Friday, March 24, 2023
Dare to Share Saturday
Friday, March 17, 2023
It's Party Time! It is time to Dare to Share!
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Leprechaun Treat Boxes and Games
Here were already in the middle of March. While the year feels like it is flying, it does mean that spring is right around the corner. Winter was a weird one for us this year, we did not get the snow that we normally do in both Ohio and Michigan. Michigan was slammed with storms the last three weekends, but thankfully I was still able to go visit this month.
St. Patrick's Day is a fun holiday to celebrate. How could it not be with tricky elves, lots of green, colorful rainbows, sometimes adult beverages, and shiny things. LOL! As I am typing this post, I am wearing my leggings covered in rainbows, shamrocks and pots of gold.
St. Patrick's Day is a good time to make some crafts. One of my favorite crafts to make is my Leprechaun Treat Boxes. They are made with cardboard tubes, paint, paper, and a little bit of glue. They can be filled with colorful gold candy. If you would like to see the full tutorial on how to make them you can find that post here.
One of our favorite things to do with our kids on St. Patrick's Day was to set leprechaun traps in hopes of catching a one, and receiving their pot of gold. While I was not able to get a leprechaun trap kit put together in time, I have several new St. Patrick's Day items over in my Etsy Shop. If you would like a scavenger hunt where you can look for leprechauns, you might like my leprechaun hunt. In this printable game you get three leprechauns that you can hide together or separately. The second game which has been really popular in my shop this year is my Find the Pot of Gold game. In this game you use the clues to find a hidden pot of gold. Both games are a lot of fun, and good for kids of all ages.
Do you have fun plans for St. Patrick's Day? I would love hear about them if you do.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
It is time to Party! Welcome to Dare to Share Saturday!
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It's Dare to Share Saturday
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Make a Truffula Tree for Dr. Seuss Day or Party
If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that I was teaching in an upper elementary school for several years. At our school we always celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday and Read Across America Day on March 2nd, and then reading month for the rest of March.
One year our school library was decorated with Truffula Trees for reading month. I was so excited. While I like many of Dr. Seuss's books, The Lorax is my favorite. When I was younger, I wished that they were real. They were so pretty, colorful, and fun, and I wanted a real one. Truffula Trees are actually a lot easier to make than you might realize, so it is now possible to have one.
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The trunks of the Truffula Trees are long, and thin. There are several ways you can make them depending on how and where you are placing them. The trunks of these trees were cardboard tubes painted white with black stripes. They stood up straight, on their own, so they were attached to a base to hold them in place. You could use various sizes of wrapping paper tubes to get the variation in the tree sizes.
Another popular item you could use for the trunk is a pool noodle. Dollar Tree now sells pool noodles year round for crafting purposes. Instead of painting the stripes you could wrap black or color duct tape around the noodle. While pool noodles would not stand on their own you can make them sturdier, by inserting a Dollar Tree broom handle through the tube. The handles are sold without the broom attached, and you can see what they look like here. If you would like the trees to be a little bendy, leave the stick out and you can place them in a corner, or attach them to a wall.
There are also a few ways you can make the tops of the Truffula trees. The sturdiest way to make a top is to use a lightweight children's ball, and then cover it with feathered boas like what is pictured here. I have seen boas at the craft store, and occasionally small ones at the Dollar Tree. A balloon is also a possible choice to use as a topper, instead of a ball. It might not be as sturdy as a ball, but it could be easily topped with feathers or tissue paper.
A final touch you can do to make your display look like a scene right out of the book, is to use Dollar Tree plastic tablecloths. If you wrap them around the bottom of the tree it gives them a more whimsical look. This is good for a few reasons, not only does it look nice, but you can also hide anything you may use to weigh the trees down.
Now that you know how to make the Truffula Trees, you can use them as decor for a party.
I found some more party supplies that you could use to have a Dr. Seuss or Lorax party. I am really liking this party bundle. It has a cake topper, 24 cake toppers, balloons, and a large backdrop, and is under $20.
I am also loving this 5ft x 3ft Lorax backdrop.
This Dr Seuss direction sign from Oriental Trading would be great for greeting your party guests, or as a display in a reading area in a classroom or library.
One thing that I always liked to do at my children's parties was to give or make the guests something to wear. It could have been dog ears for our Blues Clues and Scooby Parties, cowboy hats at our horse/western party, or hula skirts at our childrens' luau. These Dr Seuss Character Masks look like a fun and affordable option for a wearable party item.
How cool are these truffula tree pens?! They would make a great goody bag item. If I had one of these pens, it would definitely be one of my favorite pens to use.
Happy Reading Month!
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
How to Throw a Pokémon Party (part 2)
I drew a Pikachu on a piece of yellow poster board and gave everyone a tail. Looking at this photo, I think that many Ben and Joey were peeking when we played. LOL!
Some more prep work that I did before the party was to make Pokeballs out of plastic ball ornaments that have the two halves snap together. I painted one side white, the other side red, and added a black strip between the two colors. Unfortunately I was so busy at the party, I did not get a photo of a finished Pokeball. I made enough Pokeballs, so each of our guests would have three of them.
At the start of the game they opened their Pokeballs to see which Pokémon they were looking for. They had to find three matching pictures for each of their Pokémon, which was nine pictures total. It took them quite awhile to find them all, but they loved it. I had a few extra Pokeballs, so some of the quickest trainers helped me find those too. If you look closely, hanging from the swing set is a number 8 pinata. I had the kids all sit in the grass while it was being hit. This helped keep kids safe from getting hit by the stick, and to make it as fair with the amount of candy they picked up when the pinata broke.
Monday, February 27, 2023
How to Throw a Pokemon Party (part 1)
Happy Pokémon Day!
Did you know that February 27 is Pokémon Day? I have to admit that I just found out today. My kids loved Pokémon while growing up, and this is the first I have heard of it. According to Google today is designated as Pokémon Day, because the first original games were released on this day 27 years ago in 1996.
All three of my kids really liked Pokémon, but my son liked them the most. He liked that so much that he requested to have a Pokémon themed birthday party. Today there are Pokémon party items everywhere, but when he wanted to have his party (mid 2000s) there were very few Pokémon party supplies. I had to make my own. It was not until a couple of years later that Pokémon party items were more main stream. If you have seen my party theme page on the top of my blog you can see that was usually the case. My kids often wanted parties that I had to make a lot of my own party supplies.
Our Pokémon party was one of my son's very favorite, so I am going to share again how we put it together. (you can see the original post here.
The first thing I had to do was make an invitation. There were fun to make and the kids LOVED them.
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To make a Pokeball invitation, you will need two large white cardstock circles, and one red one in the size of the invitation you would like. You will also need a small white circle, and two brads.
You will leave one of the circles in one piece. That intact circle will be the back of the invitation where you will write the information.
This is what we wrote..
The next step is to make the front of the Pokeball. Cut both the 2nd white circle, and the red circle in half. Attach the red to one side of the circle, and the white to the other half with small brads. The red half is the top of the invitation. You will then attach the small white circle to the red top half, allowing a little bit of the circle to overlap to the white half. (see the picture) Do not put any adhesive on the overlap, because we want the Pokeball to be able to open. On the red half we wrote the name of the child we were inviting and the words, I choose you!
Back in the I made the Welcome Trainers sign out of poster board. If I had to do it again, I would use wooden circle sign from the Dollar Tree. When we had this party we did not even have a local Dollar Tree, so I used when I had on hand.
When I used to host my children's parties, we always had an area where each of the guest would pose with a prop from our theme, so we we had memories of each guest. In this picture my son is posing with his Pikachu, wearing a red trucker hat that I bought from Oriental Trading Company. I don't think they have the same hats we bought back then, but they now have a ton of Pokemon Party Supplies that you could use for your party.
You can see in the picture that I had made small Pokeball piñatas and used them as party decor.
The base of the Pokeball is a round balloon. I used a basic paper-mache technique on the balloons. I made several layers and placed them in disposable plastic bowls to dry.
Saturday, February 25, 2023
It's Part Time! Let's Dare to Share!
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St Patrick's Day Marshmallow Pops
I made these awhile back, so the pictures are not the greatest, but you can see how I made them.
The best way to dry your pop is by standing it up in a floral foam ring or block. You can find several shapes and sizes at the Dollar Tree . In this picture you can see how to place the top marshmallow on its side, which will be the leprechaun's head.
I used edible food markers to draw on the face can not remember which brand I used, but I think this dual tip set that is highly rated looks really good.
I used orange squeezable frosting in a bottle to add his beard and hair.
The last step was to make his hat. I put a mini marshmallow on a toothpick and dipped in the green candy melt. Once there were dry I added them to the top of his head with a little bit of melted chocolate to act as glue.
A fun way to display the leprechauns is in a pot of gold. I made this with a black pot from Halloween, a little bit of floral foam, and glass accent gems from the Dollar Tree painted gold.
These were not only fun to make, but yummy to eat!
In this St. Patrick's Day game you look for the Pot of Gold. Both games are a lot of fun.