End of Summer writing prompt

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025511879/
Visit happypining.tumblr.com

With school starting in less than two weeks for us (yikes!) I thought this would be a fun craft/memory/first week of sharing for school type of thing. Since the link didn't work I copied it into paint and adjusted the size.Then let the girls color them and I helped my youngest fill hers in.

Baby Doll carrier

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025513160/
Visit sunscholars.com

 

WOW. That's all I have to say. The original blogger was so  detailed that I really don't think I can even remotely top her!  I really do recommend going back to her page, you can visit her by clicking the top link.I Started by choosing one of our bigger dolls, Minnie and laying her out onto 3 pieces of paper, which I later learned really only needed to be two... that third bottom piece ended up being taped to the middle piece at half way mark.

 

 after cutting out the fleece (I opted out for the batting) I made the strips for the straps and sewed them (longer because my daughter is tall.. This was also a problem and I had to take them in. I suggest sticking with the original posters of 5''x25'')

 

When I finished cutting and prepping the straps, I sewed most of the "base" together (excluding all sides and where the straps go--see original poster for more details). Next I turned it right side out and attached the straps and sides (folding in raw edges to look nicer) and sewed it all together.

My daughter loves it, although she puts Nora (the smaller baby) in it. Now that I know for sure I can make this, I'll be making a second one for my 1 1/2 year old niece later!

American Girl Beach Bag

Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915024988560/
Visit dolldiaries.com

 

This was such a cute and easy summer time craft. All you need is a clean and dry capri sun (or similar) juice box container with the lid cut off (from the bottom up it will measure about 3 3/4 inches) some duct tape, ruler and scissors.

I found the easier way from the original blogger was to make the handles first by measure 8 inches of duct tape in whatever color you would like. Cut that piece in half, then fold that half into half (see below)

 

So make the handles, then tape them onto the not done  capri sun  container. Wrap main duct tap color around the capri sun container. and over the handles- it will stay in place and then you won't have the extra pieces of duct tape showing when you attach the handle.

Here are some more of my American Girl Doll items to brows:
Simple Dress
Witch Costume
school supplies
feel better kit  (Just like McKenna's!)
Gymnastics accessories  (Just like McKenna's!)
head band
Minnie Mouse ears
sleeping bags
sleeping mask
pillow dress
accessories
pet accessories

Justice League Costumes


******If you found this fun, useful, cool or anything in between, please consider following me! Thanks!*********

American Girl Super Hero

http://theresasmixednuts.blogspot.com/2012/10/american-girl-super-heros.html
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025113267/

Obviously there is a bit of a trend in my pins. They all involve superheros. Naturally our American Girl dolls needed some costumes too! I saw these pins and the idea. Then took them a step farther! The first thing I did after buying felt and fabric in the right colors and cut them out.

All of the tops made have the same pattern (found : Simple Dress) The tutu's are all "no sew" to make them look here: Witch Costume

I admit the emblem is a little bigger than it should have been, but when cutting it out with the felt I was thinking how small it was!

The mask was made by tracing the face size onto a piece of paper,  drawing a "Batman" styled mask, then cutting it out with felt and attaching elastic.

Originally for Batgirl we had a pull over mask. It was extremely delicate and after the first use my daughter made the eye holes misshaped.

To add the stars onto Wonder Woman's skirt,  headband and bracelets (http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025105865/)
I traced my fondant cookie cutter onto the felt. To make the "lasso of truth" I took 3 long pieces of yarn and braided them together.
 Originally we also made Wonder Womans with a skirt. However I could tell my oldest wanted her dolls skirt to be a tutu also, and I had the extra tulle so I made an extra skirt for her.

I'm now thinking of making it a leotard like it should be and then the skirt can just be added over it anyway.

 

 Hawkgirl was by far the hardest costume to make. But I did and I'm sorry it's my well kept secret since she has nothing to do with the pin.

We know Spider-man is not Justice League or even DC comics...but we just like him :)

Here are some more of my American Girl Doll items to brows:
Simple Dress
Witch Costume
school supplies
feel better kit  (Just like McKenna's!)
Gymnastics accessories  (Just like McKenna's!)
head band
Minnie Mouse ears
sleeping bags
sleeping mask
pillow dress
accessories
pet accessories



**********If you found this fun/helpful/cool or anything in between, please consider flowing me and getting in on all of the fun!*************

Super Hero Party

First, I have to say, Super hero's are not  just for boys. Everywhere I looked there was only boy stuff. I loved super heros as a little girl and I am so excited that my two girls love them now.  I was so excited when my youngest wanted a Justice League and Spider-man party.

http://www.queen-of-theme-party-games.com/superhero-party-games.html
http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025289346/

Now that the cake is out of the way, it's onto the actual party planning. I kind of switched this pin up. I used her main idea of the games, but incorporated it into one big training/obstacle course. You're more than welcome to though!

Using an extra piece of poster board I made out sign :

 

I also made some decorations using construction paper. Each one is a Superhero's logo with string attached so that it could be added to the tent we put up.

When all the children were here we made superhero masks (bought at Target during their Justice League Summer event- perfect timing!!) picture not included, sorry

TRAINING COURSE

The first thing I did was download every Super hero cartoon theme song I could think of (or liked) That way the kids had "powerful music" to run the course through. The find out how I did the mp3 from youtube, click here.We played them through our home made iphone speakers 

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025489192/

 to recreate these speakers you need either toilet or paper towel roll and two cups. Cut holes in the sides of the cups and slip onto roll. Measure the base of your iphone and cut the hole out. To make ours a little nicer looking I wrapped a piece of paper around the tube.

The Training course consisted of a  "U" shaped spot where there were a lot of trees to pin the pictures of the super villains that they had to spray with Spiderman's webbing . In between each tree was a "building" that the superhero's had to leap over in a single bound.  

 

Another was when the kids had to remove kryptonite from on top of Superman (a dive stick we own) with a pair of kitchen tongs and then continue on with their building leaping and villain spraying until they reached the last tree. 

 

 To make the Kryptonite we sprayed scrunched up pieces of tin foil green. We kept ours in a tub and had them place the other pieces of kryptonite into a bag I kept next to the tub.

That is when they had to spin around with their heads on a baseball bat and then try to pin Batman's Bat logo onto him:

 

After everyone completed the course, they were officially superheros and we pinned their Superman style emblem onto them.

To make the emblems, I printed a picture of Supermans, then on a second piece of paper made the first letter of each childs name. Then cut them out with felt.

Scavenger Hunt

When the party was coming to an end I called out "Who wants a goody bag??"  Of course every child yells "ME! ME!" and comes running over where I am "looking" for the bags. That's when we discovered that the Riddler had stolen the goody bags!!

The First card read:

"Riddle me this Justice Friends

As (name)'s Party comes to an end.

You'll notice the goody bags are what I took.

Want them back? You'll have to look.

Follow these clues, it will be quite a task 

Superheros hide their identities by using _ _ _ _ _ "

The children ran to where we made the masks. Inside the box (the whole time!!) was another Riddle card that read

"My enemy's a 'good guy' he fights for the right

He is known to Gotham City as The Dark Knight"

The kids scrambled over to pin the bat to Batman. Behind the board was the final clue from The Riddler.

"The goody bags are what you seek

You'll find them near what makes Superman weak"

This one was the funny part. because the kids ran back over to the Kryptonite tub and looked around. That's when my oldest daughter realized all the kryptonite pieces were in the bag next to the tub.
Earlier in the day I had placed all the goody bags in that bag with a green dish cloth covering them so that when the kids looked in they wouldn't see them.

GOODY BAGS

Inside ours we bought the bags (at Target) then during the Summer Justice League thing at Target we picked up the $1 section toys (sand art, coloring page, Superman magnet), and added a glow stick. We also added a "create your own Super hero" sheet I found on pintrest:

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025211353/
Visit perfectspiral.co.uk

The kids (and parents) had a blast!


**** If you found this funny/helpful/or anything in between, please consider following me and joining in on all of the fun! Thanks for stopping by!****

Broken Flip Flop

http://pinterest.com/pin/120612096240792968/




We bought these flip flops from the Disney Store in about April. Now I know better than to buy most of Disney's products because of the quality no matter how big of a fan I am. However we had the same type of flip flops last year and they lasted the whole time! This year? Not so much.

Thankfully we had this pin from pintrest and were able to fix them

My daughter says it works, but it feels a little funny because you can feel the clip when you walk. The other con is the bread tie eventually breaks and you'll have to keep replacing it.




**If you found this fun/useful/clever or helpful. Please consider following me and get in on the fun!**

Super hero cake

Okay I know it's been a long time (but I've been busy outside of pintrest- I know)

As you might have guessed, the girls are seriously into Superheros now (yay!) So I spent a good part of Summer making Superhero costumes for their American Girl dolls (check back later!) and props and game ideas to pull of this fantastic party. We'll get into that later also. Let's focus on my favorite part:

CAKE

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915025362070/

 I baked 2 boxes of cake mix into two 8" rounds, two 6" and two 3" round pans. After they were finished baking I set them out to cool while I took the girls to the pool (after all I was doing this on the birthday girls real birthday. She needed to have some fun)

The first thing I did when I got back was make Wonder Womans crown because it needed time to stiffen up. To do that I dyed some pre made fondant yellow and rolled it about 1/8'' thick. Using an x acto knife I made the shape of the crown. Then placed it around a cup with some pillars on either side to keep it steady. Then I added the red star using one of my fondant cutters and water.

To make Batman, Super man and Spider-man's emblems, I printed them out onto a piece of paper, then cut them out and placed them on top of the fondant in the correct colors. Using the x acto knife again I cut them out.

Next I took the cakes and leveled them off using a serrated knife. I then iced each set of cakes and rolled out the fondant for each cake. I used blue for Super man, White for Batman, and red for Spider-man.

SPIDER-MAN

I know Spider-man isn't from the Justice League (or a DC character for that matter) However we've always loved him in our family. To make his tier I rolled out red fondant and placed it over the cake. After it dried a little, I added the webbing with a black food color marker. Then I added the classic black spider emblem with some water to make it stick.

BATMAN

I rolled his tier out in white fondant because we had bought (using a 40% off coupon) the Wilton Silver food coloring spray. We've used this product before and it is a lot of fun.

SUPERMAN
 All I did was cover this tier in blue and add the emblem on. When I was finished with each cake I wrapped the bottoms in yellow (which we said was Wonder Womans "lasso of truth")


**If you found this fun/useful/clever or helpful. Please consider following me and get in on the fun!**