D.I.Y. Braided Headbands

I recently ran across this tutorial for a braided headband.
Not only are these super cute, but they are also really fun to make! Even my 8 year old joined in the fun!
The best part is we didn't have to buy any of the supplies that were needed!
All you need is a t-shirt (you can re-purpose an old one), a pair of scissors, measuring tape/ruler, thread, and sewing needle.

We made a variety of headbands, some 3-stranded and some 4-stranded, of various colors and thickness.
Although I didn't like the way they looked on myself, I thought they looked great on my daughters.
We also made some as gifts, perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

I followed the steps in the tutorial almost exactly, except that I used strips that measured 3/4 inch wide for 4-stranded thicker headbands, and 1/2 inch for 3-stranded thinner headbands.

Happy Braiding!

 

D.I.Y. Lego Favor Bags

I posted about throwing a Lego-themed birthday party for my son and daughter here.

At the end of the party, we gave each guest a Lego favor bag (based on this). Each bag consisted of lego mini-figure crayons and a mini lego coloring book.

Here is how I assembled each bag:

First, we made lego mini-figure crayons.
We purchased the mold from www.amazon.com. The kids helped peel and break the crayons, and we melted the crayons in the oven, letting them cool until ready. (Detailed instructions here.)

Next, I made mini lego coloring books, using the template from here.
I added the words "Lego coloring book" to the cover and stapled the pages together rather than sewing them together (much easier!).

I used the same template that was used for the party invitations to seal the bags, erased all the words and lego figure, and typed in "Thank you for coming!" instead.
I printed this out onto white cardstock,

I assembled the crayons and the coloring books into the clear plastic bags that I bought from Jo-Ann fabric and crafts store.

To seal the bags, I folded each cardstock in half horizontally and stapled it to each clear plastic.

Super fun to do!

A Lego Party

My son and daughter LOVE Legos. So this year we decided to throw them a Lego birthday party!

I found a ton of ideas on Pinterest, but I knew right off the bat that I didn't want to spend too much time on this.
After looking at the myriad of ideas, I tried to pick out the ones that I thought might take less time to work on.

First came the invitations.
I used this template from here and put in our own birthday party information.



Next I worked on the decorations.
I didn't want to waste printer ink, so I made a lego banner based on a template from here using cardstock, glue, yarn, clothespins, and wall-mounting hooks.

Next, I worked on table decorations.

I made a Lego boy and a Lego girl to display my kids' names and ages based on this picture. However, the link wasn't working for me, so I made my own cut outs, using card-stock and glue. These stayed up great indoors, but not so much outdoors. I ended up taping them up after repeated falls.

I had the kids build utensil holders out of legos (I got the idea from Pinterest of course.).

I also drew faces on yellow paper cups that I bought from the dollar store to add to the Lego decor. (I got the idea from here.)

Lego activities and games are always fun, so we did three simple ones:

Guess how many Lego pieces there are (Again, the idea is from Pinterest),

Pin the head on the Lego man (from Pinterest) - a hit with the kids,

and Lego masks.

I used this template and pasted it into Microsoft Word. I wanted to turn this into a craft so I erased the eyebrows and mouth in Microsoft Word and printed the masks out onto yellow file folders (I found cardstock to be too flimsy.)
I cut out the eyes so the kids could see and set out elastic string to tie on at the end.
To make this a craft, I set out 4 different types of eyebrows (that I cut out beforehand), furry moustaches (from the dollar store), and permanent markers to draw mouths.
Some of the girls drew red mouths and added eyelashes to the eyes to create a girl lego mask.

The masks made for a great group photo!

We completed the day with cupcakes topped with lego candy of course!

(We bought the candy from Toys r us, but they are also available on www.amazon.com.)

Each guest left with a favor bag (based on this), which consisted of lego mini-figure crayons and a mini lego coloring book.

Here is my post on how to assemble these favor bags.
My kids helped peel and break the crayons to make the lego crayons, and I used the same template that we used for the invitations to seal the bags. However, I erased the words and the lego figure and typed in "Thank you for coming" instead.

The kids had a ton of fun and so did I!