Alien Birthday Party Invitation

Strap on your spacesuits and blast off to an Alien Birthday Party!

First step:  Make an invitation to be played with, showing how exciting the party will be!  Of course, you don't have to have a party to have fun with this paper craft...

alien spaceship invitation

Trace the spaceship pattern onto black cardstock, the cockpit onto clear vellum, the trim onto gold cardstock, and the spaceship front onto dark gray cardstock.  Assemble and glue (leaving space for alien to fit inside), then attach cockpit with a small brad.  Copy aliens onto green paper. Paint or glue on eyes (I used white hole punches) and sequins for decoration, if desired!  Add party details on the back (I printed them in text boxes then glued on).

Join us for an

OUT OF THIS WORLD ADVENTURE

 to Celebrate (name's) 8th

Trip Around the Sun

Tuesday, January 22th

1:30-3:30

(Last Name) Galaxy

Our address

RSVP our phone

 Our email .com

I'm happy to say the spaceships were happily received!  My favorite response was from a mom who reported that her whole clan of boys (including Dad) were seen to be playing with the invitation. 

I made several extras and a couple of new alien guys to use as decorations for the party.  

aliens and spaceship fun

Aliens and Spaceship Pattern by C.A. Leu

Welcoming the Leprechauns!

St. Patrick's Day is coming... will the Leprechaun's stop by?

We'll do our best to welcome them,  shhhh... don't spy!

With shamrocks, rainbows, froggies, too,

May our green and friendly spirit shine through! 

The kids drew their special pictures which were so loved by the Leprechauns that they disappeared on St. Patrick's Day morning.  Phew to Mom's foresight to scan them first, or all evidence would have disappeared!

Chica and Jo showed us how to turn Halloween pots into Leprechaun friendly pots of clover (thank you!).  We dug clover from our yard, added potting soil to our pots, and in just a few "dirty" minutes, our railing was looking very festive!

We could tell the Leprechaun's liked these, too, because they left a shiny coin in each and every one!

A fresh coat of chalkboard paint had our blackboard pot looking spiffy.  (This idea has been around awhile... you just need a spray can of chalkboard paint, a big terra cotta pot, and some painter's tape). An artist-helper added the seasonal detail....

Which turned into making a chalk dust rainbow... and foot prints... tracks... then paint... and well, you know where this is going, don't you?

On the dog, of course. Who made out great with a big treat after he was cleaned up... and then there was the laundry, the floor, the chair... wasn't this an outside project? Creativity is messy!

One more thing I tried inside was a St. Patrick's Day banner.  I saw this idea on Pinterest.  It captured the St. Patrick's Day spirit so perfectly I couldn't stop looking at it... spring green against the black and white winter background.  Only problem was, the provided link didn't lead me to the original post. Could I make this on my own? Sure... the trickiest part looked like the black and white background. Where to get the paper?   Shopping wasn't an option.

I found some flowered paper in my stash, and played around with the black and white copy options on my printer. Whala!  I had what I needed!  The heart shapes were easy enough to trace and fold.  I hot-glued them to the pennants and folded the pennants over twine, keeping with a rustic look. 

 I made a couple of extras, singles, for hanging on window latches.

Then I was messing around on Pinterest again and got curious... This time I was able to trace the original banner all the way back to Lil' Luna.  Wow, it sure would have made things easier to go there first!  Kristyn even provides an Irish map banner to use as the background, and distresses her hearts with black stamp ink around the edges. Simply elegant! 

In the end, the test was to see if the Leprechauns liked it... and I'm happy to report, they came with their map and treasure once again. :)

Valentine's Heart Garland

This romantic heart garland was posted on Better Homes and Gardens.  Sure looked simple enough!  The craft store I went to had NO selection of red papers, so I had to go with pinks instead. 

I like a rustic sort of look so used twine instead of ribbon, except where the garland attaches to the bed.

 

Oh dear, this bed just doesn't have the same romance as the BGH one, but look at all that love! Six hearts for a full size frame.

It also adds festivity to a the mantel...

The only thing that could make this project easier is a template! 

So here ya go... two of the bigger hearts will fit on one 12x12 scrapbookpaper page.

Heart Garland Pattern

Rustic Paper Heart Wreath

This simple and sweet Valentine's Heart wreath was a pinterest find. I fell in love with it and searched my heart out (bad pun intended) for the original poster and directions. Alas, I spent a couple of hours searching and never did find the original post. Along the reposts though, I had a great time enjoying new crafty inspiration. So, I'd have to figure this one out myself or not at all. This post is to share what I learned in case any of you want to try it, too!

First I gathered a handful of green twigs.  Line them up to match similar sizes and colors, then trim to similar lengths.

Use thin gauge wire to wrap two of the stems together.

Bend the other end of the stems down toward the bottom to make the heart shape and wire together.

Take a length of wire and attach it to the bottom end of the heart. Loop the other end over the top notch of the heart and tighten, wrapping around the notch when the desired shape is reached.

I added two side wires to get the heart to lay flat. The original heart wreath doesn't have any wires, but I'm still satisfied with this look, the wires are so thin they're hardly visible. Maybe the wood will dry out this way and the wires can be removed later?

Now it is time for the mini paper heart decorations!

I cut out a bunch of hearts from scraps I had.  I'll post a template if anyone else doesn't have a heart punch...  :)

I cut white backs for the hearts...

Then glued the wire stems between the backs and colored fronts.

Finally, bend the paper hearts along the midline and twist the wire stems onto the twig heart.

Happy Heart Day!  Can you feel the love?

Groundhog's Day Greetings

Send a little Groundhog's Day Greeting to someone you love!

Just another snowy day... or is it?

Out pops Groundhog!  Will there be shadow or none?

Doesn't really matter with all the pop-up fun!

Put a cute photo on the back and a clever greeting... Ours says:

Come winter!  Come Spring!

Start the party, Do your own Thing!

(we have a little Groundhog's Day tradition involving wearing lei's while eating chocolate popsicles)

Groundhog'Slabels

Ninja Party Game: Calligraphy Scrolls

The ultimate weapon is a pen, I instructed the Ninjas. I don't think anyone was listening at that point, but we sure had fun with our scroll writing project...

We held this activity in our garage... not a beautiful party setting but perfect for messy projects.  We made it work by spreading two plastic tablecloths on the floor.  In the center, I placed an upside down, gold painted box as a little table.  I purchased the brushes and made ink pots, scrolls, and character ribbons (hung from ceiling as examples), details below.

First the decorations!  I wanted to focus the kids attention to the center and away from all the stuff in the garage AND have examples of Asian writing for them to copy if they wish. I thought about putting examples on the floor, but then realized if I hung them, they would be more visible to the group.  I found printable examples of Chinese characters on Activity Village.   All I had to do was print, cut, and glue them onto black backing and then have the kids staple them to some red, black, and gold clearance Christmas ribbon I had hanging from the garage ceiling.  The characters were stapled to both sides of the ribbon. 

I was surprised by how much the kids liked the characters and trying to copy them. I set out water colors, too, in case someone wanted to add color pictures, but they stuck with the ink.  Ideally, we should have used Japanese characters that represented Ninja traits. Check out this cool site about the characteristics of Ninjas.  As the party date drew near, however, the printable  Chinese characters were oh so handy, already made into card shapes!

Recognize these Yoplait yogurt cups?  Being bigger at the bottom, their shape is ideal for a tip-resistant ink pot.  I covered them in wrapping paper for a festive look. Took me a few tries to get the pattern right so I'm posting it below in case anyone else wants to try this.  I did look for ink at a craft store but couldn't find any.  Good thing because black tempera paint worked just fine.  I used a ratio of about 1/3 paint to 2/3 water.  I started searching for big paintbrushes for the project but then found these cool, authentic-looking bamboo brushes on ebay for a cheaper price ($1 per brush, free shipping).  Fun!

  Making the scrolls was harder in my mind than it turned out to be once I got started.  The supplies are simply wooden dowels (12" long, 3/8" diameter), paper, and yarn. Hardware stores are thrifty places to purchase dowels, and they'll even cut them for you!  :)  I painted them black.  As for paper, I used three sheets of banner paper per scroll that I already had on hand. Target has rolled paper available in their art section, probably a better choice because it won't have creases. 

To assemble the scrolls, I folded one end of the paper over the dowel and creased it.  Then, I applied two lines of hot glue, centered the dowel, waited a few seconds for the glue to cool, and smoothed it flat.  At the opposite end, I did the same thing except included a loop of red and silver yarn for hanging. 

When the kids were satisfied with their artwork, we had them create their own wax seal, of sorts. :)  An adult dripped red wax from a candle onto their paper. After the wax dried a bit, they were able to carve their initials in the wax using a bamboo skewer (point cut off).  The seal gave the projects an authentic-looking final touch!

Overall,. this was a really fun project enjoyed by the kids AND their parents! 

Yogurt Cup Cover Pattern

Ninja Knife Birthday Party Invitations

We are officially on the road to a Ninja party!  The two week countdown begins as these paper knifes were distributed today.  I'm not feeling confident right now, with none of the activities solidified... Aack! 

Making the paper Ninja knifes is the easy part!  You just need black and white cardstock, a gold paint pen, some red ribbon (1/8"), and either a sewing machine (white and red thread) or white and red markers.  I've put the template in pdf below:

1) Cut out two sheath pieces and sew or glue together.
2) Glue (tacky glue) a length of ribbon around the top (24cm or 5.5 inches) and knot at side.
3) Cut out knife blade (print party details on first) and two knife handles.
4) Use a paint pen to color edge gold.
5) Glue (rubber cement) the handles together with knife in between.
6) When glue is dry, stitch (or draw) a design onto the handle.

This was my first shot at sewing paper.  I sure love how stitching the red thread on the black paper looks almost like a real leather knife holder. Bonus, it was really as simple as sewing cloth!  I didn't backstitch all of them because I was afraid it wouldn't work, but it does, and now I wish they were all like that.  The glue from the ribbon will give them strength for repeated use though.

For the print on the invitations, I surveyed a bunch of Asian fonts and found BONZAI the easiest to read yet still having an Asian flair. I saved some of the other fonts for party decorations, but I didn't want to risk confusion on the all important party details! The print says, "Calling all Ninjas! (Name) is 7!  Let's Celebrate!  Date and Time, Dojo (our address), and RSVP Sensei (your contact info).  The invitation will fit in a standard business envelope (#10, 4 1/8" x 9 1/2").

(If you haven't downloaded a font before, don't be intimidated. Just search "how to install a font" to find instructions that match your software.  For example with my computer, I just click the font's download button, then open up Windows Explorer and find the file. Right click on the file name to extract and save in a great location (new fonts folder?).  Right click on the extracted file and click "install" and presto, you're good to go!)

Back to party planning...


Paper Ninja Knife Birthday Party Invitation