Party Party Party

My nephew is turning 1 on June 30th so my sister is already thinking of the party. I have stepped up as her personal party coordinator. As I told her, I come up with the ideas and all she has to do is say yay or nay and pay LOL

My sister mentioned that she wanted a monkey shirt so I immediately thought of this adorable shirt from my friend Loree-

http://www.lillj.com/p-59-chunky-monkey.aspx

and I talked to Loree, and she is going to do matching invitations YAY

So the theme is monkey and the colors are jungle colors like green,yellow.

My sister wants a personalized banner so I told her I would make one for her BUT using chalkboard fabric so it can be reused.

It will be similar to this one but using either ribbon or bias tape as a border around each triangle.

My sister is also GAGA over using a monogram and this etsy shop has some of the best ones, so super cute.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/openheartcreations

I think this would be perfect-

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66309087/extra-large-personalized-initial-and

I have convinced my sister that a candy buffet is a must. She is renting out a room, so we need to come up activities that all the kiddos can do. I think a candy buffet would not only be cute visually, but it would keep the kids busy

but now I am OBSESSED with the idea of a Smores Bar-

http://u-createparties.blogspot.com/2011/01/dessert-table-gourmet-smores.html

Just imagine all the different chocolates you could put out for guests and then even additional toppings like candy pieces, strawberries or bananas

My sister also really loves the look of this party from Hostess with the Mostess

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/06/real-parties-going-bananas-for-birthdays/

so I am also going to come with a graphic of a banana tree that can be used for other paper goods like labels.

My sister and I have agreed to coordinate party years, meaning we will TRY not both have big birthday parties in the same year. yes we live 7 hours apart but we want to attend all the parties so since this year goes to Frankie, next year belongs to the girls. I am already excited for it since it will be their first "friend party" since they are starting preschool in fall '11.

Tutorial-A Valentine's day hanging banner

So I used my embroidery machine and made each of my girls a banner for valentines day. They love them and agreed that they are BOOTIFUL

On each heart there is stitching to resemble lace, so cute-

and friends really loved them but i know not everyone has access to an embroidery machine so i wanted to come up with something similar using VERY VERY VERY

basic sewing skills or none at all!

I need something for our door so I made this. It took me about 45 minutes. Cute, right?

Materials-

Sewing Machine

Felt in your choice of colors. Get it from the bolts at your local craft store. It is thicker and just a better quality than the precut squares.

Doilies. I used 8 inch ones from the dollar store. Yay dollar store!

Ribbon

Glue

Lighter

Now I suggested sewing this but you can also use glue. I dont like using glue and felt, it can get messy but if you dont have a machine or want to have your littl

e ones helps, then go for the glue.

Lets start.

Take a doily and trace out a felt heart that you will attach to the doily.

I made mine bigger than the doily.

You are then going to stitch the doily to the felt,

or glue it if that is the way you are going.

I used a simple straight stitch. I also used pins to attach the doily to the felt so it wouldnt shift around while stitching.

Just stitch around and now it is time to make the letters. Now I did them freehand, while my girls were screaming at me and trying to steal the felt. So please excuse the haphazard letters, especially the E. The E is really bad.

You can use wonder under if you want but I dont think it is necessary.

Now Felt is VERY forgiving so you can just do a straight stitch around. I did a satin stitch aka an applique stitch because I love me a good zigzag.

Lather, Rinse, and Repeat for all the letters you need.

I was spelling out love

Now you need to heat seal the edges. This is when you use the lighter. Just place the lighter close to the edge of the hearts NOT DIRECTLY TOUCHING. This helps cut down the fuzziness and gives a nice clean edge to the felt.

You now have to attach all the hearts together. I am making a vertical hanging blogger so I am going to basically use the ribbon to weave it in and out of the hearts.

Cut a small slit in the top of the first heart and then the bottom. Dont make it too big because it should snuggly hold the ribbon.

At the bottomof the last heart, you will need to glue the ribbon to the heart and make a loop so you can hang the banner.

If you want to make the banner hang horizontally, then cut small slits on the sides of the hearts and use ribbon to tie them together. That is what I did in the banners I made with my embroidery machine, so use that banner as a reference.

Hang and Enjoy!

If you find that the ribbon doesnt fit snuggly and the hearts shift around, just fix that with a bit of glue.