Mermaid Birthday: The Invitations

August is nearing and that means my Baby Girl will be celebrating her 9th birthday very soon. 
This year she chose a mermaid theme so we put together the following invitations:

Supplies

After pulling paper and pre-cut fish shapes out of my scrapbooking supplies, the only thing we had to purchase were the seashell stickers.

Seashell Stickers

I wanted to give a close-up of these stickers because they were so pretty. 
I found them at Goodwill for a total of 59 cents!  Not bad, not bad 😊

Mermaid Tail

Though the stickers were a great start, I knew I wanted a nice mermaid tail featured on the invitations as well.  I was going to sketch one out from scratch when I came across these fish cut-outs in my stash.  They were such a pretty color and I liked the nice, full fins so I figured, why not just cut the tails from here?  After sketching a 'body' I cut the tails and added a few ink details to the fins.  I left a bit of length on the body as it would end up being trimmed from the finished invitation anyway.

Cut Paper & Add Detail

I trimmed down the sheets of scrapbooking paper (some blue, some purple) into envelope size and then used a bit of the pink paper to add color to the corners.

Add Tail & Sticker

Next I added a tail to the top left corner (you can see how the excess paper was trimmed) and then a sticker to the top right corner.  Normally I add my stickers last, but since these were so larger I put one on before the text.

Add Text & Sticker

I then completed the invitations by adding the text and then layering a second sticker on top of that.

In case it's hard to read, here is the text:
-Splish Splash, it's a mermaid bash-
Join us for (child's name here) birthday party
(Date, time and location here)
*Lunch and dessert to be served*

And there you have it, easy to create invitations for a mermaid birthday party.

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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2018

How to Paint: A Butterfly Scene

In addition to the beach scene pot that I shared last week, I painted a butterfly pot as well. 
This post will give you a step by step account that can easily be duplicated 😊

(You can click here to read about the beach scene)

Step 1 - Clear Coat

Just like with the beach scene, 

I went ahead and clear coated this pot (inside and out) as well.

Step 2 - Sky

Using a sky blue, I coated most of the pot leaving just a bit of the terra cotta exposed at the bottom.

Step 3 - Basic Grass

After flipping the pot upside down I covered the remaining bit with a deep grassy green.  No exact line is needed here, keep it easy and wavy.

Step 4 - Grass Detailing

Once the basic grass was dried, I went back and added random strokes of green to serve as individual blades of grass.  Though this step is featured with the pot right side up, I found it easier to accomplish with the pot upside down.

Step 5 - Butterfly Wings

After sketching some generic butterfly shapes in pencil, 

I filled in the wing portions with a lovely shade of purple.

Step 6 -  Details

Once the purple was thoroughly dry I used black to create the body of the insect and pink added interest to the wings.

Step 7 - More Details

The scene didn't feel quite finished to me, so I added a few more details.  Antennae, silver wing spots and a few branches in the grass completed the scene to my liking. 
(Don't forget to protect your painting with another layer or two of clear coat.)

And there you have it, an easy to recreate butterfly meadow 😄

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I hope you enjoyed this painting post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2018

Thomas the Train Birthday Party: The Invitations

All Aboard!

My Little Man is turning 4 very soon and we are celebrating with a 

Thomas the Train themed birthday party!  

Read on to see how easy it was to put together these Thomas themed invitations:

Thomas the Train Party Pack

Usually when we plan a party, I rely mostly on color to convey the overall theme -I don't often purchase character plates or balloons, for example.   But this past summer while treasure hunting, the kids and I stumbled upon an entire bag of Thomas themed party decor.  At $2 for the entire bag (and with great enthusiasm from the Little Man) we snapped it up!


In case you can't tell from the photo, the pack contains large (folded up) banners of Thomas, cardboard character cut-outs, swirly foil streamers and character 'confetti'.  The confetti didn't show up well in this pic, but that's what I pulled to use for the invitations.  If you don't have something similar, don't worry.  Thomas stickers would work just as well.

Step 1

After gathering my supplies (blue scrapbooking paper, red envelopes and the 'confetti') I printed out the wording that I wanted to use for the invites.

In case you can't see it, here is the wording:

**ALL ABOARD**

(Child's Name Here) is turning 4!

Join us for lunch & dessert (Date Here)

The birthday express will be departing (Time & Place Here)

Side Note:  Those red envelopes are left over from when I made the Little Man his pirate party invitations last year.  (You can click here to read more about those)

Step 2

Using a standard sized (8X10) sheet of colored paper, I cut each 

sheet into equal fourths to serve as the backdrop for the invitations.

Step 3

Next I glued the trimmed down wording sheet at an angle for a couple of reasons.  

One, there was more room that way to feature all of the text and two, I just thought it looked better 😊

Step 4

Lastly, I added a couple of embellishments from the 

Thomas birthday party pack and the invitations were ready to go.

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I'll have more party fun coming soon, but in the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this how-to post  Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2018

DIY Halloween Shirts

Each year, when I take the kids to the pumpkin patch, I like to take their pictures wearing Halloween shirts.  Usually they wear something store bought, but this year I decided that we could make our own.  

Read on to see how easily you can make up a few of these yourself:

Supplies

All you need are cotton t-shirts, stencils (we used cookie cutters), 

acrylic paint (or fabric paint) and puffy paint.

I found the t-shirts on clearance at Wal-Mart for $1 each 

and the cookie cutters are from my baking supplies.

(You can click here or here  to read more about my baking collection)

Step 1

Play around with your stencils until you find a design that you like.  

Baby Girl ended up choosing a pumpkin and the Little Man went with a ghost.

You could go as simple or as complex as you like here, 

we kept things simple with one stencil per shirt 😉

Step 2

Once you have chosen your design, tape your stencil in place.  It also helps to push down on the stencil while painting to keep the paint from moving outside of the stencil.

We used acrylic paint (from my painting supplies) to cover our stenciled areas.  I painted the outline of each stencil first, then held the cookie cutter in place while the kids did the rest 😊

Note:  I also put several sheets of paper inside of each t-shirt before painting.  This prevents any paint from bleeding through to the back side of the t-shirt.

Here you can see the painted pumpkin.  

Because we used acrylic paints (as apposed to fabric paint) on dark colored t-shirts, the finished design looks more like a stain.  If a solid image is what you are going for, I recommend using fabric paint and a lighter colored shirt.

Pumpkin and Ghost

The pumpkin took three coats  of paint to look nice, but the ghost looked great after only one coat.

Step 3


Once the base colors were thoroughly dry, I used more acrylic paint to add the leaf and facial details.  It helps if you turn your paintbrush upside down and dip the end into the paint to serve as a pencil for outlining first.  Then go back and fill in with your brush.

After the details were dry, I used a gold puffy paint ($1 at Wal-Mart) to add the kids names and a little more detail to the pumpkin.

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And there you have it, easy to make holiday shirts for about $3 dollars! It will cost a little more if you need to buy all of the paint, but you can find small tubes of acrylic at Wal-Mart for around $1 each.

So the kids have worn the shirts a couple of times and will quickly outgrow them, now what?  You cut out the designs and add them to your holiday patchwork quilt, of course! 😉

(You can click here to see my Halloween quilt)

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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

Candy Themed Birthday Party - Centerpieces

Remember these centerpieces from the candy themed birthday party?  

Well here's how easy they are to pull together:

Step 1

I gathered an assortment of clear cylinder vases in different heights.  Using the cylinder shape makes for a nice, clean look and varying the heights adds dimension and interest to the table tops.

Tip:  Go ahead and give your glassware a cleaning before use.  You'd be surprised how much dust can build up, even in a cabinet!

Step 2

Take cardboard tubes (from either paper towels or toilet paper rolls) and cut them down to fit the height of your cylinder vases.  You'll want to leave about an inch of clearance between the top of the tube and the opening of the vase.  Next fill the center of each cardboard tube (I used wadded up plastic grocery bags).

These tubes are going to sit in the center of your vases allowing you to 'fill' the containers with way less candy 😉

Step 3

Add the cardboard tubes to the vases.

Candy Filling

We chose Skittles, Starburst, gummy bears, lemon drops and mini marshmallows (all based on their coloring) to fill our vases.

Tip:  If your kids are helping or your Husby is home, buy extra candy 😉

Step 4

While holding the tube in place from the top, begin filling the space between the tube and glass with the candy of your choice.

Side Note:  You can see by this photo that I didn't have enough paper towel tubes to fill all of my vases.  No problem, taping a couple of toilet paper rolls together works just as well 😊

Step 5

Continue filling until you get to the top (notice how that inch of clearance space allowed the cardboard tubes to be hidden) and then check the vases from every side for any 'holes'.  

You can see that the vases on the left and in the center look great, but the one on the right has a few weak spots.  Just keep fiddling with the candies until you get them to settle more evenly.  You might need to add a bit more candy as well.

Step 6

Once the vases were all filled, I used decorative napkins to create a covering.  Just place a napkin on top of the vase and fold the edges down.  Lastly, add a bit of clear tape so that the napkin keeps it's shape.

Note:  These are the same napkins that were purchased as part of the party supplies, so they went with the party decor beautifully

Step 7

We can't have visible tape, can we?!?!? 😁

I used a bit of sparkly light blue tulle to cover the tape and finish off the arrangement.  

This tulle can be found in the party section of Wal-Mart for $1 per roll.  It didn't quite show in the photos, but the tulle features a subtle sparkle and several different colors were available.

All Done

Now you can store these away (someplace where the kids can't reach them) and get on to the rest of your mile long to-do list!

Fun Facts:  You know I'm always prepping early, so how did the candy hold up?
The Skittles and Starburst did just fine.
The lemon drops ended up sticking all together in one clump.
The gummy bears and marshmallows all went stale 😆

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Did you miss anything from the candy party posts?
You can click here to read about the invitations
You can click here to read about the decor
You can click here to read about the desserts.

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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

Candy Themed Birthday Party - The Invitations

🍭For her 8th birthday, Baby Girl decided to celebrate with a candy themed party🍭

I'll have several upcoming posts detailing the decor and desserts, but for today lets start with these adorable invitations:

 Inspiration

I think it's helpful to have an idea of theme before starting a project.  Candy was an easy theme, but could easily have become overwhelming with all of the color choices.  By having having the color palette nailed down at the start, it helped to simplify the overall look.

I found these birthday cake lollipops and polka-dot straws back around Easter and thought the pastel hues would be great for this event.

(Straws from Wal-Mart and lollipops found at Dollar Tree)

Materials

With the theme colors nailed down I gathered together yellow paper, candy stickers and cupcake cut-outs from my scrapbooking stash.  Everything here I already had on hand, so no purchasing was necessary.  

I think the paper is from Wal-Mart and the stickers Dollar Tree, but I'm not sure about the cupcake cut-outs.  I could have gotten them at one of the same stores or found them treasure hunting, I'm not really sure! 😄

(The invitation wording was printed out on standard computer paper)

Step 1

After printing out the invitation text, I glued it onto a bit of yellow scrapbook paper.

This year's wording is pretty simple:

We've got CANDY!
And we're sweetly celebrating
(child's name here) 8th birthday
(Location, date & time)

Step 2

Next I attached the yellow-bordered text onto a paper cupcake with a bit of hot glue.

Step 3

After following up with a couple of sweet themed stickers, the invitations were ready to be sent out.


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And that's that for a simple candy themed party invitation 😊
I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

Easy to 'Make' 4th of July Headpiece

With the 4th of July coming soon, I thought I would share this easy to 'make' festive hair wreath.  I say 'make' because really it's ready to go, right from the store 😉

Starry Garland

I found this red, white & blue garland at Dollar Tree.  It comes already wound in a wreath shape that is the perfect size for a child's head.

Step 1 & Done!

All you have to do is take the end of the garland and wrap it around itself a couple of times to secure the wreath in place.  

Seriously, that's all I did here - remove cardboard, twist end, enjoy mother-of-the year status 😎

The Crowning

It was hot last year (surprise, surprise 😀) and my Baby Girl wanted to wear her hair in a bun.  I left a couple sections of hair out on the sides to wrap over the wreath and pin in place, and that was that.

You don't even have to get this fancy, the wreath could simply be placed on top of the child's loose hair.....but it's going to fall off.....in the dark.....so yeah, maybe pinning is best 😌

Add in glow sticks, a bag of popcorn, a firework display and you are all set for a great holiday!

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I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017