Birthdays and Babyshowers

Bear and purse I made for a birthday girl.

All made from repurposed material.

Cupcakes and Bear I made for a birthday girl.

All made from repurposed material.

This is the silly snake I made for a birthday boy and I also made a car bag to put all his cars in.

Made from material scraps I had.

Diaper Cakes, invitations & cakes I made for babyshowers.

friend 1

 friend 2

 Invitations

Jungle Cake

Wedding

Alyssa, Lyneah, Danny (brother from Nevada), Lynnea's two friends, and I spent a good 5 hours the morning of Lynnea's wedding decorating. Our hardwork payed off, and it looked pretty professional with a limited budget! We were so impressed and so were the guests--especially our husbands :)

The centerpieces

The reception area.  Most of the lights were off or dimmed and the icicles lights were on during the reception. It looked so pretty.

Guestbook and pen that I decorated (on arabelli.blogspot.com)

I made the cake--made of rice crispies! I coated it with Almond Bark.

(I actually never tasted it...I hope it was good- hard to cut into, but on Alyssa's blog she said it was good)

Alyssa decorated all those cupcakes + more were in the fridge!

You can see the arch we decorated in background for the wedding line.

The homemade garter had a hard time staying in place! haha

Thanks to Josiah's girl friend's mom (who made it from my design) got it done for us on time.

Ainsley's Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party!

(Click on collage to enlarge)


I spent a month putting Ainsley's Strawberry Shortcake 4th Birthday party together in between doing and still doing a big project for a lady in my mom's ward (color booklets that I've talked about before). I think I had more fun doing and attending the party than Ainsley did.  I got too carried away doing crafts, dressing up and baking, but it was fun and here's what I did:

 I was Blueberry Muffin, Arabella was Lemon Merigue (she had to wear that ugly white wig because Ainsley had one- good thing I had another one from my HS spirit days) and Ainsley was of course Strawberry Shortcake! 

I made all with what I had except I bought my blue skirt, Ainsley's tights which was a shirt, and Ainsley's pink shoes from the DI. I had to go to a costume shop for my green striped tights and had to buy Ainsley's wig from Amazon.com and her foam green hat bill from Micheal's. All totaling maybe $25 when a child's size Strawberry Shortcake costume would cost $20-33 + $10-15 for the wig alone.

I made the cake which is the best cake I've ever attempted to make.  I used a Giant Cupcake pan for the bottom which I bought on Amazon.com for $25 a year ago and I used a large cupcake pan for the top.  I bought a $7 Wilton cupcake decorating kit at Walmart, OH! and I bought pink sprinkles of course and a candle.  I used Ainsley's Strawberry Shortcake doll from MacDonald's.

 I made the cupcake stands from items at DI and bought the polka dot cardboard one at Walmart for $2 after Valentine's Day.
I didn't have time to finish the other stands, but I would like them to look like the blue ones below.

Inspirtation craft pic.

I made a "Happy 4th Birthday Ainsley" banner from scrapbook paper I had.

I made this pinata out of cereal boxes, pink streamer $1, scrapbook paper, package tape $3, string, and print outs from www.Strawberryshortcake.com which is where I got invitations, coloring pages, games and other decor. I filled the pinata with gummy treats, skittles and starburts. Beats the $20 castle pinata I saw at Walmart, plus I could customize it Strawberry Shortcake Style!

Silly Snake & Super Cape

I made a cute silly snake and cape as a b-day gift for Ainsley's Joy School friend, Malakai.  I found this cute "silly snake" idea on youtube and made it my own with what I had- go upcycling!  I filled it with lentils and it really feels like a real snake complete with a rattle on the end of it's tail.  Perfect for a 5 yr. old boy!

Dino's Babies for Karma's B-day

Karma is one of the kids I teach Joy School to and Ainsley's friend and her mom is my friend and VT companion. Anyway she had a cute "Tangle" themed b-day and they made the cutest Pascul lizard creatures out of some sticky foam and party favors that worked for a lizard tongue (Ainsley lost her lizard before I got a picture, but you can learn how to make it at www.disneykids.com I think).

Ha I did have a pic of Karma holding the Pascul creature.

Isn't her cake so cute!?

We made Karma a cute basket of Dino babies since she loves dinosauers. She is such a funny random girl. She even had a Dino cake aside from her "Tangled" one her aunt made her.

Some dinos were stuffed and some were bean bags. My inspiration was the dino puzzle behind the dino babies. I also added some jelly beans for dino eggs and each dino on the flower had a letter spelling Karma's name.

75 cent at the DI- brand new!

All the fabric is scraps I collected from my mom as a kid.

All in all I probably spent $5, the most being for the jelly beans.

April Craft Projects

Upcycle Easter Dresses- I didn't have the time to make full on dresses so I took some dresses that still fit the girls, but were too short and added some fabric that my sweet bishop's wife gave me and put a tutu under Ainsley's to give it poof. They turned out way cuter than the pic and I'm working on a flower bow from the scraps. I even made a sash for me to match.

I finally made myself a bow holder, but I neet to make another.

Wish I had a big wall to make a bigger one instead of little ones.

Speaking of bigger bow holders. My dad and I made this one for my sis-in-law's b-day and soon to be baby girl. My snl is sewing and crafting up a bow storm and needed something big to start storing them.

Joy School Valentine's Party

Ainsley has had lots of fun doing joy school. I was incharge of our Valentine's Party which was a lot of work, but it was fun. We did games, read Valentine books, made Valentines and crafts, watched a Valentine show at the end and decorated mini cupcakes while us Moms dug into the giant chocolate/strawberry cupcake.

Again don't judge the non-baker.

Hey it's just going to get eaten and poked at by the kids.

These little love bugs and animals were made from recycled egg cartons and the monkey from plastic plates (was a Valentine Holder).