Using Party Decorations

So, here's the deal. I love making party decorations but after the party, what the heck do you do with them?! Some I save and reuse (like John's Happy Birthday banner from his airplane party which was also used at his dinosaur party) but lots get thrown away.

Well, I decided to take the 'Matthew' pirate bunting I made and put it in his room. So, here is his room with a little more pizazz.







I absolutely love it! I think that if his room wasn't nautical in theme, the pirate bunting may not be appropriate. But I think it fits.

(and, btw, if you are looking for a pirate bunting, I am selling the one from Matthew's party!!)

And since we are talking about party stuff...look how cute the personalized towels are when they are hanging up in the boys' bathroom!! Love it!





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Pirate 1st Birthday Party

Arrrrrrgh! We threw a fabulous pirate party last weekend for Matthew's 1st Birthday. I loved planning for this party. We decided to have the party at a city park because they had a {free} splash park that my boys loved to go to. I rented a pavillion so we could have some shade and tables. This meant I only have to decorate one wall which was awesome. (I also didn't have to clean my house only to have it trashed during the party, but that is just a HUGE bonus!)

So, to start, I made these invitations. Aren't they sweet?!



I think they were perfect for a 1st birthday party!

Matthew's outfit had to match the party, of course, so I got him a cute pirate bathing suit from The Gap (several months ago!) and a pirate swim top from Target. He looked absolutely precious. (and in true baby-fashion, he is NEVER fussy, but boy, was he in a mood at the party!!)




I made John's pirate party shirt (directions HERE) and the night before the party I made Brad a pirate shirt using freezer paper. Don't they look so cute?!




For decorations, I decided to go with something somewhat simple. So I made a pirate bunting with blue and black fabrics and a Happy Birthday paper banner.







I actually bought the fabric from The Fat Quarter Shop. (I won a gift card to their online shop so I was able to get all my materail for free! yay!). I found really cute pom pom trim at Joann's. You can't really tell, but I painted 'Matthew' onto the bunting around the table using freezer paper.

I made the 'Happy Birthday' banner by making the pieces using Publisher, printing onto cardstock and cutting them out. Then I put slits on each side of the circle piece and threaded them through blue ribbon. This was SO easy and I love that I can reuse the ribbon after the party!

I wanted to add something pirate-y onto the table so I asked my lovely and handy hubby to make some wood pylons. He took an old fence post and rope and came up with a cute trio. (You can see the pirate ship he made too sitting on the pylons!). Sorry- I don't have a great pic of just the wood pylon BUT they were perfect for the table and added a nice simple touch to the decor.



For the guest tables, I just put a blue plastic table cloth over them, which I am SO glad I did because some of the tables were dirty with bird poop and what not. So gross! I printed off treasure maps for placemats and taped them to the table cloth. I am not really impressed with this, but it would have been SUPER cute if I had crayons at each spot and kids could color or something. But I doubt any of the kids really cared all that much about them.



For food we had sandwiches, brownie bites, cupcakes (with cupcakes toppers I made using printables from cottage industrialist), fruit, chips, and chex mix. Nice and easy! The hardest part was having to keep everything in coolers right up until we ate so the food wouldn't melt in the heat! I found a blow up treasure chest cooler from Oriental Trading. It turned out to be perfect to hold all the drinks for the party.









The favors for the party was one of my favorite parts. I wanted the kiddos to have something they could actually use (don't you hate getting junky favors that you just end up throwing away when you get home?!) and I wanted them to be able to use it at the party. So, I decided to make each guest a personalized swim towel. The older kids got buckets for playing in the water and the younger kids got ocean squirt toys. All kids also got a mini pirate beach ball.






You know, I thought that I would be sewing FOREVER to get the towels done. However, it probably took me 3 hours total to get them done. I used the cricut to cut out the letters (which saved a TON of time!), ironed them onto the towels first (no pinning!) and then sewed a straight stitch around the edge. I love how they turned out and thankfully I was able to find CHEAP towels at Walmart so I didn't spend a fortune on towels. (luckily all guests were 3 and unders so I could get away with buying small towels!)

That about wraps up the party! We had a fun time and it was so laid back since the main entertainment was the splash park. Although I love games and activities, I also enjoyed not stressing out about how to keep everyone entertained during the party. So, here are a couple more pictures of the party in action!





poor Matthew was not interested in eating his smushed cake! :)








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Pirate Party Bunting {tutorial!}

So, when your computer crashes, your posts still get posted even if they weren't done yet! :) You found out my secret- I write up several posts at once, schedule them, and then add in the pictures and links later. Well, that 'later' didn't come today since my computer is MIA. So....I will get this post up to lil Mop Top standards in no time (which won't be hard to do since I have low standards!)

Hope you don't think I put up a totally lame tutorials with no pictures!



I am throwing Matthew's pirate party at the end of the month. (Check out these posts on the invites and a pirate party shirt for John!) I made this fabric bunting to help bring color to the pavillion we will be in at the party.

This was a VERY easy project! I got a bunch of fabric from The Fat Quarter Shop because I won a gift card through KoJo Design. AWESOME!! I got the pom pom trim at JoAnn's. Don't forget your coupon!

I made a triangle template out of carboard. Using a pinking blade on my rotary cutter, I cut out lots of triangles from the different fabrics.

I pinned the triangles along the trim and then zipped them through the sewing machine.

And there you have it- the easiest tutorial ever!

I think it turned out so cute! I even made a smaller one with left over ribbon so I could hang it on the food table at the party. I am so excited to see how it all looks put together. Be sure to keep checking back to see what else I am making for the party. I have a couple more fun things to share!

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Pirate Party Shirt [Tutorial]

Remember these precious pirate party invites? Well, here is another little sneak peek for you!

Big Brother can't go to the party without his very own pirate shirt! Matty B will be wearing a water shirt with a skull and bones, so he is set. So I wanted to make sure John was festive too! This is what I came up with...trying not to make it to 'skull-y' because I don't really love skulls on babies. :)






I think this shirt turned out with a perfect mix of pirate and party. Don't you?!

So, let's get down to the nitty gritty of how to make this precious shirt. (If you aren't super crafty and want to buy one of these pirate shirts, go HERE!)

Supplies:
-t-shirt (I got mine at Walmart and had to take off the front pocket first)
-fabric paint, paint brush
-freezer paper
-iron
-small scrap of fabric
-fusing (like Heat N Bond)

1. I found a picture of skull and bones online from Polish the Stars. Then I used my Sure Cuts Alot to cut out the image onto freezer paper on the circut. (I am still LOVING the cricut! My mom had to give the 'the talk' about sharing with my sisters. Bet she didn't think she would have to do that with her 30 year old daughter!).

2. Iron the freezer paper to your shirt. Then fill in with black paint. If you need more specific directions on freezer paper and using the cricut, see this old post: HERE





3. Remove freezer paper from shirt and it should leave the skull and bones neatly painted on your shirt. Awesome!

3. I used a cricut cartridge I had on hand to cut out a bandana shape. (It was the paper doll cartridge which has super cute stuff on there!). I ironed it on top of the skull, but be careful because the paint will smear. So try not to smear black paint all over your shirt! Then fill in with red paint. This took several coats to cover over the black skull.






4. After removing the freezer paper, I used the end of a paint brush to add white dots to the bandana. I did this to help blend the red because it didn't cover the black evenly.



5. I made a little party hat by cutting a small triangle from my scrap material. I then used fusing (ie Heat N Bond or Wonder Under) to iron it to the shirt. Again, be careful not to smear paint all over your shirt! I then took small strips of the scraps to make a little poofy part for the top of the hat. I sewed those directly to the shirt. And because I want to be extra cute, the scrap material is from a fabric bunting I am making for party decorations. John will match the decor! hahaha!



And there you have it. A precious pirate party shirt. I can't wait for John to wear it at the party! Like I said before, keep checking back to see what else I have up my sleeve for this party!





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Pirate Party Sneak Peek!!

I don't really believe it, but Matty B is turning ONE in less than two months! Seriously?! I of course started planning his party a couple months ago. :) Since it will be about a million degrees at the end of July in Texas, I wanted to have the party where kids could play in the water. Seeing as I don't have a pool, I decided to have the party at a local park that has a splash park. I reserved a pavillion and we are set for the kids to run around and have fun while keeping cool!

I wanted a theme that went with water, but didn't want something cheesy like a luau or something. So I decided on pirates because I could make it cute and boyish pretty easily. I have TONS of decoration and party ideas that I will be sharing as we get closer to the party! But for today, I am sharing the super cute invites.



I made these bad boys using photoshop. They are printed and are ready to be mailed this week! I am already excited about the party...and sharing all the fun party stuff with my favorite readers! :)

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