Circus Party...

As I have mentioned in the past...  I've created a monster when I comes to my kids birthday parties...  I don't know how I manage it, but each year I come up with a new theme.  My friends think I'm crazy(and I have to admit when I'm happily working on decorations at 2am... maybe I am)... but I really have enjoyed doing it...  It's a labor of love...  Hopefully, one day when my kids look back at their childhood, they'll have fond memories...  Since this months theme is in honor of my daughters birthday...  I thought I would start with her 9th...  Which was a Circus Party...

Party favors thanks to the Dollar Tree... I filled plastic popcorn containers with cotton candy, microwavable popcorn bags, and the instant grow animals(just add water)... the paper cutouts I found in their teacher section... Super easy!

 Decorations... more Dollar Tree cutouts... and precut letters...  I made the garland by cutting out tissue (also $1 from the Dollar Tree) into triangles, and then taped them together...

The Main Attraction... Circus Cutouts!  My mother and I took refrigerator boxes and re-purposed them using a borrowed projector, some pages from a coloring book, and a little imagination...

Violet wanted to be a tight rope walker...  You my have noticed the balance beam in the picture above.  This was(in her mind) the most important part of the party...  If she couldn't have an actual rope...

The kids really had fun with them... each face could be removed... great for group shots...

 This is one of my favorites!

We also did some face painting... 

The craft was decorating a frame... complete with their cutout picture... (this picture also shows Vi's tight rope walker dress...)

While waiting for me to cut and serve cake and ice cream, my son dazzled them with magic tricks...

All in all a fun birthday...

 

If you enjoyed this and want more party ideas... keep checking back...  I'm posting them all month! 

Happy party planning...

***Jennifer

It's My Blogiversary!

Wow!  I can't believe it's been year since I wrote my first blog post!  I have learned so much from the blogs I read( Elsie Marley, Crafter Hours, and Craftiness Is Not Optional, to name a few)... Pinterest... and Flickr groups... it's been a super fun year!  Looking back I can't believe all that I've accomplished throughout the year...  I am also thankful for the undying support from friends and family (Especially when they've given me an idea and they don't cringe when I say "Oh!  Lets do it...so I can blog about it!" ...You know who you are)  I am in awe of the limitless inspiration out there...  And only hope that I can pass that inspiration onto others... 

 

Here's a recap of some of my favorite posts...



Starting with first row from left to right...

#1 Upcycled Tiered Skirt from old tee shirts

#2 No Sew ruffled Tree Skirt

#3 Office Makeover the before and after

Bottom row from left to right...

#4 Paper Wallet tutorial

#5 Rocker Applique

#6 Anthropologie inspired Lace Carryall

What posts have been your favorite?  Tell me in the comment section below... I would love to know!

Now for the exciting news!
I plan on celebrating my Blogiversary all month... Which means you... my followers... are going to have the chance to win some pretty fun giveaways (made by yours truly)... Giveaways will be posted on Mondays for the next 4weeks starting Sept.3...  Winners will be announced on the following Sunday... Also, since September is my daughter birthday month... I thought it would be fun to share with you throughout the weeks different themed parties I've created...

 

I've got a fun month planned for you... So keep checking back to see what's happening, and if you've won a giveaway!

***Jennifer

P.S.  If you noticed the cute party hat and blower I made in picture up top... a tutorial will soon be coming! 

Robot Birthday...

So... over the years I have kind of created a birthday party nightmare for myself... It started with my sons 2nd birthday...  (by that time we had gone to some fun birthday parties... all of which involved renting out someplace)  Not having the money to rent out a place, but wanting to do something fun for his birthday... I started to do themed parties for my kids... Here are a couple of my favorites...

Violet's Mad Hatter's tea party... 10th birthday

Noah's Lego Starwars party... they each made light
sabers with glow stick necklaces and clear PVC pipe...

I started making all of the decorations/party favors myself, because I knew I could do it on a budget... That quickly snowballed into also having a craft... And then since my daughter's birthday is in September, she somehow talked me into making costumes with the argument that they (because if she had one her brother needed one too!) ...could then re wear them for Halloween!  And me in my crafting crazed delirium... totally jumped on the bandwagon!!!!  Seriously... for the last 8yrs I've been doing this!  We've had some really fun parties... and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one... but now...I'm kind of burnt out... (no surprise) 

Well this year my son started talking about his birthday party with a question "Mom... If I had a sleepover this year, do I have to have as many people as Violet's (which was 10) did?"   I quickly answered no... to which he replied "Good... because hers was a little crazy!"  He then proceeded to tell me that he just wanted a couple of friends over to hang out and watch a movie...  Yes!!!! I'm finally over with the big parties...I have to admit I let out a sigh of relief...  Then two days before the sleepover... as we were driving home from school... he pipes up from the back seat... "Hey... Mom... what's the craft going to be at my party?"  Ah... crap...  I didn't think we were doing a craft... and when I shared that with him he immediately countered with the fact that Violet had a craft at her sleepover...
So... here is what I came up with in 24hrs... Taking inspiration from the movie he picked for the sleepover (Short Circuit) 
We went with a Robot theme... 


The goodie bags... I love brown paper

lunch bags...

In the goodie bags... a flashlight and 

pencil pouch(which FYI is the perfect size

 for a toothbrush that I also included)

Using my label maker I put their names on

everything, so there was no confusion after

they were opened... 

I made them work for the goodie bags... the boys had

to go hunting for pieces of this puzzle... 

They had to find all 25 pieces,

before they could put it together...

It was so funny watching them put

it together...

After they completed it... a message could be

 read on the back...



All of the decorations centered around the craft... I cut

gears out of poster board (2 for a $1 from the dollar tree)

and hung pre-made robots(from Micheal's clearanced for .79)

Pre-cut letters (from the Dollar Tree) and

robot stickers...  This sign pretty much made itself!

I rummaged through my recycling... and misc.

craft supplies... 

so they could make robots... 

It was quite a hit...



Of course no robot party would be complete without

a robot cake... which literally took two seconds

(pre made cake, pre made robot, and a little leftover garland) 



So... while I may be done with the big parties... And a double yay, that I didn't have to make costumes this year! ... I might not be quite done with the themes...   Michael's seriously saved my butt this year... they had all of the robot decorations that I used, and they were all on sale for $1 and under!... And of course my good old Dollar Tree for supplies...

Now, with that all behind me... I am interested to see what my daughter is going to want for her next party... she says that she just want to hang out at the mall with her friends... but we'll see...

***Jennifer