May 30, 2015

Mater Party!

Hello!

While in Colorado for work, my nephew had his  3rd birthday. He decided this year he wanted a Cars party and he especially loves Mater. Well his mama isn't a huge fan of go to the store and buy all the pre-made party supplies and I m on the same page with her on that. There is nothing wrong with it but I like to make my own and give it a more personalized touch. So she decided to do a vintage Radiator Springs look. Which is exactly what Radiator Springs is hah.

While watching the movie she had seen Mater's sign and decided that would be a perfect main decoration to put over the table. I was asked to make it and of course jumped to it because I was so excited and loved the idea. She also decided she wanted some sort of activity for the kids to play to keep them entertained. We were coming up with lots of different ideas such as Fillmore's Tye-dye station or Sally's cone maze. All of a sudden she was like what about a corn hole game where it is Mater and we cut his teeth out and throw white bean bags so they look like his teeth! It was PERFECT!! That was my other project! Both are very easy to make and looked awesome at the party if I do say so myself. Let's get started on how I did it.

TO MAKE THE MATER SIGN:
  • brown/tan poster board (mine was like a 4'x4' photo mat that I got at hobby lobby for $9)
  •  white craft paint
  • black spray paint
  • twine
  • Styrofoam rings
  • hot glue
  • carabiner 
I found a picture of mater's sign online and eyeballed it onto the poster with a pencil. I however was trying to be smart and did it on the back side of the board and then cut it out and I really wasn't thinking so it came out in reverse to how it normally looks so you will see that mine is different. oops oh well we still really liked it.

After you cut it out take the white craft paint and do and outline of the main body as well as the crane part of the tow truck.While I was painting I didn't do a perfectly coated, crisp job because I wanted it to look like Mater made it and that it was old and worn.

You can then paint the words with the same craft paint and let dry. While that is drying  cut out a small rectangle punch holes in it and paint "welcome" on it. Then line it up where you want it on the body of the truck punch holes in that and attach. I used key rings and it worked perfectly.

Next cut a circle out of the same board and with hot glue attach a piece of twine and the circle to the crane portion of the tow truck. This just gives the look of the pulley and cable. At the end of the twine I added a small carabiner to look like a hook. Then take the two styrofoam rings and spray paint them black. When they are dry glue them to the body of the truck and it is all done. The way I did this made it light weight so we didn't have to use anything super heavy duty to hang it on the wall. In fact we used thumbtacks and it wasn't going anywhere.

NOW FOR THE CORN HOLE GAME!
  • 4' x 2' plywood board
  • two 16" pieces of 2x4
  • two 48" pieces of 2x4
  • screws
  • wood glue
  • form of legs i did metal L brackets
  • your choice of paint colors
  • clear spray paint or polyurethane
  • sawzall
  • bean bags bought or make your own
To start out with I found a front facing picture of Mater off of google and printed it out. I then took a pencil and started eyeballing it and drawing it onto my piece of plywood.


I then shaded in the teeth i was going to cut out to see it slightly better. I drilled some holes in the corners of the teeth that way I could get my sawzall blade in and cut them out. I then sanded the edges of the hole down as well as all the edges around the plywood.
 

After the teeth were cut out I started painting. I made it pretty simple and used brown, white, black, and blue. I did mix the colors some to add variety to him and i can't tell you the ratios because I just did it to my own liking which is how you should do yours as well.


I let it dry and then took the sharpie back over and redid the outlines to make it crisper. Next I took the cut pieces of 2x4s and glued them to the back edges of the plywood and clamped them into place to dry. I wasn't in a hurry so I left them to dry 24hours and then screwed them into place using countersunk heads so they wouldn't be sticking out. I then painted the background and over the screws and let that dry.


Now for the legs, I used two 6" L brackets and screwed those into the frame only at the top.After all of this I grabbed a clear spray paint and did a top coat. This just gave it a nice glossy finish and also made it so if anything spilled on it or it started to rain it would wipe right off.

I made 6 beanbags out of white cotton fabric and rice because it was cheaper then buying some. And I know most corn hole games the hole is at the top but we weren't trying to make a regulation table we just thought it was a cute idea and kids and adults alike loved it.


Here are both the finished products being used as decorations when everyone came in.


And here is Mater out in the yard ready for use.






Mar 3, 2015

Railroad crossing sign

Hi Guys!

Here is another project to go along with Thomas the Train party or even any train party. This is my second sign that I made. I made one for my nephew's 2nd birthday and this year my cousin wanted one for his 3rd birthday, The first one I made wasn't personalized it said "Railroad Crossing" but this one his Grandma wanted it Personalized to say "Riley's Crossing" but Kyle and I thought that sounded like he was crossing over into the afterlife so we changed it to say" Riley's Railroad."

The longest part of this project is waiting for the paint and glue to dry.

Here is what you'll need:
  • 1x4x8 piece of lumber
  • saw
  • white paint
  • black paint or 3.5" black letters
  • wood glue
  • two 1.5" screws
  • white foam
  • black construction paper
  • rubber cement
Now to start off with cut the wood in half so you have two 4ft pieces. Then take one of those and cut in half again. You should now have one 4ft piece and two 2ft pieces. On the 4ft piece cut the end into a point so you have a staked end to stick in the ground. With the 2ft pieces paint them white on all sides and let dry. Depending on your quality of paint you may have to do more than one coat.
Next take the 2ft pieces and find center of the board draw a dot. Measure two inches to the right and two inches to left and draw a vertical line on both measurements. This way you know exactly where the board will sit  and can lay the letters for "Railroad" out evenly.

Depending on the method you chose you will now paint or glue the letters on.

Once the paint has dried line up those marks that your made finding center and add some wood glue. Clamp it down and let it dry. When the glue is dry I took a 1.5" wood screw and in the back I screwed it in for a little more support. You can skip this step here if you'd like and use a longer screw when you attached the 4ft piece to the cross but since my aunt wants to use this as a room decoration after i did it now so she could detach the 4ft piece and hang just this piece.

Now whether you decided to screw the cross together or not your next step will be to glue and screw together the cross to the stake. Again glue the cross onto the stake clamp and let dry. Then screw it in. You choose how high up you want the cross.
As a final touch since this is going to be used in the party as part of the photo booth I cut a circle out of white craft foam sheets and a 3 out of black construction paper, glued them together and then hot glued it to the stake. I really liked how it turned out and I can't wait to surprise them with it all.

Now since this party isn't outdoors it is at a pizza place I bought a bucket from the dollar store and grabbed some rocks from the river nearby to hold the sign up. It is nice and sturdy in there and heavy enough so no little kids will pull it down on top of them.

Here is the finished product at the party with the photo booth props. Sorry it is so dark but the lighting was awful in this place.


Also look for another post on other decorations for the party such as a train centerpiece, a cupcake train and a train cake!

Have a fun!

Feb 18, 2015

Thomas the Tank Engine photo booth

Hello fellow crafters!

Back on Super Bowl weekend I was talking to my Aunts and they were of course doing the sisterly thing and complaining about the other. Mainly about their Grandson/nephew's 3rd birthday. The one was upset that last year she didn't get pictures of the boy with his friends and the other guests besides family since the Aunt was taking the pictures. Sooo I decided that as a surprise and to make the both of them happy I would make little things for the photo booths that have become  very popular these last couple years.

The party is Thomasa the Tank Engine. I found a couple coloring pages of Thomas, Percy, and James and printed them off. I tried the make your own projector but the magnifying sheet that I bought just wasn't good quality and I couldn't get it to work so instead I eyeballed the pictures and freehand them.

Here's what ya need:
  • foam board
  • pencil and sharpie
  • blue paint
  • red paint
  • yellow paint
  • black paint
  • grey paint
  • white paint
  • scissors/knife
  • ribbon or handle of some sort
  • hot glue
First draw Thomas onto the foam board then outline in sharpie.

I then painted it but didn't worry about the face since it is being cut out. (I made that big enough to stick an adult size head through.)



Next go back over the lines with a sharpie.

Go ahead and cut it out. It is easier to do with a utility knife then scissors but be careful and know that little pieces of foam will go everywhere.

Next try and smooth out the edges and then color the edges black just to makes it cleaner.

Now I did the same process with Percy and James.



On the back I decided I wanted to put handles so you could hold them up and not see the hands in the pictures. To do this I took coordinating ribbon and cut a strip and hot glued both ends to the board. Do this on left and right side and make sure to leave enough room to fit a hand under it.

Finally I took a sharpie and colored in the edges all the way around the trains and in the face spot just to give it a cleaner look.

Here they are all done and ready to be used at the party.



Hope this helps you if you want pictures of everyone at your party. I plan on taking the pictures next to railroad crossing sign that I made and it would be super cute. Also figured we could make double the copies and send everyone their picture with their thank you card.

Here are just a couple pictures of the booth in action. I was so happy with how they turned out. The colors popped and everyone loved em esp the birthday boy. Bottom right in Percy. He just wanted to wear them around his neck and be a train the whole time. 



Happy crafting Goonies :D

Jan 13, 2015

TMNT ornaments

Wowie, that was a long break in between posts. Alas, my poor laptop finally bit the dust. But that was bound to happen seeing as how it was 7 years old. I did get a new one for our 5th anniversary and been working on setting it up, however all my pictures are on the other computer. Either way I had one picture of a craft I did on my phone so I figured I'll use that for this post.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and are celebrating and starting 2015 out right!!! I was until my Broncos decided to embarrass me and the rest of Denver on Sunday with that awful loss to the COLTS!!!!! GRRRRRRRR

Anyways back to being happy and celebrating...

This year we had no idea what to get my future brother-in-law for Christmas. So thanks to trusty old Pinterest I saw some homemade ornaments and we thought what a better way to celebrate his getting his own apartment and having a girlfriend to celebrate their own Christmas then with some ornaments to decorate their own tree. And what better ornaments for a total 90's kid then ninja turtles!!

What you need:
  • clear glass ornaments
  • green acrylic craft paint
  • red, blue, orange, purple ribbon
  • 8 googly eyes same size or slightly smaller than ribbon
  • hot glue gun
To start take the paint and squirt some into the ornaments and roll/shake it to completely coat the inside. Set them upside down in a cup and let the extra paint drip out and let dry. According to all the pins I read and prior ornament making they should be dry after a couple days.When they are put them in a cold oven and heat to 325 and bake 30 minutes. However I had some issues this time around....

It has been so cold and moist in WA that the paint wasn't drying, instead it was pulling away and pooling in the ornament. It was insanely frustrating. To counter this problem I rolled the paint around again and got everything coated put them in a old muffin tin and placed them in a cold oven. I turned it to 200 degrees and every 15 minutes or so I turned them to make sure the paint wasn't going to pull away. It took a couple hours until I couldn't see anymore wet paint when I looked inside.

When you are done baking them, turn the oven off but leave them inside to cool slowly so they don't crack. After they cool in the oven you can take them out and let them cool on the counter for awhile, otherwise skip to the next step.

Take the colored ribbon and glue it around the ornament and glue the googly eyes to the ribbon.

TA-DA!!! there you have Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello! (sorry about the super creepy statue to the right...my boyfriend insists that we have them lol)



He opened them up and was super stoked and it made me feel like I had done an amazing job.