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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

A new twist on Childs handprint...

I see ideas all the time on Pinterest of cute crafts to do with your child's hand. They're all adorable but I always think of how hard that would be to dip my child's hand in paint and carefully place it on an ornament, or even flat on a piece of paper! Older children would be easier but a 20 month old...not so much.
 
I seen a photo similar to this particular craft. It was using an adult hand and it was a little more sophisticated looking. I wanted mine to be simple and raw.
 
First you must always sharpen a new pencil, because in this house sharpened pencils run away....so do pencil sharpeners. Oddly enough though, pocket knives seem to multiply.

Luckily I had two pieces of sketch paper left from way back when I use to draw.
 


Next I showed my child how much fun it is to hold your hand in place! This step took several tries (hence my hesitation to purposely putting paint on those wiggly little things!)
 

 
After tracing the paw lightly, I then started drawing lines across the paper. Rulers run away from this house too so I stole my sons wooden puzzle to use. He wasn't happy about me borrowing it so I had to move to the dining room table.
 
 
Here's where it starts to get tricky. Where the lines are of the paw you draw a curved line. I wish I had taken this step more seriously and really curved the crap outta those lines! You'll see why later...
 
 
Obliviously the paw didn't want me to center it on the paper, so I just measured best I could to center it to be an 8x10.
 
 
Next I traced over the pencil lines with sharpie.


You can see the paw coming to life...
 
Next I choose to do Rainbow colors, so I counted out how many spaces there were and divided it up so it was evenly across the paw.
If you look closely from the last photo to the next, you'll see I ended up adding lines in between. The paw wasn't sticking out as well as I'd hoped, this is why I'd wished I'd emphasized the curves.


 
Its not as perfect as I'd like it to be. If only I had curved the lines more it'd really make that paw stand out! If I do another, I'll definitely CURVE more!!! But I really like it. It's unique and different, plus colorful much like the owner of this adorable little paw :)
On the back I wrote his name and the date. Soon I'll frame it and hang it in his room.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Dr. Seuss Themed Party!!

 
I'm already planning on being one of those mothers who throws ridiculously over the top (yet cheap) parties. With that little disclosure, here's my son's first birthday party....
 
 
 Dr. Seuss themed parties are not very common so it's a little hard to find party supplies so I had to come up with creative ideas...
 
 
 
For table decorations I took yellow and green deco mesh and made little Seuss-esk puff balls. All I did was take Styrofoam and staple and poof, staple and poof! I figured they didn't need to be uniform or perfect, that's the beauty of Dr. Seuss, the stranger the better!
 

I made his cake the day before the party, I wish I had gotten an inside pic of the cake, I made it so there were polka dots inside it! Super cute and easy! I had never used fondant before so of course I must go all out and have my first time be trying to create Dr. Seuss characters, took a while but I got it figured out. I also put sweedish fish on the cake... one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish ;)
 

 
Super cheap and easy decoration idea: I went to Google images and printed the book cover art to several of my favorite Seuss books and quotes. We have a photo printer so I just used 8x10 photo paper and they turned out great! Then pinned the photos to a string with mini clothes pins. I hung them above each doorway and a string across the living room. They were extremely simple yet really dressed up the party!







 
We have a large living room so I decided that would be the "main" room. On one wall I hung two of those cheap plastic tablecloths you can get then throw away. Then I quickly hand painted (the night before) a truffula tree scene. I also laid another tablecloth out to protect the carpet under the highchair. I used a red tablecloth to wrap around his chair to minimize on cleaning too.
 



We had just gotten a new dishwasher a few months before the party so I took large pieces from the box and painted these life size Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2. It's amazing what you can do with cardboard! For those of you thinking, I can't paint, yes you can! It's only cardboard, who cares if you mess up! Just go for it! Or find a friend that loves to paint and have them do it (cough, cough, me!)
 
 
This is the front door where all the party guests entered, I wrapped the door in an orange tablecloth then cut out of yellow craft paper the mustache, eyebrows, and eyes.
 
I wish I had been better about taking photos of everything but I suppose I was a little busy. For his party invitations I went online and found a free printable for Dr. Seuss themed invites. For party snacks I had bowls of Sweedish Fish, and watermelon "bowls" full of colorful fruit.  I used colorful paper plates and colorful solo cups. I figured above all just make sure it's colorful and fun! Hope this helps give you ideas for your next party you plan!