Easter Bunny Lantern

A few months ago I stumbled upon a terrific blog that inspires people to create and share handmade projects each week in the form of a challenge. The creative ladies over at The CSI Project come up with specific themes each week that must be incorporated into every project submitted to the challenge. Some examples of upcoming challenge themes are 'Burlap', 'Easter' and 'Wreaths'. This week's theme is a $5 Challenge and I just had to join in the fun! So the challenge is to make something - anything - for $5 or less. With Easter in the air, I decided to go for a bunny.


Paper Lantern - $1
I found some adorable paper lanterns at the dollar store that became the inspiration for this craft. The lantern will be the body of the bunny.



Craft Foam Paper - .79 cents each
Then I embellished the paper lantern by adding the face and the feet of the bunny using various colors of foam paper.



And here is the result! I simply cut out the head and feet and hot glued them onto the lantern - that's it...


I had so much fun with this challenge I'm going to try (emphasis on the word 'try') to make something for the rest of the challenges this month - stay tuned!

DIY St. Patrick's Day Place Card

Last Thanksgiving I came across a tutorial for making a pilgrim hat using a clay flower pot - check it out here. I never had the time to make it, but saw an opportunity to use the same technique for a different holiday...St. Patrick's Day!

So I gathered up the necessary items to make a leprechaun's hat: the clay pot, green paint, black ribbon and a gold buckle...


First paint the flower pot (I couldn't get the spray paint to play nice with the clay, so I used green acrylic paint instead), then wrap the ribbon through the buckle and around the pot - that's it!

I decided to make the little hat into a place card because my obsession with place cards is still in full effect...

A Tale of Two Birthdays - The Invitations

I have two wonderful little boys who were both born on St. Patrick's Day - two years apart. For the past few years they have been thrilled with having a joint birthday party, but that all changed about a month ago (*sigh*). I knew this was coming, I just didn't think it would happen so soon! So I've spent the last three weeks planning two separate parties for my newly emancipated birthday boys.

My oldest son is turning 7 and decided on a baseball-themed party since he is obsessed with the sport. I immediately knew that I wanted the invitations to have the same look as this invitation I made for a baby shower earlier this year. Here is the baseball jersey version...


Ironically I put myself in the exact same situation as I did with the baby shower invite by underestimating the amount of time needed to complete them - I guess I'll learn on the next go around. So, I again modified the original design for the sake of time. Here's the result...


My youngest son is turning 5 and chose a dinosaur theme for his party. He has never had the chance to experience his very own birthday party, so I'm going all out for this one. I came across a fantastic dinosaur party that was thrown by invitation designer Jill Smith. She created an amazing invitation that I attempted to recreate for my son's bash. Here's my version...


Both parties are happening next weekend, so look for more pics coming soon!

Fruit Shamrocks

I might have mentioned a few times that I tend to hold onto things forever. I like to call it collecting, others might call it hoarding - either way, it works for me. So I was super excited to see the latest post over on the Cute Food For Kids blog where Tiffany shared her collection of cookie cutters. The reason I was so excited was because I too have amassed a large collection of cookies cutters, even though I can't stand to bake - I know, my husband doesn't get it either. You can check out Tiffany's collection here ...this is what mine looks like...


It was kind of fun going through all of the cookie cutters - I had forgotten I had so many cool shapes. Since St. Patrick's Day is only a few weeks away, I was really happy to see that I had a miniature shamrock-shaped cutter in the pile.


Since the fruit kebabs were a big hit at my son's Valentine's Day party, I thought I'd go for two and make more fruit for his St. Patrick's Day party at school...this time using kiwi fruit.


Too cute, right? And no baking required!