Saturday, March 31, 2012

Once Upon A Time Princess and the Pea Bed Tutorial

The Princess in the Pea Bed, was one of my favorite projects and it will be my last tutorial for this party.  I took my old doll bed, that I used for my American Girl, and made little mattresses with color coordinating fabrics to stack on top of each other to hold the cupcakes.  I knew I needed something stable for the cupcakes so I went with styrofoam to support them.
First thing I did was measure the top of the matress, and cut it to size with styrofoam found at the local craft store.  Then I added some batting to the sides to make it have a softer look to it. I also purchased 1/2 yard of each fabric.  I would give measurements, but it all depends on the bed you use to make your mattresses, on what size you will need.
 After you cut your mattresses to size, cut a thin strip of batting for the sides making sure they are close to the same length as the mattress.  Hot glue the batting onto the sides of the mattress, leaving the corners empty, so that when you fold the fabric over it doesn't get overly full.
 Cut the fabric to the size of the mattress.  Make sure there is enough to fold over the sides so that you can glue it to the back.

 Hot glue both end sides down first.  Then fold over each corner and glue down the corners with hot glue.
 Take the last fold of fabric and hot glue it to the styrofoam.

 Once its done add to your bed!  This was so easy to do and takes hardly anytime, and you can do as many as you want.
For the frozen roses, cut fresh roses into plastic cups.  Fill the cups half way with water and let it freeze, so you can keep the roses down at the bottom.  Then once its frozen, add the rest of the water and let it finish freezing. 

To view the babyshower click HERE!

Stay tuned for the Recipes to this party!





Thursday, March 29, 2012

Once Upon A Time Fairytale Sign, Tutu Skirt, and Baby Bottle Wands

Here are the tutorials for the next three projects, the Tutu Skirt, Fairytale sign, and Baby Bottle Wands...
For the tutu skirt, I cut a 6" x 4' piece of Tulle for the table skirt.  
With each strip I folded the strip in half and looped it around the 2" elastic strip.
Next you want to pull the tail created by folding the tulle strip in half through the loop and tighten it around the elastic strip.  Repeat as many times as you need to create the desired length for your table.
  Since this was a large table I set up against the window, I took it across the front and slightly around the corner, then finished both sides off with ribbon bows pinned on the edges.  To attach it to the table cloth, I safety pinned it on, hiding the safety pins behind it.
To attache the ribbon ruffle, I just hot glued it on, gathered it, then hot glued it to the next spot.  I repeated this until it was the entire length of the skirt, then finished it off by letting the excess fall down the sides. To make the ends look completed, I made a bow with lots of extra ribbon and pinned it to the sides.
 To attach it to the table cloth, I safety pinned it on, hiding the safety pins behind it.
To make the Story Book sign, first you need to get a story book that you dont care about anymore and are willing to age and cut it up.  Next, find your favorite pages and removes them from the book by running an exacto knife down the length of the page.  I used a Disney story book for its larger images and colorful pages, for the main letters.  Next I cut them out of the book and set them aside.  For the rest of the letters, I used an old book that I didn't care about, for smaller pages, and cut out one for each letter, making sure it was just print and no images.
To make the glittery letters I found a font that I loved on-line, and printed them out as big as I could make them.  Then I used Elmers glue, and covered the black area with it, making sure to stay within the lines. Next, I dumped silver glitter all over it, and dumped it back into my bowl of glitter when I was done.  For the white glitter, after I did the silver glitter, I put Elmers glue on the empty space on the letter, and dumped the white glitter on, then dumped it off. My font was a snowy font, but you can use any font you want and even keep the letters one color.  I let the letters dry over night so they could harden up and the glitter wouldn't smear.  Lastly, I cut out each letter to place them on the sign.
The next step is aging the pages.  For this, I used an old rag and a walnut wood stain and put a little dab of paint on the rag.  Next, I rubbed it heavily into the corners and then very lightly and gently i rubbed it around the page, and where the letters were going to be.  I wanted a little bit of the image to show through, but I didn't want the image to be the main focus.  So I dirtied it up a bit.
Next, I glued all the letters on the pages, cut holes at the top of each page corner on both sides, and strung tinsel through it. Then I hung it up in place with some push pins! This was very time consuming, but I loved how it turned out in the end!
To learn how to make the baby bottles click HERE!

To view the actual baby shower click HERE!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Once Upon A Time Frog Prince, Cinderella Pumpkins and Glass Slipper.

To do a party properly, you need something besides the food to help inspire your theme.  I find that a lot of times, stores dont have what I'm looking for, so I have to make them.  I dont consider myself a crafty person, I'm creative... but I hate spending days working on crafts.  So here are three of the items that I made to set the mood for my table, that were quite easy to make and used a lot of the same things.
 For the frog prince, I found a cute frog prince at a local store that was clay.  I decided to put a coat of silver metallic paint on it to make it look like metal. Once it was dry, I sprayed it with green glitter spray.
To finish off the crown, I used a gold paint pen and painted the crown.  This project was simple, easy and turned out cuter then expected.  Plus, it only took me an hour!

For the Cinderella pumpkin's, I bought plastic pumpkin's at a local craft store, along with the following spray paints below.
 For the cream colored pumpkins, I started with a coat of primer and let it dry.  Then I sprayed it with a coat of cream paint, on some of the pumpkins I had to add an extra layer of cream paint, just make sure that it is well coated and all the same color.  After that layer was dry, I added a layer of Hammered paint.  I had this laying around the house and decided to try it out.  It created a pearl look to the pumpkin that I just loved!
 This is what it looked like after all the coats of paint were on the pumpkin.  As you can see I used a white pumpkin, but the finished pumpkin actually started off as orange.  I just wanted to find one with a little personality to it!
For the silver pumpkins it was much simpler.  I just used the silver metallic paint and put two coats of paint on it.  Just make sure you let each coat dry first before you add another.  You dont want drip marks down the pumpkin.
 For the glitter on the top, I dumped tacky glue on the pumpkin,  as you can see below, and then dumped an iridescent glitter on the top.
 For the stem, I used a silver wire, found at any local craft store.  Silver and crystal beads that I strung on the wire.  Then i twisted it onto the stem and finished it off by bending the top over to make a small loop. If you dont have a stem on your pumpkin, use the jeweled wire as the stem and push it into the top of the pumpkin.  If it wont stay up hot glue it on.  I also added some flat crystal stones to the top of the glitter, using dabs of tacky glue to apply them. 
And this is how it looks when its done!  I know it looks like a lot of glue, but it will dry transparent.  So dont stress about it too much.  If you need to,  add more glitter on top of it to make sure it covers all the glue.  This project is fun,  you can be as creative as you want to be and you cant mess it up!  On the silver pumpkin, I added a large jewel on the top for fun.
To make Cinderella's slipper, I found a pair of high heels at Desert Industries for $2.00.  I looked for a size six or smaller that had a cute shape to it.  I started off by spray painting it with silver metallic paint, because originally it was bright purple, and the metallic paint coated the entire shoe with one coat of paint.  Next, I covered it in tacky glue and used my fingers to press glitter all over the shoe.  I ended up putting two layers of glitter on it, but I love how it turned out in the end.  Once it was dry, I used the tacky glue and attached flat jewels to the shoe creating my own design.
This is what it looks like when its done!

To view Once Upon A Time Baby Shower click HERE!






Monday, March 19, 2012

Once Upon A Time Baby Shower

Once upon a time in a far away land... lived a beautiful girl named BreAnne.  BreAnne was a true Princess at heart, always running around in beautiful gowns and would only answer to the names Princess or Honey, of course she was only five at the time. BreAnne loved to sing from the time she could talk, and was enchanted by castles, fairytales, and Princess.  She played roles as fairytale characters in life, from the evil witch, to the beautiful Belle who fell in love with a Beast.  Throughout her life, her dream was to find her Frog Prince.  So she tried a few here and there, as she traveled the world, seeing many beautiful lands and castles as she continued her journey in life to find her prince charming.  Until one day, she found him.  Together they were married in a beautiful castle, and a little over a year later, was blessed with a little princess of their own named Lyla.
As any good fairytale begins we shall start this babyshower with Once Upon A Time...
I wanted to make this baby shower to represent my amazing sister.  So when I thought about what was the best way I could do that, I decided to go with a Princess theme.  It did suit her best after all.   BreAnne was a theater major, and stared in many plays.  Her first, was Cinderella playing the evil step sister when she was in elementary school.  In Junior High, she played the evil Queen, in Once Upon a Mattress, and her favorite role was Belle in Beauty and The Beast in college. ( Don't worry she was in A LOT of other plays in-between.)
I decided to capture her staring roles in life by carrying each theme into the table. 
Cinderella was the first, with her magical pumpkins that later turned into a coach bringing her to the ball. I displayed her beautiful glass slipper on pink mercury glass, and I made glass slipper cookies, and fairy godmother cupcakes to represent her part in the play. In the middle, was Princess and the Pea. For it, I made a bed with mini cupcakes with little peas on them.   I served along side it Petite coconut cream pie's perfect for a Princess to eat right before bed! They sat on an enchanted mirror, nestled between the enchanted pumpkins.  Beauty and the Beast had little macaroons, a traditional French dessert that Belle would be found eating around the palace.  An enchanted rose, because you cant have Belle without the enchanted rose! Enchanted Roses cupcakes, which were Neapolitan style, and of course, Belle's treasured books surrounded by her Frog Prince!
 Glass Slipper Sugar Cookies
 Enchanted Rose with frozen roses.
 Baby bottle wands for the baby shower with frozen stems. Frog Prince book holder with Belles books.
 Coconut cream pie parfaits.
 Enchanted rose cupcakes, chocolate and strawberry with vanilla frosting and fondant roses.
 Fairy Godmother Cupcakes chocolate, with pistachio filling, and cherry frosting on top, also known as Spamoni! 
Little vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting and green sixlets.
This is the food table, that was on the other side of the room.  We served chicken salad crossants, turkey and cheese sandwiches, fruit and veggie trays with dip.

For the recipes to this party click HERE!
For the Princess and The Pea Bed Tutorial and Beauty and the Beast Roses click HERE!
For the Frog Prince, Cinderella Pumpkin, and Glass Slipper HERE!
For the Once Upon A Time Fairytale sign, Tutu Skirt, and Baby Bottle Wands click HERE!