Easiest Star Wars Cupcake Toppers

What is it about Star Wars that makes little boys (and girls) go nuts?  My eight year old knows more about Star Wars than anyone I know.  So for his birthday last week, of course he wanted Star Wars cupcakes.  At first he requested that I use frosting to create Yoda, Obi, etc. on the top of each cupcake.  That was quickly vetoed (not only am I on bed rest for this pregnancy, but there's no way on earth I was going to do that!).  This is what I came up with:

Blue for the good guys

Red for the bad guys

Seriously, these were so easy to make!  I grabbed two packs of Star Wars stickers from Target (24 stickers in each pack), then stuck two matching stickers together with a toothpick in the middle.  The kids loved them and they only took a few minutes to make!

I'm linking up to:
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party

Princess Tea Party

My daughter turned five years old yesterday, so we celebrated with a Princess Tea Party!  Because she's still so young, we only wanted to do something small.  We had six girls, for just an hour and fifteen minutes.  It was perfect... Any longer and I think it might have lost its magic.  Let me show you what we did!

Decorating was the main event.  Luckily, we were able to dig around our house and find just about everything that we needed.  I had purchased the giant rose wreath months ago at Goodwill--I was going  to pull the roses off and use the frame, but it was perfect for our tea party.  The lamp is from my kids' bedroom.  Then we just filled every glass jar we could find with pretty candies.  I picked up the china cupcake stand for a couple of bucks at Goodwill, as well.  We really only bought candy and balloons!

The cupcakes were a cinch to decorate.  I whipped up a batch of buttercream frosting, dropped a dollop of white onto each mini-cupcake, refrigerated them until set, then dropped another dollop of either pink or purple on top.  I topped them with a tiny pearl candy.

The cake is a two layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting between the layers and on the outside.  I then used giant confetti sprinkles to polka-dot the whole thing.  I used the mini candy pearls (like on the cupcakes) to make a "5," and to outline the rose.  I created the rose from marzipan, then used edible pearl dust to color it pink.

To begin our tea party, we rang this beautiful bell.  It was my grandma's.

My daughter found this fancy hat candle holder at Goodwill, too, for only $2.  I always think of big hats when I think of tea parties, don't you?

To set the table, I purchased a cup and saucer for each girl, from Goodwill.  Each cup and saucer only cost about $.30, so to say that it was cost effective is an understatement!  We sent them each home with their own teacup and saucer, in lieu of goodie bags.

We began the party by decorating the crowns you see at each place setting (12 for $2.50 at JoAnn's).  The girls could color their crowns or glue tiny jewels onto the front.  (We already had the jewels, as they were actually the dragon scales that we used in the wand cores for my son's Harry Potter birthday party in April.)  This was a good opening activity, as it gave the kids something to do when they arrived, and while they waited for the actual tea party to begin.

After crown decorating, we painted their fingernails.  I just grabbed a few dollar varieties, plus some cheap decals that we put on once their nails were dry.  This was a big hit; all the girls talked about how excited their moms would be to see their pretty nails.

While the girls had their nails painted and waited to dry, my husband did face-painting.  We didn't do anything crazy, just whatever little thing the girls wanted.  It was mostly balloons, butterflies, hearts, etc.  I do think he did a castle with a moon in the middle and a red Christmas tree, though...

After the nails were dry and faces were painted, we served pink hot chocolate.  We don't drink real tea, plus I figured the girls would prefer hot chocolate to tea any day.  I simply heated eight cups of milk on the stove, poured in a bag of white chocolate chips (once the milk was steaming), added a touch of vanilla, then some pink food coloring.  Voila!

We also served the cupcakes, candy, cookies, etc. that were being used as decorations during this time.  This was the actual tea party!

Once the hot chocolate was poured, we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake.  Did I serve way too much sugar?  Yes.  Was it worth it, though?  Definitely!

Then we opened presents and time was up!  Short and sweet describes our Princess Tea Party perfectly.  My daughter loved it, the other girls had fun, and it was so very simple to do.  What more can you ask for?

I'm linking up to:

Wedding Gift

I went to a beautiful wedding yesterday for a friend whom I've known since fifth grade.  The wedding was gorgeous, original, sweet and fun.  I wanted to create a gift that would capture the feeling that they had yesterday, and remind them of it each time they glanced at my gift.  This is what I came up with:

I hope they love it!

I'm linking up to:

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

As you may have guessed from the title of the post, it's Teacher Appreciation Week at school.  My son, who is in first grade, has the most wonderful teacher.  She is everything a first grade teacher should be, which for my son means that she loves him and treats him like an individual little person.  She runs a tight ship, but knows each sailor's special needs and knows how to best help each one learn.  We decided that Mrs. Powell deserved something wonderful this year.  Let me show you what we came up with and how we made it!

Every day, my son's first grade class has Writer's Workshop.  They write, then edit.  For writing, they use black and blue gel pens.  For editing, they use green pens.  (And ever first grade class uses pencils!) So we decided to make a pen holder!  My son said that all of their pens and pencils are just in a bucket right now, and as a crafty lady, well that just won't do!  So this is what we made!

I am on a strict no-buying rule right now at home.  I have to use up all of my supplies before I can buy anything else.  Luckily I had this wood caddy that we hadn't used in years, just sitting in my basement.  BUT, if you want to make this too, I checked Target and you can find one just like it here.  

SUPPLIES

Wood Caddy

Scrapbook Paper

Mod Podge

Paint Brush (to apply Mod Podge)

Ruler

Pencil

Scissors

Yarn (for measuring)

Exacto Knife

Silhouette (or some other cutting machine--You could also just paint the letters on!)

Trace all four sides on the back of your scrapbook paper.  If you trace onto the front, your pencil marks will show.  Now cut out all of the pieces.

Mod Podge the paper on all four sides.  (This could take a while because you have to let one side dry before you can work on another one.  Hang in there!)

Measure the width and length of the top of the side.  Cut a strip of scrapbook paper to fit those measurements.  Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge onto the caddy, then lay the strip of paper on top.  Use your hands to gently scrunch the paper to fit.

Paint another layer of Mod Podge on top of the paper.  Scrunch the paper again, molding it to fit over the rounded top.  (This is messy and imperfect, but it's the best that I could do.  I actually liked how it looked in the end too!)

Use a piece of yarn to measure the circumference of the handle.

Trace (onto the backside again) around the top half only of the caddy.  We'll only be Mod Podging paper onto the top half--inside.

Take the following measurements:  (The point of this is to help us know where to put the circle of yarn that we measured, so that we'll know where to cut the circle from the paper.  It's ridiculously hard and there's probably a better way, so if I'm missing something obvious...)

Here's the hard part and I cannot believe I didn't take a picture!  I'm so sorry!  Mark your measurements on the paper, lay your yarn circle down, then cut.  Just do it and pray that it lines up.  My circle was  a little off, so I just cut a little more from one side to make it even.  The hole around the rod was a too big, but hey, that's just a tiny detail!  Good luck!  After you cut your hole, cut a slit from from the top of the paper down to the hole.  Then Mod Podge it in place!

After Mod Podging, if your edges hang over, use an exacto knife to trim them even.  Do a better job than I did!

Measure the width and lengths of the top the compartments.  Mine was the same width for every piece.  Cut your scrapbook paper to match.

Mod Podge the paper on to the top of each compartment.

Measure the length of your rod.  I was able to do this by measuring the length of the inside of the caddy, as my ruler wouldn't fit directly next to the rod.

Use a piece of yarn (cut it) to measure the circumference of the rod.  You can use the same one as before if it hasn't magically disappeared.  

Cut a piece of scrapbook paper to the length of the rod and the height equalling the circumference of the rod, plus a little bit.  I know that's not mathematical, but I didn't measure how much I added.  Just add enough for the paper to overlap when you wrap it around the rod. 

Coat the rod in Mod Podge, then wrap the paper around the rod.  Let that dry, then coat the paper with Mod Podge.

Now you're done with the hard part!  If you have a Silhouette or Cricut, you can continue on with that.  You can also just leave it as is (because it looks awesome already!).  If you don't have a paper cutting machine, you can use paint instead!

I used white vinyl for the two long sides of the caddy.  I put the teacher's name on one side and a "phrase" I heard somewhere (but can't remember where) on the other side.  Then I filled it with pens and pencils.  Let me show you:

That's all for the tutorial.  But I do want you to see what else we gave to my son's teachers.  My daughter and I made these fantastic cookies.  She loves to cook, so this worked out wonderfully.  I got this cookie cutter set as a gift, but I happen to know you can find it at Williams & Sonoma.  (FYI, Mr. Seth is the student teacher.)

We added a little bit of icing, then stuck them in these sweet little boxes that I had picked up on clearance at JoAnn's a while ago.  I wish that I had had more time because I would have added a little color to the boxes, but I'm reminding myself that it's what's inside that counts!

The best part of all of this was the smile on my son's teacher's face.  She was so happy, so touched.  I think that we made her day.  But boy did she deserve it.

An Article. A Real Article!

Check this out!  I'm astounded, completely astounded.  We just wanted to throw a fun party for our son. We honestly didn't plan it to be so huge, but we had so much fun creating that it sort of blossomed into a life of its own.  And now an article on CafeMom?  I'm over the moon right now.  (Would it be overdoing it to go out for dinner to celebrate?)

Welcome to Hogwarts!

The party was amazing.  AMAZING!  (If I do say so myself...)  The kids had a wonderful time, the parents were blown away, and I didn't even end up with migraine!  My husband and I spent countless hours planning, creating, and preparing for this party; It was worth every minute.

Upon arrival, children were escorted through the front door, which had been transformed into Platform 9 3/4.  I made a Platform 9 3/4 sign by painting a piece of wood red, then using my Silhouette to cut "HOGWARTS EXPRESS" from sparkly gold paper.  I Mod Podged the letters to the board, along with a Hogwarts crest that I found on Google Images, then printed and cut.  I used a bowl to draw a circle on the board, painted it white, then drew and painted the 9 3/4 with black paint.  I think it looks pretty close to the sign from the movie!

The brick wall was made from a light blue sheet that I picked up at Goodwill.  My husband cut it to fit our doorway, then drew the bricks on with a Sharpie.  He also cut the slit for the kids to run through.  I spray painted it red, keeping the spray can at a bit of a distance so as to create an uneven look, like bricks.

I made this flag to hang outside our house.  Sort of like balloons for a regular party, right?  The how-to for the flag can be found here.

Inside our house, the kids found The Great Hall, with a nighttime sky on the enchanted ceiling.

In the books and movie, robes are a must-have at Hogwarts.  I sewed a robe for each of the kids, nine total.  They took me about a half-hour each, although eventually I just assembly-lined them, doing all the ironing at one time, hems at one time, etc. 

After they had their robes, the children were taken to Ollivander's Wand Shop.  There, they could choose a wand.  My husband carved unique patterns into all of the wands.  Didn't he do an incredible job?

The kids decorated their wands with markers.

They also could choose Phoenix feathers or dragon scales for the core of their wands.  My husband drilled holes into one end of each wand.  The kids stuffed them with feathers and small jewels (dragon feathers), and then I sealed the holes with hot glue.

Next was the Sorting Hat.  I created this hat using crumpled brown paper bags.  I hot glued torn pieces of the bags to a black witches hat that we had in our dress up clothes.  I tried to make the face look like the hat from the movie--My son loved it, but I'm not so sure.

I thought long and hard about how to have the Sorting Hat speak.  We thought about walkie-talkies or recordings.  But eventually, we decided to go with a baby monitor.  We hung a the speaker-end of the monitor inside the Sorting Hat, then put the other end in our basement.  My husband went downstairs and spoke into the baby monitor as the Sorting Hat, so it sounded like the hat was talking.  It worked perfectly--One of the dad's even asked me afterwards how we did it.  Success!

After being sorted, we went to Potions Class.  Each child got a small ceramic cauldron (found at JoAnn's).  The first potion contained an explosive clear liquid (water), jellyfish serum (bubble solution), and fire rocks (dry ice).  The kids were amazed by this.  

We had to rinse out the cauldrons between potions, so the kids spent the time stupifying each other.  We brought the benches for our picnic table inside and covered them with Dollar Store black tablecloths (same for the table).  It really added to the look of The Great Hall.

The next potion was a mixture of water and Iocane Powder (cornstartch).  This went unbelievably well.  Everybody had fun mixing, then being shocked that their solid turned "runny."  One kid said, "It's like a solid liquid!"  Yup, you got it.

This made a huge mess, so I was very glad that we had put down the tablecloths.

After Potions was over, it was time for a little QUIDDITCH!

Everybody got a broom, made from sticks and brush, found on the side of the road, courtesy of my hubby.

We had three foam balls, all red--One large one that was the Quaffle and two smaller ones that were the Bludgers.  The kids were separated into two teams.  They had to try to get the Quaffle through one of the hoops, but if they were hit by a Bludger, they had to drop the Quaffle.  They also had to stay on their brooms.

The rings were made by spray painting hula hoops that were nailed to wood, stuck in the ground.  There were three on each side, just like in real Quidditch.

That's a Bludger.

Prior to the party, I spray painted a golf ball gold, then hid it in our yard.  We chose a Seeker from each team, and rotated the Seekers each time a team scored--Those kids were responsible for searching the yard for the Golden Snitch.  Here it is after being found.

Quidditch took a lot of energy, so it was time for some food!  Cake time!  My son wanted a Golden Snitch cake--No pressure there, right?  This is what I came up with:

I have a lot of pictures from the making of this cake, so I'll post a how-to sometime in the near future.  In case you're wondering, though, yes, the wings are edible too!

Edit: Here's the how-to on the cake.

This was the coolest part of the cake by far--It was filled with Jelly Bellies, i.e.. Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans!  When I cut the first piece out of the cake, the Jelly Bellies all spilled out too.  The kids (and adults!) thought that it was pretty amazing.  One of the dads was completely incredulous that I had made the cake--He told me that it was "just so magical."  Talk about a compliment!

We also served Butterbeer.  It was Cream Soda (CAUTION: Be sure to buy non-caffeinated soda!  The first time my husband bought it, I checked the can and it had caffeine.  Can you even imagine?!?), mixed with Butterscotch Syrup.  I served it in small Ball glass jars that I had put in the freezer before the party, and then sprayed some Ready-Whip on top.  I liked it, so did a few of the kids, but I'm not sure I'd make it again...

So that's our party!  I forgot to take any pictures of the invitations--They were invitations to Hogwarts, printed on parchment paper, then sealed with red wax and the Hogwarts H.  I'll see if I can scrounge one up for pictures.  I think the reason this party worked so well was because of all the prep-time.  We also kept each activity to 15 minutes, so nobody got bored.  Everything moved quickly and fluidly, because of the preparation.  My son said that it was the best party he'd every been to, and, pardon my lack of humility here, I'm going to have to agree with him!

I'm linking up to these parties: