Lalaloopsy Party Time!

I know it's been months since I posted.  I'm not really sure if anyone even follows this blog, but it's fun to write it (when I have the time).  Keeping up with a Kindergartener, a beginning ballerina, a toddler with many allergies (they're getting much better), and a ten month old who has learned how to wiggle and scootch his way into everything, keep me very busy and I often take my down time to nap, fold laundry, clean the ever messy house, and cook supper.  (Speaking about supper, I may be blogging about how we're about to change all that, and I may try a little experiment.)

So, back in December, I think, I promised a Lalaloopsy party to come.  So, here it is!!

My only little girl turned four this January, and she is obsessed with Lalaloopsy dolls.  I mean, totally obsessed.  She sleeps with them, plays with them all day, and makes sure that I can recite everyone's full name at the drop of a hat.  LOL!

So, It seemed that a Lalaloopsy party was the only sensible thing to do.

So, here's what I came up with.... (I know, picture overload. But, I just couldn't resist!)


I try very hard to keep our party costs down and to re-use and repurpose as many things as possible.

For the food signs, I used PowerPoint and printed them on card stock.  I'll put the original food signs and blank ones on my printables page.  I tried to make every food selection sound like a Lalaloopsy doll's name.

I also hot glued scrap book paper onto the back of clear plastic trays I purchased from the dollar store.  To jazz them up and keep costs down to a minimum.  (pictured in the bottom left corner of the picture below)
 
I hot glued ric-rac and buttons on to an old milk glass compote I already had.

 I made the sugar cookie button lollipops from a cookie pop recipe I found online (I'll look it up and post a link in a bit)

Obviously I used her mini-Lalaloopsy dolls to help accessorize the food table.  The other bowls and trays were all found in the dollar section at Target.

Strawberry milk and pink lemonade.  Striped straws from the party section at Target.

The table cloth I found at The Dollar Store, in their Valentine's section.  And, I used a sheet I already had to cover up the buffet cabinets, and make it a little more "crafty".  I found the crayon coin banks at The Dollar Store too.

For their little craft/game portion of the day we made little Lalaloopsy apronesses. Inspired by some that I saw on Pinterest, but I wanted to make it more interactive for the girls

I cut out little apron tops, and instead of hemming about 20 tops I just used my surger and surged all four sides.  Then I sewed big buttons on the bottoms.  To make the skirts I did the same thing, cut out the shape out of fabric, and cut out a tulle skirt to go underneath.  Then I sewed button holes to match up with the apron tops.  To sew the button holes in the tulle I made a little cotton "sheeth" (I guess that's what you'd call it.) Sewed it to the top of the gathered tulle and then sewed and cut out the button holes through the cotton.  That kept the tulle from raveling and being a major pain.  My sister came over and helped me, and we had most of the pieces cut and surged in about 4 hours.

We had an accessory table with buttons from my husband's grandmother's stash and my stash of ribbons.  The girls, with their mom's help, fixed up their apronesses however they wanted.  By adding buttons to the skirts or tops and then little ric-rac or ribbon on their apronesses.

For the "doll hair" wigs I just looked at the Lalaloopsy dolls on a little poster we got from one of our many dolls and drew them on and cut them out of foam paper.  I hot glued on foam paper bows and elastic strings to fit on their heads like little headbands.  To emphasize the hair aspect I just used Crayola markers and drew on the details.  This took me about 2 hours.

 

We had the party in the church fellowship hall, so I used as many things I could repurpose as possible.  To make the backdrop I took one of the Sunday School dividers and wrapped a blue sheet around the top.  Then I took green and brown scrap fabrics and cut or pinned them in the hill, and tree shapes to mimic Lalaloopsy Land.  I took some of my leftover foam paper and cut out buttons and hearts for the "berries" on the tree.  To make the sign I just used scrapbook paper and two sheets of white cardboard taped together.  

 

I am an amateur cake baker, so I made her Lalaloopsy inspired cake out of boxed cake mixes, homemade butter cream frosting, and homemade marshmallow fondant.  If you want any details on this just leave me a message.  I think the total party cost was around $150 for food and all, so overall, not a bad party on a tight budget.  I know that's not a good party budget for everyone, but when you plan and use what you have or what your friends may have it helps a lot!  (Now let's see if we can throw a Beatle's first birthday party for about that same cost.)

We actually got so busy making aprons and opening presents that we almost forgot to eat the cake.  All in all it was a very fun, and active day.

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

(I know it was all over the place today.  I've been a little distracted.  LOL!)

LaLaLoopsy Party time!! ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Ok y'all.  I have a little soon-to-be four year old who is obsessed with LaLaLoopsy!!  Partly my fault, I know, but now we want a LaLaLoopsy Birthday Party, and I have to come up with some decorating ideas that won't break the bank.  I've looked on Pinterest, and while there are lots of noble ideas out there. I am not a professional blogger and I do not have all the connections I'd need to pull some of that stuff off!  LOL!!  The supposed party is a week and a half away, and I am still at a loss on how to design the cake, what little take home things I should do, and all sorts of fun stuff.  I want your opinions.  Have you had or been to a LaLaLoopsy themed party lately?  Are you thinking about doing one?  What good little ideas have you picked up or seen out there?  Now I assure you I am not completely unprepared.  I've got a few pages of what ifs and could that works.  I just need a push in the right direction.  So, your comments would be greatly appreciated.  I'll post on here what I did, and what did and didn't work a few days after the party is over.  Thanks y'all!!!

Whoo likes to be savvy?!

I use tissue paper for little decorations in my Sunday School classroom and birthday parties.  It's cheap.  A little goes a long way, and it makes big statements especially when your budget isn't that big.  (I have a few ideas coming up for my daughter's Lalaloopsy birthday party in January.  Check back then to see what else I can do with tissue paper and other cheap dollar store and crafty supplies.

I teach the three and four year olds' Sunday School class at our church.  Last week we began work on our nativity scene for our room.  I wanted to do something big enough they could all see and not fight over touching.  I think this worked out pretty well.

I just cut out everything free hand, and tried not to use the same scrapbook paper twice.  It's not perfect, but it gives the kids something to picture while I'm teaching them the Christmas story.

Here's what we came up with.  Hope you like it!

I used brown tissue paper for the barn, and simply tore it into the pieces I needed.  I wanted it to be simple

I used the same basic shape for all the tops, heads and "legs".
The camel was the hardest to free hand.  I had to look up a lot of pictures to make sure I got him right.

I used several pieces for the swaddling clothes for baby Jesus to make it look like they used scrap fabric/cloths to wrap Him up.

I think these sheep and pig are my favorite!  They were soo cute, and the kids helped pick out the patterns from the scrapbook paper.  They're pretty smart, aren't they?!

Here are the shepherds, again, same basic shapes, just turned the opposite direction.  I couldn't get their crooks to be long enough, and my daughter thought they were old ladies, instead of shepherds.  Lol!! But we'll get that sorted out next Sunday School lesson.

And last but not least, our angel.  I cut here wings in a giant heart shape and just free hand cut one side.  Obviously I folded it and cut the other side to match.

We've used scrap book paper in our other classroom decorations as well.  Here are the other walls.  The kids just love them!

 So, if you can picture it, our room goes from left to right.  The big owl tree, the nativity corner (there's a window on this wall, as you can see a little in the left of the large nativity pic), and the little owl tree.  


The nice thing about the tissue paper is that the longer it hangs the wrinkles come out, and now it looks really neat!  I'll take a panoramic with my iPhone and post it later.

Here's a couple of pics from my third's 1st birthday party.  As you can see I used the same owl pattern I created then, for my owls in my classroom now.

I'm all out of time for posting, but I've got many more ideas to come!

Have a great day!

A Fair Isle Winter!

My husband LOVES fair isle sweaters.  We try to get one every winter, sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't.  I think some of them are ridiculous.  Others are adorable.  So,  while finishing up the last orders of the season, I decided to make a few door hangers of my own.  (Finally!!)  I took inspiration from my husbands favorite winter sweater style and made these.

Not too shabby for a quick days' work.

Long Time, No Write

It has been an extremely long time since I last blogged about our little family and our projects.  A lot has been happening.  After a bout with the flu, the stomach bug, and severe colds I think we are all on the mend, except for mom, who is just now catching everyone's little colds! (Yay me! - NOT)

Still, in that time I have managed to complete a few projects, and of course, start a few more.  I promised back at the first post to show you how I make a burlap door hanger.  Today I will post those pictures and simple instructions.

First, Supplies:  1 yard of Burlap
                          a pile of grocery store sacks
                          acrylic paints in your preferred colors
                          a sewing machine threaded with a coordinating thread

In this project I was making a two sided wreath and "snow globe"

First I took a large round serving platter and used it for my template.  With my burlap folded in half (like it comes on the bolt) I cut about two inches around the plate, or however large I could get it to fit.

Second, I sewed a large stich around the perimeter, being sure to leave a hole big enough to get my fist through.  This is where you'll stuff your bags.

After stuffing, go back to the machine and sew the hole closed, being sure to start and end where you left off.

Now comes the sloppy part!! I usually put on an old apron for this, because I tend to make a ginormous mess in whatever project I'm doing.  Take your base color of paint and swirl in in the approximate shape of your wreath.  You can use your paint brush to push the design out further.  And, don't worry about messing up, you can paint over it.

After painting the first set, continue to paint until your desired area is covered.  Let this dry and then you can apply your accent colors.  (I chose to stick with the basic red and green, however, I do like to "prime" where the red is going to go with white first, it keeps me from having to go over the red three or four times.)

Once that's done, flip to the other side and paint your other picture.  This can be a "snow globe" like picture, an easter egg, a basketball, and many other things.  The possibilities are endless!

To make the "hanger", I use 12 to 14 gage wire.  I poke a hole through the top left side, twist it with pliers and do the same on the opposite side, that way each side has a swirly piece.

Now, on to the next project:  Ruffle pants

I take a pair of pants that fit my little girl very well.  Fold my chosen fabric in half and then half again, so there are four layers.  Lay them over the fabric I want to use for the pants.  Make sure the outside hem of the "pattern pants" is on the fold, then I cut about 1 1/2 inches above the waist, and about 1/2 to one inch along the inside seam.  This leaves me enough wiggle room, incase I mess up.

It will look like this.

For the ruffle, I cut a strip twice as wide as one pants leg (on this example I didn't have quite enough, because I was using scraps and had already gotten started).  Then I pressed the hem, and sewed it.  Next I ran a basting stitch along the top and gathered my ruffle.  I pinned the ruffle to the outsides of the fabric first, making sure to match the cut edges.  Then I adjusted my ruffle accordingly.   Repeat for the other pant leg.

I pinned that, and sewed each ruffle to the bottom of the pant leg.  Then simply turn the pants legs right sides together and start from the bottom of the ruffle and sew up to the crotch of the pants.  Do this on each leg, then place the right sides together on top half of the pants and sew those seams.

Next iron down about an inch or so, depending on the size of your elastic, and sew that edge down, forming a pocket for your elastic.  ***Make sure you leave a hole big enough to thread your elastic through the pocket.

Thread the elastic, sew it together, sew the little hole up in the "pocket" and turn your pants inside out.  Voila!!

I made the swirly ribbon shirt too.  It's requires a little more patience, but it's pretty easy.  The next one I do, I'll take pics and post a tutorial for it.

You should know that Christmas is my favorite holiday!!  And, "Elf" is one of my most favorite movies.  I've made a cute little printable just to get a jump on the holiday season.  I'm going to frame it in a funky frame and put it up on the wall in my living room, but feel free to mod podge it onto something, or use it as a little thank you card.  If you do use it, I'd love to see what you did with it!

Ok, I think that's enough sewing and painting for one day.  I'm going to rest and drink some hot tea.

Happy Thanksgiving!!