Minnie Mouse 2nd Birthday Party: DIY Recap

Posted by denisemaycreations

On April 12, we held the long-awaited (at least, for me) 2nd birthday party for my little toddler. Here is a recap of how it went and what I did. I’m not including pictures of everything, just the DIY items.

Here is Nadia wearing her fabric/tulle tutu and applique tee I made her. She is also wearing her Minnie Mouse ears. Every child got a set to wear. The tutorial for them is here.

The next two pictures show how the centerpieces from this tutorial were used. I put them on the two 8′ tables I pushed together, as well as on the mouse ears/bubbles table.

In the previous picture, I used this tutorial from a blog called Crackers and Carrots as a guide to make the info poster. It now hangs on her bedroom wall. The original does have our last name on it, but I edited it out for privacy purposes.

I made these goodie bags (with a little help on assembly from my Mom) for each kid guest. They were very easy and fast to make (sorry, no tutorial). They were filled with age-appropriate gifts since we had several ages present. I used things like: crayons, Play -Doh, stickers, baby board books, jump ropes, sunglasses, ball and paddles, pencils, Rubik’s cube, etc. All were Mickey/Minnie theme with the exception of the Play-Doh, and were found at Party City, Michael’s, and Target.

The back had the following sticker, found from this shop on Etsy.

Next up is one of my favorite touches from the party: the food signs! I used this tutorial from Laurel Lane crafts to get myself started.

Nadia LOVED the dipped cookies! She kept sneaking away to get them.

A friend made this cake, but it was so adorable, I had to share!

Oh, and here is a family shot with Hubby and I wearing the Mickey and Minnie Mouse pocket tees I embroidered that morning along with the birthday girl. His tee came with the pocket, but I made mine from a fabric quarter I bought at Hobby Lobby:

I think that pretty much covers all of the DIY projects for the party. Simple, but full of pink, black, and white. Baby girl and her guests had a blast, and I was really happy with how it all turned out! Thanks for reading! Which was your favorite? Have any questions? Leave a comment below!

Minnie Mouse Centerpieces

Posted by denisemaycreations

If you’ve clicked on this post hoping to get a tutorial to make this adorable centerpiece, you won’t be disappointed! This was super easy and cheap to make, so keep reading if you want to make them too!

I started out with these cute pink pails from Target. They were on the cute aisle when you first walk in that’s full of treasures and goodies if you’re crafty, a teacher, or a Mommy. In my case, I’m all three!

Black paint and paintbrush from Joann:

Cute hot pink/white polka dot wired ribbon and floral foam (Joann):

Small and large Styrofoam balls (Joann):

Pink and white polka dot paper straws (Target) and black tulle circles (Joann):

Toothpicks (Kroger)

First, I protected my table with an old tablecloth and laid the balls out like this:

I grabbed the brush and acrylic paint and got to painting!

They took a while to try. A couple of days later, I had time to get back to work. I cut the floral foam in half using a dull kitchen knife, and inserted a paper straw in the center. I used “StyroGlue” to help secure it to the bottom of the pail.

Next, I took several tulle circles, folded them, and pushed them down around the green foam. Poof! The foam is invisible!

Just a few more steps! Take one of the large foam balls and push it on the top of the paper straw. Stick toothpicks on either side of the “Minnie head”, and attach the small balls on either side for the ears. If you prefer larger ears, simply purchase larger styrofoam balls instead of the smaller ones. 🙂

I made a bow, and used a stick pin to secure it to the top of the head. I hesitate to use hot glue on styrofoam, which is why you see me trying out styrofoam glue and pins and alternate methods to attach things to it.

That’s it! I have 5 more to make for the party and I’ll be set.

We’re going to have 3 tables for food, and one of these will go on each side of the table.

Since the party is now almost a week out, I will probably put up only one or two more posts before then. I’ll take lots of pictures of the decor and put it all in a handy dandy post for you to recap the festivities. Thanks for reading!

Birthday Party Planning: DIY

Posted by denisemaycreations

As mentioned in the first post, this special young lady turns two in April!

Well, April is just around the corner! The party is 12 weeks away from tomorrow, which sounds like a lot of time. However, if you’re like me (wanting to create a lot of personal touches), 12 weeks is just enough time to create the Minnie Mouse party I see in my mind.

When I sat down to plan her party, I came up with the following categories:

Party theme
Party date and time
Guest list
Invitations
Decorations
Favors
Activities/schedule
Menu
Cake
Photography

Once I had the categories, I researched to see how much each should cost, as well as when we need it by. I split the total cost up over January-April budgets, and will slowly purchase everything needed between now and then. My motto for this is: “Slow and steady wins the race”.

Last year, we had her first birthday party at our house. While it went well, there was a LOT to be learned from the experience. I spent a lot of time of Pinterest (and I do mean a lot), and came up with ideas for each category listed above. I have started enlisting the help of those who are needed to pull this off, and I have made my list to DIY projects for the party.

The posts over the next several weeks will show the process behind completing those projects. They include:

Pin the bow on the Minnie like this:

Centerpieces like this:

Minnie/Mickey ears like these:

Favor bags like these:

Birthday outfit like this (I think….I may do a cloth tutu):

And, info board like this:

I plan to tackle the Minnie/Mickey ears first, so expect to see how those turned out on the next post (1st Friday of February). So that’s it, y’all! A (very) brief synopsis of how I get the ball rolling when planning a small event. I’m sooo looking forward to digging in to all of the DIY awesomeness!

Home Office DIY (old project)

Posted by denisemaycreations

This is a post outlining a DIY that took me a little over a month from start to finish. Yes, it’s old, but it’s one of my favorite rooms in the house. This summer, I decided that I was a little tired of the way our office looked. It is really a dining room, but we use it for a work area. It had an old, small chandelier, off-white paint on top, brown paint on the bottom, and painted squares on each side.

It wasn’t ugly, but it wasn’t reflective of our style, either. We have a brown palette throughout our house, but I wanted something that was different, but wouldn’t clash with the rest of the house either. I ended up selecting white for the bottom, and this color in Olympic One for the top:

I’m in love! I love this blue, and the squares are gone!! This paint has built-in primer, and covers any color in 1-2 coats. It is on the walls of every redone room in my house.

Now that the walls were finished, I decided to reupholster this chair:

I bought this back when Hubby and I were still dating (we’ve been married 4 1/2 years, and were engaged 9 months, so this chair is pretty old-ish). I was doing this on a budget, which did not have room for a new chair. So, I decided I wanted a gray and white chevron to compliment the new colors on the wall. I first ordered chevron fabric in cotton jersey (not sure what I was thinking), but it was definitely not the right fabric for upholstery. I decided on this fabric from Carousel Designs:

It’s beautiful, sturdy, and perfect for covering a chair! I got to work taking the chair apart. It’s funny how much you learn about how an object is assembled when you disassemble it. After I had taken it apart, I measured and cut the pieces and used my new handy dandy staple gun to secure the fabric. Then, it was time to put the chair back together!

I didn’t let Hubby sit on it for a day. I wanted it to stay perfect forever! I eventually gave in. **Insert two out of town trips somewhere in here**

When I got back in town and unpacked, it was time to move on to the curtains. I used more fabric than I anticipated for the chair, so I made curtains by splitting the width of the fabric (about 60″) in half and going from there. Once those were up, I spent about a week or so looking at wall decals on Etsy for a phrase that applied to both Hubby and I. I settled on “Dreams don’t work unless you do”. We both thought it was perfect! Once I got that on the wall, we were good to go! Oh, and somewhere in there, I found matching frames for our degrees, and we got a very simple desk from Ikea. Hubby is a programmer, so the drawers and shelves that make the ordinary person happy do not impress him. He wanted lots of space and room, and I found him the perfect Ikea desk for a great price!

Here are the final pictures:

Other finishing touches I didn’t mention: Hubby installed a new ceiling fan, and I found him a dry erase board for writing down his work projects. I also found a cute desk lamp at Target.

Thanks for checking out my post! Hopefully you got a little inspiration from this room that was so fun to put together! More DIY goodness coming your way soon!

denisemaycreations

Documenting my DIY projects, one at a time.

Do it yourself

Minnie Mouse 2nd Birthday Party: DIY Recap

Minnie Mouse Centerpieces

Birthday Party Planning: DIY

Home Office DIY (old project)