Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Fun Minnie Mouse Birthday Party Ideas!

I created these invitations using my silhouette cutter to cut out the Minnie Mouse head and ears. It was so easy to let the machine cut everything out. The invitations were very cute and super easy!



I was given an old Mickey Mouse cake pan and was able to turn Mickey Mouse into Minnie Mouse pretty easily. I used canned chocolate frosting for the brown and then used a homemade frosting recipe for the rest. This took me most of the morning, but was worth it.

I found a cute tutorial on how to make your own Minnie Mouse pinata. Check it out here: At Second Street. Using just a cardboard box, tape, tissue paper, and crepe paper. It was super cute and lots of fun.

Instead of taking the time to make cute Minnie and Mickey party hats, I just asked the kids to bring their own Mickey Ears if they had them. I had a few extras that I scrounged up for those who didn't have any yet. The birthday girl wore her Minnie Mouse shirt and ruffle bum pants that I made for her for our trip to Disneyland.
We hooked the pinata up to the volleyball poles. The little yellow bat didn't make a dent in it so we got out the metal bat. The kids did a little damage there, but not enough (I guess I made it a little too tough.) So we let the adults have a go at it until all the candy was out of it. The pinata was the perfect activity to keep the little kids and the adults entertained.

Rapunzel Tangled Birthday Party Invitations

My daughter just turned four. As with many little girls right now, she loves the movie Tangled and wanted a Rapunzel birthday party.

I found this great website SuperMomMomments. She has great ideas for a Tangled birthday party. One of her ideas I liked was her party invitations.

Going from that, this is what I came up with.

1. First I found a coloring book picture of the Tangled tower online.
   
2. I used the Silhouette program to trace the image and them simplified it to a silhouette.
   
3. I used some gorgeous metallic purple scrapbook paper to cut the image out.
   
4. I braided three strands of DMC embroidery floss to create a 5 inch long braid and tied it with a purple strand of embroidery floss.
5. I taped the hair to the back of the tower.
6. I then printed the invitation on a light purple cardstock using the silhouette program.
7. Lastly I glued the tower onto the invitation.

If you would like a copy of the files for the Silhouette cutting machine, please leave a message with your e-mail address and I will send them to you. Please use them for personal use only.

If you don't have a silhouette cutting machine, I would gladly cut some out for you for a small price. Please check out my Etsy shop here. If there aren't any towers currently listed, please contact me and I can create a custom listing just for you.

Minnie Mouse Shirt

My sister in law sent me this great link for a fun shirt idea. I love it! Homemade by jill made a super cute Adventureland T shirt for her little boy for Disneyland using her Silhouette machine and smooth heat transfer.

I just had to try it out myself and created a super cute Minnie Mouse shirt. First I found a Minnie Mouse picture that I liked.


Then I added some flourishes in Photo Shop. (I still use photoshop to do this because I haven't quite figured out how to use all the tools in the Silhouette software and it is so much easier and faster for me to use a program I know.)

Next I uploaded the image into the Silhoutte program and traced around it. I deleted all the areas that I didn't want it to cut. I sized the picture to the size I wanted it and cut out the design on hot pink heat transfer.


I love how it turned out! Thanks Em for the link! Thanks Homemade by jill for the great idea!

Family Home Evening Board

We love family home evening. B. loves having a specific part of the evening that she is in charge of (especially when she is on treat.) I have looked for a cute FHE chart with just four spots, but never saw one I liked so I created one myself.

I found an old fence post in the garage that was cut to the size I wanted it. I bought cute green double sided damask paper and wooden tags at Roberts. I already had the ribbon, hooks, and vinyl. Over all cost for this project: $2.78.

1. First I painted the edges of the board and tags black.
2. I measured the length of the board and cut the paper to the size I needed. I had to do two pieces of paper to make it fit.
   
3. Next I traced the tags onto the paper and cut them out.
4. I then mod podged the paper onto the board and tags. Make sure to use as little mod podge as possible since it will make the paper buckle. However, since this was good thick double sided paper, it didn't bubble.
   
5. I measured the board and tag for the size of letters I wanted and cut them out using my silhouette machine.
   
6. Next I put the vinyl on to the board and tags. (The silhouette vinyl is horrible and didn't go on straight. The letters keep moving around and don't stick very well.)
7. Next I added flat sawtooth hooks to the back of the board to hang it on the wall. I also added four hooks to the front to hang the tags on.
8. I used some black ribbon I had in my stash to hang the tags.
9. Making sure it was level, we then hung it on the wall.

LOVE IT! Now we have assigned parts for our Family Home Evenings on Monday nights.

Sewing Room Makeover

A couple weeks ago my girls spent the weekend at Grandma's house. Since I was all caught up on orders, I didn't know what to do with my free time. So I decided to paint my sewing/laundry room. Yea! I have been waiting to do this for a long time. Here is a before picture. Please notice the horrible tan and white sponge painting. It did nothing for the room.

Here is a post from last fall about my desire to paint this room.
http://dreamingofstitches.blogspot.com/search/label/my%20sewing%20space

I picked out a beautiful light blue with a hint of green. It looks gray in the following pictures, but trust me, it looks blue.


I also have been able to play around with my new silhouette machine and create some beautiful vinyl decals for the sewing room. I hung this adorable picture grouping of my girls right by my dryer (see the wall in the picture above.)

I also created a wonderful "Mud Room" area so coats and hats can be hung up when people come in from the garage instead of throwing them on the floor. The full length mirror used to face into the sewing room, now it faces the hallway. I scared myself to death the first time I walked past it. I thought someone was in the sewing room looking at me.

I also made this cute dress for vinyl from silhouette vinyl. HOWEVER... I was planning on putting it on the wall, but am happy how it looks on the magnet board.
THE PROBLEM IS... Silhouette vinyl SUCKS! It doesn't stick very well, it even tries to come off the backing paper when you cut it out forcing you to cut it again and wasting lots of vinyl. It also doesn't stick to the walls or paper very well. Once placed, you can move it around. I created a Family Home Evening board with it and the letters can be easily bumped and moved. NOT COOL.

I bought some vinyl by the foot at Roberts and it is SO MUCH BETTER! It actually sticks... very very well. I made some name signs for my girls bedroom doors. That vinyl is great. My advice is to not buy silhouette vinyl and just get it from Roberts by the foot. It is so much cheaper. You do have to trim the Roberts vinyl from 12 inches down to 9 inches, but it is worth it.

My new toy

I have been busy lately learning how to use my new toy. I got a Silhouette Machine for Christmas! Yea! Well, actually I had to wait until January 16th to get it because Christmas was postponed until my dad got back from Africa.

Last week I worked on the basics of the program and cutting regular paper. I also got some sketching pens that I played around with.

Yesterday I figured out how to cut vinyl. I made this quick sign for my wall. Please don't look at the pictures. They are really out of date.

Today I learned how to print and cut. I printed some super cute THANK YOU cards for customers of my shop. I love how they turned out. However it took me a while to get it right. I also printed and cut some "Dave's Homemade Ice Cream" stickers for my sister-in-law to put on some ice cream cups.

Oh the fun stuff to come!!! Yea!

http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/