Fascinator DIY

For the QUEEN BEE TEA, we also made fascinators.  They made these at the beginning of the party, so they could wear them during afternoon tea. It was so fun to see the different styles and personalities come out as they created their fascinators.

I had a table of supplies all ready for the girls when they arrived.

Our guests got right to work, and laughed the whole time!

They were all so creative!

To make a fascinator, use a disposable plastic lid as a base, and hot glue to attach everything. Wrap felt around the lid, and then top with flowers, ribbon tulle, butterflies, birds, and whatever you can think of is great! Our favorite was to add Russian tulle, also called birdcage tulle or millinery tulle. This is the tulle that hangs over they eye on a real fascinator. Regular thick skirt lining tulle works too!

The girls were so creative!

They worked on their fascinators for two hours!

Be sure and glue felt to the bottom, and then cut out a felt circle. Glue it to the bottom so that you can slide a headband in and have it be held in place by the felt circle. Decide where you wan tot wear it on you head, and have fun! The girls liked wearing their fascinators to the side.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy & Creative Day!

Risa

No-Fuss Camping Themed Family Birthday Party

Do you ever feel like hosting the family for your child's birthday party is overwhelming? You want it to be nice and memorable, while still being cost effective and fun? I hosted a party for my son's birthday a few weeks ago, that was pretty low maintenance and low cost. Here's how I did it. 

Let me first say… These photos were shot inside, when it was dark outside, with no natural light. I did it about 2 minutes before people arrived. We were not in a lovely meadow with perfect lighting. We were in my kitchen, with a gaggle of toddlers running around. It was a little crazy. It was real life.

First things first. When setting up a display, it is important to incorporate different levels for displaying the food. I achieved this by stacking boxes baskets and books on my island, and the covering it all with a table cloth. The next thing that helps create height, is serving dishes. I went for all white this time, and I think it really worked!

I knew I wanted it to be camping themed, because of all the darling homemade camping toys I made my son for his birthday. See previous post. I also knew I wanted the food to be easy and inexpensive.

When you are camping, what do you usually eat for your main course? Hot dogs and chips. I set the hotdogs on the back counter in a crock pot, and put the rest of the food on the island. I mentioned the general menu in the family email invitation, so those who don't appreciate hotdogs - like me - could come prepared. Here is the invitation I created.

Here it is in physical form, complete with mini marshmallows on toothpicks. So cute, right? Little touches make things extra special.

We drank tang, of course… The ultimate camping drink. We had water in the cooler, and I used a punch to punch scalloped circled out of wood grain contact paper that I got at the dollar store. The idea was that people could write their names on the labels. The kids were way excited to drink tang at a party!

I was thrifting, and just happened to find a perfect picnic basket, and red and white checked gingham table cloth for $2! I was so excited, and it was perfect for holding the plates and utinsels.

We served Cheetos and potato chips. It couldn't get any easier.

No camping party is complete without ants on a log, right? It was an easy make ahead item that I just pulled out of the fridge.

We had a couple options for dessert. One was dirt cups. When serving dirt cups, get the smallest cups you can find. These are nut cups from the dollar store. It makes for a perfect serving size. People are welcome to have more if they like, and you won't see a bunch of half eaten food wasted in the garbage.

Here is the printable I created for the labels.

The second option was s'mores. We love s'mores at our house, and have a great gadget that makes s'mores in the oven.  We offered traditional chocolate bars, and peanut butter cups. The peanut butter cups were eaten first.

I pulled out the camping set that I made for a girls camp display a few years back.  You can see that HERE. It worked great!

I think it was a great night, full of fun and memories. It is easy to take the party from boring and forgettable to fun and fabulous with these few easy steps.

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon to see that daring free printables I have created for Valentines Day!

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Party Decor for $1 {Reusable Shopping Bag - Part 4}

There is really not much to this tutorial, other than to say, you cut your bags into strips as wide as you think you might want them. Fold them in half, and stitch up the edges. Remember my post about the Sewing Themed Party, and the gift bags I made for that? You can see it HERE. I used the same idea for those bags, but the tops were cut with pinking sheers, and they were made using parchment paper.



I like chain stitching, as it seems to make everything go faster.




Chain stitching is where you feed one in after the other, and stitch all the right sides first, and then stitch all the left sides in a row. After you finish, you just cut them apart, and you won't really have any excess thread to cut off besides on the ends.

Next, use any scraps you have to cover water bottles. I just happened to have purple yarn in my craft room, that I used to hold the pieces of the bag in place.

My... wasn't that easy?!?

If you saw me on Studio 5, you saw that I also made little flags to go in some snowball snacks that I bought. I just used small scraps, and glued them to sucker sticks. I took all these pictures before going on the show, and didn't get a picture of the flags that day, as I made them the night before. If you want to see the clip, you can watch it HERE.

You might also want to look at:

10 minute Apron - Reusable Bag
First Aid Kit - Reusable Bag
Reusable Lunch Set - Reusable Bag
Party Set - Reusable Bag
$.25 Wallet - Reusable Bag
DIY Jewelry Organizer - Reusable Bag
Pillow Sham - Reusable Bag

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 8 {Mehndi (henna tattoo)}

If you hare having an Indian party, you FOR SURE have to do Mehndi! Mehndi is the art of painting semi-permanent tattoos on on your skin using henna. I looked into buying henna. It is not expensive... about $1.50 for a whole cone of it. The problem is it lasts for up to 2 months! I didn't want any of the mom's to be mad at me, so we went with craft paint.

My lovely sister-in-law offered to be in charge of that part. She bought all the paints, and brought dowels for the girls to use to paint their own hands.



We just put a little paint on small paints, and used a drop cloth on the floor.

Fabulous Angie demoed how to paint on Sophie.

Angie told the girls a GREAT store about The Peacock while they were painting their mehndi's.



It is a great story, so I thought I would share it with you. The original can be found HERE.

By Katherine McGee

If you’ve ever stood in front of the mirror, thought you were less than perfect and perhaps said any of the following:

• “If only my lips were thinner/plumper”
• “My hips/bum is too big/small”
• I’m too thin/fat
• I’ve no waist
• My nose/ears is too big/small
• I wish I had better hair
• My teeth are too crooked
• I’ve horrible legs

Why did God give me such an ugly body part?

Indian Folklore tells the following story, of the Peacock; this story is for you if you ticked any of the above.

The story of the Peacock

Why has The Peacock – The most beautiful creature ever created, got the ugliest feet in the world!

When God created the Peacock He was delighted, he said, “this creature is completely perfect in every way, he has beautiful jewel-like colours, exquisite proportions, elegant, graceful. God was so proud, and so was the peacock! He held his head high and strutted in superiority.

However, with the passage of time, God became aware that He was the only one admiring the beauty and perfection of the Peacock.

God was amazed to discover that the Peacock went unnoticed and very quickly realized the bird’s perfection was lacking a foil to showcase his beauty, the creature was too perfect and therefore invisible!!! A flaw was needed in the beautiful creature; only a flaw would highlight the Peacocks exquisite beauty.

And so God went back to the drawing board;

After some deliberation, God concluded that the bird’s great beauty would need to be reflected by a flaw of equal measure: He gave the Peacock the ugliest feet in the world. The Peacock was not happy (it’s said that his screech is his appalled response every time he sees his feet!).

The beautiful peacock

As the recreated Peacock walked away from God on his graceless, clumsy, colourless feet – heads turned, gasps of awe were heard and the other animals said, “What an exquisitely beautiful creature”. It was agreed, unanimously, the Peacock was, and remains today, the most beautiful creature of the animal Kingdom.

Those who gaze on the Peacock see that he is perfect in every way. “How incredible, said God: “nobody but the peacock notices his feet! And he has discovered a newfound humility and compassion in his imperfection”.

God smiled and was well pleased. He learned his lesson well; when he turned his attention to creating mankind; he remembered the Peacock, and gave all his children unique individual flaws; to highlight our great proportions, elegance, grace and beauty which, in turn, serves to remind us that no one is perfect.

I think the girls liked the story, and liked painting their hands.

They had fun showing it off after they finished.

We are almost finished with our Indian / Bollywood Party. We have one more part of the party to cover. Be sure and come back tomorrow!!! Hint... the girls learned a couple Bollywood dances!

You might also want to look at:


 Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 1 {Invitation}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 2 { Indian Princess Doll Favor}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 3 {Princess Beds and Taj Mahal}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 4 {Indian photo shoot}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 5 { Decor and Dress}
Indian / Bollywood Party, Part 6 {Diwali Lanterns and Rama Sita}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 7 {Footless (barefoot) Sandals}
Indian Bollywood Party - Part 8 {Mehndi (henna tattoo)}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 9 {Bollywood Dancing}
Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

Indian / Bollywood Party, Part 6 {Diwali lanterns and the story of Rama Sita}

When I started thinking about activities to do for the party, I came across the story of Rama and Sita. I thought it was such a charming little story that I would tell it to the girls, and have them make a Diwali lantern as one of the activities for the party.

Here is the story: I found the Coloring pages on Activity Village. I printed them out, and had Sophie color them before the party, so we had a visual for the girls.



Once upon a time there was a great warrior, Prince Rama, who had a beautiful wife named Sita.



There was also a terrible demon king, Ravana. He had twenty arms and ten heads, and was feared throughout the land. He wanted to make Sita his wife, and one day he kidnapped her and took her away in his chariot. Clever Sita left a trail of her jewellery for Rama to follow.


Rama followed the trail of glittering jewellery until he met the monkey king, Hanuman, who became his friend and agreed to help find Sita. Messages were sent to all the monkeys in the world, and through them to all the bears, who set out to find Sita.


After a very long search, Hanuman found Sita imprisoned on an island. Rama's army of monkeys and bears couldn't reach the island, so they began to build a bridge. Soon all the animals of the world, large and small, came to help. When the bridge was built, they rushed across it and fought a mighty battle.


When Rama killed the evil Ravana with a magic arrow, the whole world rejoiced. Rama and Sita began their long journey back to their land, and everybody lit oil lamps to guide them on their way and welcome them back.
Ever since, people light lamps at Diwali to remember that light triumphs over dark and good triumphs over evil.

We told the girls the story, and then they got to make their own lantern.

I was going to set up tables, but thought it would be easier on the floor.

They really liked it, and the lanterns were so creative! I had all the kits ready in advance. I put them together using modeling clay in a medium sized bag, and then the jewels and candle in a smaller bag... all stapled together with cute paper. Like I have said before... I am a control freak, and I wanted to make sure all the girls got the exact same amount of everything. It also makes things run more smoothly to have it all separated and ready to go beforehand.

You might also want to look at:


 Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 1 {Invitation}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 2 { Indian Princess Doll Favor}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 3 {Princess Beds and Taj Mahal}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 4 {Indian photo shoot}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 5 { Decor and Dress}
Indian / Bollywood Party, Part 6 {Diwali Lanterns and Rama Sita}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 7 {Footless (barefoot) Sandals}

Indian Bollywood Party - Part 8 {Mehndi (henna tattoo)}

Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 9 {Bollywood Dancing}
Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

I am linking:

Sun Scholars

Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 7 {Footless (Barefoot) Sandals}

One of the other activities we did for the party was footless, also called barefoot sandals.

I put the kits together beforehand. My daughter helped me separate all the beads, and cut the string.

Then we put the kits together, using scrapbook paper and small bags.

I put two staples on the back so you wouldn't be able to see them from the front.

Finished kit.

Of course, they were on a cute plate :)

I had one example ready for them to follow.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cut a piece of string that will be long enough to go around your middle toe, and tie behind your heel. Be generous with the string. I made a mistake, and bought a string with gold running through it, and it kept separating while the girls were threading the beads on. I felt bad for them. So, don't do that! ;)

Just a note... you can do whatever you want for the next section. I just did what worked for the beads I had. You can be creative once you get the basic idea.

Thread nine small beads into the middle of the string, and tie a knot with both ends of the string, right next to the beads. You can see above.

Thread a large and a small bead, and tie another know with both pieces of string. Do this three times total.

Thread three large and three small beads onto each string, and tie a separate knot on each side.

Put the sandal on by threading your toe through the loop, and tying the remaining string around the heel.

So... I think these would be fun to wear all summer. I am a barefoot girl, and these would dress it up a bit! My daughter plans to make them in a bunch of different colors, and wear them all summer.

You might also want to look at:


 Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 1 {Invitation}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 2 { Indian Princess Doll Favor}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 3 {Princess Beds and Taj Mahal}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 4 {Indian photo shoot}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 5 { Decor and Dress}
Indian / Bollywood Party, Part 6 {Diwali Lanterns and Rama Sita}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 7 {Footless (barefoot) Sandals}
Indian Bollywood Party - Part 8 {Mehndi (henna tattoo)}
Indian / Bollywood Party - Part 9 {Bollywood Dancing}
Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa