Lego and Have Some Creative Fun!!

Hello All! Well, I have clearly been away for a few days, but it's because I was working on a fun project ... or two. First of all, The Lil Monkey decided that he wanted a Lego-themed birthday party this year. Unfortunately, there is very little Lego-themed party stuff, other than the Lego Movie and Lil Monkey prefers the Lego Marvel Superheros. After a little bit of searching, I found a rather simple plan for making invitations and thank you cards, so with a little creativity and digital cutting and pasting, I figured out something that he blessed with his approval.

You may have seen these before, and may have already figured out how to do it without step-by-step instructions, but here is what I did.

Step 1: First I purchased several sheets each of red, blue and yellow 12x12 scrapbook pages. Each page provided for 2 invitations with space for extra circles.

2: I cut each paper at 8 inches, then cut that in half at 6 inches.  The final pieces were 6x8 inches.

Step 3: I took the 6x8-inch pieces and folded it in half making the 4x6 inch invitations.

Step 4: Next i took the 4-inch strip that was left over from the original cuts and used my Fiskars 2-inch circle hole punch and cut out circles. You need two for each invitation, but there is enough to make extras. Save those for later projects.

Step 5: I added 3-dimensional adhesive squares to the back of the circles. I added two circles on the front of each folded invitation.

This is the final outside of the invitations. 

Step 6: I used stock photos from the internet and created the information for the party. I made them 3.5x5 inches so they fit inside. I also used a stock photo and made a photo to put on top. I printed them on 65-weight cardstock, but you may be able to print on photo paper. I then glued them to the inside of the folded invitation.

This is what my work area looked like by the time I finished.

I made thank you cards using the same techniques execpt I cut them at 4x6-inches and left them flat instead of folding them.

The invitations were a hit. Everyone loved them. Next I have decorations and gift bags, so I'll post those as I get them done.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Pinterest Project: We Need Alcohol for This!!

Yesterday, I posted about getting some creative time in with my friend, Erin. Though it was by far, our longest creative time together, it is not the only one on this trip.

On Friday, we were still trying to recover from our Christmas Day adventures (the wind picked up our canopy in the backyard and sent it flying though the kitchen windown when I was washing dishes.) After additional clean up and repairs, we rescheduled a gathering of #TheFourFamilies to Saturday and settled in for a quiet evening around our new gas firepit. Mike and Erin, who are staying down the street, walked over with their oldest to join us for some backporch relaxation.

Earlier on Friday, the hubby and I went to Lowe's with Lil Monkey to  pick up the gas grill and I got some plain white tiles so I could "trouble-shoot" the Sharpie Alcohol Art project I will be doing with my son's pre-K class next month. Sharpies and 4/5 year-olds is definitely something that can get scary fast so I wanted to have some idea of the project beforehand.

So when Erin came over, I enticed her to help me with the project. That's what good friends do, get you out of your comfort zone.

The premise seems pretty easy. Take multiple Sharpie markers and color white tiles with various designs then "drop" alcohol on it and watch them kind of melt together like a watercolor. Sounds simple ...

We had 4 color Sharpies ... black, red, blue and yellow. I thought the yellow wouldn't work, but we were surprised. After a couple of tries we discovered there were a few things that were not on the various instructions we'd found on Pinterest:

1. They don't really "melt" together without a little "dabbing" assistance. 

2. The red in particular was difficult because it tended to "float" and eventually just disappear.

3. Black was too strong and muddled everything into a black soupy mess.

The part we loved the most? You could rinse the times and remove the Sharpie and alcohol and start over, though we did have to wipe the ones with red with a little alcohol to get it all off. Not a big deal, and definitely a lifesaver since I'd only gotten 4 tiles. 

We each rinsed and redid our tiles 2 or 3 times, but eventually we got the hang of it. This is a photo of her tiles (top) and mine (bottom) when we left them to dry.

As you can see the red starts to fade away, but overall we were pretty happy. Unfortunately, it has rained to 48+ hours since then, so while they are dry, I have not been able to seal them with a Polyurethane sealer. From all I have read, it is best to use a spary versus a brush method so it doesn't distort the tiles. Hopefully, today the backyard will dry a little and I can spray them and post notes about the finishing step. I'll post another look at them as well, so you can see how they changed as they dried. 

Until our next cup of tea ...