Inexpensive Graduation Party Ideas

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We finally got around to hosting a graduation party for Mariah over the weekend. After already hosting one big party this summer, I was a little worried about finding the desire to pull off another. But, since you only graduate high school once, I put on my superhero mom cape and got it together. To save on time, I decided to skip baking my own food, especially since I ordered a huge cake, and stuck with making a few crafts and party props that would help the guests have a more memorable time.

I did buy a bunch of decor from the $1 store to perk up the house, but I also quickly whipped up this ribbon wrapped wreath to add a more personal touch to the decorations. If you are planning on dollar store decorations, buy them as soon as they hit the shelves. Most of the items were gone within weeks of my store putting them out on the sales floor.

Using cheap graduation streamers from Walmart (97¢ each), I hung them on the wall to create a small photo booth area. Top with balloons and inexpensive photo booth props from Amazon, guests had fun posing for silly snapshots.

We also made a frame with a piece of foam board from the $1 store for more photo opportunities. Dress it up with a little ribbon and graduation year numbers cut from decorative paper.

I found this decorative box for $7 at Michael's Craft Store and dressed it up with some heat transfer vinyl for a keepsake that Mariah could take to college. I printed out some index size cards that I had the guests write out advice and well wishes to the graduate so she could have a little love from home with her while she's so far away this fall.

I knew there were going to be a lot of kids at the party, so with inspiration from Pinterest, I set up a candy station that I knew they would love. I found the tins for $2 each at Michael's, but I'm sure you could get them for $1 at the $1 store as well. I created some labels with cute school phrases I found on Pinterest to accompany each candy flavor.

Having the party in July helped keep costs down. I was able to find a lot of decorations for 1/2 off since most grads already had their parties earlier in the season. I found 12 packs of graduation bubbles for $1.25 each that the small kids really enjoyed playing with.

I did splurge and bought the largest photo cake at the bakery. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't fill up the bottom portion of the cake with more flowers or use bigger lettering to fill in the extra white spaces, but as quickly as it was gobbled down, it really didn't matter in the overall scheme of things. Instead of writing the standard congratulations greetings, I had them put a quote on the cake from Mariah's favorite film, Peter Pan.

Including the cake and cookout food, we were able to stay under our $250 party budget. I'd call that a success!

What are some of your favorite party activities?

Saint Mary's Winter Wonderland Family Craft Day

Every once in a while the school will send out an email that has information for family friendly activities that are happening in our community. We learned that the students at Saint Mary's College, sister college to Notre Dame, was hosting a Winter Wonderland Family Craft Day that was free to the community to come out to attend. We were a little up in the air on if we wanted to go. It didn't have much information on the flyer and I wasn't sure it was going to be worth our time. Since we didn't have anything else going on Saturday, we decided to give it a shot. I am so happy we did, too! I was impressed that the school went above and beyond my expectations on the crafting event, especially for a free event to boot!

There were about 10 craft stations set up, each one with a different craft for the kids to construct. The girls got to paint a holiday themed ornament:

Make a painted hand print reindeer:

Whip up some Reindeer Food:

Paint and Glitterize some wooden popsicle stick snowflakes:

Create some rice-filled sock snowmen:

And construct some reindeer antler hats!

There were a few other booths also, where they made some candy canes out of beads, paper chain countdown to Christmas, and face painting, though the snowmen was their favorite. When we were finished, we were able to stop in another room for cookie decorating and hot cocoa:

And a visit with Santa! Allison wore her Santa beard she made in the craft room:

They even took a family photo and printed it off for us to take home:

They do this event every year, though this was the first we have heard of it. We are already looking forward to attending again, and will definitely be going back next year!

Have you done any holiday crafts with your family this year? Which craft listed do you like the best?

St. Patrick's Day Crafting

My niece and nephew stopped by for a visit last weekend. Since it was too cold to play outside, my nephew thought it would be fun to build a leprechaun trap. All the girls bailed on us, so the boy and I had to fly solo on the project, which was fine because we won't be sharing any treasures we get after catching that little bugger!

We made one last year, but he got away. However, he did leave the girls some rainbow candy treats behind after stealing our gold piece. Allison quickly pointed out he must not know what a rainbow looks like since the colors in the pack were backwards. Whoops!

At least mom was able to get the pudding dessert colors right. I thought it would be fun to top the pudding with some whipped cream and sprinkle them with GOLD. Which was just some Wilton gold colored candy sugar sprinkles.

Since it never fails, St. Patrick's always rolls around and Allison can't find anything green to wear to school. I decided to quickly make these St. Patty's hair pins. 

Just snip off the button loop back, hot glue on to a hair pin, and voila! For less than $2, you've got your green covered.

What are your St. Patrick's Day Plans?

Allison’s Handmade Gifts

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner? I like to have most of my shopping done by this point, but I confess, I have really slacked this year. And what’s worse is, I love giving handmade gifts, but I haven’t even started on those yet! Allison, though, is totally showing me up when it comes to her handmade gifts. Normally we decide together what we want to make to pass out to family and friends, but this year she has decided she wants to do her own thing. She has a lot of friends at school she wants to give a little something to, so she has been a busy bee, crafting away almost every single day after school. Last Christmas she expressed an interest in learning to sew, so Santa brought her a mini, child sized sewing machine. She hasn’t perfected it yet, but she can sew simple shapes. She decided for her stuffed animal and doll loving friends she was going to sew them pillows for gifts. We loaded up on pillow fluff and fashionable fabric her friends would enjoy, and then she went to work.

For those who don’t like stuffed animals, she broke out her multicolored beads to make necklaces and bracelets to give them. She has been asking her friends what their favorite colors are, and is secretly customizing each piece. It took her over an hour to finish one, but she had such pride in her work when it was complete, even stating that she was thinking of starting up her own jewelry making business after the holidays. Something tells me that with an hour invested in each piece, that plan will fizzle pretty quickly though.

It warms my heart to watch her put so much work and effort into her handmade items for her friends, and she is gaining such a sense of self satisfaction with each gift she completes. I hope she always has a love of crafting for a handmade holiday!

Do you like to receive handmade gifts? What is the best handmade gift you have ever received?

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Paper Scarecrow Girls

Every year the elementary school does a fall fun fair. A few weeks before, they let the kids make paper scarecrows, then at the fun fair, the visitors vote on their favorites. Last year was our first year participating. We decided not to stick with a traditional scarecrow. We wanted something that was going to stand out from the rest. So, Allison decided she was going to make a Wonder Woman scarecrow. We used a lot of felt, tulle and yarn, then our superhero scarecrow was complete.

My husband was asking for a slap to the head when he said "You are not going to win this. Nobody is going to vote for Wonder Woman. That's not even a scarecrow." Whatever. I think she turned out well, and we had fun, so that's all that mattered. When we got to the fair, I was completely giddy when my husband had to eat his words. Our vote envelope was stuffed with votes! I honestly think Allison would have won the contest had it not been for her friend bringing in her entire family. It's a huge one! They adopt a child from China every year. Their van's back window is covered in those stick people! Then her entire dance troop came in and tossed their votes in too. Allison thought it was a little unfair, but we used it as a lesson that not everything in life is fair. As long as she knows she did hard, honest work, she was already a winner!

This year she decided on a Notre Dame cheerleader. She tried to convince me to help her make a Michigan cheerleader (because, according to her, there are more Michigan fans at her school) and I almost washed her mouth out with soap. There will be NO Michigan cheerleaders in this house haha! To make her look more like a scarecrow this year, her hair was made out of straw. Her outfit was once again made out of felt, with a glitter gold belt, finished off with some blue and gold pom poms.

Voting is tonight. Wish us luck! :)

What does your ideal scarecrow look like?

Bat-Cycle!

 As I was coming home one night, I noticed that my neighbor was throwing out this old Step 2 motorcycle. "Ohhh! I need that! Stop the car!" I said to my husband as we drove past. Know what he said? "Ain't happening!" Oh, the horrors of the neighbors seeing me cart their trash home! He told me to go back when it was dark out. So, I did. And I brought this little gem home. It was roughed up and has definitely seen better days.

I knew that with a little TLC I could have this baby looking spiffy. By a little TLC, I mean a can of spray paint and a little vinyl cut out with my Silhouette Cameo. With a days worth of work (mostly paint drying time), the Bat-Cycle was born.

I knew I wanted to give it to my nephew, so I had to customize it a bit. His nickname is Brockie, so I found some Batman font and put "Brockie-Man" on the back.

He is officially the coolest kid on the block now.

As luck would have it, I found a really cool Little Tikes beetle type car last weekend in someone else's trash. I can't wait to start work on it, but I am still trying to think of the final look I want.

Handmade Holiday- Monster Book of Monsters

I've been feeling pretty crafty lately, so this year I decided to go more towards giving hand made Christmas gifts to my family. I'd like to share a few of them with you this week. First I will start with the photo album I made for my oldest daughter. This craft was inspired by our trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. As I have mentioned, she is a HUGE Harry Potter fan, so I was taking a mass amount of photos on that trip so she could remember every detail. My camera battery died half way through the day and I had to resort to using mine and my husband's camera phones for the rest of the day. I knew that when we got home and I developed the photos I wanted to put them in an album and give them to her as a gift. As we were walking through one of the shops, inspiration hit. I saw this Monster Book of Monsters right in the middle of Dervish & Bangles.

Why pass her a boring photo album when I can make my own Monster Book of Monsters?

I bought a plain black photo album from Michael's for $7, a bag of marbles for $1, felt for about $1, and some fuzzy material for $4 for 1/4 a yard from Joanne's, so this project cost about $13. I already had some polymer clay on hand, so I made some gnarly teeth to add to the book.

It was a fun little way to add more of a Harry Potter touch to the photos. I hope she likes it!

Have you made any handmade gifts this year?

DIY Halloween Pumpkin Witch Hat

We love pumpkin decorating. The big thing at the end of my Halloween party every year is decorating pumpkins. Each year I try to add new things to the stash to keep it exciting and a fun way to end the night. This year I thought it would be fun to make witch party hats for the kids to help spruce up their pumpkins.

Materials Needed:

Heavy Paper- Cardstock
Party Hat Template Here
Scissors
Hot Glue and Glue Gun
Elastic String
Black Feather Boa


Take your printed out template and trace it onto your cardstock.

Roll your hat and slip the tab into the slit in the side of the hat. Once inserted, I line a little hot glue on the inside to secure it.

Cut a small slit in the side of the party hat. Insert one end of your elastic string. Tie a small knot on the end. Place the party hat on top of your pumpkin and wrap the elastic around to the other side to measure how much string you need. Snip string, insert through the other side of the hat. Tie another small knot in that side of the string.

I use a small bead of hot glue on the inside for extra support to keep the string from coming back out.

Use your hot glue gun to put a line of glue around the bottom of your party hat.

Wrap your boa around the hat, securing it to the glue. Now you have a witch party hat for your pumpkin! Get some paint pens and maybe some pom pom balls for warts and you are good to go :)