Ella is SUPER INTO party planning. Seriously, I can see a future career as an event planner. It took her three months to finally narrow down the theme for her 5th birthday party.
Ella: Mom, I want a Hawaiian birthday party.
Me: Really? That’s interesting? Why?
Ella: Because I want everyone to wear grass skirts and drink out of coconuts with little umbrellas.
Me: Ok, I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. How about a Fairy Princess party?
Ella: Ok, I will be “Tinkerbell”, Kelly can be “Wendy”, Kyle can be “Peter”, you can be the “Mom”, Gretchen can be a pirate….
Me: Maybe instead of a “Tinkerbell + All The Characters From Peter Pan” party, we can have a “Fairy & Pirates” Party.
Ella: Ok, that’d be good I guess….
And before she could change her mind we made up the invites. (Of course, since the invites have been handed out she’s also wanted a “Clown” party {shiver}, “Cars”, and “Ballerina” party…)
And of course no detail was left to chance. Since I’m planning on spending less than $75 total (including lunch for approx. 15 people), I’ve had to interpret her requests creatively.
For The Invites
Ella’s Request List:
-Stars in the background. You know, like space.
-A picture of the earth WITH OUR HOUSE (she means North America)
-Me in a Fairy Princess Costume
-Gretchen as a pirate.
-Can you make the, what’s that thing that princesses carry? (”Her scepter? Or her Magic Wand?” I ask.) Yeah, make it more sparkley.
The End Result:
There is something seriously wrong about Sweet Little Gretchen’s head stuck on a pirate lady’s body. But it makes me laugh every time I see it.
Remember last year’s Piñata Project? And how we had to literally tear it from the tree and beat it with an aluminum bat to get the candy out (not that I’m complaining, it was pretty fun). Instead of a piñata, this year we’ll be going on a treasure hunt for a box of CANDY, complete with a treasure map & everything. (You know, to work the whole “Pirate” theme in.) We found chocolate covered coins in the grocery store & invested heavily in them. And then filled up the rest of the space with suckers, fruit gems & other super-bad-for-your-teeth delights.
And, since I hate buying things that I know will clutter up someone else’s house & then be thrown away, our Party Favors turned into THIS AWESOME PROJECT!!! (Well, hopefully someone besides me thinks it awesome, and not inappropriate to give 5-year-olds something that says “Booty” on it… It’s for the Pirate Treasure/Booty that they find. Get it? Right?)
Supply List:
Black Bags (We got the black bags at Michael’s for $1 each. Such a deal, I know!)
Print out of your design
4 sheets of cardstock or coated cardstock (if you’re a freak like me with an overwhelming paper addiction, you will have some coated cardstock on hand…)
glue stick
xacto knife (or in my case “box cutter” since I couldn’t find my new xacto blades…)
Spray Adhesive
Spray paint
newspaper or something disposable to catch the over-spray
Directions
-Print out your design on regular paper. Remember that this is a stencil, so you can’t have any “floating” pieces (like the skull nose. I had to make a line from the mouth to the nose hole so that it was all one piece)
-use the glue stick to TOTALLY COVER the back of the print out. Glue it to cardstock (I guess you could just print out your design on cardstock, but I liked the extra layer to make it a little more durable)
-Cut out the design with your exacto blade.
-Cut up the extra cardstock into strips & tape it to the sides of your project so you don’t get overspray on your bag. (See photo below)
-Take your template outside, place it upside-down on newspaper & spray it with the Spray Adhesive.
-LET THE ADHESIVE DRY FOR APPROX. 3 MINUTES. This way it will be tacky, but not sticky.
-Allign the template on your bag. Press down to make it stick. (Since the adhesive has had a chance to dry, it shouldn’t stick too much to the bag. Kind of like a post-it note on steroids.)
-HOLD THE SPRAY PAINT AT LEAST 12″ ABOVE THE PROJECT. And spray from directly above. Chances are, you’ll get a little leaking under your template anyway (it’s cool, it just makes it look tough and “urban”, right???) Short bursts of paint worked better for me.
-You can wait for it to set for a minute & then do a 2nd coat if you want.
-Carefully peel the template off. I had better luck peeling from the sides instead of the top or bottom. I think that may have just been my template design.
-Repeat.
-Make lunch later and realize you still have spray paint on your hands. Sigh heavily.
Look at the lovliness…
Since the bags were made out of some incredibly NON-natural material, the spray paint was pretty light. But I think it still looks cool.
And maybe, just maybe, you might go back inside from your successful crafting and find that your husband was NOT watching the baby. And that the baby has emptied the salt shaker on the table and danced in it.
Please wish us luck next week. We will return & report back.
