Disney DIY ornament

I get ornament for each of my kids every year at Christmas.  I try to get something indicative of the year. What we did, where we went, or a special occurrence of the year. This year we went to Disney World, a momentous occasion if I do say so. So year-end calls for a Disney World ornament. There are buttons/ pins that you can get at Disney World for multiple different occasions. I got one for my daughter, 1st visit!

I also got my son one , it's my birthday. 

Of course, when Christmas comes I see these great ideas of making ornaments out of the buttons....but the instructions all say "ask for two buttons at Disney World!" which, of course, I didn't. Too late now! But fear not you can make a cute ornament with just one. 

I forgot to take a picture but I hot glued the ribbon on the inside, to the back of the button. I use a stiffer felt backing, I had a sparkly one that I think looked really nice. 

I used a string of fake pearls around the outside. The examples that had two buttons, back to back, used a nice ribbon around the outside but the width of one button didn't quite support it so faux pearls it was.

I quite like the finished product.

I bought a 3mm number stamping set (Michael's) so I could stamp the year on a tag.

The year tag didn't turn out great because I haven't quite got the hang of it yet,  but I'm getting there.  I like to "fill in" the stamp design because I think it makes it pop a bit more. I use an enamel paint designed for model cars

Star Wars Birthday

Star Wars Birthday

You can never go wrong with a Star Wars birthday.  This is what my son asked me for this birthday and I LOVE Star Wars so, of course, I said yes.

I had my son dig up a Luke and Darth Vader Star Wars Lego figures to use as candle holders. He happened to be turning 11 so this played right into having both figures hold a candle like their lightsabers and still look like an 11.  I did have to whittle down the ends of the candles to make them fit into their kung-fu grips. And before anyone asks, yes, that is Darth Vader in a Christmas sweater, my son said the only Lego Vader he had was from a Christmas set.

The cake was another cupcake cake in the shape of lightsabers. Pretty easy and I used candy pieces for the "buttons" on the handle.

The best thing I found were these extra large glow sticks that I could use to "light-up" the lightsabers. With the lights out they looked pretty cool. 

I tried to make a paper Mache  Death Star piñata ala this post but it was a complete failure so I won't be doing that again. I'll stick to my cardboard piñatas.  It was SUPER time consuming, small and did not hold up to any hitting.

I actually bought these pool noodle lightsabers from Target as a cool fun toy for the kids but as you can see the adult found them pretty fun also.  There are a lot of ideas on how to make these and I was going to go that route but I found these on clearance so...

Shopkins Birthday

Yes my daughter has been bit by the Shopkins bug.  Those tiny little plastic things that have faces, sorta weird but what can you do.  She has a ton (aka I've spent a fortune on them) so a Shopkins birthday party was in the cards for the big number 8.

cheeky chocolate cake

I basically followed the direction here on how to make the cake. I also usually use her recipe for buttercream frosting also. 

Kooky Cookie

What can I say, it's a chocolate chip cookie in a cast iron pan....with eyes....

Another DIY piñata  D'lish Donut this time.

super easy but time consuming

The birthday girl with her cake

 

Jurassic World Party

I took my son to the newest movie edition to the Jurassic franchise, Jurassic World (I really did want to see it too, Chris Pratt...yum) so it should have come to no surprise to me when the usual question "what kind of birthday do you want?" was answered with JURASSIC WORLD!  So off I went...

I started with the cake, or as it turned out cupcakes. I'm pretty lacking in the cake decorating arena, fondant what? So, although, I saw some super cute ideas I decided to keep it simple. I got these dinosaurs to go on top of the cupcakes and I think they turned out pretty cute.  I did have trouble finding green only sprinkles so I suggest getting them on line somewhere.  The dinosaurs were pretty reasonable and if you can't find them in your local Party City like I did, the store will order them for you with free shipping to the house if you go in.

I wanted to keep the dino theme slightly mature, he's 10 not 5 years old, think scary not cute but the trend seems to be more Barney than T-Rex at the store so I decided to make my own decorations.  I got a cheap brown table cloth from the dollar store and used this dino foot-print printable to build a theme through out the house

I was able to just use static to stick them to the wall and I made a foot print "path" through out the whole house, going through all of the major rooms.  I am definitely not allowed to use an adhesive on the walls, hubby no-no.

 

I made dinos out of balloons also using these templates . They turned out pretty cute but I think they would have been cuter hanging as I saw others do.

A piñata always goes with out birthdays and once again couldn't find what I wanted so I made it.  It's supposed to be a T-Rex skull, not sure that it's too recognizable but my son was good with it.  My piñatas are always made out of cardboard, which I split the layers to make thinner (learned for the Mickey Mouse head mistake when no one could break it).  I then covered it with white crepe paper.

 

 Treat bags for the piñata were super were super easy.  The dino foot print again, traced on paper lunch sized bags.

 

He looks pretty happy with the whole thing, but then again he sitting in front of cake!

 

I recently received the SweeTARTS Soft & Chewy Ropes from Smiley360 for free. They are advertised as " a new mouthwatering licorice rope with the electrifying flavor fusion of sweet and tart."  So, on to test the merits of this statement.  I'm not really a candy person, so who to get to test it for me?  Hm....of course, I have children, how silly of me.  The outside of the "rope" is a gummy type texture with an interior of fizz.  There are 4 ropes to each package, which is plenty for my kids (no sugar high here please).  The kids enjoyed the mix of sweet and tart cherry flavor just what you would expect from a name like SweeTARTS.  All in all I think they were a hit with the kids and we'll probably get them again.

Olaf Birthday Party

My daughter, like every other girl child in the country is crazy for Frozen....or more specifically Olaf. I can't really blame her he is kinda cute and has a great attitude. There was plentiful Frozen decoration but I was looking for Olaf centered things.  Since he really has a simple outline it was actually easy to make some myself.

First the pinata because it usually takes me the longest to make. I free drew the head which was a big step for me because I can't draw. The two circles for his body are just two nesting bowls I had that I traced. Made it easier to make sure the sizes would be graduated. Paper cone for the nose and real sticks for his arms.

As you can see I really probably made it too big (expensive to fill, lol) it

s about the size of my daughter

DH got a bunch of these size plastic cups for free so I try to use them when ever possible. I printed a picture of this and then placed it in the cup to trace.

White balloons which Olaf face, which I again free handed but he has a  really easy shape

Cupcake cake, on tin foil cover Rubbermaid bin lid (because I don't own a cake platter). Oreos for eyes, licorice for the mouth and a cone filled with Reese Pieces for a nose. I drew the arm directly on the foil with Nutella because that's what I had in the pantry

She looks pretty happy with it!

Hello Kitty Birthday

I took the easy way out this time, I ordered these cup cake toppers off of ebay.  The came out super cute but half the ones I ordered arrived broken.  I think they were more fragile than the shipper thought they would be.

I bought a couple packages of temporary tattoos from the dollar spot at Target and the kids loved them. 

Yes, a store bought pinata.....what can I say I got lazy :)