Fantastic Friday with Tiffany #1 ~ Mario Birthday Party!

Fun Jar Friday this week is not our usual Fun Jar activity.  Instead, Tiffany is sharing a fantastic birthday party that she did.  Maybe it should be Fantastic Friday with Tiffany!  I've been so excited to share this!!  Seeing photos of some of Tiffany's parties are part of what inspired ME to get in party mode, and create some crafty party memories for my own boys.  You will love this : )

Mario Birthday Party!

In the wake of Jaimee’s epic Ninjago party, I thought I would put up one of my own parties.  I love throwing parties for my kids.  Thankfully, I only have two kids or I might go a little crazy.  And although there are so many different birthday parties I’ve seen that I would love to try, I do my best to ask my kids what they like and make it work.  So, when my son asked for a Mario party for his 6th birthday, I was up for the challenge.  Now, this party was done in February, before I was helping out at Craft, interrupted.  So I don’t have any in depth tutorials on anything, but I will give you some tips and pointers to get you in the right direction.  And feel free to ask any questions and I will help you out.

So, to start off, I sent out Mario themed invites.  It was done using cardstock and my oval and circle cutters.  Inside read Get POWERED UP and ready to celebrate Calvin’s 6th birthday! We’re going to have a SUPER good time at LaGrange Castle.  Join us at (insert address here) on (insert date and time) for some SMASHING fun!

The goody bags had the same Mario face on them.  And they contained Mario fruit snacks, a Mario figurine (which I found on Amazon), some chocolate Mario stars, and a question block puzzle.  The chocolate stars I used a star shaped mold with yellow candy melts.  Then piped eyes on with a ziplock and chocolate candy melts.  The puzzle block I made following the tutorial here.

I put them together using wooden blocks from Hobby Lobby.  Then painted them to look like question blocks, putting some clear coat on it when I was done.  I wrapped the puzzles in plastic wrap to keep them together in the bag.

Each child also got a Mario hat and a mustache glass.  I found the pattern here for the Mario hat.  I cut out an oval and M out of fleece and sewed them on before sewing the hat together.  They went together quite quickly although I suggest pinning the plastic mesh to the hat brim before sewing because it gets slippery.  The cups, I got the idea from here and then used glass etching cream to make the mustache.

I’ve never been good at decorations.  I’ll leave that to Jaimee! But I did put these Boo balloons out using sharpies for the face and white paper for the “fins.”  Everything else was just red party supplies I got at the dollar store.

For food, I made goomba oreo pops.  I used my favorite pop recipe where you crush a package of oreos to small crumbs and combine it with an 8oz container of cream cheese.  For the goombas, I hand molded the mixture into a goomba shape. I dipped the stick in melted chocolate candy melts and into the goomba bottom and let that harden. Then I dipped the whole thing into melted chocolate. When the chocolate hardened in the fridge, I piped a face onto the goombas using more candy melts and a ziplock bag.

I also made chocolate mustache pops which I later used for the guest photos.

Teacher Gifts ~ Easy Gift Bag

Do you need a quick and easy way to bag up your teacher gifts?

Here's what I did - 

with Dollar Tree gift bags @ two for $1

and a free Summer Subway Art Printable.

I printed 5x7 images of the Summer Subway Art

onto cardstock, and glued them to the front of the bags.

Then tied a little tag on the handle, with this message,

another more personal message to the teacher written on the backside.

The Summer Subway Art printables are available in different color combos,

so I used a different one for each teacher, and added

coordinating colored tissue paper inside the bag (also from Dollar Tree).

Each bag looked different, but all had the same gifts inside ~

Strawberry Lemonade Mix Jars

&

Monogram Ribbon Bookmarks

Too bad I didn't get a photo of all of them together.  Doh.

We had aqua, yellow, peach, blue & mint green tissue paired

up with the different colored Summer Subway Art printables.

We also used these SUPER cute printable thank you cards!

You just print the two pages,

have the child fill in the blanks on the thank you note,

cut them both out,

tape the note inside,

and fold up.

Easy peasy ~ and no complaining kids ; )

Check out what Little Man wrote to one of his teachers.

Our end-of-the-year gift bags were bright and cheerful,

and filled with relaxing things to start the summer break.

Teacher Gifts ~ Monogram Ribbon Bookmark & Card

I mentioned in my Strawberry Lemonade Mix Teacher Gift Post that I made 2-Part teacher gifts this year.  I thought, what better thing to do in the summer while you sip cold lemonade than reading a good book?  

So I created Monogram Ribbon Bookmarks.

I used:

Grosgrain Ribbon in 2 prints and 1 solid

cardstock paper

alphabet stickers

buttons

also:  circle paper punches

exacto knife & cutting mat

straight edge

hot glue gun &

matches, to heat seal the ribbons

For the monogram element ~

 1) I punched two circles from coordinating cardstock

 1 1/2" circle and a 2" scalloped mat.

I added a silver monogram letter sticker.

Then I cut a slit wide enough for my narrow ribbon,

both above and below the letter.

2)  I snipped the end of my narrow ribbon at an angle.

3) And threaded the ribbon down through the 

top slit...

4)  ...and back up through the bottom slit.

5)  The monogram circle is now attached.

6) You can gently slide it up and down the ribbon

to your desired height.

** I cut my top ribbon at 10"

and my bottom ribbon at 9"

Then snipped the ends angled & notched,

and heat sealed all cut edges with a match.

To assemble,

Craft, Interrupted Giveaway!

Hey dear readers!  

An announcement that Craft, Interrupted is being 

featured on Mom's Mustard Seeds ~ and doing a giveaway 

for a winner's choice Scribblet from my etsy shop.

Mom's Mustard Seeds is a Homeschool and Christian Family blog

run by a friend of mine.  Rebecca was one of the first people I 

met after our family moved 900 miles from home!  

I think Rebecca and I may have started blogging around 

the same time actually ~ How about that?

I was following Mom's Mustard Seeds from the

beginning, and it has grown SO much!

Bravo for hard work and success Rebecca!!

I have no doubt you are planting many seeds.

Our family does not homeschool, but I do enjoy planning

theme weeks during the summer with my boys.  I 

have done so for the past three years, and have already

gotten enthusiastic requests for topic ideas for Summer School 2012!

And here I thought they were just grudgingly going along with me ; )

I have shared Summer School ideas here on Craft, Interrupted.

Ok, this isn't technically "school" that we do, here,

but we take one week and fit a few theme-related

activities, experiments, and projects into each day,

along with a huge tote bag of library books to go with it.

Hands-on fun stuff, that happens to be educational.

So if you're into that, stay tuned!

My boys requested Reptiles and Ocean Week this year.

And if you are a homeschooler, Mom's Mustard Seeds

just may have some good stuff for you.

At the least, go check out the giveaway ; )

Big thanks to Rebecca for hosting my giveaway ~
and it was so lovely to see you when you came by for photos!

Teacher Gifts - Strawberry Lemonade Mix & Printable Tag

I saw this on Echoes of Laughter and immediately pinned it to my Handmade Gift Ideas Board.  Angie was doing a series on summer drink mixes.  All of them look great, but the way she had her lemonade mix packaged up so cute really made me smile.  It's just so cheerful and bright!  I thought it would be a great end-of-the-year teacher gift...a nice cool glass of tasty lemonade is a great way to usher in the summer!  

I made this gift for five teachers and spent about $18-$20 total.

All you need is 3 cups of powdered lemonade mix

& a packet of strawberry kool aid!

Great Value lemonade mix was a few dollars less per container

than Country Time.  Slightly less than 3 cups,

but I used one whole can for each and it worked out.

This recipe is the easiest ever, so the 

gift is all in the packaging.  I scored

glass jars with hinged lids at Dollar Tree!

I almost did a happy dance right in the store when I 

found these on the shelf.  The same type of jars were

running about $5 each at Hobby Lobby.

Perfect size, perfect look, perfect price.

Little Man helped me prepare the mix.

He thought he was all that.

1.  He emptied the whole lemonade mix can into a bowl.

2. He dumped the strawberry kool aid packet right in with it.

*warning - kool aid dust will stain your hands and counters red

when it gets wet during clean up.  Pay attention to that 

if you have a pint-sized helper like I did ; )

3.  He stirred it up.

4.  He,  We, I poured it into our clean and cute glass jars.

Now the fun part (for me, Little Guy was in heaven just

getting to pour and mix over and over again).

I bought one spray of faux daisies at Dollar Tree,

one roll of red & white gingham ribbon at Hobby Lobby,

and made up a sheet of tags in My Memories.

I tied the jar with ribbon, and tucked in a little snip of daisy.

Then punched a hole in a tag and tied that on, too.

That's it!

This is definitely cute enough to go on its own.

However, I made my teacher gifts 2-parters.

My vision for welcoming the summer would be

to sit back with my feet up, ice cold lemonade

within reach...and a good book on my lap.

Sneak peek of my teacher gift part 2 is in the

right corner of this pic.  It's coming up next!

And if YOU want to make some Strawberry Lemonade mix gifts,

here are the printable tags : )

Much thanks to Angie @ Echoes of Laughter

for the great gift inspiration!

Teacher Gifts - "Thanks a Latte!" Printable Cards

My oldest son's teacher called me a week or so back, and I was worried at first that it would be bad news.  It's not often I get a call from a teacher...and this is our challenging boy.  I was relieved, and thrilled, when she said she was calling to ask me if I could make her some teacher gifts, for her own children to give to their teachers.  She loved what Craft, Interrupted had given her throughout the year and wanted to pass it on!  How awesome is that?

By the way, she raved about how much she enjoyed my son in her class and would miss him next year.  With all we have been through with him, it was so nice to chat with her and talk about what a great year he had.  He really has come a long way.  If you are curious about this, check out my first blog, Our Life with SPD.  Statistics say that Sensory Processing Disorder affects a minimum of 1 in 20 kids.


Anyway!  It was a good phonecall.  Had to share that.  And I was excited to start a custom order of On the Go Coffee Cozies to be passed on to more incredible teachers.  I used to sell these in my etsy shop, but, well, there are many reusable coffee cup sleeves out there.  Mine weren't exactly jumping off the shelves, so I quit making them.

However - it's an easy DIY project if you know how to use a sewing machine!  I was starting to compile a slew of tutorial links for you, and then discovered someone else had already done so.  Kits Korner (dot) com has a post of 15 different tutorial / pattern links.  Perfect!

I also had to share this one from Crafty Staci, because I think it's absolutely adorable!  And obviously fits a teacher to the T.  What a super creative way to tailor this gift idea!    It's a coffee cozy that looks like a pencil!!!  With a matching drink mat that looks like notebook paper!?!?  LOVE it.

I have a printable template that I use, and have used, 

over and over.  But I no longer know the source of it.

They are all pretty much the same though...

here is one from Skip To My Lou.

Craft, Interrupted made five coffee cozies for this order.

I like to piece the outside with coordinating fabrics

and add a ribbon or some other accent.

The inside of each one is a solid piece that matches.

I use buttons and elastic hair ties as the closures,

and sew the cozies with a thin layer of quilt batting inside.

I cut out cup shapes from kraft cardstock,

and slipped the cozies over, with a tag.

Here are a few of the finished ones...

What I'm excited to share with YOU though, is the

printable card that I created in My Memories to go with these!

These Coffee Cozies were to be paired with Starbucks gift cards.

This is a pretty popular teacher gift.

Who doesn't love Starbucks?!

With a cute reusable coffee cup sleeve to boot!

I spent one heckuva long editing session to get the

shape and look of the to-go lid.  I was determined

to conquer it!  I think I did : )

 This card is meant to be printed full page, on cardstock,

trimmed around the outside, and folded on the 

grey line, to get the shape of the to-go cup.

The inside is blank for writing a message,

and for taping in a gift card : )

Click to see full size,

then right-click to save to your computer.

Print away ~ and give someone some latte love!

Once I had the cup shape, it was easy peasy to

go back and make some different versions, too.

Maybe you want to give a coffee gift for thanks

...or maybe just because!

Sharing at...

Ninjago / Ninja Birthday Party

Finally, the reveal of the big day!  I've been posting and posting all my party planning, preparation, games / activities, favors...now I can show you our actual party!  I will link back to the original posts throughout.  There are printables and tutorials in case you have a Ninjago / Ninja party up your sleeves.  Enjoy!

Warning - this is a MEGA post of photos.
Seriously.
Even after eight Ninja Party-related posts, I still
have an elephant tonnage to show you.
I tried to combine photos into some collages,
but still.
Grab a chair.

On the front porch...

Remember the paper globes I made for the

Blue & Brown Baby Shower?

I made more, but with $1 packs of dessert plates.

Same assembly, just quicker with a few staples per side,

and faster, because there are no tracing and cutting circles!

I thought they looked cool on the front porch.

On the front door...

What has become the "Party Wreath,"

that I have been redecorating to coordinate with

different parties and events that I do.

I do it up with party supplies that match our event,

holding everything on the back with straight pins.

It is easily dismantled afterward, so I can use

the straw wreath form again and again.

In the foyer...

I created some ninja house decor with

Stenciled Napkin Banners and DIY Paper Party Lanterns

and hung them from our second story railing.

*This pic was not taken on party day.

That shelf on the right was decorated as the Favor Table,

as you will see below.

A close-up, showing the Ninjago character party circles.

The Favor Table...

I cut a plastic tablecloth runner to cover the shelf,

made a paper chain to drape over the mirror,

and made Take out boxes full of Ninja party fun!

For more on the handmade favors inside, see this post.

Our guests also received personalized ninja headbands.

You can see how I made those here.

I hung them over the railing at the bottom of the stairs.

Party Activities, Inside...

This same room had two round tables covered with

red party tablecloths and set up with activities.

I had folded white paper ninja stars beforehand,

that the kids decorated themselves during the party.

The other table had a fun code activity where

the kids used a chart to transform each letter of their

name to reveal their Ninja Identity.  So funny!