DIY Birthday party stage 3 - last minute DIY

In the last few days coming up to the party I whipped up a few DIY projects to bring the whole thing together.

Top: Happy Birthday banner.
Recycled cardboard, markers, imagination

Middle left: Cake bunting.
Bamboo skewers, craft wire wrapped with yarn, scrapbooking paper, glue, paint, marker

Middle right: Photo booth sign.
Recycled cardboard, markers

Bottom left: Cake and cupcake platter.
Two pieces of scrap wood (covered temporarily with a piece of vinyl table cover and taped in place), a hollow Megabloks construction, double-sided tape (to give a little more security between the Megabloks construction and the top tier)

Bottom right (top): Finalised photo booth props.
Each image is printed onto regular copy pare and then glued onto a manila folder. When dry the maskes are cut out and an extra large paddle pop stick is glued to the back

Bottom right (bottom): Table decorations.
I raided my son's plastic dinosaurs and transformers and used them to decorate the cake table, food table an present table.

Everything here cost me a few dollars for the paddle pop sticks, colour printing - since my home printer shit itself :( - scrapbook paper and table vinyl. I have left-overs of the sticks, paper and vinyl and still have the photo props as they are really quite sturdy!

DIY target game tutorial

As seen in the super-duper 5th birthday party of 2012, the target game!

The shooter tutorial can be found at Come Together Kids. That is where I originally saw the idea and I won't rip of the concept by making my own tute :)

At most this project will cost you a couple of dollars. At best, it will be free! I always keep a few plastic cups and balloons in the cupboard for when I have a party.

I picked up the clear standard plastic cups and found them strong enough to support the balloons on their own. No need for doubling up the cups.

DIY Birthday party stage 2 - activities & games

ooooookkkkkkk

Birthday Party stage 2 involves the games. All these games are recyclable, diy, customisable and nearly free (or totally free, depending on your stash).

Top: colour in.
Easy friggin peasy guys! I found some free colour in pictures of Transformers and dinosaurs, changed the black to a medium gray (so they are nicer to colour) and printed them.

Middle: Pin the tail on the dinosaur.
Cardboard from a box, with butcher paper glued over the front, painted by hand. Add a matching cardboard tail and ta- da! Inspired by: Paper and Cake

Bottom left: Target game. (Tutorial)
Disclaimer! IF you include this in your party be prepared for it to be hijacked by the adults. Oh, and leave it till last as the kids love it too!
Cardboard from a box, softdrink box, tissue box, cracker box, white glue, tape, paint, pom poms, plastic cups, balloons. Pom pom shooter tutorial over at Come Together Kids

Bottom right: Ring toss.
Cardboard, cardboard tube from a aluminum foil pack, cheap paper plates, glue, staples, paint. NOTE: I found the single plates did not work very well, so I stapled two plates together, one upside down on the other. Inspired by A Little Learning For Two

Along with the DIY photo booth there was barely enough time for the kids to play with everything. They had a ball and a bunch of the adults got involved too. Laughter and merriment was the order of the day!

Going black

Today I'm going black to support the anti SPOA and PIPA movement.

Do you want your internet censored? Do you want your web page under scrutiny by the government? Do you want to risk being closed down because some big business thinks you are impinging on their copyright? Don't risk the amazing and free-spirited voice of the internet that has been creating and supporting individual voices for years.

Piracy is the worst type of theft, stealing other's hard-earned ideas and creations is the most despicable form of flattery. But these laws are not the way to protect us.

My offerings for the Inchie swap

I joined my first Inchie swap earlier this month and sent out to my partners last week. It was a lot of fun, though I was nervous at the beginning since I really didn't know what I was doing.

Don't know what an inchie is? Check out this link.

We were all in groups of 8, so we each made 7 sets of 7 inchies to send to each person.

I approached my inchies like tiny works of art. And really, and inch is pretty freaking tiny when you are trying to draw. I did a few sets of continuous art, broken up into squares and a few sets of individual inchies that fit together in a theme. I like continuity, I like repetition and I love how each person I swapped with now has a part of a larger piece of art, shared with like-minded people.

I am a totally sucker for customised packaging. To the point that I am considering posting a cutom packaging design service when I open my online stores.

Here are the envelopes I printed out, just a piece of heavy computer paper (210gsm).

The inside:

I cut out each little square and the inchies are stuck between the folds of paper with a little blu-tack. A custom design also gave me the opportunity to make a special frame for my little bonus, a magnet inchie to pop on the fridge.

With all of my swaps I like to send out a little extra, a practice I intend to follow into owning a store. Little surprises can be really inexpensive but leave a wonderfully happy feeling with the recipient. In a swap situation it makes you both feel happy about giving and receiving something special and in a business perspective it gives added value and leaves a really good impression in the buyer's mind.

I am pretty pleased with the results, those little pieces of art are quite addictive.

Paper Waratah flower tutorial - Australia Day project

Happy Australia Day! Ok, well Australia Day is really tomorrow but I wanted this pattern to be available a little early. These tiny paper Waratah flowers are really easy to make and you can do the earring set in under an hour. Plus, you probably have all the materials on hand! How cool is that?

Also mentioned at Craftster.org...

Approximate time for 2 earrings: up to 1 hour

Materials:

• 1 piece of office paper in your chosen colour, or 1 piece of decorative scrapbook paper cut to size (I used a plain piece of red copy paper. Dress up plain paper with a stamp or draw some squiggles)
• 2 x 5cm (1 inch) head pins, any metal
• A pinch of seed beads to complement your paper colour ( I chose red)
• 2 x sequins, any colour you like (mine are pearl white)
• earring findings of your choice - these earrings can also be attached to plain sleepers instead of earring hooks or studs

Tools:

• craft knife, or scissors if you prefer
• round nosed pliers to close the loops
• desktop printer

Steps:

Start by downloading the pattern to your computer and print onto your paper.

1. Cut out each piece and stack according to size. For each flower there will be 4 x extra large pieces, 2 x large pieces, 2 x medium pieces, 2 x small pieces and 2 x base pieces.

2. Pierce a small hole in the centre of each piece using a craft knife or thumbtack.

3. Fold the flower petals up into a soft cone.

4. Gently curl the points towards the centre.



5. Mould the base pieces into shallow bowls and curl the petals back. I used a half-sphere measuring spoon for this but your fingers will do fine.

6. Thread a sequin onto the head pin. Add a base piece, followed by a seed bead.

7. Add the next base piece followed by a seed bead.

8. Thread on one of the extra large petals, followed by a seed bead.

9. Repeat this process, progressing down through the petal sizes.

10. Thread the final small petal and follow with a seed bead.

11. Push the flower gently to the base of the head pin. Grasp the petals, not the base pieces, and firmly mould the flower into a cone shape. Don't be shy here.

12. Using an index finger, hold against the side of the flower and press downwards. This flares the base a little and makes for a fat-bottomed flower. Repeat all around the flower until it is even.

13. Use your pliers and make an eye in the headpin. Secure to your earring findings.

 NOTE: You can also make a plain, upright flower. Thread the pieces from smallest to largest, followed by the base pieces. Secure with a crimp bead and give to a loved one.

If you make your own please let me know how they turn out!

Also, I do apologise for the copyrights on the pictures and the disclaimer on the pattern. I really do not mean to be rude or distrustful, but being the internet you never know when someone will swipe your tutorial and claim it as their own. This is purely to discourage unsavoury characters and to hopefully prevent others from profiting from my hard work without my permission.

Paper favour bags - Tutorial

I wanted to share these favour bags I made for my wedding in September 2007, I am so thrilled at how they turned out.

Made of regular A4 computer paper printed with a Photoshop brush and glued into shape. The tags are also created in Photoshop and the 'love' beads are rolled paper beads with the word printed on. All tied up with a piece of variegated purple cotton crochet yarn they looked pretty good. I popped in 4 large choc coated cake balls wrapped in purple cellophane and they held up really well.

I had a few of these to make so I made myself a sturdy little cardboard box frame out of an old chocolate box. Mine is 9cm wide x 18 cm high x 5.5 cm deep and it makes a nice wide little rectangular bag.

Print up your page and lay it right side down and pop your box on top. Note the thin black line at the top of the box? That's to line up the top of the paper so all the bottoms are the same and the bags are the same height. Crease the edges well.

Run a line of glue down the right side of the paper. Or use a glue stick but remember the paper only overlaps a few millimetres.

Fold the paper over and press to adhere the glue. Then align the paper to the line at the top.



It takes a little while for white glue to dry but glue sticks are nearly immediate. I made a few up to this point, pulled it off the box and moved on to the next while the glue dried. It can be tricky getting the paper to slide back on the box though when the glue has dried.

Tip the box on it's end and fold in the bottome like you would wrap a gift. Crease the paper well and add a few dobs of glue in the corners.

Fold the flaps over and secure with a little tape. Remove from the box frame

Cinch the sides and you're done!

If you are making a few you might like to fold them up for easy storage. Lay the bag down and continue to fold the sides.

Keep the sides folded in and press the bottom towards the back of the bag so there is no crease on your nice printed front.

Ta DA!

I bet these would make great gifts bags for Christmas gifts, and a nice way to present assenbly-line gifts too. Have fun!

Normal disclaimer: although the paper bags are obviously a universal design, please do not use my tutorial without my permission or copy my design style for profit. You know, crafty karma and all that.