue and 1 part water in a small cup. You don't need a lot. Add liquid food coloring until desired shade is achieved. Mix well with a paint brush that you won't mind throwing away. Using the paint brush to paint on an even coat of the glue mixture. It will look a little blotchy, but don't panic - it will dry to a nice even frosted look.<br />
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Love it! Next step is to make a label that looks like an Ankh for each one. Photoshop, here I come. In about 10 hours, I should have figured out how to make a label. Hopefully. Probably not, though. <em>(Seriously, am I an idiot? Is Photoshop hard for anyone else?)</em>Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-9165148945916396142013-04-12T05:32:00.004-07:002013-04-12T05:32:52.735-07:00Rock Climbing Party - Part 1, Chocolate Pebbles and BouldersI've posted several times about the upcoming Skylanders party because that is an at-home party and will require a ton of prep work. We do have another special party coming up before that one, however. My daughter's 10th birthday rock climbing party is fast approaching, June 1st! We're holding it at a local rock climbing facility and we're doing our 1st ever joint party with one of her friends. (Their birthdays are only a few weeks apart and they both wanted to climb, so BLAM-O - joint party!) It's been fun having another mom to plan with and bounce ideas off of (my husband is NOT interested in party planning. Like, at all.)<br />
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Since the party is now about 6 weeks away, it's time to kick things into gear. I have some fun ideas for favors which I'll be sharing, but I wanted to post this find because I'm so excited about it. I was at the grocery store yesterday (Wegmans, which is the best grocery store ever. It's a fact.) and in the bulk foods section, I found not one but TWO kinds of chocolate rocks. Score! I really wanted some for the favor bags, but I am not a fan of buying wholesale candy online - the shipping is ridiculous and the volumes you have to purchase are also ridiculous. Imagine then my delight when I saw these chocolate pebbles...<br />
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... and these chocolate boulders!<br />
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THEY LOOK JUST LIKE ROCKS!!!! I find this amazing. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Since they are in bulk, I can buy exactly the amount that I need. I will pop them into little cello bags and voila, the perfect rock treat.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-79277083981756979962013-04-08T05:10:00.002-07:002013-04-08T05:10:33.673-07:00Lego StorageWe are crazy for Legos at our house. Both my daughter and my son love them. My husband and I love that the kids love them, but what we do not love is stepping on Legos - that is no good. We have several storage systems in place to combat this torture. <br />
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For what I think of as "general" Legos - these are the ones that don't come with a specific set and are used for free play - we have some regular Rubbermaid/Sterlite tubs, a nifty sorting bin with removable compartments, and my personal favorite - the giant Lego head. <br />
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My problem with these solutions, however, is that they don't allow for a way to keep kits and instructions together. It drives me nuts to spend big bucks on Hagrid's Hut or a Ninjago Rattlecopter and then see the pieces scattered and the instructions lost. Not to mention mopping up the tears because the kids want to recreate these structures and can't because some crucial, tiny piece is lost in the playroom. My solution...<br />
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... small Dollar Tree snap-top bins. These are sold in sets of 2 for $1. I love the bright colors and the secure locking lids. <br />
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They are sized just right for most of our Lego sets and you can fit the instructions right in there with the Legos. They stack nicely (vertical storage!) and fit well on the shelves in our playroom.<br />
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For larger sets, I just look for larger containers. 8x10 Rubbermaid Take-Alongs are great for those and can also often be found at Dollar Tree.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-79462614561447895692013-04-07T07:14:00.001-07:002013-04-07T07:14:04.274-07:00Skylanders Party Planning - Part 3, Flameslinger Archery TargetsI'm plugging along on the Skylanders party - now three months away. I try to do a little bit every week in the hopes that I won't be crazed and overwhelmed in July. My latest accomplishment was finishing the archery targets for the Flameslinger Archery Game that I mentioned in the 1st party post: <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/02/skylanders-party-planning-part-1-dollar.html">Skylanders Part 1</a><br />
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I was initially thinking that I'd just alternate red and white like a regaular target, but then I realized that these targets present a great opportunity to bring in some more of the party color pallette of purple, orange, lime, teal, and aqua. I love having elements at a party do double-duty and here's a great example - games also serving as decor.<br />
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I plan to suspend these targets from trees in our yard - will punch holes on either side and thread fishing line through - holes on each side will keep them from spinning... I hope. I love how bright and colorful they are! <br />
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<br />Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-11985642123388236682013-04-05T13:05:00.002-07:002013-04-05T13:06:56.732-07:00Possibly the best hostess gift ever given...We have a friend who is one of the most thoughtful, helpful people I've ever met. She's the kind of friend that comes over - unasked - before the party to help you set up, jumps in to help with the kids when she sees that they are getting unruly, and stays late to help clean-up and <u>actually helps</u> (instead of standing around chatting) - and you know that she doesn't mind one second of it. In other words - she's one-in-a-million. <br />
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She is a crafty gal as well and the last time she came over, she gave me what is possibly the best, most-thoughtful hostess gift <b><i>evah</i></b>... a bottle of homemade vanilla extract.<br />
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Why is this the best hostess gift <i><b>evah</b></i>, you may ask? I'll tell you... because it's something that I <i><b>need </b></i>that I will actually <i><b>use</b></i>. I don't know about you, but I go through a ton of vanilla and other extracts because we do a lot of baking and eat a lot of pancakes (my pancake recipe calls for vanilla). Also, unlike a something like a bottle of wine, which may not be the kind that I like (riesling or petite noir, in case you were wondering), vanilla extract only comes in vanilla. And unlike flowers, which are lovely but will eventually die and make me sad AND create a mess that I need to clean up, I will have this little bottle for at least a few weeks and will think of her kindness every time I reach for it. <br />
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Thanks, S.! You rock!Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-65074894691678343602013-04-03T17:41:00.002-07:002013-04-03T17:47:37.281-07:00Fascinators and Favors for a Classy Bachelorette Party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My best friend's little sister got married last fall - best wishes, A.! We feted her with a bachelorette party in September - a weekend at Harrah's in Atlantic City. Now, I was reluctant to go back to AC, since I had gone before and was not impressed - between the ciggie smoke and feral cats, it was a bit sketchy. I have to say, though, that Harrah's was very nice. Our rooms were gorgeous and the hotel was fairly high-end. It rivaled some hotels I've seen in Las Vegas. Our weekend consisted of some pampering at the Red Door Spa (I had a body scrub and it was worth every penny), cocktails as we lounged by their fabulous pool (so chic - and the passion fruit margaritas were to DIE for), and a fancy dinner followed by gambling for the younger girls and a PJ's and junk TV for the, ahem, more mature ladies (I just can't party like I used to - and incidentally, you know you are getting older when you chat up the bartender to 1-figure out the best drink value for your buck and 2-compare notes on bifocals because neither of you can read the drink descriptions on those tiny menus). <br />
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Anyhoo, the fancy dinner came with a dress code - little black dresses for everyone. But we still wanted to do something extra to identify ourselves as part of a special group (bachelorette party) but while still looking classy. My solution? Fascinators. They are huge right now and so much fun to wear. The options are endless and I knew that I could make a ton for a small amount of money. Here's how I did it...<br />
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<b>Source Materials</b><br />
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<u>Alligator Hair Clips</u> - found at Joann's (12 for $2 with coupon!). They are lightweight and almost flat with a good, strong grip.<br />
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<u>Felt Triangles</u> - I had felt on hand (free!), but you could make a ton from one sheet from any craft store - they are usually about $0.25 around here. Just cut several small triangles. The color doesn't really matter since you will be covering it up.<br />
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<u>Needle and thread</u> - again, color doesn't matter. You are only using it to tack the felt onto the clip.<br />
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<u>Hot glue sticks and gun</u> - THE craft room essential<br />
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<u>Feathers</u> - I had sticker shock from the price of the "fancy" feathers. There are tons of kinds, but you pay a premium for ones with designs, or from rare birds, or with different textures. I couldn't afford that, so I bought a big bag of multicolored craft feathers for $3 and committed to trying to modify them to look special and not like a kindergarten Thanksgiving craft project.<br />
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<u>Bling</u> - I was initially looking for brooches or sparkly buttons to mount on the fascinators and then I realized how much that would cost. So, I made my own brooches using a big bag of cheap, assorted rhinestones from Michael's ($8 with coupon). You get a TON in those bags. Some are goofy looking, but a lot are really nice. I just hot glued them onto some paint chips from the hardware store that I had laying around. Additionally, I wanted to make some beaded wire for more movement and interest. I had some iridescent plastic beads on hand (from Walmart), and I also splurged on some swarovski crystals for the bride ($4 with coupon). I wanted her to really sparkle! I all ready had beading wire on hand.<br />
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<b>How-To's</b><br />
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<b><u>1. Sew the base</u></b><br />
Double up your thread and tack a felt triangle onto a clip. Be sure to open the clip before you start sewing. I would stick a pencil in the "jaws" to hold it open as I sewed. Some tutorials out there have you hot glue the base onto the clip. That didn't feel secure enough to me. Sewing took a few minutes longer, but it was worth it. I'm pleased to report that we didn't lose a single bit of bling all night.<br />
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<b><u>2. Choose your colors and layout</u></b><br />
For mine, I put the big feathers on the bottom and built up from there, inserting smaller accent feathers and beaded wire next, and topped the whole shebang off with rhinestones. Whatever you want to do, now is the time to decide, not when you have a hot glue gun in hand!<br />
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<b><u>3. Pre-make accents</u></b><br />
Now that you know how you want it to look, take the time to make your special accents<br />
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<b>Feathers</b> - craft feathers can be modified in several ways. I recommend practicing with colors you have a lot of 1st and once you feel comfortable, then move on to the feathers you intend to use in your fascinators.<br />
-CURLS: feathers can be curled by sliding the central rib over the edge of scissors (like you do with curly ribbon) - go over it several times until it starts to curl. Be gentle with the 1st couple passes to avoid snapping the rib.<br />
-STRIPPING: The fluffy feathers at the bottom can be stripped off the rib, leaving the more uniform feathers at the top. Just grab the fluffies and pull against the direction of growth and they should strip off neatly. <br />
-SHAPING: You can trim the feathers into oval shapes, diamonds, zigzags, whatever. It just takes some patience. You can also combine curling, stripping, and shaping to give yours an even more unique look. The turquoise feathers above, for example, were stripped of lower feathers, shaped into diamonds at the tips, and curled slightly.<br />
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<b>Brooches</b> - Cut out a base on sturdy paper or paint chips like I did. I did some in circles and some in rectangles, but I liked circles the best. Glue on your rhinestones as desired. Let dry before trying to attach to the fascinator. The turquoise one above has a brooch that I made.<br />
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<b>Beaded wire accents</b> - Snip off a length of bead wire about 10 inches long. String a bead and slide to the middle of the wire. Bend the wire around the bead and feed both ends through the bead once more. This keeps the bead in place. This is now the tip of your wire. Repeat this process, spacing your beads a few centimeters apart.<br />
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<b><u>4. Get glue-gunnin'</u></b><br />
Once you know how it's going to look, start hot glueing. Go one layer a a time and give it a few minutes to set before moving on to the next layer. I always have tweezers and a chopstick or pencil or something handy when I'm hot glueing - I'll use it to place small accents or to maneuver items without burning myself.<br />
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<b><u>5. Enjoy turning heads in your fabu fascinator!</u></b><br />
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<b>SWAG, Baby! </b><br />
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Because I love to craft and I tend to go overboard AND I don't know when to stop, I also made some little gift bags for the girls. Simple brown paper bags dressed up with fabric rosettes and ribbons in the bride's palette of peridot and teal. I filled the bags with treats, snacks, tiny bottles of wine, and personalized water bottles - just the thing to make our hotel rooms more comfy. I thought it would be fun to contrast our bachelorette party hijinks with images of proper 50's housewives, so I made some tags for each bag juxtaposing these ladies with modern sayings. They were a hit!<br />
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Here's the bag with just the treats - the wine was all ready in use... :)Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-75618876999039211572013-03-28T05:02:00.002-07:002013-03-28T05:14:14.543-07:00Egg Hunt: Decor and No-Crying TipsThe decor for this event was very straightforward. Easter eggs are so colorful and bright and that really inspired everything.<br />
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I also tried to work in pops of Peeps. I love the look of Peeps (the taste, not so much) - they are so iconic and graphic and colorful. To bring in the Peeps, I served Peep kebabs, added a "Keep Calm and Peep On" framed sign, and made my fun peep garland. Check out that tutorial here: <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/03/peeps-garland-tips-and-tricks.html" target="_blank">Peeps Garland Tips and Tricks</a> and read on for a link to the food post.<br />
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I relied on the food table to serve as decor as well. The key there was variety and height See this post for specifics: <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/03/egg-hunt-food.html">Egg Hunt Food</a><br />
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With the peep and pennants strung behind, I think it made a nice presentation. I was going to try to hang some curtain panels behind everything, but it was just too windy. Next time!<br />
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<strong><u>Geeky Crafty Tips for a No-Crying, No-Whining, All Fun Egg Hunt</u></strong><br />
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I love taking my kids to egg hunts, but I do not love scooping up puddles of crying kids because they only found 3 eggs and the older kids got 15. In fact, I remember BEING that puddle kid, sobbing piteously because I would spot an egg and run for it, but a big kid would beat me to it. That is no fun for anyone. I will not have that at my egg hunt. I will not <u>HAVE</u> it.<br />
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To even the playing field, I did 2 things...<br />
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<strong>Separate the little ones and the older kids</strong><br />
This idea came from an article on Kids Out and About: <a href="http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/content/easter-egg-hunts-tips-and-tricks-great-party">KOAA Easter Egg Hunt Tips and Tricks</a>. (Check it out for other great tips as well.) We put the hunt for the little ones in the front yard. This allowed them to hunt without getting trampled by big kids as well as prevented them from climbing the slick rungs of our playscape and allowed the parents to keep an eye on them while socializing and snacking. The big kids were in the back yard, which is bigger and provided more space for a more challenging hunt. Because we separated them, we could really make it hard for the older kids. I dislike it when egg hunts are over in about 2 minutes, so my husband REALLY HID those eggs. The big kids were hunting for a good 15-20 minutes. Victoire!<br />
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<strong>Customize the eggs for each kid</strong><br />
I designated a color for each child attending the hunt. This required a little more work upfront and a disadvantage is that you do need a solid RSVP count to pull it off, but it was worth it. It allowed me to control exactly how many eggs each kid got (i.e. they all got the same amount), ensured that all the eggs were found, and allowed me to customize the treats for each child. For example, one kid has braces and can't eat gummy candy... no problem - all chocolate in his eggs. Four kids with severe food allergies... no problem, they get the candy that specifies that it's allergen-free. I also tried to mix it up and have some eggs with candy and some with toys. Customizing the eggs ensured that girly girls got the eggs with hair clips, less girly girls got eggs with stickers and bouncy balls, boys got the eggs with race cars, girls who like race cars got an egg with race cars... you get the idea. It worked out beautifully. <br />
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<strong>Tips for Next Year</strong><br />
The hardest part was getting enough egg colors, but even that wasn't too bad. Target has a nice variety of colors and because I had hunts in front and back yards, I could use the same colors in those hunts. Next time, I will get some eggs with designs as well to increase my options.<br />
I was initially going to just TELL each kid their egg color, but after I realized that it might be a challenge for a bunch of kids to distinguish between wedgewood blue and cornflower blue or spring green and lime green in the heat of the hunt, I ended up giving each kid an empty egg in their color to start with. Instead of making a master list, I just put some tape with the kid's name on the sample egg. Easy peasy.<br />
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I had stocked up on eggs last year in the after-Easter sales, which not only saved my a ton of money, but it also forced me to actually do the hunt (I've wanted to do this for years, but never got around to it.). When I buy my eggs for next year, I will look for bigger eggs this time. It was hard to find non-candy treats small enough to fit in the standard-size eggs. And regarding toys in eggs, I was very careful to only put in things that were obviously not edible.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-17359081922541531192013-03-27T05:12:00.001-07:002013-03-27T05:12:10.018-07:00Egg Hunt: FoodOur first neighborhood egg hunt was very successful despite the snow. (Our apologies to the kid looking for the white eggs. Oops.) We got lots of compliments on the idea and how it brought everyone together to spend time with one another and chat. I've always wanted to live in one of those neighborhoods where people hang out together all the time. This isn't that neighborhood YET, but I've realized that I can help to make it happen if I want to. Be the change you want to see in your neighborhood, one party at a time. That's a direct quote from Gandhi, people.*<br />
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*OK, maybe I tweaked it a bit, but I think that Gandhi would have loved a good block party.<br />
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Anyhoo, here's what I made... <em>and please disregard the unsightly siding on my house. Superstorm Sandy did a number on it and it's been too cold to repaint. We are getting vinyl this summer, hopefully!</em><br />
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FOOD<br />
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This was so much fun and I was very proud of my little economies. I tried to get variety by using some of the same ingredients in different ways. For example...<br />
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... I used one box of cake mix to make both cupcakes and cake pops. Cupcakes are topped with homemade buttercream (you can make a delicious ton with just 2 sticks of butter, some powdered sugar, and a splash of milk - it's super easy and you will get mad props from your peeps for making homemade frosting) and both cakes and pops use sprinkles from the dollar section at Target. Link to printables is posted below.<br />
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... and I used a bag of Oreos to make both Oreo truffles and Oreo pops, also topped with $1 sprinkles.<br />
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I love them on the bed of Easter M&M's - so colorful and who doesn't love edible decor? By the way, the glass tray was a thrift store find for $2.00. It's actually a candle plate. I bought it because it's very shallow and therefore wouldn't require a ton of filler. <br />
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I used my old standby of marshmallows to fill things out a bit for a buck.<br />
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Plus I found a bag of cotton candy at the Dollar Tree and that filled a bowl nicely, also for a buck. Incidentally, the candy jar here and the fishbowl holding the Bunny Tails are also thrift store finds.<br />
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I wanted some height and whimsy and more peeps, so I skewered some chicks on kebab sticks mounted in a styrofoam ball. Iridescent Easter grass from the Dollar Tree was a great, cheap bucket filler. I added height with a sturdy box covered in Dollar Tree wrapping paper and a sheet of scrapbooking paper.<br />
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I wanted to mix it up and have some things that weren't too sweet as well. Baked Cheetos and Veggie Straws fit the bill and went over well. I lined the basket and tin with waxed paper to 1) avoid grease stains on the cloth basket liner and 2) ensure that nothing harmful leached from the tin into the food since I wasn't absolutely certain if it was food-safe.<br />
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My most time-intensive treat was my parfaits in a jar. I loved the spoons tied to the jar with the same yarn used for the pennants. It was very practical because I didn't have to put out a separate container for utensils. Check out this post for details on how I made this treat: <a href="http://geekycrafty9.blogspot.com/2013/03/parfaits-in-jar-cake-crumble-tips-and.html" target="_blank">Parfaits in a Jar</a> They were a big hit. I did notice that people were taking them home rather than eating them there, so if you make them yourself, be prepared to bid your jars adieu. The cake pedestal that holds them was an after-Easter-sale purchase at Target a few years ago.<br />
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For drinks, a big jug of water and a tin bucket full of Orangina. And a pretty jar of colorful straws. I know that plastic straws are soooo passe, but I like the vibrancy of the colors here. And I liked the price as well - $1 at Target.<br />
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I used a great set of free printables found on Catch My Party, designed by Autumn Leah Designs for the cupcake toppers and food signs: <a href="http://catchmyparty.com/blog/free-easter-party-printables-from-autumn-leah-designs" target="_blank">Chick Printables</a><br />
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The "Keep Calm and Peep On" free printable was found here: <a href="http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2011/04/bunny-or-chick-iron-craft-week-15/" target="_blank">Peep On</a> It wasn't quite 8x10, so I trimmed it and mounted on cardstock to fill it out. I popped the whole thing into a frame from Ollie's. I use this frame for a rotating series of seasonal art.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-28983501451442115932013-03-26T05:26:00.000-07:002013-03-26T05:26:24.249-07:00Parfaits in a Jar, Cake Crumble Tips and a Tasty Mousse MixA coworker was kind enough to give me 8 of these adorable jars. Walmart sells sliced peaches and pears in them. I just think that they are the cutest little things and wanted to find a way to use them on my food table. And then it hit me - parfaits in a jar. Perfect!<br />
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I spent some time Goo Gone-ing the label stickies and I used a Magic Eraser to scrub of the inked lot/expiry info - it worked like, well, magic. The good people at Mr. Clean don't lie.<br />
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I washed everything well and then painted the lids with 2 coats of brown acrylic paint (because I have a lot of brown for some reason). The base coat color is irrelevant and only serves to cut down on the number of coats of chalkboard paint I needed to use. Chalkboard paint is more expensive so I always try to get by with one coat.<br />
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I filled the jars with alternating layers of chocolate cake crumbs, chocolate chips, and chocolate mousse. Here's my super-frugal, efficient tip for those cake crumbs. Whenever I make a cake that involves trimming it or say I make 2 cakes from a box mix and I only need one, I don't toss the extra bits - I throw them into a zipper bag in the freezer. This way, I always have cake on hand for dishes that don't need a full cake recipe, like a trifle or a parfait. Try it! <br />
Now, regarding the mousse... I have made chocolate mousse from scratch before. The first time was a huge fail (because I grabbed half and half instead of heavy cream - oops!) and I ended up with chocolate soup. But now that I think about it, I recovered gracefully by heating up the soup and BAM - it became the best hot chocolate ever, so I'm changing that to a win. Life gives you lemonades, people.* My second go-round with mousse was a bit more successful, but required more time that I had last week, so I bought one of those box mousse mixes near the pudding and Jello mixes. It was actually very good. <a href="http://www.oetker.us/en/product/dessert-mixes/mousse/dark-chocolate-truffle-mousse" target="_blank">Oetker Dark Chocolate Truffle Mousse</a> I recommend it if you are in a pinch.<br />
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So, back to details. The parfaits were prepped, lids were applied to jars, "Parfait" was written on said lids in chalk, and the whole shebang was finished off by tying on purple spoons with multicolored yarn. I wanted baker's twine, but it wasn't in the cards, and yarn worked just as well.<br />
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I grouped the jars - 4 at a time - on a cake pedestal. I had to put out the other 4 jars like 5 minutes into the party because they were a huge hit. I did notice that people were taking them home, so if you do this, be prepared for your jars to walk. I'm cool with it, though. My coworker really likes sliced pears.<br />
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*I have a friend whose husband always thought that the quote was "life gives you lemonades" instead of "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" and I think that is the cutest, most uplifting story. I love positive people and I strive to be more like that.Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-5546964482429147992013-03-24T12:00:00.003-07:002013-03-24T12:00:22.271-07:00Peeps Garland Tips and TricksWe just had our first neighborhood egg hunt yesterday and it went very well in spite of being ridiculously cold. (Nothing like hunting for eggs in the snow. Oh Spring, you foul temptress, changeable vixen... why dost thou tempt us with splendiferous sunshine only to snatch it away when outdoor events have been planned and evites sent? Why? WHY?) I'll be posting more details later, but for now, here's my Peep garland, which was the inspiration for the whole event. (Does anyone else throw parties purely to give them a reason to make something they saw on Pinterest?)<br />
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I ended up needing 2 boxes of yellow bunny peeps for this. The first step is to open them up and separate them. The separation points are quite unsightly, so if I do this again, I will have yellow sanding sugar on hand to patch them up.<br />
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After separating them, leave them open for a few days and let them go a little stale before trying to work with them. It helps the needle to go through if they are a little stiff. <br />
So after a few days in the open, thread a large needle with at least 2 strands of embroidery floss. I used yellow in the same color. Now that I think about it, it might be fun to try it with fishing line so they look like they are floating in the air - maybe next year! Push the needle through both ears and pull the thread until about 12 inches from the end. This is your allowance for hanging to garland. <br />
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Make a double knot with the tail end and another double knot just past the 2nd ear. This will help to keep the string in place until the innards adhere to the thread and immobilize it. More on that later. Repeat this process, spacing the next bunny a few inches away from the first. <br />
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Do this until all the bunnies are threaded. Leave another 12 inch tail to allow for suspending that end. Now, let the whole thing sit undisturbed for at least a week. This will allow the peeps to harden even more and it will allow the interior marshmallow stickiness to adhere to the thread so that when you hang the garland, the peeps stay in place.<br />
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Things that I learned...<br />
These things drop A LOT of sugar. I mean A LOT! If you can work on this outside, do. If you can't, try to work over a tray or something. <br />
This is not the craft for you if you can't deal with sticky fingers. You will be a gooey mess.<br />
This is harder than it looks, especially the knotting part. The first few are OK, but as your hands get stickier and the string gets stickier from multiple passes through the bunny innards, the string starts to get tanglier and your hands get clumsier and it can get frustrating. You may want to do several shorter strands and just tie them together.<br />
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But even with that said, the end product was totally worth it. It was fun, bright, cheap, and a great focal point for my food table, especially when paired with some quick felt and yarn pennants that I made as well.<br />
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Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3370763940480987338.post-40955190875146523222013-03-17T18:44:00.002-07:002013-03-17T18:44:49.433-07:00Easter Fabric Flower and Carrot CenterpieceOn Saturday, we will host our 1st ever Easter Egg Hunt for neighborhood kids and friends. I'm very excited about it and have been busily filling eggs, assembling supplies, and making some decorations to add to the fun. Today I'm sharing a play on a flower arrangement that I made using some basement finds.<br />
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The vase was from a flower arrangement that my husband sent me a few months ago. The flowers were amazing, the sentiment was touching, and the vase was WOW. I just loved the color, the shape, everything. What's nice about it beyond all that is that it's SUBSTANTIAL, but the opening is narrow, so you don't need a ton to fill it up and have it look full and stay upright.<br />
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I tossed in a few chunks of Styrofoam to serve as a base. I then turned my attention to the fillers. While unpacking my Easter decorations, I found a little baggie filled with fabric carrots and flowers that my mom had made. She was making one of those cloth baby books where you have numbers to match, buttons to do, zippers to zip, etc. She didn't like the way her carrots had turned out, so she started over and gave me the rejects. I had planned to make a garland, but hadn't gotten around to it. Anyway, with a little hot glue and some bamboo skewers...<br />
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... I ended up with this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtq3Ps1R1X8KaEvpySgt9iUGTOjBpz-I2zGCwUAFaTI4rmqJWfRlJrTvlDOqNKYPp2XVn-uh8oE6IhbmBkxV3cFD4SZfb2pCCP3ShFsqFbemjVWbMnjCZvM5H_6dixNKLPRT7PzTtA8JE/s1600/20130317_99_1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtq3Ps1R1X8KaEvpySgt9iUGTOjBpz-I2zGCwUAFaTI4rmqJWfRlJrTvlDOqNKYPp2XVn-uh8oE6IhbmBkxV3cFD4SZfb2pCCP3ShFsqFbemjVWbMnjCZvM5H_6dixNKLPRT7PzTtA8JE/s320/20130317_99_1.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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I really like how it's a fun play on a floral centerpiece. I also like how it was free. I like that part a lot.</div>
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It will look great (I hope hope hope) on my treats table. Lots of height and visual interest. And did I mention that it was free?</div>
Geeky Craftyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163583671550658902noreply@blogger.com0