{Printable} Kids Thank You Notes

Well the party is over.  The presents are being played with.  Cake is looong gone.  Now we "write" thank you cards.

I wasn't sure how many of the blanks my daughter would fill in but she actually enjoyed writing her letters and hand wrote all of them!  We broke it up over three days tackling a few at a each time.  I wanted to mail them out by two weeks after her party. (Isn't that the etiquette?)

So cute!  It says:  Dear (blank)  Thank you for the (blank).  I love it because (blank). From (blank).

I just helped her spell the words that she wanted to put in the blanks.

Her "blanks" were pretty cute.

Click these images for your own printable KIDS THANK YOU CARDS:

I made one with boyish colors for you, too!

                                                                                      

If you have trouble downloading these let me know.

Linking here:

~ Sew Much Ado ~ Ginger Snap Crafts ~Somewhat Simple ~ Thrifty Decorating ~ A Creative Princess ~ Momnivore’s Dilemma ~ Yesterday on Tuesday ~ Saved by Love Creations ~ Shabby Creek Cottage ~ The 36^th Avenue ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ Between U and Me ~ Train to Crazy ~ Skip to My Lou ~ Mad in Crafts ~ C.R.A.F.T. ~ Making the World Cuter ~ The Girl Creative ~ Keeping it Simple ~ Sew Chatty ~ Sew Can Do ~ Gunny Sack ~

Party Favors: A Crafty Treat Bag

I thought I would do one last post about Stella's 5th birthday.  'Cuz these little party favors were pretty neat!

Each partygoer got a treat bag that had a pack of fruit chews, some M&M cookies and a blank canvas & bag of craft supplies.

I bought the 4x4 canvases from Michael's in a 9-pack with my 40% coupon (twice!  I needed two packs).  That made each canvas about $1.33 each.  Then the craft supplies, well, it was part Wal-Mart craft aisle and part Kate's de-stash!  

There were sequins, beads, feathers, papers, ribbons, gems, buttons, felt, and a glue stick.

I printed a little note for each bag.

I thought this party favor was quite representative of Stella, my crafter.  And then by giving the kids the canvases, I thought they might have a chance of staying out of the garbage can at least a little longer than the typical party favor.  

Linking Up Here:

Somewhat Simple ~ Thrifty Decorating ~ A Creative Princess ~ Momnivore’s Dilemma ~ Yesterday on Tuesday ~ Saved by Love Creations ~ Shabby Creek Cottage ~ The 36^th Avenue ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ Ginger Snap Crafts ~ Blue Cricket Designs ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Someday Crafts

And Then, There Was the Party..

As if that sad attempt at a rose cake wasn't enough!!

WE had to have a party.  This was really our first big party that we have thrown for any of our kids.  By that I mean, inviting the classmates- typically we celebrate birthdays with us and our "immediate friends".  We don't have family parties because we don't have family here.  Just friends.  And some good ones at that!  They are our "immediate friends"!

But I had to make these and mail them out in time...

Then I had to figure out what to serve.  We opted for donuts instead of cake.  Stella is a donut girl anyway! 

I also made Jello popcorn.  It is becoming a birthday tradition around our house!  I like it because I can make it the colors of the party.

The bunting is the same paper bunting I made for our house.  Just paper sewn to a ribbon.

I had to come up with a "special" donut on the spot.  This is the best I could do.

Milks to drink.  

Favor bags with a couple goodies and a small bag of the popcorn to say "thanks for coming"!

And I used the circle garland (from my last post) as table decorations.  I just laid it down the center of the tables, the way a table runner would go.  It was cute.  I was surprised how much it brightened an otherwise dull and generic room.  I really wasn't sure what to expect either.  Truthfully, I just brought a bunch of stuff and hoped it was going to work.  And well, it did!  It probably took me 5 times longer than the party even lasted to make everything...but I don't care!  It's my kid!

Linking here:

Ginger Snap Crafts ~ Blue Cricket Designs ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Someday Crafts ~ Yesterday On Tuesday ~ Thrifty Decorating ~ A Creative Princess ~ Momnivore's Dilemma ~ Somewhat Simple

Today is a Big Girl Day!

My little girl is 5 today!  Where has the time gone?!  We all say that, don't we?

I have had so many half-done crafts and half-written posts to put here this week, but, birthdays come first!  So instead of showing you my t-shirt embellishing projects, the glitter shoes, the beaded necklace I made, a top for me I am working on, and all the other goodies in pause-mode right now.  I will show you what I HAVE been doing this week:

Paper Bunting:

I just sewed paper triangles to a ribbon using a zig zag stitch.  

And Paper Garland:

I broke down and bought a circle punch (I don't have a fancy paper cutter- just my scissors!).  Then I stacked two circles so it would be pretty on both sides and sewed together with a straight stitch.

And cupcakes for school:

Just regular box mixes and my homemade buttercream frosting.

Lots of it!

And yes, this is my attempt at the Rose Cake...except when you realize at ten o'clock the night before that you don't actually have Wilton tip #1M!!!!  

In that case you do the next best thing...improvise with tip #30.  

It is more like a swirly carnation cake!

However, I told myself that if she didn't think they looked like "roses" then I would redo it in the morning.  That is, if trying to convince her bribe her didn't work first.

What's up with the resolution of these pics anyway?  I don't have time to fix 'em now...they aren't too bad, I hope.


Off to the school in about an hour.  I am clearing off the video camera as we speak.  I am still in PJs.  Pizza and swirly carnation cake and chocolate ice cream tonight!

Happy 5th Birthday to our "Stella-Bella"!!  

(That's not really her middle name.  Please don't think I give my kids rhyming names. )

Last-Second (un-crafty) Gift Tags

We went to a couple kids' birthday parties this weekend (super fun!) and I realized that there are some crafty things that don't look so crafty at the last second- like trying to slap together a handmade gift tag *just* before you have to leave.  Seems I always have the gift in time...occasionally I have it wrapped a day before the party...but I forget about the tag until I grab my keys to leave!  And I did it again this weekend- twice!

The best I could come up with in 10 seconds was this:

I just used a pad of printed paper (4x6 size I believe) and cut the papers in half and then into a tag shape by snipping off the corners.  (I just eyeballed it so they were crooked, too.)  I did make one a giant size and just snipped the corners off the 4x6 paper.  It was kinda funny how big it was.  Fitting for a 3-yr old birthday.  

I mean, they were cute, but not Cuuuuute!  Therefore, I resolve for 2012 to wrap better, cuter gifts!  This means having cute tags and bows on hand at any given moment!  This means, I need to get a move on this because there is another birthday party to go to next weekend.

Camouflage Birthday Cake

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Haven't you ever wanted to ask your party guests:  "Chocolate or Camouflage?"

It's pretty fun!  

My son, Nicholas, turned seven last week.  He asked for a G.I. Joe cake.  I don't really make cakes.  I just whip up some box cake mix and some buttercream icing (oh how I love buttercream icing!) and put them together to be somewhere between "not hideous" and "not embarrassing".  

So the inside of the cake was camouflaged, too!  I added a bunch of food coloring  to good ol yellow cake mix.  The green is just regular food coloring liquid.  The brown is actually the Wilton icing color brown.  Then I just blobbed cake batter in different colors in the pan.  The key was to do small blobs and don't swirl it.  I did about two "layers" of blobs.  I wanted camo in each bite!

Nicholas' party was last night but his actual birthday was earlier in the week.  He got this Boba Fett helmet as a gift.  When he was done playing with it, Stella and I gave it a try!

Then our tradition of measuring the kids on the growth chart....

He grew 3 inches since last year!

Then another tradition...my husband and the kids make me a cake for my birthday.  Which is two days after Nick's.  November always means a lot of cake for us!  

I've got some great hair, yes, thanks.

And if you are trying to count the candles, go right ahead.  

Linking here:

Happy Birthday and Independence Day!

Ahh...Good to be home. Good to see you again, too! I didn't get much time to recover from our 2-day drive home before putting on a birthday party for my littlest. I really enjoy his birthday because it is on July 4th! (I get to combine patriotic ideas AND birthday ideas!) {squeal}

I literally threw together this birthday party in a day! Even I am surprised that I pulled it off!

But I found such great ideas from other craft blogs while we were on vacation. {Love you, craft bloggers!} I just had to make them all as soon as we got back. I had about 24 hours to pull it off. So if you are ever looking for some fast party ideas with big impact, these are worth noting:

Poke cake for the birthday cake...

~~Make a white cake, poke holes in top of cake with a fork, dissolve 1 box of jello with 1 cup boiling water and pour over cake (do this for each layer), chill 3 hours, frost cake with cool whip topping~~

Ice Cream Sandwich pops...inspired by this at Living Locurto.

I had to make some red, white, and blue cupcakes with Homemade Buttercream Icing!

I will make buttercream icing any time I have a reason to!

Red and blue Jello flavored popcorn...I found the recipe here at Claire's Creations.

...What are your "go-to" party ideas?...

And seriously, I might have found my new July 4th tradition- Cheesecake Filled Strawberries! Mmmmm. Sadly, I don't have a picture of these, but I filled strawberries with cheesecake filling and topped each with a blueberry. I apologize for no pic. But we ate them all! And honestly, if it weren't for my husband (who knows I get super side-tracked during a party) I wouldn't have any pics at all. I think he took all of these. I did have to rescue them all with some quick editing in iPhoto. Note to self: Teach husband how to focus camera...even on auto.