Angry Birds Birthday Party

Lincoln celebrated his birthday with an Angry Birds-themed party.  For weeks I asked friends and neighbors to save large boxes so we could build this beauty - a live action version of Angry Birds. 

Behold boxes and pigs.  We modified a water balloon launcher to fit playground balls, a.k.a. the angry birds.

We bought rubber playground balls and painted them to look like angry birds.  More accurately, Ben painted.  I wish I could take credit, but I just bought the balls.  I sprayed two coats of sealant over the painted area, but I don't think the sealant did much good.  After a few days of playing with the balls, the bird paintings are pretty well chipped off.  At least they looked great for the party.

The red bird.

Sorry for the awkward crop.  Almost all of my party photos have other people's children in them, so no go for the blog-o. You'll have to trust me that this super cute kid has gorgeous eyes, because he does.

We used green balloons for the pigs.  Ben filled each balloon with a scoop of sand to weigh it down before inflating it.  Artistic credit again goes to Ben.

I bought the long, thin boxes at the Container Store.

 The kids loved knocking down the pigs and rebuilding with the boxes.

The kids had enough fun playing Angry Birds outside that the indoor portion of the party was pretty minimal.

We had a golden egg hunt.  Think Easter egg hunt.  I bought a pack of gift bags at Target and added tags with pictures of Angry Birds.  The children used these bags to hold their eggs during the hunt.

If you look to the right of the gift bags, you'll also see a pile of small rubber balls.  I bought balls for each child at the dollar store.  We started the party by building small versions of the Angry Birds game indoors.  We had stations of things the children could use to build towers - wooden building blocks, Jenga, Lincoln Logs, Solo cups, you name it.  Then we had a variety of small balls - Nerf balls, small rubber bouncy balls, etc. that the kids could roll - ROLL - at their towers.  No, I did not allow 12 kids to throw balls in my house.  Though of course a few had to try it anyway.

I bought a pack of Angry Birds mylar balloons on Amazon and had them filled at my local grocery store.

Lincoln wanted cupcakes instead of a traditional cake.  Gotta love easy.  Find the printables from Sherry K Designs HERE.

I printed each Angry Bird large enough to fill an 8.5x11 piece of paper, then cut out the birds and strung them together to make a banner.

Angry Birds t-shirt tutorial

And of course the birthday boy wore his new Angry Birds t-shirt.  Find my DIY tutorial HERE.

For My Dad

It's my dad's birthday this weekend. Love you, Dad! Happy birthday!

Supplies.
Stamp: (Weathered) Stampin' Up!.
Ink: (Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa) Stampin' Up!.
Paper: (Naturals Ivory) Stampin' Up!, (On the Boulevard, The Sophisticate) from the A Proper Gentleman Collection by Graphic 45.
Other: (Hodpodge Hardware) Stampin' Up!, sewing machine, brown thread.

Birthday Notepads

Confession: I've been stealing chocolate from my kids' Easter baskets.

Apparently my lack of maternal ethics applies to my friends as well. One mother stole her children's Christmas notepads because - she reasons - they're the perfect size for her daily To Do Lists. tsk, tsk, sneaky mom! ;-) In her defense, she and I have searched high and low for long, skinny, spiral-bound notepads. They're nowhere! I cleared out our local Office Max at Christmas and they've since stopped carrying them.


So for this thieving friend's birthday, I made a set of notepads just for her. I picked patterned papers for the covers and took them, along with a stack of white paper for the insides, to my local FedEx Office. The shop cut and bound the papers, then added protective covers to the front and back of each notepad. You can probably see the glare from the clear covers in the photo, but hopefully it's not too bad.

Happy birthday, my friend! Hope the rest of you have a wonderful day too!

Supplies
Paper: American Crafts (from the Play collection - Ring Around the Rosie, Dominoes).
Computer Font: Futura Bk BT.
Flower: Bazzill Basics Paper (Bitty Blossoms Neutrals).
Brad: American Crafts.
Ribbon: Offray (SideSaddle BlkWht), Stampin' Up! (black hemp twine).

Celebrate Your Inner Princess

A dear friend recently gave me a gift card to a local craft store. Thank you, dear friend, you know my heart! Well that little gift card was burning a hole in my pocket, so I simply had to go shopping.


I've been eyeing this Martha Stewart crown punch for a while. I thought it might look great with some bling, then when I saw this beautiful card by the talented Krystie Hersch, I was sold.

I used silver cardstock for my card base. Apparently it reflected a lot of light in the photo; it looks much closer to dark grey in real life. The ribbon is also more raspberry. Hmmm...guess I'd better work on my photography skills. ;-)


I cranked out a whole stack of these gems last night. It seems like birthday cards are what I need most often - and I NEVER have any! Now it feels good to be prepared. :)

Hope you're enjoying your day!

Supplies
Paper: Bazzill Basics (Tiara), Stampin' Up! (Whisper White), Recollections (Black Damask).
Computer Font: French Script MT.
Punch: Martha Stewart.
Rhinestones: Jolee's Jewels.
Ribbon: Celebrate It.

Train Birthday Party

My toddler is gone. He's officially a three-year-old little boy. This morning we celebrated his birthday with the train party he's been requesting since the day after his last birthday.


The favors. (There are close ups farther down.)


Ben used painter's tape to make train tracks around the house.


We intended for the kids to walk on the tracks and play in the train tent that was parked in the other room. Leave it to three-year-olds to figure out that you can pick up the tent and drive it on the tracks. Genius, I tell ya'! LOL.


Favor bags. I bought solid blue bags and stamped the train tracks on the front. I also made the name tags to look like yellow railroad crossing signs.

Those wooden trains are little train whistles. I'm pretty sure we were only 10 minutes into the party before I stashed them away in the kids' favor bags. Whoa, noisy!


Train-shaped lollipops.


Train sipper cups. Are these cute or what!?


Moving along to the party food...I made cupcakes and topped them with yellow railroad warning signs that I designed on my computer.


I also made fruit kabobs and cheese cut into train shapes. Dairy cars - I'm so clever. I bought three loaves of bread and a large train-shaped cookie cutter to make train-shaped sandwiches, but completely forgot about making them until I was setting out the food this morning. Oops. The kids didn't miss them. But I guess my boys will be eating French toast for breakfast everyday next week. :)


The adorable Waldorf doll Lincoln's preschool teacher made for him. I perched our plush friend where he could watch over the festivities.


See this amazing train setup? Three levels high. I made it. Yep, I'm finally getting the hang of playing with boy toys.


Last but not least, the birthday boy showing us the proper way to eat a cupcake - icing first!

Train Party Invitations

My baby turns three next week. He's still my baby, right? :) Lincoln's been asking for a train birthday party since the day after his last birthday. So what's a mom to do but deliver?



My favorite part of the invitation is the ticket the little engineers can remove and bring to the party. Or at least carry it around the house like my boys do when they get an invitation. A party invitation is a badge of honor that must be treasured.

Lots of fun crafts on my To Do List this week. I don't know that I'll get them posted this week, but I'll be sure to take pictures so I can play catch up later. Take care!

Supplies:
Paper: Stampin Up! (Kraft, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi patterned paper from Creative License Simply Scrappin' Kit).
Stamps: Stampin' Up! (Choo Choo).
Ink: Stampin' Up! (Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Blue Bayou, Pumpkin Pie).
Computer Fonts: Pointedly Mad, Abadi MT Condensed.
Punches: Stampin' Up! (slit punch, ticket punch, corner rounder).

Warmest Birthday Wishes

This has to be one of my favorite cards I have ever made. I love all things felt and those fuzzy mittens turned out really cute, didn't they? I made sure to save the pattern I drew so I can make more of these cheery little mittens later on.

The red felt is glittered - hence the little speckles in the photo.

Happy birthday (tomorrow) to my stepmother! {big hugs from all of us}



Supplies
Paper: Stampin' Up! (Bashful Blue), Bazzil Basics (white).
Ribbon: Papertrey Ink (Pure Poppy).
Button: Papertrey Ink (Spring Rain).
Other: Stampin' Up! (linen thread), red and light blue felt, white embroidery floss, computer fonts (Honey Script, Times New Roman).

For My Niece

My niece just celebrated her eighth birthday. This ginormous chipboard sticker makes for an entire cardfront. Done, easy peasy!

Supplies
Paper: Papertrey Ink (Aqua Mist).
Ribbon: Stampin' Up! (Regal Rose).
Chipboard Sticker: Helen Dardik.

Button Balloons

Papertrey Ink has the cutest stamp set - Everyday Button Bits - full of stamp images that you fill in with buttons. Click on the link - aren't they adorable!?

These little balloons are for a very special someone who was due a birthday card last month. Shame on me! I don't think she reads my craft blog (shame on her!), so this should still be a surprise.

I also decided to play along with another color challenge. One of Ben's Facebook friends is a stamper/cardmaker and was invited to host a color challenge earlier this week. Hi Sarah! The color scheme is celery, rose, light blue, and black - plus the project had to be birthday related. I fudged a little and used aqua - it's just so pretty! - hopefully that's close enough. :)

Supplies.
Paper: My Mind's Eye (Deena's Penny Lane), Papertrey Ink (Aqua Mist).
Stamp: Papertrey Ink (Everyday Button Bits).
Ink: Stampin' Up! (Basic Gray).
Ribbon: Stampin' Up! (Certainly Celery twill, pink gingham, silver cord).
Buttons: Papertrey Ink (Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush).
Punch: Stampin' Up! (3/16" corner rounder).

Sweet Felt Cupcake

I needed to make some cards and decided to play along with a color challenge. Dawn McVey puts together some of the most vibrant and unique color combinations. It's fun (sometimes) to go outside of my comfort zone and see if I can make the colors work together. :)



That's another little cupcake from Martha Stewart. I cut out a tiny heart and put it on top to tie in the raspberry color. I've used this layout with these felt cupcakes before; it was fun to try to switch out the colors.

Supplies
Paper: Stampin' Up! (Kraft, Whisper White, Rose Red).
Stamp: Papertrey Ink (Everyday Button Bits).
Ink: Stampin' Up! (Chocolate Chip).
Ribbon: Stampin' Up! (brown felt), I'm not sure about the rick rack.
Punches: Stampin Up! (Curly Label, 3/16" Corner Rounder).
Felt Cupcake: Martha Stewart Crafts.

Magical Birthday Card

Have I mentioned lately that I love making gifts for girls? Brighton was invited to a "Magical Birthday Party." Here's our card for the sweet six-year-old.

All of the patterned papers are shimmery, paired with shiny foil chipboard Thickers. Love those sparkly, swirly letters! The patterned papers are actually Christmas papers - I just cut off the Christmas trees and reindeer and holly jolly stuff. Even the Thickers are from American Crafts' holiday Tinsel line. I just love it when I can multi-purpose things like that. Makes me feel clever - LOL. :)

Off to wrap a present...

Supplies. Paper: SU! (Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette), KI Memories (Joyful line of patterned papers). Stamp: PTI (Everyday Button Bits). Ink: SU! (Basic Black marker). Brad: SU!. Chipboard Letters: Cricket Tinsel (American Crafts). Ribbon: Offray.

Cupcake Gift Card Holder

Yesterday the boys and I enjoyed a birthday party hosted by a good momma for her little cupcake. We mommies love to give our kiddos cute little nicknames, don't we? Though this photo is of a gift card holder I made a while ago for my mother-in-law, I've got cupcake on the brain and thought I'd share.

Isn't that little felt cupcake adorable? If you saw it in person, I promise you'd run your finger over its cute pink fuzziness! It's from Martha Stewart Crafts and makes the cutest little birthday cards and tags.

On the outside, this looks like a card. I've decorated card fronts similar to this. But this little gem is actually a gift card holder. I learned how to make it from Stampin' Up! demonstrator Amy Hatch. In case you'd like to make one, I searched YouTube to find a video tutorial to share here. Dawn Griffith posts measurements and supplies on the screen as she goes, so if the music's not your style, I'm pretty sure you can mute the volume and still follow along. I don't have the window punch she uses (the long skinny one), so I improvised with a square punch. You could also use an X-acto knife. I know I'll be making more of this come Christmastime! With a Christmas theme, of course. :)

Supplies. Cardstock: Bazzill Basics aqua ("aqua" isn't the correct name, but that's the best name I can think to give it). SU! Whisper White. Stamp: SU! Sweet Little Sentiments. Ink: SU! Baha Breeze. Ribbon: SU! Baha Breeze and Regal Rose. Punch: SU! curly label. Embellishment: Martha Stewart felt cupcake.

Birthday Bicycle Card

I made this card for a dear friend of mine who's been sending not-so-subtle blog hints about her wish for a new bicycle. My friend and I have been running together for several months. I think our running days are nearing an end and we're ready to move on to something else. I don't have a bicycle either...the kids always seem to need a new one more than me - LOL...but someday we mommies will both have bikes and we'll have to go for a belated birthday ride.

Supplies. Inspired by this beautiful card. Cardstock: SU! Groovy Guava and Whisper White, PTI Aqua Mist and Ocean Tides. Stamps: SU! Polka Dot background, PTI Everyday Button Bits. Ink: SU! Soft Sky, StazOn black, SU! Groovy Guava. Ribbon: SU! Groovy Guava, American Crafts aqua. Buttons: PTI. Other: SU! scalloped border punch, SU! corner rounder.