Pirate Birthday Party: The Invitations

It's halfway through January and time for another birthday party!

My Little Man is turning three and requested a pirate themed celebration.  I happen to adore pirates, so I'm really excited for this party, but I'm a little nervous about the cake.  I let Little Man scroll through Pinterest with me and he saw a cake in the shape of a pirate ship that he is dead-set on having.  I can't turn down his request, "Peease, peease, peease pirate ship cake birthday Mommy????"  So I'm going to make it happen....somehow...😁

But for now, read on to see how I put together these invitations for my little buccaneer:

Materials

For this project I used scrapbooking paper, stickers, a sharpie, scissors and a lighter.  Since I already owned everything pictured here, these invitations were completely free to create.  That is my favorite 😁

Step 1:  Trim

I chose this paper from my scrapbooking stash because I wanted a older, antique-y looking paper.  The burgundy and golden swirl border wasn't working though, so I trimmed it off.

Step 2:  Cut

Once my paper was trimmed up, I cut the sheets into thirds.  I like to take into consideration the size of the envelope that I'll be using before cutting 😉

Step 3:  Burn

This was probably the most enjoyable step - setting the invitations on fire 😄

I wanted the invitations to look old, tattered and worn as though they had been hidden away by a fearsome pirate ages ago.  This was easy to do with the help of a lighter; just run a flame along the paper until it begins to curl up and blacken.

Be careful though, as paper can catch the flame quite quickly.  Also, I recommend doing this outside.  Even if the paper doesn't hold an actual flame, there is still quite a bit of smoke that is given off.

Step 4:  Add Wording

I used hot glue to attach my wording to the tattered background paper and intentionally placed the wording sheets on a slight diagonal.  I didn't want things looking too neat or proper 😉

After combing through Pinterest I ended up taking five different invitation examples and combining them to create my own wording.

In case you can't see it in the photos, here it is typed out:

Ahoy there matey, ye be invited to a swashbuckling party!
-captain (child's name here) is turning 3-
Join us for adventure on the high seas when our ship sets sail:
(date & time)
Meet the crew in (child's name here)'s quarters for lunch and dessert.
Come if ye dare!

Step 5:  Decorate

As I was making these (and thinking about treasure maps) I ended up grabbing a red marker to make an 'X' on each of the invitations.  Add a few hash marks in black and you have a symbol for buried treasure.

Step 6:  Embellish


Lastly, I added a pirate sticker and colored the eyes in red.  And there you have it, invitations perfect for a seafaring soiree 😄

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post.  There will be lots more to come as we raise the sails and set off for our newest adventure, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

Make Your Own: (American Girl) Doll MakeUp Accessories

After receiving an American Girl doll for her birthday, Baby Girl's Christmas list included furniture and accessories for the doll.  One of the things she wanted was a doll makeup table and I found a great one on Amazon (that matched the doll bed that I knew she would be getting from her grandparents).  The trouble was, the table didn't come with any accessories.  A makeup table must have accessories!

I saw a few other doll makeup tables that did come with makeup accessories, but I didn't like the look or quality.  I also saw makeup accessories sold separately, but they were priced at an amount that would have cut too far into the rest of the budget.  So.....I decided to make my own!

Read on to see how easy it is to make your own doll makeup accessories:

Makeup!

Everything you see here (nail polish, eye shadow and lip gloss) was found in the stocking-stuffer section of Wall-Mart and were priced at $1 each.  I chose the items based on their cutesy look (the nail polish has a cupcake theme) and their miniature size.

Note:  These items are real makeup so they had to be 'preserved'

Accident Free Nail Polish

The first thing that I did was to seal the nail polish shut with super glue.  Baby Girl is absolutely responsible enough to have her own nail polish (and she does) but we keep it put up with mine so that the Little Man can't get his hands on it.  Since this 'toy' makeup was going to be kept out with all of the doll accessories, I thought it best to make sure that it couldn't open.

This was a really easy job;  just open the bottles, apply glue to the threading and then close!

Tip:  I recommend using tiny bottles with very sturdy glass that are less likely to break.

Mod Podge

The second thing I did was to seal shut the eye shadows and lip gloss.  I did this using Mod Podge (Dollar Tree has tiny bottles for $1 if you don't need a whole lot).  I dripped a good amount onto each make-up palette until the color of the makeup could no longer be seen.  I then very carefully spread the Mod Podge so that the makeup below wasn't disturbed.  Finally, I used a toothpick to carefully eliminate any bubbles that had formed on the surface.  After a couple days of drying, the makeup was perfectly sealed!

Stickers

The last thing that I did was to use stickers to re-design the makeup packaging.  Remember, the nail polish bottles had a cupcake theme, but the rest of the makeup contained standard branded packaging.  A few cupcake stickers later and I had a matched set ready to go!

Ready For Play

Here is the completed set all ready for Christmas morning.  The miniature sizes turned out really nice and I can say with experience that the Mod Podge made the makeup completely Little Man proof 😉

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

My Milk Glass Collection

Since I had to get everything out, cleaned up and organized to fill up the new French china cabinet, I thought I would go ahead and share with you (most of) my milk glass collection.  Enjoy!


(You can click here to see the new china cabinet)

I have a few other pieces that aren't pictured, but you can click here to see my milk glass lamps or here  to see more of what else is above my kitchen cabinets.

I hope you liked this milk glass post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017