A Bit of Catch-Up: Princesses and Hogwarts

I know, I have been a slacker lately. Actually, I have been quite busy. And I keep losing my camera. Here are a couple of things I have done recently.

 OK, I confess- I painted this backdrop a while ago. The princesses were just too cute not to share:)

 This is what I really did. A friend was hosting a princess tea party for her daughter's birthday and asked if I could make the cupcakes. I suggested the idea of making individual doll cakes for each girl and she loved the idea. Polly Pockets were in surprisingly short supply. Fortunately Walmart had these little dolls that worked perfectly in a jumbo cupcake.

The next project is one I have been quite excited about for the last month. My in-laws are in charge of their Blue & Gold Cub Scout Pack Meeting, and they picked a Harry Potter theme. It was the perfect excuse to work on some projects that I have wanted to do for Harry Potter parties, but always ran out of time.

 I started by making some signs. I used some assorted wood scraps that were lying around the garage, and my trusty Silhouette, and lots of paint and mod podge. They are an assortment of styles- some are vinyl, some I used the vinyl as a stencil, some I printed and mod podged paper on. The Platform 9 3/4 actually involved all three methods.

You will have to accept my incomplete picture here- I have already sent the finished product off, and don't love the camera capabilities of my phone to want to take more than this. This would be my version of the House Points (also ignore the yellow balls in the Gryffindor container- they were what I grabbed first when making sure my idea would work). I went to Walmart and purchased the thickest plastic they had (in their fabric section). I got 1 1/2 yards, and cut it in fourths. Then I took and wrapped it around #10 cans, added sticky-back velcro, and trimmed the excess plastic off. What isn't pictured is the bias tape I sewed on the top and bottom to give it a finished edge. The cans I just wrapped with black paper and printed out the house crests and stuck on there. It worked perfectly.

The other day, I realized that Dobby has very similar ears to Yoda. I had already made a cute Yoda, and had the right color yarn on hand, so yesterday, I made a Dobby hat. She had fun running around with her ears. I just need to make her a pillowcase dress now.

And so I don't forget if I need to do this again (and cause I keep losing the scraps of paper I jot things down on)- the instructions for how I made the ears:

I started out by crocheting a basic hat (I used the I hook for all of this). Then I did two ears and stitched them on the sides. I started my long tail for sewing on the bottom of each side, and turned down the top- like pictured.

The Ears:

To Beg: leaving a long tail for sewing, chain 21- last ch counts as turning ch

Row 1: sc in second ch from hook; 1 sc in each ch across; turn

Row 2-5: ch 1; sc in each ch across; turn

Row 6-15: ch 1; sc in first st; sc2tog; sc in each ch across; turn

Row 16: ch 1; sc 7; sc2tog; sc; turn

Row 17: ch 1; sc, sc2tog; sc next 6; turn

Row 18: ch 1; sc 5, sc2tog, sc

Row 19: ch 1; sc, sc2tog, sc; sc2tog, sc; turn

Row 20: ch 1; sc in each ch across; turn

Row 21: ch 1; sc; sc2tog; sc; turn

Row 22: ch 1; sc; sc2tog; sc; turn

Row 23: ch1 sc; sc2tog; finish off