Valentine's Giveaway!!!

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and I thought I would get everyone in the lovey-dovey spirit with a giveaway!!! There are so many cute crafts you can do for Valentine's and I'm bummed I haven't had time. I was really wanting to make this guy from here.



And I still may and then he'll be all ready for next year!!:)

I picked up a few things to decorate the lucky winner's home for Valentine's Day!!!



There is the cutesy "LOVE" sign for hanging, some adorable, glittery (hard to tell in pic) decorative ball vase fillers, and a candy dish!

Because the holiday is so close and I want the winner to enjoy their prizes at least a little before Valentine's, I will be announcing the winner Friday morning!

To enter to win, simply leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite thing about Valentine's Day!! For example, do you love the candy, date night with your special someone, or is it a special memory you have? I love having an excuse to go eat somewhere fancy with my husband!! And my Dad has always made Valentine's Day special for his girls (me, my sis, and mom)! He always gets us the sweetest cards and some nice treat like flowers or candy:-) My husband has a lot to live up to!;-)

Thanks for sharing and reading!:-)

Congrats Robin!!

Elmo Birthday Party {The Crafty Side}

My daughter just turned 2 and we threw her an Elmo birthday party!! She loves that little guy!;-) Anyways, I wanted to share with you the crafty side! If you saw my previous post, you already got a sneak peak with the birthday hat here.

I don't have any more tutorials for you, but thought I would share some pictures and tips to help inspire some creativity! After all, that's one reason I started this little blog in the first place! More on that here.

First up...her birthday banner!



It was fairly easy, just a little time consuming with all the cutting! I purchased pre-cut letters in the teacher aisle of Joann's and a pack of scrapbook/card stock paper:



I traced a roll of ribbon to make my circles and free-handed a flower shape and used it as a template for the rest of the flower backgrounds. So once I had everything cut out, I played around with the patterns and colors until I got it just right! Then I glued it all together. Last, I punched holes on each side of the flowers and tied together with thin ribbon. One thing I would do differently would be to glue the circles and flowers together, but wait until after the punching and tying to glue the letters on. I had to peel a couple of mine off and re-glue because they weren't lined up quit right.

In the corner, next to the banner, I hung some pom poms that I made!! I followed an easy tutorial from here.



The only thing I did differently as use clear jewelry string/fishing wire type stuff from the craft store instead of the floral wire and it worked! The floral wire may work better, but what I used did the trick so I was happy! I was really surprised by how quick and easy this project was!

I ordered some Elmo cake pops and displayed them in a ribbon covered cone!



All I did was take some thick red ribbon I had on hand and wrapped it around the cone as tight as I could while leaving a tiny space to stick the cake pop sticks. To cover the top I trimmed the ribbon into a small circle and pinned it down.



I got these cute favor bags from an Etsy shop you can find here. I thought about making them, but didn't really want to spend the time. Also, they were reasonably priced and the shop had great reviews!

In keeping with the Elmo theme, the favor bags were full of sesame street coloring books, a small pack of crayons, a small carton of gold fish, and a Cookie monster or Elmo cookie! The coloring books and crayons were from the party store in packs of 12, the goldfish from Target, and the cookies were from Sugar Shack Sweets just like the cake pops.



Here's a shot of the whole set-up...don't you just love the life size Elmo balloon, lol?!

Next, I would like to share the Elmo cake!!!

Confession: I did not do any of the baking, white icing, or polka dots (Publix did). However, I can take all the credit for the Elmo!!!! And I'm super proud of how it turned out! Honestly, I was very nervous while doing the Elmo head because I had not practiced and it was my first time working with fondant. But I'm happy to say all turned out well! Whatcha think?



A cake bakin' friend gave me some good tips:

She told me to get a small batch of white fondant. I bought some for around $4 with coupon at a craft store and also some orange and black colors to tint the icing/fondant. It comes in a big block and you basically tear off however much you need, roll and kneed it, and add the tint color a little at a time with a toothpick. Then roll it out with a rolling pin to get it pretty flat. I used random kitchen objects to make my shapes. I used a shot glass for the white part of the eyes, a teaspoon for the black part, a regular spoon for the nose, and I free-handed the mouth. I used a butter knife to do all my cutting and touching up! I also used food safe latex gloves so I wouldn't get coloring all over my hands. Also, I watched a video on making fondant on you tube that helped a lot!

Icing:

For Elmo's red, furry head I bought a tube of red icing. My friend told me to get a Wilton French icing tip and poke at it for the furry effect. And this technique worked great!

So, what do you think? Have you done an Elmo birthday party before? What party themes have you done or will be doing soon??

Party Hat!

A friend pinned this adorable hat on pinterest for me and I was in love! I thought it looked fairly easy to make so I gave it a try! But if you love it and don't want to make it or don't have the time, you can order one from Etsy here.



I went to my local Hobby Lobby and gathered some supplies:



Different colored felt, medium-sized pom poms, headbands, and poster board. I bought a pack of pre-cut poster board because it was simply easier to cart around since I had my daughter with me and it ended up being a good size to work with. But the normal size poster board was a little cheaper if you want to go that route. And I had to exchange one of the medium-sized bags of pom poms for a bag of small pom poms. After making the hat, I realized smaller pom poms would be a better fit for the bottom.

Here's what I did:



The first thing I did was roll my poster board up in a cone shape. If you do opt for one large poster board sheet, it would probably be easier to cut it down before this part.



Next, I flattened it out and cut straight across to make the bottom of the hat.



It was not a straight line by any means, so I unrolled it...



And trimmed it up a bit to make for a nice, smooth line.



Then I rolled it back up and secured it with a piece of tape at the top and bottom.



Next, I put it on top of the headband to see how it was working out.



It looked pretty good, so I added the fabric.



This part is very similar to how I did my Christmas trees here.



I left a little material at the top and put glue down the side.



Then rolled and glued, rolled and glued, while also tucking the top.



Then I trimmed the bottom and the side to complete the fabric portion!



Next, I made a bottom for the hat out of the same poster board. This step is necessary so the hat does not get in the way of the headband fitting correctly and so there is more area to glue the hat onto the headband.



I traced around the bottom of the hat and cut it out. I put a wad of Elmer's glue all around the edges...I wanted to make sure it would stick!



While I was letting the hat dry, I cut a bunch of circles out of my felt in different sizes. I did them freehand, but you can trace coins if you want! I laid them out on the hat how I liked them and then hot glued each one on.



Next, I did the pom poms! This part was really quick and easy...I just hot glued a medium pom pom on top and hot glued the small pom poms around the bottom in groups of three. And last, I hot glued the hat to the headband! Voila! I thought it turned out so cute:-)



And I must say it looks pretty darn cute on the birthday girl herself...