Hello Kitty Themed Birthday Party

If you are planning on having a Hello Kitty themed party but are on a tight budget you are definitely in the right place. As a stay at home mom of 4 I have learned to stretch that dollar to it's max. I love Candy buffets and I love to do them for my children's birthdays but I can't afford to pay for one of those candy buffet services. Besides, I love to do stuff like this!  

 Almost all the decorations were made by hand which cut down on the bidget.

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The Hello Kitty heads & sitting Hello Kitty were made by using retired Sizzix dies I had on my stash.

I had a picture of my daughter blown up at our local Walmart. I ordered it online and it was done b the same day. And just my luck walmart.com had a coupon on their website for $2 off their poster size prints for same-day service. Total cost for an 16"x20" portrait 10 bucks and some change... AWESOME!!

I didn't have a frame that size but I did have a bigger frame in my closet that had no glass because a certain someone's husband fell on it... thankfully he wasn't hurt... and that is why your parent's tell you no horse play in the house!

I wanted to detract from all the extra space that surrounded the picture getting it professionally matted wasn't an option and would have taken way too long! I had only a few days to make everything. So with the help of some digital files from Designs on Cloud 9 I decorated my frame in flourishes of the same color scheme of my party... I mean Kyan's party!

A lot of my glass containers I have used on previous parties so that was no added expense this go round. I had originally purchased quite a few pieces from Ross'... they have awesome deals and I got several pieces for as low as $3.99. The highest I paid for a glass container at Ross' was $11.99. Still, a steal seeing that most apothecary jars and and glass containers can run upwards from $30-$40. And who says you have to use "apothecary" jars?? Sometimes flowers vases work really well... just like the one above.

I downloaded some Hello Kitty images from off the internet and made little tags to decorate each container. Hot glued it in place with some coordinating ribbon voila instant Hello Kitty cuteness!!

Now, these are new! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, milk glasses!! Again, tight budget = no milk glass money. :(

But, my good friend Pinterest came through for me again. I saw on a fellow blogger that used Starbucks' frappuccino glasses. They look almost exactly like milk glasses but with a slightly different lip... no biggy (no one even noticed). Especially after you throw a paper straw in it! I know, über cute, right?!

Speaking of cute... would you believe this cute tray is the cardboard tray the the frappuccinos came in. I bought mine from Sam's Club for a little over $13 for a whole case. They all came in a little cardboard tray kind of like how soda companies used to sell cases of soda. I just prettified them by covering the box with scrapbook paper, ribbon, and regular white card stock. Add a button and ta-da ... awesome!!

OMG...  THESE ARE TOO STINKIN' CUTE!

I had bought some paper straws from Michael's that were on clearance a while back. They were marked down to like $0.25 a bag because they were leftover from Easter. Another "SCORE"!! So I scooped them up not knowing what I'd use them for but hey, they were pink... what can you do, right?! Good thing I did pick them up too because they matched perfectly!

Paper pom-poms. Another decorative staple in my house.Depending on where you get yours from they can also be really inexpensive.Buying pom-pom for $15 is not gonna happen. Well,  lucky me, I have learned to make pom-poms with proficiency. Added a Hello Kitty kick to them by hanging handmade HK paper medallions and now I have pom-poms that no one else have.

And, why only hang pom-poms from the ceiling? I once used pom-poms as centerpieces and they looked like huge floral blooms sitting on the table. But here, I made a pom-pom into this cute little Hello Kitty topiary.

Again... AWESOME... and sooooo kawaii!!

Here are my girls all ready for the party to start... and of course the birthday girl is the one sporting the HELLO KITTY!

Hope you enjoyed this Hello Kitty Party (on a budget) post!

Craft Happy Friends!! Always, craft happy!!

I know I do! And, I also know that I'm helping my children have amazing memories!

The cupcakes picture above were recycled from a previous post. You can check it out here.

Spider-Man Birthday Party

Hi Crafty Friends! I haven't posted in a while. I was recovering from my now 3 year old's birthday party.  As you can see he is a Spider-Man enthusiast. He loves all things Spider-Man. So, it was a no brainer that when I asked  him what kind of birthday party he wanted he jumped up and screamed "SPIDER-MAN"!!

An, like any other crafty mother on a budget, I opted to make as much of the party decorations as possible. My job was somewhat simple... Sean had only two requests. 1) Pizza & 2) A  candy buffet. 

I think I accomplished both. Yay, two points for Mom!! Pizza was easily taken care of . We easily phoned ahead and went to pick up our pizzas right before the party. 

The candy buffet on the other hand was a little more work. I want a little more than candy in containers. I wanted the theme to his birthday incorporated into the set up.

I think I did a pretty good job!

I even handmade these Spider-Man masks to pas out to the children!

And, believe it or not, I already had the materials to make them.

For the masks I used fun foam sheets that I bought tons of years ago and had like 8 packs hiding in my craft stash. I am a craft hoarder so when things go on sale for a really good deal I don't hesitate at scooping it up. I can always figure out what to do with it later!!

Here is my uber cute 1 year old helping mommy to size the masks... they are so stinkin' cute at this age!!

And here I made table tent labels for my glass jars.

 I opted for table tents instead of labels because the last time I hung the labels arount the jars and hung them around the lids they seemed to get in the way and I ended up removing them and placing them besides the jars anyway.

 To get this look I used Accucut's Table Tent #2 (3-D) for the base. And Design On Cloud 9's Journal Tags and Haunted Halloween Party.

Also from Designs cutting files I made this:

 which I also had in yet another previous post. Found here.

Then I backed the candy buffet with this awesome handmade cityscape skyline... also handmade and I also already had the materials for. Yay, for saving money! I did a previous post about it here. 

The thing is I try to only buy stuff only on sale. And these matboards I bought at Hobby Lobby at 50% off. I try to buy a variety of colors and just stick it in my stash because who knows when you'll need it! LOL 

This is another good reason to hoard... am I right or am I right??!! Buy when you can because sometimes things get tight and budgets get tight. And in doing so it always looks like you've spent tons of money and went all out on your child. When in reality it just took a little bit of time and elbow grease to throw your child a super fab birthday.

Hope you enjoyed my little birthday projects! And check back real soon!

Happy Crafting Everyone!! 

Cityscape Backdrop

Hello Crafty Friends!! I have another "SPIDEY" project to share with you all. This is a cityscape skyline backdrop for my son's upcoming birthday party. If you read the previous post about his birthday banner you already know that he absolutely wanted a Spider-Man themed birthday party. And, I was more than thrilled to take up the challenge.

For those of you who have read my post about with the Giant Cupcakes

you know I love to use mat-board for my over-sized party decorations. I do this for 2 reasons. 1) I do not possess the necessary tools or skills to make it out of wood. And, 2) Mat board is so much easier and lighter to handle and craft with.  

For the action signs I used Design on Cloud 9's Superboy & Supergirl cutting files and I slightly enlarged the backgrounds behind the wording.

 The BOOM is from the Supergirl file.

 Pow is from the Superboy file

Wham also came from the Supergirl file.

Each file has two sets of action words in addition to various superhero themed designs.

This picture is to show how HUGE this backdrop is. This is my 5 year old and my 1 year old in the picture hamming it up.

As you can see it is taller than she is!

And my 1 year old is barely peeking through the buildings. 

This scene is great on the floor but thankfully it's not going to stay here for long... I'm afraid my children will do some Godzilla action on this city and it'll be mangled before it's used for the party. So, back up and away it goes till later.

That's all I got for today. But this is the last week before the party and I'm going for one last push before then to crank out more Spider-Man/ Super hero themed party decorations. 

I'm hoping to get a little more done before the big day. Check back soon for more updates and progress!

And, Happy Crafting Everyone!!

Spider-Man Birthday Banner

My Sean Boy is going to be three years old. 

So, when I asked mama's little man what kind of birthday party would he like he said without hesitation "Spider-Man". And, in at least one point in a little boy's life, he should embrace his inner supper hero. So, why not now?! YOLO, right?!

His actual birthday isn't for a couple more weeks but I think it's never too early to prepare. 

This will be the beginning of Spider-Man themed project I will be doing leading up to the big birthday bash. I'll try to make them all short an sweet. LOL

 Here's is the look of the finished banner.

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

For this project I used Design on Cloud 9's Daddy Long Legs file (for the web) which went perfectly into the semi-circle from my ecal shape library. 

And the font used is called The Amazing Spider-Man. Not only did I create the wording for my banner with this font I also created the little circle Spider-Man heads with it too! That's right, this font comes with Spider-Man icons!!

I hot glued my paper pieces onto about 10 feet of grosgrain ribbon and there yo have it... a quick and easy AND DIY Spider-Man personalized birthday banner!!

Stay tuned Spidey friends for more Spidey projects!

Thanks for stopping by and have a very CRAFTY Day!!

Sweet 16 Candy Centerpieces

Hello again crafty friends!! I've been busy busy busy!! A while back I had volunteered my help to a friend for her daughter's sweet 16 birthday party... little did I know I was gonna be the sole decorator. I don't mind doing the work at all but it's getting down to the wire... her birthday party is this Saturday and we just got to see how HUGE this room is this morning. I'm gonna have to put in overtime to fill that space. I still need to make her birthday banner, make more props for the photo booth, decorate a photo mat, and make about 150 cake pops and all in 2 days. I know what you're all thinkin'... "Mitsy, you are CRAAAAAZZZYYY!!!"... YES, yes I am!!

BUT, the good news is I did finish a couple project that weren't listed above. Yes, there was more on my to-do list. Here are the 2 projects I did complete:

These are gonna be decorations for on top the candy buffet table. Probably gonna put them between the candy jars. 

CHEVRONS ARE SUPER HOT THIS YEAR!

I got these from Design's on Cloud 9's Chevron Labels file for the medallions centers.

The cupcakes were made using the Cupcake Fairies file . I printed the jpeg image on my printer. Then I blew up the image with a projector and traced the image onto mat-board  and cut it out. The great thing about using mat-board is that it comes in different colors! I did not need to paint the boards! I did, however, chalk them and add detail to them in the same way I would a regular paper piecing... but I used the chalk inks with extra large daubers instead on finger sized ones. For extra stability I hot glued  a wooden dowel to the back of each cupcake. This made the backs straight otherwise they would bend and slouch.

 Here you can see how tall these cut-outs really are... they're as tall as my daughter and she's about to turn 5.

For you out there who have a handy man in your life... have them cut these out of wood instead! then you won't need the wooden dowel! I, unluckily, do not have a handy man nor the tools to do that myself so cutting it out of mat board was the best option for me. When cutting mat board make sure to use a heavy duty pair of scissors or a sharp xacto knife or utility blade and always be very careful when handling sharp objects.

If anyone would like me to do a step by step tutorial on how to make your own giant cut-out message me or leave a comment below.

I think I'll try this for Christmas next!

HAPPY CRAFTING EVERYONE!!

  

Strawberry Shortcake Inspired Card - You're Berry Sweet

Ok. So, I'm been majorly slacking.  I've have hardly craft all last month. I wouldn't say I've been in a slump or have crafter's block or anything like that... I have lots of ideas going & "designed" several layouts... it's just I lack the motivation to cut them out and put them together. 

Well, that changed last night. I saw DC9's new files, one in particular, and it hit me... I said to myself, "I need to make that!". I also need to make it quick in order to meet my design team deadline.

I came up with this super adorable 6"x6" card...

I used the following files from Designs on Cloud 9: Costume Kids Set 2 (Strawberry Shortcake - kid #2), Doilies (Doily - Doily 123),  Fancy Corners ( Daisies - Corner 12), & Berry Title (Strawberry).

The Costume Kids Set 2 also has this really cute Doc McStuffins look-a-like girl in the set. I love love love this set!!! You can find it here.

Don't forget Friday's freebie...

You can find it here.

And last but not least... I'm working on some centerpieces and decorations for a friend who is throwing their daughter a huge sweet 16 party... theme : Candy!! SWEET!!

Here's a sneak peek at what I started to make...

Faux Lollipops!!

Thaanks for stopping by!

Happy crafting everyone!!

Strawberry Themed Birthday Decor

I also wanted to include these cute strawberry cut-outs I made and hung them above the banner at Kyan's birthday party.

I made this cute strawberry into a cut file. :)

          

You can download this berry cute FREE svg file HERE and make them to any size you want.

I'll be posting more svg files soon. Have fun crafting!

Paper Glitter - Strawberry Kit

It's been a looooooong couple of months but I'm feeling better. Almost done with my first trimester for baby # 4 and it almost killed me! Ok, maybe I'm slightly exaggerating... but still anyone who has had morning sickness will sympathize. And now that I'm getting my strength back it's time to craft!! Just in time too. I've got just 2 weeks to plan Kyan's 5th birthday party.

We are going to do a cute strawberry theme... very cute, very girly!! I found a shop on etsy.com that has the most adorable digital printouts! Which just made my life a whole lot easier. If anyone gets a chance, check out their other collections... their shop is called paperglitter . They are awesome!!  I'll be posting pictures as I go along so everyone can see my progress.

Here is the set I chose from the paperglitter store on etsy. It's called the Strawberry Printable Party Kit.  It is SUPER CUTE!! The best part about this set is that I can customize it with all my child's info and print as many as I want! 

Sean's 1st Bday

handmade all decorations. pennants/ birthday banner were made usings my sizzix eclips w/ ecal software.

Here is some of the work I did for my son's 1st bday party. Sean, you are sooo lucky I love you!

pic taken before party started.  don't mind the mess!

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