Monster Clock

Tiger starts kindergarten in a few days. To help him get up on time, I got him a clock (I know he can't read it yet, but hopefully sometime in the next year). Because my son loves monsters (scary monsters none the less),  when I saw this clock in the Disney Family Fun magazine I thought of him.

 The instructions are here. I just used things that I already had around the house, so if you happen to have some fun fur lying around, some googly eyes, some cardboard, (I added felt), and a glue stick you too could have a scary monster clock.

I decided that I wanted to cover the back of my cardboard with felt so that it didn't look like a cheap cardboard project. I did the felt first, and then did the fur. Tiger likes it. Hopefully he doesn't mind it waking him up too much.

Young Women Personal Progress Folder

 A few months ago, the Young Women leaders in my ward asked me to teach a simple sewing class for the Young Women. I started searching for a project idea that would be easy enough to pull off in a short time, but would also be "cool" enough to make the girls pleased with their work. I found these Personal Progress Book Holders at Chocolate on my Cranium and thought they would be perfect. The class I was suppose to teach ended up falling through, but I still thought the girls could use the book holders so I made several for the leaders to pass out (and forgot to take a picture). The original ones have all been passed out, and another girl just turned twelve, so this is the one that I made for her.

There is a spot on the inside for the Strength of Youth pamphlet, the journal, and the personal progress book, as well as a pen. It is a cute way to keep your books all together. 

Pirate Extravaganza- The Decorations

I didn't do a very good job of documenting everything for the pirate party, so I shall try to do my best to show you some of the decorations with what pictures I do have.

 Real pirates wear shades. And scowls. Behind them, you can see the treasure chest where the guests put the loot for Tiger.

 I quite liked how my serving counter backdrop turned out (inspiration came from here). Basically it is just dowels set in plaster of paris in cans spray painted black with some fabric hung from other dowels.

 Coincidentally, the week before the party, Tiger and Kitty had a pirate section at the preschool they attend. I mounted some of their artwork on some matching colored paper and laminated it.

 This anchor was inspired by a smaller version that came home in the kids' backpacks from preschool as well. I just made a bigger one (and laminated it because I could).

 I wanted to get some port holes so that it would look a little like being on a ship. This is where I was reminded once again of how technical my husband is. I asked his opinion on which waves to use and he started analyzing how water actually looks- even to the point of checking out google image searches. The backdrop is just a roll of the wrapping paper stuff from the dollar store. I took a sharpie and drew lines to make it look a little more like ship planks.

I liked how my wall treasure map lines turned out. They were super cheap- it is just red paper cut into 1"x2" rectangles (you know me- I laminated mine just because) and taped on the wall. It was time consuming, but I like how it looked.

I wrapped the line around the wall and ended it with a paper cross. The treasure chest on top there is just a cardboard box that I shaped like a chest and covered with some fabric.

It doesn't really show in the pictures that I took, but I ordered one set of these banners from Amazon and had them strung around the house. 100' went a long way and added a lot of decoration for less than $6.

Fishnets- Perfect for serving Goldfish

 When I decided to serve my Goldfish in fishbowls, I thought it would be cute to use a fishnet to scoop them out. Real fishnets would have been too big, not to mention a little pricey. Fortunately, while I was thinking about how to make my own fishnets, it also happened to be Easter time. The egg dippers for dying Easter eggs looked like they would be a perfect fit, and they were. After Easter I went and snagged up several boxes of the dye kits on clearance to make my nets. If you don't have the luxury of waiting till after Easter, I think crafting wire could be bent into the same shape.

 I traced circles onto some netting I already had. The circle will need to be at least twice as big as the net you want to make (I think that is the lid to some of those Gerber baby bowls that you can find in the baby section).

 Tie your string to the dipper.

 Ignoring the dipper, stitch a nice gathering stitch around the top of the circle of netting.

When you have gone around the entire top edge, gather the net in so that it is about the same size as the dipper, making sure it is gathered somewhat evenly. 

 Wrap the netting around the dipper, and using a whip stitch, go all the way around so that the net is securely attached to the dipper.

Tie off and admire your handy work.

They actually scoop up a surprising amount of fish. And look cute. Not bad for a few minutes time.

Pirate Extravaganza- The Food

 I know the pirate party was several months ago, but I realized the other day that I had never gotten around to posting a few things, so please excuse my negligence. If you have been sitting in suspense wondering what on earth I served my guests (particularly the smaller crowd, since I don't think I took any pictures of the family party after the friend party), I shall finally put you out of your misery. So without any further ado.... the food.

The main course was hot dog boats. Cute, but also so simple a pirate captain can grill them up, with one hand tied behind his back (ok, maybe it wasn't tied).

For the sails, I cut out some trapizoidish shapes with my Cricut (George and Basic Shapes cartridge, but only because I was cutting everything else out with my Cricut and it was available). I punched a hole in the top and bottom with a small hole punch, and ran a skewer through the sail. The pirate flags at the top I took from the cupcake printables here. I glued those to the top and had quick and easy boats.

 Because I like boats I also served cups of blue jello ocean with whipped cream waves, with pirate ships (cut out with the Paper Dolls Dress-up Cricut cartridge). I taped toothpicks to the back of the pirate ships to get them to stay in the jello.

 In addition to the cake, I also had cupcakes. I found some pirate cupcake wrappers at Jo-Anns that also had the flag toothpicks. I just frosted the cupcakes and rolled the tops in the crushed Nilla wafers to look like sand and go with the treasure map cake. To make them a little more exciting I made a cross out of licorice to put on each one.

 Not a spectacular photo, I know, but what pirate party would be complete without Goldfish? I found the fishbowls at the dollar store. I made the labels for each bowl to distinguish them. My favorite part of these is the fishnet I made to scoop out the fish. They actually held a surprising amount of fish, not to mention the fun factor of fishing for goldfish.

For the beverage, I served sea water (can you tell I had way too much fun with my printer for this party. I also got a lot of use out of my 2" circle punch). I wrapped some scrapbooking paper around little water bottles and glued the circles on the front. I failed to get a picture, but I also served Pirate Punch. That was just some Capri Suns with a label printed out that said "Pirate Punch" with a skull and crossbones. I just printed it out on some of that adhesive labels you find in the computer paper section at Walmart.

If I remember correctly, for the party which involved the adults that evening, I made some Jamaican Jerk chicken (kabob style), as well as some roasted potatoes, also kabobed (because skewers seemed like a good pirate party food. We also had some bbq pulled pork sliders that were held together with some sword shaped toothpicks, as well as the mango salsa with chips. Not to mention lots and lots of IBC Rootbeer in the glass bottles. There may have been more food, but that was a few months ago, and my memory has never been that spectacular.