Valentine's Day

Well it is that time to celebrate all the love we have for one another. My son has his Valentine's day party at school tomorrow, so I thought I would share with you his Valentines we made.

I bought shovels and made this cute little tag to go on the goodie bags that says " I dig you." It took about 3 bags of Valentine's M&M's to fill 9 shovels up in the goodie bags. You can add more or less, but my goal was to make the shovel look full.

The M&M's spread out since the bag was so big, but when you are pouring them in the goodie bag, hold the shovel flat, so you will know when the shovel is full enough. Keep in mind these are two year olds, so I did not want to go overboard on the candy.

We are also taking Valentine cookies to his party that were made from a wonderful lady I work with. She has done all my cakes as a child and now she is making my baby's cakes and cookies for special occasions. THEY ARE DELICIOUS!

Cameron's Farm Party

As you know, I have been working on this party for quite some time now. Everything turned our perfectly and our little man had the best 2nd birthday he could have wanted. Check out some of previous posts on how things were made and prepped for the party. 

Cardstock Letter

My niece is having an Under the Sea theme for her 1st birthday, so my sister asked me if I could work on some table decor. I went to my favorite store, Hobby Lobby and bought everything I needed for it.

Supplies: 

Hot Glue Gun

Cardboard Letter

Cardstock

Die Cut

Start out by punching circles in your paper. I chose to do glitter for a couple of reasons, number one, she is a princess and number two, I wanted it to have the mermaid look. Some of the glitter paper was tougher to cut thru with the die cutter, but I made it work.

Once you have all your circles, lay them out on the letter before gluing so you will have a pattern (yes you need more circles than what is pictured)

Here is the finished look, it is very simple and cheap to make. Now she has some center pieces or table decor for her party. I did the number one and the letter Z for Zoey. You can do the whole name or spell out the age of the child.

Fondant Pigs

All of the food at my son's birthday party will be farm related. We are doing "pigs in the mud" with dirt cups (chocolate pudding with crumbled Oreos.

I bought candy cups that were the perfect size for snacking on pudding and can still have room in your tummy to enjoy all the other food.

I found a recipe on Pinterest for marshmallow fondant to make the pigs to go on top of the pudding. 

A half batch of the fondant will make about 50 pigs depending on the thickness of them and you will still have some scrap left over to roll back out if you need more.

I used two different size circle cookie cutters for the head and the snout. The eyes are made with the little squeeze bottle of Wilton Gel Icing. For the ears, I took the same circle cookie cutter I used for the snout and cut the circle into a 4 sections and then took two of the sections and used them for the ears.

For the "dirt cup" you will need to make the instant chocolate pudding and crumble oreos on top.


And there you have your "Pigs in the Mud"

Building a Barn Backdrop

I have posted a lot of things I have made for my son's farm theme party in previous posts, so today I am posting how to build a barn backdrop. 

This is a very easy and simple way to make a barn.

Supplies: 

Red Tri-Fold Project Board

Tape Measure

White Duct Tape

Black Cardstock or Construction Paper

Yellow Cardstock or Construction Paper

Pencil or Pen

Box Cutter

Banner

Hot Glue Gun or Regular Glue

Farm Animal Cutouts

I did not take pictures of me measuring anything (I know I should have, but I was also dealing with an almost terrible two year old at the moment)

First thing you want to do is get you measuring tape and measure your angles. You will have two different size slants on each side of the barn, so it is important you measure them before cutting. Use your pen or pencil to mark where you need to cut.

Once you have your markings, you will use your box cutter to cut out the shape of the barn. 

Next you will cut your roof out of 12x12 cardstock pieces of paper. I believe I made the roof 3.5"x12" and cut about 6 strips of it. You can see where it was pieced together, but it gives it the look of shingles on the barn. Once you have it cut out, glue it down. Take another piece of 12x12 black cardstock and lay it towards the top of the barn for the chicken's coop (I cut some of the cardstock off to make it a little bit smaller). 

Now take your handy dandy white Duct Tape and tape down the chicken coop. For the barn doors. I laid the tape down to where I thought it should go and didn't really measure. Where the outer sides of the doors are, I lined up the tape with the crease in the tri-fold board and then placed white Duct Tape in a "X". I then cut a piece of Duct Tape in half to make it skinnier for the middle to break the doors in two sections. It does not have to be perfect...trust me, mine is far from it, but its so cute!

I bought my banner from Hobby Lobby and used the 40% off coupon and got it for under $3. The banner has 12 pennants, but I could not fit all of them on there, so I cut 6 pennants off. I hated to waste the other 6, so I am saving them and will use them as a banner in front of the table for decoration. Hot glue to ends to the roof to where the banner will hang slightly over the barn doors. 

Take your yellow piece of cardstock and cut different size and angles of triangles. I did two different layers, so it looks like hay. Now  you are ready to start adding your animal cutouts and you will be all set for your barn backdrop. 

Everything was bought from Hobby Lobby!

Overall price for barn:

 Tri-Fold Board - $2.40 (used a 40% off coupon)

Box Cutters - $1.99

Cardstock - $.59 x 5 = 2.95 

Banner - $2.40 (used a 40% off coupon, bought it at a separate time than the tri-fold board since you can only use one coupon per day)

White Duct Tape - $4.99

Animal Cutouts - FREE

Hot Glue Gun - FREE (already owned it)

Measuring Tape - FREE (already owned it

Add Georgia Tax 7%

Total: $13.19

Cant beat it! This was a super fun project and knowing it is for my little boy's party makes it that much more fun to make! If you make it, I would love to see how yours turned out.

Under the Sea!!

My niece Zoey will be one in March, so the party planning has begun. My sister of course expects me to help with all the planning and preparations of her party. She is doing an "Under the Sea" theme, so I have been starting on her chalkboard. I thought I would share it with you.

I will have this printed out on poster paper from Office Depot and mounted on foam board. It is cheap and looks way better than using dusty chalk.

P.S. She is a little redhead, so it fits perfectly with the mermaids.

More Birthday Shenanigans...

Everyone knows when you go to the zoo, aquarium, theme park, etc., they always have cutouts for you to stick your face in and say "cheese." I thought that would be a cute idea to create something for my son's birthday party. I designed a poster on a program I have and I am having it printed out by Office Depot. When you have it printed make sure you add the option on for foam backing. This will mount it to the board without you having to go out and buy board and line it up yourself.

Once you get the board, you will cut out a circle around the face and "voila" you have your cut out for pictures and your party is ready to go.