Crafty Sunday

My friend's step-daughters are turning 10 and 12 in two weeks (their birthdays are two days apart), and I was invited to help plan their parties this year! How fun is that?

C is turning 12, and is going to host a Murder Mystery Party. It is set in the 1950's, and is going to be a blast! The game is an adult version (it's NOT adult dirty - it's just the regular version of the game, not a teen version), so Laurie and I are editing it for content. J and I are going to wear jeans and white shirts and our letterman jackets. My hair is too short for a ponytail, so I'll tie a scarf around my neck or maybe my hair. I'm trying to convince J that he should put a deck of cards in his shirt sleeve, but I'm not sure he's convinced yet.

I know, I know, I just posted an entire blog about how much I hate Halloween because you have to dress up. This doesn't feel like dressing up, though, because I wear jeans and t-shirts all the time. The only thing that's different is that I haven't worn my letterman jacket since high school. So this doesn't count as dressing up, really.

Anyway, back to the parties.

K is turning 10, and she is a bit of a girly girl. When Laurie asked K what kind of a theme she wanted for her party, she said, "Umm...shopping?" So shopping it is! We are going to take the kids to the mall for a scavenger hunt. The teachers in us, though, are going to make the clues puzzles they have to figure out. Then they'll have to find a store and pose for a picture in a particular way. (*The adult that travels with each team will have a camera...we are NOT going to set kids loose to run in the mall!) The winners will get a small gift card to Claire's or something like that. When we get back to Laurie's house for cake and ice cream, I'll print the pictures off, and we'll put them in these 4x6 brag books we found at Wal-Mart for $1.00 each! For $1 and the cost of some ink and paper, the girls are going to get pretty cool favors for the party!

When I found out that K wanted a shopping themed party, I got excited. One of my favorite cards to make is shaped like a purse! I volunteered to show her how to make them, and suggested we do that for invitations. Laurie loved the idea, and took home some samples to show K. She got really excited, too, so we set a crafting date for this morning.

As the week wore on, I thought about what kind of invitations we could do for C's party. In the shower on Wednesday morning I was struck with brilliance...we could use the template I use for the purse cards, and make it open on the side instead of at the top, and we could do poodle skirts! It was a brilliant idea. Not only is it so easy to make these cards that the girls could do it themselves, but they can be done very cheaply and look awesome.

We met at Craft Warehouse this morning, and the girls picked out their paper. We bought some glue and ribbon, and then headed home.

The girls' cards turned out SUPER cute. I don't have pictures of them, but I do have pictures of my originals that served as inspiration.

I'm looking forward to these parties...I don't mind small talk with kids!

The colors didn't turn out very well on this one. The handle looks almost black, but it's really a dusty blue sort of color. And it's hard to see the flap, but the first two cards open like a purse. The flap at the top opens, then the card opens vertically.

Though I like the first card, I think I like this black and white one better. The colors and the pattern are just really cute. (This card has the same flap and opens like the first one.)

When I thought about using the same template for the poodle skirt, all it took was a little cutting and pasting. I moved the "hinge" to the left side, and the "flap" to the right side. Now it opens like a regular card, but the flap holds it flat.

(Sorry it's not very straight...I couldn't get it to stay in one place in the scanner.)