Santa sign post

I have had a lot of fun creating this little (or not so little) sign post to help give santa directions!!!

I went to our local bunnings and found a cheap plant stake and then grabbed 2 long planks of wood. Cost me $20 in total. 

Cut them with my saw, I have one of those fancy holder things that helps hold the saw and you can cut perfect angles with it. I made the wood panels odd lengths and enlisted some help for sanding and painting!

I used a stencil to write on the wood as I am not that cleaver!!! Even tries some

Embossing and it looked awesome. I did a call out on facebook to get suggestions on what to write! And Hence I went ahead and painted!  I had the hubby put screws in it to hold it together.

  I used just normal kids paint acrylics and then lackered it to seal it for all weather! 

CakesFun!

I have completed all the Wilton cake classes however do not love making cakes.  I did it because having 4 boys meant I needed to know how to make a cake or 2 or 6 per year and a week was not enough notice and I generally ended up making my own very terrible cakes so... now look what I can do!  I highly recommend the Wilton Cake Decorating courses!

Noahs Ben 10 Cake

Golf Clubs

 40th Birthday Cake

Apple Heads

It really works. For Halloween in Australia I thought I would have some fun with the kids, it turns out I love it more than the kids... 

These looked amazing! 

What you will need:-

Bucket

1 cup Table salt

1 cup Lemon juice

4 liters water

Large apples (they shink to approx a quarter of the size)

Dissolve salt in some hot water and add ingredients to bucket in cold water. I left the apples to soak for half the day but the internet said soak for at least 30 mins.

To dry them put you they need to be either places in the oven and keep oven on low setting for 24 hours. I kept the oven low enough that I could still touch the inside of the oven and just turned it on periodically and left it off at other times but I did this over 3 days. Or if done in summer you can just keep them in a warm area, I put them on our kitchen table in a vase and let the sun shine on them :) 

Note: if using oven, rotate often as the bottom stays damp if it's sitting on a tray hence why I finally thought to skewer them. I was also thinking they would look good with string through them and a knot at the bottom! 

Size comparison-

This is a great hot weather craft, we still need to draw on them and add beeds for eyes :) but so much fun to be had!!! 

Fun DIY Stubby Holders!

I was inspired my my hubby for this one lol ;) he was going away for a boys weekend and wanted a stubby holder with where's Scanners on them because they made the weekend around him and he still could not make it. 

The next week I was helping a friend put together bags for her hens night and almost begged her to let me do them! 

What you will need:-

Neoprene fabric (it's like wet suit material can be found at spotlight in aust.)

Tshirt Iron on transfer paper

And Printer!

Cut neoprene into rectangle shape 21 x 10.5 cms 

I used puff paint to write on the hubby's holders however I planned something a little classier for the friends Hens!!! 

To see if it worked I copied a pic onto tshirt transfere paper and then practiced on the off cuts. From this I learned that you only need to hold the iron on the transfere for a few seconds or less, too long and the fabrics on the neoprene would melt also. If you can see in the pic below one side was to hot and the other was just right. I used backing paper to iron it on which meant nothing was sticking to the iron.

Once I got it right I was ready to go! My friend had designed some amazing logo for her Hens! All I had to do was iron it onto the neoprene!!!

(I virtually used the tip of the iron and tried not to go off the transfere for fear of melting). 

Ok now for the tricky/fun part, sewing!!! This had to be done in 2 parts as it would be impossible to sew straight through. 

I set my machine on a zigzag stitch close together but very long so it would reach both sides and hold them together. 

Not so hard really, and looks impressive, I do wonder if a better sewing machine would make that easier?!! 

The finished product, don't they look amazing. It cost approx $2 per stubby holder plus tshirt iron on transfer paper. 

We also made lip balms, which are so easy once you know how, magnet buttons and a bag! 

A perfect pack for a brilliant night at Dracula's!!! 

Baby Shower for a Boy

The Baby Shower!

I had fun helping with a friends baby shower, I made the cake, and set up the photo booth, made the thank you gift! I helped out with a few games but I generally like to stay behind the scenes where I am comfortable.  Here is the cake I made, its all in the prep work and gnash is the perfect base!

The next thing I did was make moisturiser for the Thank You Gift.  These are made with all natural house hold products:- 

Almond Oil, Beeswax, Water, Vitamin E (capsules cut and squeezed) and Doterra Essential oils. I will do a full tutorial on these soon with some of the other skin products I use.

I brought the large lipbalm containers from a shop called Lotus Oils and used photo sticker paper for the labels.  I sometimes use Vinyl Paper which is amazing for labeling.  

The table was set up with baby clothing, it was hard in a function room not being able to attach anything to walls etc but the girls did a lovely job.  I even found blue drink for the table - below is a pic of what was left of Mr Duck but to make blue lemonade I added a bottle of blue Gatorade and it worked a treat!...  Looked good with the little bottles and straws.  

The Photo Booth.

Wish I had taken better pics of the set up however the camera was on the tripod... what can you do?  I know you are thinking phones are good these days but when you are running the booth, that didnt cross my mind and I didnt think I would be uploading them onto my blog... silly I know!

I found most the props at the local spotlight or reject shop however I did make the photo board out of card from a craft store.  Cut the center out with a Stanley knife, and paint with black board chalk paint.  Everyone was photographed with their messages on the board.  I did use the center as a welcome board.  All props were set up on a little table with a bucket to keep them neat.  Thats chalk in my mouth...  I only had 2 days to prepare for this baby shower however since then I have made a makeshift portable back drop out of conduit pipes (originally used to make a cubby for the kids) wish I had time for this but I was not aware that there would be no plain wall as a back drop. 

There was more I did for this shower however I am lacking with photos and progress reports but I hope this is of some help.

Games

Games were fun, I did not have much to do with them and they can be found on Pinterest or the internet.  Games included guessing what was in the nappies, how many days till she pops in the baby bottle with bubble gum, a bag full of items was taken around the room and everyone had to guess what baby items were in it.  And of course everyone was given 2 pegs and no body was allowed to say the word Baby or they lost a peg - wish we had time to get those mini dummies!

The games were easy, using pinterest there are a lot of choices.  One thing I find is that you have to allow the correct amount of time for a game ie: if game is going to take 3 mins per person you are going to have to find a way to do it without it eating all the time.

Unique Baby Announcement Photo Idea.

I love pinterest and due to a friend recently having a baby I have been searching through baby pictures ideas etc and came across a unique announcement idea using a clock, ruler, weights and name blocks. Now to find the Baby lol :)

I have spend a couple of days searching for items, given that my favorite eBay would not have had time to deliver and have hence found that the shops you think would have things dont...  I found that Kmart is the best place to buy weights ($8 for 2 kgs and its blue for a boy), the clock was $9.95 at a cheap spoils shop and I searched high and low in this town, the ruler is from Office works at $5.50 and the blocks are from a $9.45 peice of wood and I will show you how to make them!  

Making the Blocks

The blocks were the most fund to make!

I started by buying a square length of wood from the local hardware store, I did get them to cut the wood into squares for me however they were a cm over in length so I had to cut them all myself anyway.  I simply used another block to get my measurements.  

I brought blocks of sandpaper but found the best to be the flat sandpaper on the ground, I could hold the wood perfectly square and just run the edges along the paper to smooth them out see pics.

Once I had my smooth blocks sorted I had to work out how to decorate them, my friend wanted the plain wood color (which made my job simple) however I am not a painter and had no idea how to put the lettering on... After a attempts with some pretty dodgy looking spare blocks I realised that I would have to print my lettering in order to make them look neat!  I found a font similar to the look I was after in google images and printed them on clear sticky paper.  It was no fun cutting them out but they looked great!  

To finish off the blocks I used Rub Ons to put some nice boyish pictures on the sides and back of the blocks.  You cant see them as clearly in this pic as I would have liked but they are very easy to do once you know how.

My next job was to print out a calendar, it took a few tries of printing to find an image that had clear resolution. I once again used google images and found a calendar for Sept 2014 and printed it at half a page to get it clear enough.

It was all starting to come together!  I decided to mount the calendar and weight details on a board so that it sits very flat.  

When I finally found all the items I was looking for...  see below! Yay!  I have asked my friend to have a few props ready ie: booties, dummy, toy and fav blanket for the pic...

Now where is that baby???

Found the Baby.

Pic is not as clear as I would have wished, I am not good with flash lighting but have no trouble with natural lighting.  I may have done a few things differently but I love the concept just the same!

Ben 10 Party! Clothes, Games, Food and Organised Timeline...

Yes as the mother of 4 sons I have lots of parties and have to be organised... My 10 year old is currently obsessed with Ben 10...  As a result I am having a Ben 10 Party at my house! LOL I do love a good party!!!!

Birthday List

Invites - Dress Noah in Ben 10, take a pic of him and paste it into invitation.  I used my iPhone to do completely do the invitations.  I used CropMeOutPro to cut the little man out and Flyer and Invitations to complete the invitations even pinched a bar code off google images.  I sat down and played one night.

Cake - Omnitrix. I decided to make it 2 tier and kept it very simple - thank you pinterest images.

Games - We had a lot of fun. The girls surprisingly blew the boys times out of the water with the spaghetti game but boys were brilliant at the doughnut game.

1. Green Spaghetti with Marbles in a Bucket (They had to dig them out with their toes) ewww!
2. Hanging Dounuts
3. Shooting Range (ran out of time but let them play at the end whilst waiting for parents to pick them up, but I had paint ready for the tips of the nurf gun bullets and they marked targets nicely).
4. Balloon Stomp (Icebreaker game where you tie string to ankle with balloon attached and they had to pop everyone elses balloon whilst keeping theirs intact).

Presents - Onsie, Tennis racquet, Mindcraft books, Wii Remote, Done!

Thank You Gift - Ben 10 Slap Bands (in Balloons in Balloon Stomp Game) Icebreaker game and a vial with green and black jellybeans in it.

Prizes for games - 

1. Omnitrix - green spaghetti game. 
2. Ben 10 Badge - Hanging Dounuts
3. Ben 10 Badge Shooting Range (Plus take their shooting page home).  
4. I changed my mind when I was ready for the party and used a cert.  Kids do not need extra presents.

Ben 10 Clothes

This all started a few months ago when Noah asked me to make him some Ben 10 clothes, I have since made them 2 different ways, one was cutting everything out and meticulously sizing everything up for sewing and then their is the easier way of making a black t-shirt and sewing the color on over the top - which is the one I will show in the next tutorial.  My boys have all requested to be different Ben 10's

Noah - Omniverse Version Black and Green with Brown Cargos

Jonah - Albato 10 Black and red with Grey Cargos

Elijah - Ben 10 I managed to get a cheap outfit of ebay

and Micah wants to be purple, did find a purple ben 10 - not sure it was part of the series. 

Will complete Tutorial later. 

I will use the purple Ben 10 top as my tutorial and they are made out of Ponti, much better quality than store brought tshirts! I love home made!

Party TimeLine!  2 HOURS - Rule with Boys... Keep them busy!

• 4:30pm  Arrive allow 10 mins
• 4:40pm Icebreaker game - Balloon Pop (with slap in Balloon, tied to ankle on piece of string. The aim is to pop everyone's balloon and be the last man standing, once your balloon is popped you pick up your consolation prize (ie Slap Band) and exit the game field). 10 mins
• 4:50pm - Fruit Snack 10 mins
• 5:00pm - Dounut Game and Spaghetti Game (Hang Dounuts and see who is the quickest to eat it) 5 mins. Spaghetti in a bucket with Marbles, timed how long it takes to get 5 marbles out with feet only - got to have one gross game, boys love it!) 20 mins - total 25 mins.
• 5:25pm - Drink (green smoothie, ben 10 fav) and play. 10 mins
• 5:35pm - Shooting Range (print a target with a man outline and dip end of Nurf Gun in ink or paint to color board closest/most hits to target wins). 20 mins
• 5:55pm - Pizza for dinner!  Home made of course :) 25 mins
• 6:20pm - Cake!!! 10 mins

Home Time 6:30pm - Sigh!  

I allowed time for games to go over however I had to be flexable due to some parents on the day saying they had to pick their kids up early, hence we made the shooting game last.  I trialed games on my 4 boys to see if they work and time-frames.

Back Drop and Set Up.

I ordered a Doona Cover on eBay to use as a back drop for Photos and behind the food table as a souvenir from the party for the Birthday Boy!  I am thinking my boys were to big for the photo back drop, it would have looked awesome behind the food table! However it helped give the Ben 10 feel to the playroom.

My boys rocking Ben 10!

The blocks were simply cut from some square wood and painted black I would recommend making sure it is full black paint so it only needs one coat.  I then printed out some block lettering from Google and colored it in myself.

I used craft glue to stick letters onto blocks. The blocks took approx 30 mins to make and dried fairly quick and made quite an effective center piece with the cake.

I figured kids get spoiled enough these days and they were quite proud to win an award instead of another gift.  I did love the slap bands, they were quite the hit.  I pinned the Awards from another pinterest site.  

Party Food

I prefer not to hype kids up on my shift... You never know which kids react to sugar or colors and preservatives these days and it seems to be a more regular occurrence, so the food I provide is to minimise hyper activity whilst I am on duty (with 4 boys I have learnt some things lol).

Hence we are having:-

Pizza for Mains

Green Smoothies (Ben 10's Favorite) and water for Drinks

Water Mellon / Fruit Platter with Green Jelly :/ and Green Popcorn :/ (for the fusspots) for Snacks

I am also going to make a little surprise - mini toffee apples (with melon baller)!  

Its my dinner too and a party would not be complete with out toffee apples right?  On the party table we had Green Smoothy which was Ben 10's Favorite drink, jelly, a fruit platter and all things healthy and full of energy.  I never fill them up on sugar on my shift... send em home to go silly!!!

Conclusion

The party was a huge success!!! Yay!  Noah's friends were so well behaved and helpful I felt unneeded at times. Party ran very smoothly

Noah proud of his Ben 10 Party!

I left little time to make the cake and made it the morning of the party :/ it turned out well for a last minute rush!  The bottom is white chocolate mud and the top was a tasty caramel mud cake.  For anyone who makes cakes its all pretty straight forward.