Monthly Archives: July 2011

Recycled Starbucks Card Earring Tutorial

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Inspired by my search around the internet for Starbucks-themed crafts, I put together a the first in a series of Starbucks tutorials.

Everyone knows I am a huge Starbucks fan, so I often get their cards as gifts. They are so cute and I can’t seem to throw them out when they are empty. When I saw it was possible to turn them into jewelry, I had to give it a try!

These will make a great gift for our favorite barista. I’ll be making more styles, but this tutorial features Starbucks logo from the upper corner of two cards.

What you need: 2 Starbucks cards, scissors, emory board or sandpaper, something to punch a small hole (I used a corn cob holder!), beads and earring findings (I used two silver french hooks, 2 head pins, 2 large seed beads and two round beads) and jewelry-making tools.

Build an Easy Party Photo Booth

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I fell in love with the photo booth at my brother-in-law’s wedding. It was so much fun! I knew I had to figure out how to do my own. This post goes over how I’ve made mine for several parties. Hopefully you can get some useful ideas should you try this too!

The most important part of my photo booths has been my MacBook Pro with a built-in camera. For software, I installed Mugshot Machine and turned on kiosk mode when it was time for the party (this hides the rest of your computer and sends the photos to the printer without your guest having to deal with print options.) It isn’t the prettiest program, but it’s free and lets you use a custom logo on the printouts. The biggest disadvantage to it is that you can’t save a digital copy and print a photo at the same time. Most guests were happy to let me scan their photos and give them back the next day. There are pay software options out there as well.

You need a way to print the photos, unless you are only saving them to disk. I have an HP photo printer I’ve had for years. It uses 4×6 paper that I stock up on at dollar stores and clearance aisles.

To build my booth, I start with a sturdy tv tray, and cover it with an upside-down box to make the surface area larger. I placed it in a corner so that I only had to make the walls on two sides. To build the walls, I used foam core board I got on sale that just happened to be the same blue as my walls. I think I used about 6 sheets (I didn’t bother with the ceiling.) I left a space for the door in the side of the booth. Behind the laptop, I left a ledge of the box and a cutout for the printer (so your photo comes out when it’s done printing.) It’s dark in there, so I always put a desk lamp in for better lighting.

For the door, I use a sheer black curtain hung on a string that is taped up inside the booth. I decorate the whole booth with wrapping paper. It’s inexpensive and I can change it based on the theme of the party. For my friend’s money themed party I used gold and taped play money all over it. I also got a party “scene setter” backdrop that time and decorated the inside. At my birthday party, I taped large paper clips to the outside of the booth so everyone could display their photos during the party.

You don’t even really need a booth… When I was pregnant and hosting a Halloween party, I decided to just set up the corner with a backdrop. Everyone still loved it!

I save all the main pieces of the booth in sections down in the basement and I’ve been able to reuse them again and again. So much fun!

DIY Coloring Tablecloth

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Here’s a very simple party craft that doubles as a decoration. A custom coloring table covering! All you need is a printer, some sticker paper sheets and a roll of paper.

I used a dollar store roll of white wrapping paper. It was the perfect width for my table and the length had a few inches to spare on each end (good for taping it down.) You can use the less shiny side of the paper to have it take markers better. Of course, you could use rolls of butcher or drawing paper if you have that. The sticker paper I bought from Amazon. I liked how clear it printed and the fact that the back peels off in strips.

The first step is to find or make your coloring pages. You can find a bunch here or here (or just do a Google image search). I used mostly pictures I found online, but I’ve drawn custom ones by tracing photos. I laid them out in Photoshop so that I could make use of every inch of each sheet of sticker paper.

Once they are all printed out, I cut them out and arrange them on the paper. Having the images face the edges of paper lets everyone have something to draw where they are sitting. Then just peel off the backings and stick the images down!

I put cups of markers and crayons out of the table so everyone knows what it is for! If you try this project, let me know!

The coloring sheet I saved from my birthday in 2008.

Party Craft Ideas

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Craft Table

To continue with my party themed week, I want to show you what has become a big part of most of my parties: crafts!

For the same party as the rainbow cupcakes, I decided I wanted to have crafts for everyone to enjoy, since I love to be creative. It was a huge hit! Because the party theme was puppies, rainbows and anything girly, I chose paint-your-own bobble-head dogs and flocked jewelry boxes you can color in, both from Oriental Trading. At our Halloween parties I have had ceramic pumpkins, wooden treat boxes and coffins to decorate. When I hosted a money-themed party for a friend, we painted piggy banks!

Probably the most in depth craft project I’ve done at a party was last year. Despite having a 5-month-old, I was determined to do tie dye!

We set up in our empty front room (now the playroom) since it was extremely hot out and due to storm. I put down a tarp and set up the prep station and the dye station. The prep station had a bucket od solution to pre-soak items in and a bucket of water for rinsing. There were plenty of rubber bands and some instructions on how to fold and tie shirts that I’d printed out. The dye station had plastic gloves (from the dollar store) and lots of paper towels! I put trays lined with paper towels down and guests could set their shirts down as squirt the dye without it getting all over.

Tie Dye Party

The dyes and bottles were all purchased from Dick Blick Art Supplies. The dyes were professional quality and worked best if you let them cure for 24 hours. So I printed little take-home instructions and had plenty of freezer bags and Sharpie markers so everyone could pack up and label their projects.

It was a blast and we kept dying until we ran out of things to dye!

Adorable Rainbow Cupcakes

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To celebrate my birthday week, I am going to feature some fun party ideas I’ve tried in the past. I love planning parties and always do it on a small budget. I hope you enjoy these projects! Let me know if you try them!

A couple years ago I had a party for my birthday with no real theme other than cutesy, girly things. Being a summer baby growing up with just a dad, my birthday parties usually failed miserably (like two guests would show up, but my rocket scientist dad would let us play maze games on the Apple II. Ah, the ’80’s!)

This party would indulge all the childish whims I missed out on… Crafts! Twister! Balloons! Pink and blue puppy plates! And cupcakes…

Rainbow cupcakes, to be exact! And, these adorable cupcakes couldn’t be easier.

Here’s what I did:
I baked two kinds of cupcake for variety so guests could choose chocolate or yellow (both vegan to accommodate a guest). If you want to go all the way rainbow, try this recipe for a colorful surprise when your guests take a bite! Because my favorite cake is yellow with chocolate frosting, I used both chocolate and white frosting. Obviously your rainbows will look more realistic on white clouds, but chocolate clouds are oh so tasty!

To ice my cupcakes, I put the frosting in a icing gun (mine is a cheap dollar store version) with a star tip. I swirled and swooshed till my hand ached to make fluffy clouds. Then I used plenty of sprinkles: blue sanding sugar, rainbow nonpareils and little stars!

And now the fun part… Buy a few packs of Airheads Extreme Rainbow Belts, cut them to size and stick them in the frosting to create your rainbow!

Because I had a vegan guest, I also make a few cupcakes without the sprinkles and candy (which tends not to be vegan). I also filled some cupcake papers with jellybeans and stuck them in my cupcake stand for pops of color.

Let me know if you try this out!

Yum!

Friday Follow-up

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I plan to start doing follow-up posts on Fridays to let you know how past an ongoing projects are working out! If there is something in particular you’d like to hear more about, just leave a comment.

DIY Chalkboard Update: Jax seriously LOVES his chalkboard! So far I am only letting him have the chalk when I am in the playroom with him, since he’d likely hide it in strange places or color on his toys. Or, you know, eat it. (He’s actually really good about not putting things in his mouth, but he gets distracted sometimes and forgets.)

Baby Apple Tree

It’s holding up really well, though I’ve found it hard to get really clean, due to a slightly gritty texture. My board was smooth, so I have to assume it is the paint. The dusty look doesn’t really bother me, though. It looks very “classic chalkboard” to me. I plan to refresh the chalkboard surface eventually with the remaining spray paint.

Jax’s Apple Plant: So, when I was cutting open an apple for Jax about a month ago, I found that the seeds inside it had sprouted! We planted them in a pot and hoped for the best. Well, 4 or 5 of the sprouts have grown strong and the plant is now a few inches high! Grow, apple tree, grow!

Jax’s July Painting

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I hope everyone had a safe and fabulous fourth of July! Jax and I celebrated by nursing to the sounds of fireworks going off around our neighborhood. The noise didn’t seem to bother him, so maybe next year he’ll be able to stay up and watch them.

This weekend we did his second monthly painting! This time I painted the canvas yellow for him, then we poured paint onto the canvas and he used both brushes and his fingers to make a beautiful mess. It had to dry overnight because he piled on the paint, but it looks great!

He had very little paint on him this time. I think he is figuring out that it goes on the canvas – not his belly button!

 He also did a mini painting as part of the prize in our first giveaway. I think it looks adorable…

Finished Paintings

Threadless $10 Sale

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Threadless is having a $10 sale! They have so much cute stuff, and I love that the designs are submitted by the community. You can promote their site and earn credit in their store. If you design a shirt that they end up using, you get $2,000 plus $500 store credit. Nice!

These Threadless kids designs are so cute! Check out the little crayons instead of ammo!

Check out the $10 sale on Threadless.com. Quick like a bunny – the sale ends July 5th!