Blue's Clues Birthday Party - The Treats!

To wrap up the Blue's Clues party, here are the treats that I made with help!

First off, I purchased # 3 molds and lollipop sticks from Etsy.

I LOVE Etsy! I got a lot of stuff for the party from there!

And then as you can see, I made the #3 chocolate lollipops!

My oldest daughter helped with making these.

Before I got in the "rhythm" of making the chocolate lollipops
in bulk, I melted chocolate while the molds were still freezing
a previous lollipop batch. I panicked, so I got out some
pretzel rods to use up the melted chocolate! Turned out to
be a good panic. The party guests dug the dipped pretzels!

For the next edible craft, I dug out my BRAND NEW Cricut
Cake machine and made paw prints out of gum paste.
Previously my oldest daughter had the Cricut Cake Mini,
but at some point I was able to snag the large model
for $50 brand new. I did some research thanks to Pinterest and
got a lot of great tips on using the Cricut Cake for this project
and it worked very well. No problems!

My daughter and her friend attached the little paw prints to our

white-chocolate covered Oreos! I used circles from one of my
Cricut cartridges (Art Philosophy, I think?) because the actual
Blue's Clues paw prints from the show are more circular. The
circles were all laid out on my Gypsy, which worked out great.

Here are the Blue's Clues White Chocolate covered Oreos!

They're a little imperfect, but still looked good & tasted yummy!

The night before the birthday party, I had the
guests of honor overnight so I put them to work, too!
They made Blue's Clues sugar cookies!

Ok, so they ate the cookies that they decorated
which left me with decorating the rest, but it was
so much fun making the cookies with the boys!

Our finished Blue's Clues Cookies!

And the packaged #3 lollipops complete
with a "thank you for coming" tag!

 

I can't take credit for the cakes, but thought I'd show

them in this post. My cousin made them using a
Blue's Clues pan. They turned out AWESOME!

And here is the table at the party with the packaged

goodies on it!I got the blue pail & bucket at the dollar store

and personalized them with vinyl. I used Zoo Day for

the boys' names and "is," and then Birthday Bash for the

# 3. I wanted the 3 to be a bit more perfect so it was more

easily identified by the birthday boys. I figured that their

mom can use these buckets to hold small toys or

miscellaneous stuff in their rooms after the party.

 

 

So that's it for crafting and this party. I had so much fun with this theme! I wasn't crazy about the theme when I first heard about it, though. I thought for sure it would be Thomas the Train since the boys love that! And since Blue's Clues the show was canceled back in 2006, it was harder to get things. But, once I started doing some research (thank you Pinterest and Etsy!!), I got REALLY into Blue's Clues. I tend to do that, though, with the parties I craft for. My room seems so bare now without all of the blue -LOL!

 

Thanks for visiting!

Blue's Clues Birthday Party - More Decorations!

More crafty projects for the big Blue's Clues Party: 

I made cards for the boys using an online Blue's Clues

printable envelope, and I used vinyl to make

"Pail and Shovel" to hold my gifts to the boys!

Names cut with vinyl using the Zoo Day cartridge!

The kid party favors - jumbo crayons from the dollar store

and 3 Blue's Clues coloring sheets with a thank you tag!

These were the prizes for the "Pin the Clue on Blue"

game and the bean bag toss game

(Got the handmade corn toss game on Etsy!)

Here are the assembled gifts from me: Blue's Clues 

Beanie Babies, bubble wands, personalized birthday shirts

(also from Etsy), Blue's Clues flash cards purchased from

eBay, and used Blue's Clues Look-n-Find and Read Together

books from Amazon's Marketplace. Buying used was being

"green" and was very inexpensive which 

justified me getting more for the boys. :)



These were the sippy cups I made for the under 2 kids.

And while I was at it, I personalized some older

cups for the birthday boys, and then a

BIG sippy cup for their mommy - LOL!

And finally, I bought party hats from the dollar store

and personalized them for the birthday boys!

 

That's about it for this post. Next up is the treats post!

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

Hotel Mini Welcome Basket at Tournament

Recently my daughter's basketball team played at a tournament that was far enough away that we stayed at a hotel. So, I thought it would be fun to make mini welcome baskets for them to have at the hotel!

Each dollar store mini basket contained Bath & Body Works (BBW) "Carried Away" lotion, BBW Mint Glass lip gloss, BBW "Island Breeze" anti-bacs, dollar store mints & a mini tissue pack wrapped up in a cello bag given to me by BBW at my purchase.

I used Cricut Lyrical Letters font cartridge to personalize each basket with vinyl. I also attached a computer-generated tag and tied it with ribbon that BBW gave to me and bakers twine from Scrappy Moms. The sentiment on the tag tied in the goodies.

The girls loved them! Thanks for looking, Happy crafting!

Game ON! Game Birthday Gifts in a Tote!

Ok, so I got back on my blog before August ended . . . barely.  It's been busy, though getting back into the swing of school with my girls - ugh!

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post I had some birthday cards to make this month. I was given the idea of board games as gifts for my godkids, so I used the games as inspiration for the cards. Here they are:

This was one of my favorite games growing up!

I hope they enjoy it, too!

 

My hippo was from the Cricut Lite Zoo Day cartridge!

The 7 is from the Mickey Font cartridge - stickled of course!

 

I used my PC to personalize the inside.

And who could forget Hi Ho Cherry-O!

My teen-aged girls wanted me to open this game

so that they could play it before we shipped it off - LOL!

The tree with stickled cherries is from the Cricut Stretch Your

Imagination cartridge, and the 3 from the Mickey Font cartridge.

Again, the inside was personalized on the PC.

I was irritated with myself that I didn't use more creative

wording to tie in the games. I had in my head a while

before I made the cards that I would say "1-2-3 cherries

for 3 years old!" or something like that. Oh well.

And Candy Land!  Such a classic game!

I used The Mickey & Friends Cricut cartridge

for the lollipop (all cards were welded on my Gypsy). 

The popsicle stick was real and was tied with

Trendy Twine strawberry cupcake baker's twine.

I was a little better with this wording!

My BFF and the mom to these birthday recipients

had just posted on Facebook about how she would like

a Magic 8 Ball to tell when certain stages will end in

her children. I thought it would be fun to surprise her

with one given my game theme I had going on! I'm sure

the kids will enjoy it after the novelty wears off. :)

I used an 8 ball graphic I pulled off the internet to

make this card on my PC. No Cricut cartridge!

The inside!

And of course I had to package it all in a fun way,

so I got out my vinyl and personalized a storage tote from

Walmart! The handles have green on them, so I chose

the lime green vinyl to match. In retrospect, the green

is not the easiest to see when the tote is filled, but oh well.

I used my Cricut Lite Cherry Limeade cartridge for the letters.

Each godchild received two games

plus the Magic 8 Ball for my BFF.

I did wrap each gift before I packaged it up and mailed the tote across the country. The shipping was probably the most expensive part of this gift, but it was worth it. I don't get to see these kids too often, so I like to be the fun godmom that sends them fun, personalized cards and gifts. And my BFF spoils me on a regular basis with her friendship and her thoughtful gifts, so it was a pleasure to send this out. Sorry I didn't post my usual supply list. I tried to put some details within the post, but leave a comment or email me if you would like any more info.

Have a good remaining week all!

Personalized Candy Bouquet Using Scrappy Moms' Spring Fair!

Wow! The last day of March is already here! I'm sad to see my month as the Scrappy Moms guest designer end. It was so much fun! I will be drawing a winner for my giveaway tomorrow 4/1, so if you have not got in it, click HERE!

To end my guest designer spot, I have one more project using Scrappy Moms' latest stamp set, Spring Fling - a candy bouquet!

This was made for my oldest daughter's BFF.

She just had a bedroom makeover so her name and

dots on the bucket match her new room colors!

She loves Bath & Body Works,

so we got her a gift card there.

I personalized the gift card with the help of my PC

and made it the focal point of the candy bouquet.

I added candies with a bubble gum or a

cotton candy theme (or both) to match the

gift card, and as a fun way to utilize the new

Scrappy Moms Spring Fair stamps!

Pixy Stix were added to the lollipop sticks

in case this girl didn't get enough of a

sugar rush from the other candies - LOL!

Another Spring Fair sentiment!

And another!

I used vinyl and my Cricut to personalize the bucket.

The back had more polka dots in the

 gift recipient's bedroom colors.

Supplies:

• Cricut Car Decals cartridge font for name
• Cricut Art Philosophy for circles
• Vinyl in lime green, navy blue, sky blue and light purple from expressionsvinyl.com
• Pail from Michael's
• White shred from our local dollar store
• Wilton lollipop sticks from Michael's
• Styrofoam inserts from the local dollar store to hold sticks
• Candies: Pixy Stix, Pop Rocks, Blow Pop and Bubble Yum gum 
• Bath & Body Works gift card
• Bubble Yum lip balm purchased from Michael's($1)
• PC to make hot pink square and Happy Birthday Ellie! greeting (Sorry- I can't remember the font! I spent a lot of time trying to match the Bath & Body Works logo, though! :))
• Scrappy Moms' Spring Fair stamp set
• Scrappy Moms' Hooray for Birthdays stamp set
• Stampin' Up Basic Black ink
• White cardstock from scraps cut into flags

I have more to share from this birthday party- a chocolate-themed one! I helped the mom make favors and I also redesigned the pinwheel centerpiece that I made earlier this month (shown HERE) to match the later-chosen colors of the party. I will post that as well.

 

Thanks for poppin' by!

 

Life's A Beach!

Aloha, my fellow crafters!

As I said in my last post, I survived my 13-year old's beach party this past weekend! If you missed seeing the invitations, you can view the post for them HERE.

Here we go:

Here's the party crew in front of the

 fabulous Oriental Trading beachy backdrop!

(Ok, so it was basically a plastic tablecloth split in

3 parts which lead me to LOTS of photo-editing

to make it look like a real backdrop, but it worked!)

I picked up these cute wave-like mini cupcakes from Target

and decorated them with handmade toppers using

Scrappy Moms' Sun Kissed Stamp set - love that set!

Here's the powder room decorated in the beach theme!

My daughters made these Cricut creations using

the Life Is A Beach cartridge and Stickles.

They also made flowers for the party room

which you might spot in the party pics below.

We had a tropical hand soap, lotion and candle

all from Bath & Body Works to decorate the sink!

Also in the powder room is my Creative Memories

display frame. I decided last minute to add a photo of the

birthday girl when she was 1-year old at the beach!

Her friends really got a kick out of it!

The food served with shovels! And yes, those are

"Goldfish" swimming in that salsa- LOL!

The utensil caddy also had straws

and umbrellas for their drinks!

Here's the Goldfish Bar!

We had Pizza, Parmesan, Flavor Blast Cheddar,

Colored & Pretzel! The little trays were $1.50 for 12 of them

(6 fish 6 crabs) on clearance at Oriental Trading -Woot! Woot!

We usually have this Tiki bar on our enclosed

sun room, but the birthday girl talked her Dad into

carrying it down to the party room. Such a Daddy's Girl! 

I must say it made a nice addition to the decor! We also

had a light up palm tree in a corner (see tug pic below).

Here is the dessert and gift table!

How lucky was it that I found a tropical pattern

for a 13th birthday? TOTALLY lucky!!

The candy bar!

We had Swedish fish, sugary orange slices,

tropical-colored Sixlets & Starbursts in the reds!

The palm tree tray had mini sugar cookies from Target.

We also gave out Popsicles after the fast-paced games

and had ice cream cups to serve with the mini cupcakes.

I've found that so much gets wasted at parties like this,

so I think mini is the way to go! And the ice cream cups were

a convenience in not having to scoop ice cream and deal

with the mess. Would definitely go that route again. And to my

surprise, the girls really liked them and wanted the tiny

wooden spoons that came with the cups - LOL!

The large sand buckets on the left were prizes.

They were filled with full-sized tropical scented 

Bath & Body Works shower gel, lotion & lip gloss

all 75% off right after Christmas. I think it was seeing these

items at B&BW that gave me the beach party idea. The favors

are to the right in the photo. More pics & deets of those below.

Elimination beach volleyball!

Whoever made the beach ball drop to the ground,

either by a bad hit or not getting to it, was out. We eliminated

until we had a volley between 2 girls & then got a single winner.

The net was actually fish net purchased

in my order from Oriental Trading.

Musical Beach Towels!

This was just like musical chairs, but each player had to

"strike a pose" on the beach towel once they got to one.

Down to three contestants and just 2 towels!

Tug-Of-War!

We made a dolphin using the Cricut Life Is A Beach

cartridge and hooked it to the rope with a paper clip.

Each team was trying to land the dolphin on their towel.

The girls totally pulled their muscles out & got into this game!

The girls also did a round of limbo, but I video'd it and haven't

successfully extracted any stills from it yet. That was fun, too!

Here's the birthday girl opening gifts "at the beach"- LOL!

And we just had to send our guests off

with a remembrance of their beachy time together!

Where did I get the items for the favor?

Bath & Body Works of course!

The lotions, anti-bacs with tye-dye holders,

Daquiri lip glosses and nail files were all on sale pretty cheap

at B & BW. The "Icy Breeze"mints were in a package of 4

from the dollar store. I was going to go with bubble gum, but

at this age many of the girls have braces, so gum is a no-no.

The pails were from Oriental Trading, and came with little

sand tools. I used the shovels for decorations to the food.

When the pails first arrived, I didn't like how small they were,

but they ended up working out perfectly for what I put in them.

I used vinyl and the Cricut Life Is A Beach cartridge font

for the personalizing of the pails. The tags were printed on my

computer (back message) using Beach Type font downloaded

from the Internet & stamped with Scrappy Moms'

"Mahalo" stamp from their Sun Kissed set for the front.

The ribbons were in my stash,

but purchased from Michael's last year.

Here are all 12 in a colorful rainbow!

We did have 3 girls that were not able to attend, so I gave

pails to my non-bday daughter & her friend that was over.

And then that left one pail for me - LOL!

I have had lots of positive feedback from the girls' parents,

so I think I can officially consider it a successful event!

I am entering this in Decorate to Celebrate's "Anything Goes" Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and getting through this very photo-heavy post! Have a great day!