Crafty Endeavors

How to Make a DIY Banner with Free Printable Letters

September 14, 2016 by Eileen 39 Comments

There are so many adorable “Happy Birthday” banners out there. The party stores have all kinds of customized banners, and you can find any type of party banner in any theme on Etsy.

Except, they always cost so much – especially when you only use the banner for event.

I have the perfect solution – make your own DIY banner for any occasion with these simple and free printable letters and then customize the card stock or pennants that you glue the letters down on.

You can make an amazing banner and the only cost is the background paper and the ink you used to print.

A few birthday parties ago I wanted to make a simple but cute sign. However, I couldn’t find free printable banner letters to go with the vision in my mind. If I’ve learned anything from my husband Ash, it’s that if you can’t find something the way you want it, just make it.

So I made my own alphabet banner letters, and then I put them into user-friendly google documents to share with you so that you can use these free printable letters for your occasions too!

The best part about these printable banner letters is that you can print four letters per page, and you can add, copy, or delete the letters so that you print exactly what you need. 🙂

Free Printable Banner Letters

I made three different, yet complementary designs. First, I created a few popular banner titles – Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, and Congratulations, using all three designs.

I also created an A-Z index of free banner letters in all three of the designs. You can use these to create your own titles or to add names to the above titles. Last, here are the number indexes, along with punctuation and special characters too. I just made these in the first design. The special characters include stars and hearts 🙂

Materials for the Banner Sign

Free printable letters (see above)
Card stock, pennants, or other background material
Glue or tape
Fishing line

Time-Saving Trick for the Banner Letters

I know I already told you that the best part of these banner letters was being able to easily customize your wording, but I have another best part. You can reuse these letters year after year or for every birthday!

This year I had a puzzle party for my son, and last year we had a Sesame theme party. I used the SAME letters for both banners, which saved time, paper, and ink. And, you can do the same with these free printable letters.

I just used scotch tape to tape the letters to the background last year. After the party, I removed the tape and saved the letters. This year, I taped the letters to puzzle pieces. How’s that for saving time!?

Making the Banner Sign

To make the banner from scratch, first print the letters you need and cut around the template.

Next, I chose several card stock designs from my closet collection. I LOVE the below card stock book that I found at Walmart. The designs are so pretty – and I work in other solid color papers too so the patterns don’t clash.

When choosing patterns, I pick designs that I feel would compliment each other and not be overly busy.

For the background, when I made rectangles for the Sesame banner, I cut 4.5 x 4.75 pieces. When I made the puzzle banner, I drew puzzle pieces and cut these out.

Once you have your backgrounds cut and arranged, you can glue or tape your letters on the background. Use tape if you want to reuse those letters for a different banner:)

Here’s a closeup of one of the free banner letters, so you can see the design and card stock up close.

After you tape or glue the letters, flip all of the letters over and hot glue fishing line to the back of the letters.

Banner Making Tip

I love using fishing line for banners because it’s easy and cheap! Perfect for a tight party budget. I love the fact that you can’t see the fishing line, and you don’t have to punch any holes and thread – you just hot glue it to the back.

Here’s a picture of my banner making set=up. It helps to have some little but weighty objects around to hold the fishing line in place while the hot glue dries.

Overall, the birthday puzzle banner turned out great, and I will be reusing those letters for signs to come 🙂

The free banner letters really are so versatile. They go with any color scheme, you can use them for any occasion, and you can customize them so easily.

In the few months after I made the original banner with my free printable letters, I made about four or five other banners. These printables truly do make it so easy.

Enjoy the free printable banner letters – I would love to hear about the banner sign you are making!

If you want to see how the puzzle party turned out, check it out here.

If you’re wondering how to throw a DIY party without going crazy, click here.

How to Make a DIY Hopscotch Mat

September 7, 2016 by Eileen 48 Comments

I’m always looking for simple do-it-yourself activities and games for my toddler to learn from and enjoy.

While planning his birthday party, I was looking to make different station-like games for kids to walk up to and play with.

Through scouring the Internet for ideas, I came across a cool hopscotch idea, where a blogger made a homemade hopscotch game from carpet samples from Home Depot. I loved this idea because it was so creative and resourceful.

I looked into making it, and the carpet samples were quite cheap. However, I was worried about toddlers who are still working on their balance tripping on the carpet squares, especially because they weren’t stuck to each other.

This was all occurring during my felt craze, and then it dawned on me.

I could make a felt hopscotch mat that I could unroll inside or outside for my toddler and his friends to play with.

It turned out awesome – it’s definitely my favorite DIY this year.

Not only did it look store-bought (I love when my DIYs look store-bought!), but it even inspired my son to learn his numbers. Here’s how to make a hopscotch mat.

Materials for the DIY Hopscotch Mat

Here are the materials and the steps for making this homemade felt hopscotch game.

One 2-yard piece of felt – I used this felt fabric in green from Crafty Cuts, which measured 72 inches x 36 inches. I like this brand of felt because it was nice, thick, and not slippery! (Some felt can be slippery like the kind you buy in craft stores in rolls). This material served as a perfect mat. (I even used a small piece of this cut for the lamp post in our photo booth backdrop)
15 pieces of felt in colors of your choice – 5 of these will be used for your numbers (2 per sheet), and 10 of these will be used for the hopscotch squares. I used a variety pack from a craft store, but Amazon has some great felt variety packs too. I used the size 9″ x 12.”
Glue – I used hot glue to stick the numbers to the squares and the squares to the felt. It held up just fine but I had to use a lot of glue. I didn’t try fabric or felt glue, but I know those choices are out there too.
Number Pattern – I made a free printable (see below) for my numbers. To save ink, you’ll notice I took a few short cuts. I only printed the 1 once (use the stencil for the 1 and the 10), and I didn’t include the 9 (use the 6).
Scissors

How to Make a Hopscotch Mat

Making the hopscotch was really simple. It’s a no-sew project that doesn’t take up too much time, and yields a great result.

Creating the Layout for the DIY Hopscotch Mat

First, I laid out the green 2-yard felt piece. Then I started to pick colors for the squares. After I had picked out my colors – yellow, pink, and two shades of blue, I laid everything down, creating a pattern that I liked.

Cutting the Felt Squares for the Mat

After the layout was down, I needed to cut the ten rectangular felt pieces into squares.

To make this as simple as possible, since the pieces were 9″ by 12,” I just cut the 12″ side to 9″ to make a 9″ by 9″ with just one cut per piece.

Also, I used my paper cutter to cut the felt. This made the process of cutting felt perfectly a cinch because I can never get a perfectly straight line with scissors.

I don’t leave my paper cutter sitting out anymore with my son running around; however the paper cutter I use takes 30 seconds to set up, and you only need to set up part of it to get a good cut.

For someone a busy mom who can’t cut straight, it’s simple and perfect!

Making the Numbers for the DIY Hopscotch Mat

After I cut the ten number squares, I started on the numbers. I decided to use felt to make the numbers. I tried fabric paint and a few other types of paint – but it just didn’t look professional.

So, I made a quick little number printable, and then cut out the numbers to use as stencils.

And, for efficiency, I skipped any redundant numbers (one stencil for 6 and 9).

Next I simply held the stencil over the black felt (I used all black for the numbers) and cut as precisely as I could.

I could have traced the stencils onto the felt first and then cut, but I skipped this time for the sake of time.

Gluing the Pieces Together

Afterward, I glued the black numbers onto the colored felt squares.

Then I started gluing the colored squares to the green felt background. It was turning out so nicely 🙂

The completed hopscotch mat 🙂 Along with a few other party decorations – the photo booth backdrop and the Sesame pom-poms in the background.

Before the party, we used the hopscotch mat in the house, as a little reading carpet. My son learned his numbers quickly and would pick a different number to sit on each time we would read 🙂

This cute, very simple to make, hopscotch mat can serve as a game or a reading mat.

The cost of the project was very little – I bought most things at the craft stores with coupons, and I used the variety pack of felt for numerous other projects, with a large pile still left.

To give an estimate, I would say I didn’t spend more than $15. I love it so much that I’m looking to make another felt mat as a reading mat for my son’s reading corner.

If you are looking for a fun activity for kids that involve learning, definitely consider making a hopscotch mat.

Make an DIY Photo Booth with Four Things

August 30, 2016 by Ash 26 Comments

For our son’s birthday last year, we had a small party with just our immediate families. We had just moved to a new house and barely had anything done.

Even though we were just having close family, Eileen, of course, went all out with zoo animal theme. She always does all of the planning – but asked me to help her create a DIY photo booth.

She created a bunch of photo props, while I looked for free photo booth software. To my dismay, I could not find any simple to use programs out there.

Most of them you had to pay for, and the free ones were terrible. What seemed like a simple task was turning out to be quite problematic.

So I decided to just write my own photo booth software.

By the end of the day, I churned out an app I dubbed Easy Photo Booth. Eileen was totally impressed, and we’ve been using the app at parties ever since.

To create your own a DIY photo booth, you need four simple things:

- Backdrop
- Props
- Easy Photo Booth software – free download, see below
- PC with a webcam

1. Photo Booth Backdrop

This can be as simple as a blanket or a large piece of felt. It shouldn’t be too complicated of a design because your party guests will be sitting in front of it.

At the zoo animals party, we used a lime green blanket as the backdrop and that worked out great.

At the Sesame party, Eileen created a nice Sesame Street scene.

She got a large piece of blue felt from a craft store, and then hot glued on white felt in the shape of clouds.

For the classic Sesame Street lamp post, she used dark green and white felt, and printed the Sesame Street sign on the printer.

Here is the background in the making:

Here’s a picture of the backdrop set up on our deck:

2. DIY Photo Booth Props

Props are pretty much anything glued to a thick popsicle stick.

Choose props that have to do with the theme of your party. Cute signs like “I came for the cake” are always a nice touch too.

If you do make signs, make them very large and easy to read. On the first go around, some of our signs were too small or written too thin to be able to read.

For the zoo animals party, we used these props (pic below). Eileen made the faces from foam, and the signs from card stock.

3. Easy Photo Booth App

I previously had trouble finding a photo booth app that was simple and free. Therefore, I made my version as simple and straightforward as they come.

This simple program is available at no cost to our readers. You can download it using the form above,

It’s an easy-to-use program that runs just like a digital photo booth. For more details on exactly how it works, keep reading 🙂

4. Laptop (with a web cam)

The last item you will need for the DIY photo booth is a laptop with a web camera.

In front of the backdrop and props, I placed a laptop (with a web camera) on a small table.

The guests would then see themselves on the laptop screen. Easy instructions on how to proceed popped up.

I even setup the software to save the film strip images to DropBox.

This allowed me to run a slideshow on the large family room TV of a live photo stream from the photo booth (via a second laptop I had plugged into the TV).

This way, other guests not taking pictures got to partake in the DIY photo booth fun.

Using the Photo Booth App

My photo booth software was a huge hit. It’s now a staple event at our parties, and even our friends/families use it at their events. So I wanted to make the software easily available for everyone for free.

Simply, join our mailing list to access our library with the PC version of Easy Photo booth. I’m sorry, I don’t have a MacOS version of it, but I can port it over to Mac if I get a lot of requests for it.Here’s a screenshot of the program in action:

Easy Photo Booth also offers an advanced mode if you want to fine tune the functionality:

Here’s what the software shows the guests after taking their pictures:

Film strip images like the picture above are generated from the software. It also saves the images individually in case you wanted to use a snapshot outside of the film strip.

I also added an “overlay” feature, which superimposes foregrounds onto your images. Check it out in action below (I’m hiding behind some tree coverage):

So if you’re looking for free and easy-to-use photo booth software for your party, you should definitely check out Easy Photo Booth.

You can host an awesome DIY photo booth with just four things – a backdrop, props, a laptop, and our photo booth software.

It’s fun, free and who doesn’t love a photo booth?!

Easy Homemade Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes

August 25, 2016 by Eileen 36 Comments

The Sesame Street desserts were my favorite part of my son’s Sesame themed party. Based on the rave reviews, I think they were my guests’ favorite part too. I made a huge Elmo cake and then I made homemade Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes.

I just loved how the homemade Elmo cake turned out… so much that I was actually sad cutting into it.

The DIY Elmo cake was a 12″ two-layer, gluten-free vanilla cake with chocolate icing. Red sprinkles covered the sides of the cake, along with two Elmo face cut-outs – made from cut-out cookies and chocolate melts.

The homemade Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes were regular vanilla cake with chocolate icing and decorated with sprinkles, icing tubes, and chocolate chip cookie halves to resemble Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Our guests were totally impressed with the Sesame Street desserts – and the homemade Elmo and Cookie Monster cakes were so easy to decorate.

DIY Cookie Monster Cupcakes Video

How to Make Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes

After making the homemade Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcake batter, I filled the muffin liners 3/4 of the way full. I wanted to have a nice dome at the top of the cupcake. If the cupcake was too flat, the Sesame Street faces would be harder to make and wouldn’t look as nice.

Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcake Decorating Materials:

a large bag of red sprinkles for the Elmo cakes – I looked for just red and just blue sprinkles everywhere – Michaels, Joann, AC Moore, Walmart, Target, the grocery stores – and couldn’t find any! I found these on Amazon. The bags are pretty big, and I had a lot of extra 🙂
a large bag of blue sprinkles for the Cookie Monster cakes
chocolate chip cookies – broken in half and used for Cookie Monster’s mouth. Homemade or store-bought both work fine. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies a week earlier and put about a dozen (broken in half) aside and froze them for the cupcakes. Working with frozen cookies was easier too.
icing tubes in white, black, and orange .- used for the eyes, mouth, and Elmo’s nose. When looking through the aisles at Joann and Michael’s for ideas, I kept seeing pre-made candy eyes. I preferred using icing because those little candies can be a choking hazard for little ones.

Pictured above is my Cookie Monster cupcake set-up.

For Elmo’s mouth, you could always use half of an Oreo, but since I already had a black tube of icing for the pupils and I didn’t have Oreos – I went with the easier option.

If you are thinking of making the Elmo cake also, you can use leftover sprinkles and icing tubes from the cupcakes 🙂

How to Make Cookie Monster Cupcakes

First, after the homemade cupcakes cooled, I iced them. I was running a little low on icing, so I put just enough on so that the sprinkles would have something to stick too.
Next, I filled a small bowl with blue sprinkles, and then I flipped the iced cupcake upside down and dipped it into the sprinkles. I twisted it around a little to give the sprinkles a good stick.
Then, I used a white tube of icing to make Cookie’s eyes. I first made a circle outline and then carefully filled it in.
After that, I used the black tube of icing to make the pupils. I made sure to make one higher than the other, as that is Cookie’s signature look.
When the eyes were done, I took a chocolate chip cookie half and ran a strip of icing across the edge of the cookie (the part that would to stick to the cupcake), and then stuck it on.

I used a pizza pan to put the cupcakes on, so the Cookie Monster sprinkles didn’t run everywhere.

A cookie sheet would be fine too, but I was using all of those for my butterscotch batches that were baking.

Here is a picture of the finished Cookie Monster cupcakes.

The homemade cupcakes turned out so cute and were much easier to make with sprinkles, rather than the blue icing 🙂 The only decorating that was needed was the eyes. So these Cookie Monster cupcakes are pretty fool-proof!

How to Make Elmo Cupcakes

For the homemade Elmo cupcakes, I took almost the exact same steps as the Cookie Monster cupcakes listed above: I baked the cupcakes large so they would have a dome, iced the top, and then dunked them into a bowl of red sprinkles.

I then used the icing tubes to draw on the face. A little more skill was required for Elmo’s nose, eyes, and mouth (compared to just Cookie’s eyes), and I was tired from baking all day – but they still turned out pretty nice.

If your toddler can recognize Elmo, then you know it looks pretty good 🙂

The Elmo Cake

The Elmo cake consisted of three main parts – the Elmo face cut-outs used on the sides of the cake, the icing, and the actual cake. All of them were pretty simple to make. I made the face cut-outs the night before I did the Elmo cake, so two nights before the party. Then I made the Elmo cake and icing the day before. I also did the Elmo cake decorating the day before.

Elmo Cake Decorating Materials

Listed below are all of the materials for the Elmo cake. I had 50+ people coming, so I wanted to have plenty of Sesame Street desserts to go around.

Large Round Cake Pan – I used a 12″ cake pan, found on Amazon. It came in a set of four cake pans for $26, as it included a 6″, 8″, 10″, and a 12.” I figured if I was going to undertake this Elmo cake endeavor this year that I was sure to use the other sizes in future endeavors (maybe a tiered cake next year?). I also compared prices at Michaels, AC Moore, and Joann, and even with a coupon, this was the best deal.
Cardboard Cake Circle – I hemmed and hawed about purchasing these 14″ cake circles, and I’m so glad I did because in hindsight, I wouldn’t have pulled off this cake without them. Not only did they make taking the cake out of the pan so easy, but I also used them to hold the cake while in the fridge, and they easily allowed me to place the cake right on top of the cake holder. With a cake this big, cookie sheets and regular round plates would not have been a help at all.
Double Recipe of Cake Batter – I made my cake gluten-free from the most amazing recipe. Yammie’s Gluten Freedom has a recipe called The Best Gluten Free White Cake Ever. Instead of using eight egg whites, I used four whole eggs, and instead of using her gluten free flour blend, I used this one from America’s Test Kitchen called America’s Test Kitchen’s Gluten Free Flour Blend. It’s the only gluten-free recipe I have used that people have no idea it’s gluten-free. Even my gluten-loving husband was fooled. However, you can use any cake batter recipe for this – even two cake boxes. 🙂
Double Recipe of Icing – I used a chocolate recipe that my mom makes for every family birthday. It’s quite simple but results in a lot of taste-testing for the correct balance of sugar and chocolate.
Extra icing or icing tubes for decorating – I used the leftover orange icing tube from the Elmo cupcakes to write on the cake, and also I used the leftover chocolate icing to do borders on the cake.
Red sprinkles – These are for the sides of the cake – to make Elmo red. I found a great bag of red sprinkles on Amazon that I used on the cupcakes and the cake, and I still have leftovers.
Elmo’s eyes/nose cut-outs – I made these from cut-out cookies. In addition to having cut-out cookie batter (I made a half-batch), you’ll need candy melts in orange, black, and white. You will have lots of leftovers from these for future baking projects – or for delicious chocolate covered pretzels. Keep reading for instructions on these 🙂

Decorating the Elmo Cake

So my plan was to make red icing from beets to give the Elmo cake his red color.

I know that sounds crazy, but I didn’t feel like dumping a whole bunch of red dye into the icing that I knew my son would be eating by the spoonful.

I read that beets can be used for red icing, so why not try and make an MSG-free alternative?!

Well, in short, tampering with the beets was a waste of time the day before having a huge party at your house. The beets turned the icing hot pink.

Like really hot pink.

Too bad I wasn’t making an Abby Cadabby cake.

The teacher in me thought that I could still use the hot pink beet icing to ice the cake, and then put the red sprinkles over the side to make Elmo.

Well, that idea sunk when the cake started looking like Valentine’s Day with the hot pink and the bright red.

I laugh now, but oh was I frustrated!

So, how did we get the Elmo cake red?!

We sent Ash out to the store for more powdered sugar, and my sister, who is the icing master, made another huge batch of icing in chocolate.

Our altered plan was to ice the Elmo cake with chocolate frosting and then use the red sprinkles for the sides.

It worked out well, and we absolutely loved the way the Elmo cake looked!

The most time-consuming part, beets aside, was getting the sprinkles to stick to the sides of the cake.

My quick google search showed me there was no good strategy, other than tilting, and I was not tilting a two-layer 12″ cake.

So, I grabbed a handful of sprinkles and pressed them up to the icing to make it stick. It took a while, but it was worth it in the end. I absolutely love the way the Elmo cake turned out.

Making Elmo’s Face Cut-Outs

This was actually the easiest part of making the homemade Elmo cake.

First, I made a half batch of my mom’s cut-out cookies. You can make these a day early and leave the dough refrigerated overnight.

I used circle cookie cutters to get Elmo’s eyes right, overlapping the circles a little. Then, I made two different sizes – a smaller and a larger, so that I could pick the better of the two after they baked.

I made about a half dozen of each version – just to have extras.

For Elmo’s nose, I used a large oval cookie cutter to go with the larger eyes.

Since I didn’t have a smaller oval cookie cutter, I set the large one down in the dough as a guide and used a knife to cut a smaller oval. I made about two or three of each size nose.

As a visual guide, I had an Elmo party hat in front of me that I used on the party decorations. This was helpful to look at as I worked.

After the Elmo face cookies had baked and cooled, I picked from the two sizes I had made. I actually chose the smaller size, and then I got started on the decorating.

I used candy melts in white and black (see materials above).

For the whites of the Elmo’s eyes, I melted the candy melts and half dipped/half iced it onto the cookie.

Then, I simply took two chocolate morsels from the black candy melt bag and stuck them on for Elmo’s pupils.

The size was perfect!

For the orange, I thought I bought orange candy melts, but I hadn’t. Ugh!

I wasn’t making another trip to the store, so I had to improvise and use a little of the orange icing tube that was for nose on the Elmo cupcakes.

I just spread it over the nose cookie until it was smooth. It would have turned out better with the melted candy, as the icing was a little streaky.

But hey, it saved me a trip back out 🙂

If you haven’t used candy melts before, the trick with these (or melting any kind of chocolate in the microwave) is to microwave the morsels for 30 seconds at a time.

After 30 seconds, stir the chocolate up really well. Continue this pattern until the chocolate is all melted.

When you are heating it up in 30 second increments and giving it a good stir in between, you don’t run the risk of burning the chocolate.

Making Abby’s Magical Wands

For Abby’s Magical Wands, I simply bought pretzel sticks and dipped them in hot pink candy melts.

After dipping, I placed them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. This contains the drips and sprinkles. I also used some of the white candy melts to drizzle on them too, after the pink had set.

I was so pleased with how the Elmo and Cookie Monster cakes and Abby’s wands turned out. It was definitely my best cake ever.

Last year, I tried to draw on a bear that looked more like a blob….

This year, I used cookies, sprinkles, and chocolate melts to mask my poor decorating skills 🙂

The homemade Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes totally impressed my party guests and myself. These simple tutorials show you exactly how you can make your own party desserts.

The homeamde Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes were a big hit among the kids! And, the adults loved the cake.

When you enjoy baking and creating something totally awesome, the time spent was absolutely worth it.

And, it was all in a day’s work!

How to Throw the Best DIY Sesame Street Party

August 22, 2016 by Eileen 11 Comments

Three things I love are planning, making, and decorating. And of course, seeing my son smile. This summer, I achieved all of those things through throwing a fantastic summer Sesame Street theme party. Almost every guest made a kind comment on how wonderful everything was – from the decorations to the party games to the themed food and homemade desserts.

How did I do it without going too crazy? I spent a lot of time scouring the Internet (Happy 25th Birthday today, Internet), compiling ideas, and crafting my own.

I carefully documented my techniques to make it even easier for you!

Without further ado, here are some highlights from the cutest, do-it-yourself Sesame Street party.

My sister made the above Sesame Street party lamp from planters, PVC, and spray paint! It also lights up! Pretty cool, right?!

Sesame Street Party Decorations

I love efficiency almost as much as I love a good theme party, so I had planned to make the decorating as easy as possible, without compromising my extravagant plans.

You see, I used the same Sesame Street faces to make seven awesome party decorations. I used the same character face cut-outs on the pennant banner, party hats, goody bags, balloons, party buckets, pom-poms, and photo booth props.

Decorating was super easy when you reuse the same things for each decoration. The party hats I bought at Walmart and then simply glued the faces on. I did the same with the goody bags, buckets (I used to tape so I could reuse the buckets), and balloons.

For the pennant banner, I cut the pennants out of brightly color cardstock (a combination of this pack and this pack), and then used fishing line and hot glue to connect.

The photo booth props were super simple – just glue some signs and faces to popsicle sticks. Once you have the props, you only need two more things for an easy do-it-yourself photo booth – a backdrop and the photo booth app.

Ash wrote the app Easy Photo Booth, and you can download it for free!

Last, the pom-poms were a mix of dollar store finds with homemade ones – and then again, I simply glued the faces on.

I made the party hats using the same character cut-outs from above.

Sesame Street Homemade Desserts

Let’s move on to my favorite part of the Sesame Street party (and well, every party) – the desserts!

I made a 12″ two layer, gluten free vanilla cake with my sister’s delicious chocolate icing. I used red sprinkles on the sides, and the eyes/nose are actually sugar cookie cut-outs that are dipped in chocolate melts. For step-by-step, instructions, see my cake post.

I loved this cake so much that I was actually a little sad cutting into it.

The pretzels – labeled Abby’s Magical Wands – were the easiest to make. Just dipped in melted pink chocolate!

The cupcakes were the most fun to make! They are simply dipped in sprinkles and decorated. To show you just how simple it was, I wrote a step-by-step tutorial on exactly how to make these cute Sesame cupcakes.

Sesame Street Themed Food

Making the snacks into character faces came totally from Pinterest! Look how cute Oscar turned out!

We also made a Big Bird out of cheese and crackers along with a watermelon Elmo.

With the menu not finalized until a few days before the party, I almost nixed labeling the food to coordinate with the theme of the party.

However, I’m so glad I didn’t because who doesn’t get a good laugh out of “Oscar’s Scram-burgers” and “Ernie’s Rubber Doggies?!”

Check out our full menu of creatively-labeled food.

Sesame Birthday Banner

Here you can see more of the table, the amazing DIY birthday sign (so easy to make), the party hats, and the goody bags.

Below is a close-up of the DIY sign as it was still in the making. I actually couldn’t find any free, printable letters, so I created my own.

In doing so, I created free banner letters for you (just the letters – no characters). The best thing about these is that you can customize the letters and just print what you need. Four letters fit per page too!

I love the way it turned out! Zeus did too – even though his face isn’t showing his excitement 😉

Sesame Street Party Games

Now, onto games! We had quite a few at the party. This was my favorite – Cookie Monster’s Cookie Toss.

I painted Cookie’s face on a piece of foam board from the Dollar Store, and Ash gave it a nice wooden frame.

The cookies are homemade from felt and beans. See the Cookie Monster Toss Tutorial.

We also did “Pin the Nose On Elmo” made of felt on felt…

…as well as “Count with the Count” made with card stock, wrapping paper, and 3D stickers.

There’s also Abby’s Magical Shapes, which was my son’s favorite. He learned these shapes in just days playing around with this board prior to the party.

And, last but not least, we can’t forget “Hoppin’ with Zoe,” an indoor/outdoor hopscotch rug made entirely from felt! Check out my tutorial to make your own – it’s so, so easy!

Check out all of the Sesame Street party games.

Sesame Party Photo Booth

We also had a Sesame photo booth at the party. On our deck, we set up this sheet of felt (you could also use a blanket as a backdrop), along with the computer app that Ash made!

Here are the props I made. Some of them were character cut-outs, and others I threw together. This was also a last minute activity 🙂

Here’s a few characters posing 🙂

Here I am, Ernie, cutting the cake. My sister, PK, is the Count, and seems to be concentrating pretty hard on holding that plate:

Here’s the entrance to the Sesame Street party:

It definitely was a party to remember!

Just one last picture that has left me laughing – my party decorating helpers, pretending to float away 🙂

Overall, I put a lot of time into planning and creating. However, I detailed the steps for you to make it easy. Your Sesame Street party should be a breeze!

Making a Simple Ice Cream Sundae Gift Basket

August 19, 2016 by Eileen 31 Comments

I love making cute gift baskets – so much that I have a board on Pinterest entirely devoted to homemade gift baskets and boxes.

Whenever I’m stuck for a gift, whether Christmas gifts or shower gifts, I always think about what I can put in a gift basket as a themed gift.

My sister-in-law and her family were staying with us for their family vacation this year, and I wanted to do something special for them. I made this cute DIY ice cream sundae gift basket, and it was a hit!

Collecting Materials for the Gift Box

First, I collected the materials that I needed for DIY ice cream sundae gift box. I went to Michael’s and they were having an awesome summer blowout sale on gift boxes.

I got this gift box for just three dollars! Of course, I bought a few of them for later projects.

Next, on my weekly trip to the grocery store, I purchased a few of the ice cream box necessities – chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, cherries, and cones.

I also bought a few boxes of candy that could be used as toppings. The boxes were on sale for .99 cents.

As for other toppings, I already had tons of sprinkles and a box of walnuts at home.

My final trip was to Walmart for a cheap but cute ice cream scoop. I found one for .88 cents! (Side note – if you are looking to get a better scoop, there’s an awesome scoop on Amazon that uses the heat from your body to heat up the ice cream!)

Also at Walmart, I found polka dot napkins and turquoise spoons for a dollar per pack. I also found ice cream cups there for $3 per pack.

If you are looking to buy a kit, there’s a great ice cream sundae kit on Amazon, which has the cups, spoons, straws, and little umbrellas in bright and cheery colors.

Last, I purchased the condiment cups on Amazon. Love Amazon! I also needed the condiment cups for my son’s Sesame Street themed birthday party, so I bought a big bag.

I already had scrapbook paper and ribbon in my craft collection, so I didn’t need to buy those things 🙂

Putting the Ice Cream Sundae Box Together

The next step was the fun part – putting everything together into a cute ice cream sundae gift basket.

I poured the boxes of candy into the condiment cups. The boxes were a perfect fit because I had little to none leftover.

I also filled condiment cups with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, and crushed walnuts.

I unwrapped two different kinds of cones (I bought a variety pack) and wrapped a stack of them in cellophane for freshness.

Then I took a piece of ribbon and tied a few spoons to the ice cream scoop with a sign that read, “Just add ice cream.”

I took scrapbook paper and cut pieces to cover the store labels – to make them prettier 🙂

Then I printed my own labels that read “chocolate syrup, cherries, etc” (see download below) on regular white printer paper.

I glued the labels to the scrapbook paper and then taped them to the jars, for a cute, uniform look.

I didn’t love the design on the ice cream cups, so I wrapped a polka-dotted napkins around the cup, to match the napkins and make for a brighter box.

Last, I added a sign to the top of the box, covering up the bicycle design.

I love the way the box turned out! My sister-in-law and her family loved it too. We had a great time creating ice cream sundaes at home 🙂

As far as cost, I saved a lot of money with the discounted box, grocery store sales, and good finds at Walmart.

Altogether, I spent just less than $35 dollars (with the condiment cups being $10.50 and tons of these leftover for other projects) on the this DIY ice cream sundae gift basket.

Considering we had ice cream sundaes for seven people and tons of leftovers, I still think that’s a great deal!

It’s a great summer gift basket, housewarming gift, a sunshine gift for someone who needs some positivity – the list is endless, and everyone always loves it!

Making Adorable Cards from Toddler Art

August 7, 2016 by Eileen 7 Comments

I’m always looking for cute greeting card ideas for my kids to make. There are so many fun cards out there that creatively use kids’ hand and footprints. Although cute, I always had trouble getting one decent hand or footprint for a greeting card. Not to mention the mess it makes.

As soon as my son was old enough to paint, I had him “paint” with cotton swabs, instead of paint brushes, so he could easily dab the paint onto the paper. This kept the paint really confined but still allowed him to create artwork. (Sponge brushes and foam stampers are great for making cards with toddlers too.)

As any toddler’s paintings would be, my little guy’s artwork was very abstract.

I was having him make birthday cards for all of the August birthdays in my family. Yet, rather than give messy toddler paint prints, I thought of a great way to showcase his art but to also turn it into a nice-looking greeting card.

So after my son did a little painting, I did a little cutting and gluing – and voila! Don’t the birthday cards look nice?!

Materials for Making Greeting Cards from Toddlers

Making these greeting cards is so simple. The materials are so easy too. Most likely, you will even already have all of these things.

Card stock – I like having toddlers make artwork on card stock because it is so thick. When they layer paint on paint on paint, the card stock works really well. I mostly used this bright color pack. The brighter the colors, the better the cards turned out. (Looking at the purple card (below), I wished I used a brighter color for the actual card.)
Kids paint – I love this washable Crayola paint. Lots of color choices keep my son very interested in painting!
Paintbrushes – sponge brushes, cotton swabs or stampers work too! My son loves making greeting cards with these foam painting stampers. He has this farm set, but they have transportation ones, animal ones, sea-life ones, and even holiday sets too! He only uses the paintbrush for so long, but the foam stampers keep him interested for longer
Scissors – just the regular ole pair you have laying around the house 🙂
Glue – or even tape 🙂
Sharpie/Marker (if needed) – I used a sharpie to add the balloon strings. You could use ribbon too!
Stickers or embellishments (if desired)

Making Cards with Toddlers

After my toddler painted on the card stock papers, I let them dry for a few hours or so. Then, I cut his paintings into shapes – cupcakes, presents, balloons, and layered cake for the birthday cards.

I then took a new piece of card stock (a contrasting color), folded it in half, and trimmed off the top (unless I was going for a tall card – like the balloons and train). After, I took the birthday items that I cut and glued them down to the card.

I even did a train cut-out for my train-loving dad. I used a nearby water bottle cap to trace those perfect circles 🙂

Using Patterned Scrapbook Paper for Toddler Cards

After making cards for all the August birthdays, I was running low on paintings, so I substituted printed scrapbook paper (here is a similar one) that looked like a cupcake wrapper.

The greeting card turned out so cute that I wished I thought of it sooner 🙂

Birthday Shapes

As far as the shapes, I free-handed them as I cut. You could certainly draw on the paper and then cut.

Adding Embellishments

While making cards with toddlers, you can dress up the cards by adding some embellishments to the front of the card. I added the word happy with letter stickers because the present birthday card looked a little plain.

A Personal Touch

Last, to give the greeting cards just a little more of a personal touch, I had my son decorate the inside. He colored with his crayons and picked out stickers. This gave him another opportunity to be creative making birthday cards.

I just love how the birthday cards turned out! My son got to be as creative as he wanted with no restrictions (like finger prints or footprints), and I got to help my toddler create something to give to others that was refrigerator-worthy.

Even though I used birthday shapes for this batch of greeting cards, you could easily alter the shapes for holidays too.

Making cards with toddlers is a win-win for everyone involved. Your child gets to do a fun activity, you get to save some money with homemade cards, and your family members/friends get a creative, cute card, showcasing your child’s work.

And, the best part is that there is no need for hand or footprints. Now that’s a win right there 😉

Easy and Fun Bridal Shower Game with Free Printables

July 8, 2016 by Eileen 40 Comments

In addition to our home projects, I always have a crafty project (or two) up my sleeve. A few months ago, I was asked to be a bridesmaid in my friend Meg’s wedding, and her sister reached out to me asking for help with fun bridal shower games.

Thinking back to fun bridal shower games, my sister PK planned an awesome game at my shower. She collected a dozen photos of me at different times in my life and projected them onto the wall. The bridal shower guests guessed what year the photo was taken.

Even though I loved the game, putting a version together for Meg would have involved collecting and scanning a lot of photos, not to mention getting their dates correct.

Although it was a fun bridal shower game to play, I probably wasn’t the best person to head up that game.

I thought a little more and remembered my friend Tiff’s bridal shower. Tiff and her closest friends always go all out and plan the most awesome parties.

And, you know that I love a good theme party (Check out our Beatles party, Sesame Street party, and Seinfeld party)!

Tiff’s bridal shower theme was Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and everything was so amazing – from the invitation to the party props. (See her awesome invitations)

At Tiff’s bridal shower, we played the best bridal shower games. One of them was called Mustaches and Tiaras and it had bridal shower game questions about the couple. And, there were props! Everyone got tiara and mustache props (card stock cutouts glued to popsicle sticks).

How to Play this Fun Bridal Shower Game

To play this fun bridal shower game, each player received one tiara, one mustache, and a list of questions that were asked to the bride and groom ahead of time. It’s basically a game of “Who said it?” with silly props.

The Hilarious Details

The bridal shower questions that the bride and groom answered can include anything from favorite ice cream topping to biggest fear to random questions, such as, “Why doesn’t the glue stick to the bottom of the bottle?”

The bride and groom answer these questions about themselves and then submit them to you, ahead of time. They aren’t allowed to share answers.

From the bride and groom’s responses, prior to the party, you chose one answer to be read aloud.

Then at the party, you read the question and then the one answer you chose. The guests needed to decide if that answer was the bride’s answer or the groom’s answer.

If it was the bride’s answer, they put their tiara up, and if it was the groom’s answer, they put their mustache up.

Once in awhile, there’s an answer that both the bride and the groom gave, and then the party guests hold both the tiara and the mustache up.

When you see a sea of faces staring back at you with tiaras and mustaches held up, it’s pretty funny! (Check out some great pictures of this game being played at Tiff’s shower on her blog).

I had to recreate this unique bridal shower game for Meg. I emailed her and her fiance the couple questions ahead of time, and sorted through their answers for the bridal shower game.

Here are the mustaches and tiaras, along with the question cards that I made for her bridal shower.

The great thing about this fun bridal shower game is that it’s so low pressure. Everyone can participate and have a good time. There aren’t any fill-in-the-blank parts about how well guests know the bride or questions about milestones in the bride’s life. The bridal shower game is easy on the attendees, always gets a good laugh, and fun to create!

Ready to start making Mustaches and Tiaras?

Download the free templates below – and you’ll have all of the templates you need for this hilarious bridal shower game!

Materials

Pink scrapbook paper
Brown or black scrapbook paper
Thick popsicle sticks
Gem stickers (I found mine at Dollar Tree)
And, the files listed above

I used this pink paper (lots of shades to choose from and use for later projects too), and I used the brown paper in this collection. I didn’t need too many sheets of brown and liked the other paper colors this pack had.

Making the Tiaras and Mustaches

Print one copy of the tiara sheet on pink scrapbook paper and one copy of the mustache file on brown or black paper.

After I cut out the tiaras and mustaches from the pages I printed, I took one tiara and traced as many as could fit on a piece of pink paper, and then cut these out. I continued to do so until I had the number I needed.

You could also print as many sheets as you need directly to the printer, rather than tracing. I preferred to save some scrapbook paper and not burden myself too much with our testy printer.

Then, I simply hot glued the tiaras and the mustaches to the popsicle sticks. I made sure the traced version was face down, in case any pencil marks came through.

I also made sure I hot glued the popsicle stick to the back of the right-side of the tiara and to the back of the left-side of the mustache (vice versa would also work), so guests could hold both up to their faces simultaneously, without having one backward.

Last, I placed a few adhesive gems on each tiara, which made for a great final touch.

Getting the Couple’s Game Questions Ready

Email your bride and groom with the list of bridal shower game questions well in advance, so you have time to read through them and decide which responses you will announce for each question. That’s part of the fun!

When choosing the responses for this fun bridal shower game, I tended to go for the funny ones because everyone loves a good laugh at a bridal shower.

I also tried to have an equal number of responses from the bride and groom. Additionally, I had at least 3 “boths” thrown in there too for good measure (and more laughs).

Be sure to make yourself a good answer key for the bridal shower game. It will help with easily referring to that when reading the correct responses at the end.

For the question cards, I simply printed these on regular blue paper (blue because that’s what I had). For efficiency, I formatted the questions so fit two on each sheet.

Mustaches and Tiaras - Easy, Fun Bridal Shower Game

I was so busy running the bridal shower game that I simply forgot to take pictures of the guests with their tiaras and mustaches. However, here’s one of our favorite pooch, sporting the props with just a little bit of help. 🙂

If you are looking for fun bridal shower games, definitely look no further! This laid-back, hilarious game is one of the most fun bridal shower games – and it’s easy for all to participate and play.

How to Easily Make a Wedding Wine Basket

June 19, 2016 by Eileen 61 Comments

Recently, I took a little break from the home project list to work on some crafty things for my dear friend Meg’s bridal shower.

My fellow bridesmaids and I wanted to make a first year of marriage milestone wine basket that would include 12 bottles of wine for our her first year of marriage.

After scouring the Internet, I couldn’t find what I needed – so I created my own. I’m including the printables for you too!

First, I choose 12 occasions that Meg and Steve would celebrate during their first year of marriage.

I wanted to pick milestones that they would definitely enjoy their initial 12 months of being married, such as first Christmas, first Valentine’s Day, first snowfall.

I didn’t want to use occasions such as first baby and first home – because those milestones might not be in the couple’s immediate plans.

Therefore, the occasions I went with were wedding night, first New Year’s, first Valentine’s Day, first snowfall, first spring bloom, first beach trip, first big purchase, first dinner party, first fight, first Christmas, first Thanksgiving, and first anniversary.

Next, I needed tags to go with each milestone.

I used cute poems that fit the occasion and I fitted them all to one sheet of paper with the titles running vertically.

This made it easy to print just one sheet of paper for all of the tags.

Download the Wedding Wine Basket Tags

The wedding wine basket tag is a PDF, and it is not personalized, meaning none of these poems include the bride or groom’s name. Therefore, it’s easy for you to simply print, cut, and attach. No formatting necessary 🙂

Making the Wine Basket Tags

First, I printed the wine tag sheet out on thick manila paper. Afterward, I used squiggly scissors to cut out each blurb. Squiggly scissors are my favorite because they hide my lack of ability to cut in a straight line.

Then, I took out my scrapbook paper collection and cut out tags. I coordinated the scrapbook paper colors and designs with the occasion. After that, I glued the poems to the tags, punched a hole in each, and voila!

The tags were done. Don’t they look cute?!

Choosing the Wines for the Wedding Basket

Ash and I then took a trip to Joe Canal’s, a discount liquor store, for the bottles of wine.

We had a ton of fun, as we ended up matching the occasions to the names of the wines. Although, this wasn’t the initial plan, Joe Canal’s had such a great selection that it was easy and fun to pair each milestone with wine.

We found a Christmas Chardonnay to go with the first Christmas tag, Jersey Blush to go with first beach trip, a wine called 30 degrees to go with first snowfall, and the list goes on.

Putting the Basket Together

To attach the tags to the wine, I simply cut a piece of ribbon and tied it in a bow around the neck of the bottle.

I then bought a basket from Michael’s and covered the bottom of the basket in tissue paper. Then, I added the title “Quenching Your Thirst Through a Year of Firsts” and a sign that said “Carry from the bottom.”

Twelve bottles of wine get heavy!

Wedding Wine Basket Bliss

Overall, the first year of marital bliss wine basket turned out great! My mom, who isn’t normally a fusser, fussed over it every time she came over (I had it sitting on a bench in the mudroom for a few weeks). At the shower, the bridesmaids and guests loved it, raving over it.

Additionally, a few sweet older women at the shower asked me if they could find the idea on the Internet. 🙂

Moreover, recently a friend of mine was looking for a special gift for her nephew’s engagement party. She asked me if I had any ideas for the couple that had everything.

She LOVED this idea and put together her own, also adding a beer of the month club gift too to keep with the theme. I thought that was another cute idea!

Overall, the milestone wedding wine basket is a creative, fun, and unique project, with plenty of opportunities to add a personal touch. And of course, Meg and Steve loved it too.

How to Throw an Amazing Beatles Theme Party

March 18, 2016 by Eileen 40 Comments

I love planning a good theme party. I’m not quite sure whether it’s the cute things you get to create, the endless possibilities you have, or the way your vision all comes together for one special day.

A really great theme party is like having a living Pinterest board.

We decided to throw a 64th Beatles party for my dad based on the song “When I’m 64.” He loves the Beatles, and my sisters and I thought it would be a pretty cool theme to work with. We loved coming up with all of these DIY Beatles party ideas.

“When I’m 64” Photo Collage

Below is a collage my sister PK made with pictures of my dad through the years, with the song title “Glad All Over” hanging above.

Also, for more Beatles party decorations, we used old records hanging from the ceiling.

Beatles Song Signs

As far as my tasks, I began with the most time-consuming one, which was making the song banners – it was one of the best DIY Beatles party ideas, as it turned out awesome!

We picked out 20 Beatles songs – mostly Dad’s favorites, and cut out the individual letters so we could make these signs.

I used a pack of pre-cut letters from the dollar store, and I traced the letters I needed on yellow and blue paper. I used regular blue construction paper and a thicker yellow paper. Both worked fine.

Then I cut each letter out. I used an exacto knife for the holes in the Os, Ds, As, etc.

Once completed, I flipped the letters over and hot glued fishing wire to the back so that you couldn’t see the string in the trees.

We hung them in the house and outside. They looked especially cool hanging from the trees.

The songs we used were When I’m 64, You Say It’s Your Birthday, All My Loving, All Together Now, Come Together, Eight Days a Week, From Us to You, Glad All Over, Good Day Sunshine, Here Comes the Sun, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Johnny B. Goode, Love Me Do, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Twist and Shout, With a Little Help from My Friends, and You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me.

For another DIY Beatles part idea, I also cut out food banners based on song titles. Above the appetizer table, we hung “Come and Get it” and above the lunch table, we hung “Can’t Buy Me Lunch.”

The dessert table was coined “The Magical Pastry Tour,” and the drinks station was labeled “Fuel on the Hill.”

Food Labels using Beatles Songs

Hands down, my favorite of the DIY Beatles party ideas was creating themed labels for all of the food.

We altered song titles to make a creative label for each food item.

My dad helped us come up with the wording – and both of my parents were getting a kick out of how funny we found some of the names.

I still laugh when I read “I Want to Hold Your Ham.”

Pictured above are most of the food labels.

To make them, I dragged the Beatles picture into Photoshop and then added the name of the dish in a cool font. I love finding awesome fonts.

You could also use a basic program like Paint to create them too.

Listed below is the full menu we served at the Beatles party, along with the song title food labels. I hope it gives you some great Beatles inspiration 🙂

Lunch – Can’t Buy Me Lunch

Meatballs/Rolls – While My Meatball Gently Weeps

Mac and Cheese – Get Back Mac

Grilled Ham – I Want To Hold Your Ham

Pineapple and Hawaiian Rolls – Here Comes the Bun

Fruit Salad – Strawberry Fields Forever

Baked Beans – Let It Bean

Potato Salad – The Salad of John and Yoko

Slice and peel potatoes – All You Need Is Spuds

Green Salad – Lettuce Be

Irish Soda Bread – Hello, Good-bread

Hot Dogs (for kids) – Hot Dogs and Mean Mr. Mustard

Condiments

Hot Sauce – Do You Want To Know a Secret Sauce?

Butter – Help, I Need Some Butter

Appetizers- Come and Get it

Veggies & Onion Dip – Golden Cucumbers & Glass Onion Dip

Mini hot dogs – Piggies (in a Blanket)

Cheese, crackers, pepperoni – I Should Have Known Cheddar

Cream Cheese Pinwheels – Cheese Cheese Me

Dessert – The Magical Pastry Tour

Cake – P.S. I Love Cake

Butterscotch/Cut-Out Cookies – Cook-ie in the House

Blueberry Bundt Cake – Til There Was Blue-berry

Snickerdoodles – Yellow Submar-doodles

Dixie Cups/Chocolate Syrup (for kids) – Here Comes the Sun-Dae

Apple Tarts – Apple Record Tarts

Drinks- The Fuel on the Hill

Beer – Can’t Buy Me Bud

Wine – I Feel Wine

Sodas (Pepsi, Dr. Pepper) – Pepsi Lane & Sergeant Doctor Pepper

Juice – Hey Juice

DIY Beatles Party Hats

In addition to the other Beatles party decor, I also made these Beatles party hats. I figured they were cheaper to make, and I could personalize them.

We used the names of the four Beatles – John, Ringo, George, and Paul. My dad’s name is John, which added to the creativity.

We also had a cousin George coming – and he loved his hat shout-out too.

To make the DIY party hats, I used a free template I found online and purchased scrapbook paper. I did a bunch of test prints (on regular paper) until I got the words lined up right.

Then, I printed on the scrapbook paper. After printing, I hot glued elastic (you can get rolls of this at craft stores) to the insides.

Next, I used our own heads to get a good feel for how long of an elastic to use. Apparently, the hats worked for dogs too.

The Best of our DIY Beatles Party Ideas

The highlight of the Beatles party was this amazing, almost life-size, face cut-out board of the Beatles, created by my sister Bridget.

She collected the different paint colors from around the house and garage, and then drew, painted, and outlined.

As far as the face cut-out board, we bought a 4×8 from Home Depot and had it cut in half at the store – for the convenience of it fitting in the car and also for the convenience of storage later on.

Then, we connected the two pieces with hinges.

It turned out amazing! So amazing that we had to do a dog pic!

Abbey Road Photos

And last but not least, a Beatles party would not be complete without an Abbey Road replication.

We used the patio (and had to use inverse colors –but nonetheless, the point was made) for this fun little scene.

Overall, it was a fantastic party filled with tons of DIY Beatles party ideas!

My dad had a very happy 64th birthday, our guests loved all the little details of our DIY Beatles party decor, and we had a great time putting everything together for the Beatles party.