Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Easy Paper Pennant Banner Tutorial

We recently celebrated my daughter's First Holy Communion and I wanted a simple "Congratulations" banner to hang for the occasion. I made this banner out of scrapbook paper and grosgrain ribbon in an afternoon. I opted to make a very simple banner, but it could be embellished to be as fancy as you would like it to be.

Supplies:
  • scrapbook paper
  • ribbon, twine or yarn
  • adhesive
  • hole punch

Step One:
Cut out your triangles--however many you need for your banner. I needed fifteen to spell out my word.

Step Two:
Cut out your letters. I used my Cricut to cut mine out, but you could use any sort of craft cutter or even use letter stickers (from the scrapbook section of the craft store), a stencil, or just use a marker.

Step Three:
Adhere your letters to the pennants. I used scrapbooking adhesive (a tape runner) for this step, but you could use a glue stick or whatever you have handy.

Step Four:
This step is skippable, but I'm addicted to my corner rounding punch, so I used that on the corners of each pennant. Here you can see that I used it on the "C" but hadn't yet used it on the "O". I think it just gives my simple banner a nice finishing touch. Very skippable though if you don't have this punch.

Step Five:
Punch two holes in the top of each of your triangles and thread your banner! Use ribbon, twine, yarn--whatever looks best!

Step Six:
Hang your banner and admire your creation!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tap Dance Headpieces






Why is it that all projects in my life seem to happen at the same time? Springtime is SO busy around here! I recently finished up thirteen headpieces for one of my daughter's dance classes.

This year her studio's spring performance is Peter Pan and it is fantastic! Seriously--laugh-out-loud funny in parts. Captain Hook sings (really sings) about being "bad" while channeling Michael Jackson. Hilarious stuff. They intersperse the "real" dancers and singers who have been studying for 10-15 years with the little ones who are just beginning and it becomes a great show to watch rather than an agonizing thing to suffer through.
Her tap class is dancing as clocks (to torment Captain Hook...their feet will make the tick-tock noise that he hates) so I was given the task of making clock headpieces...with zero budget...but I was given two feather boas and asked to make them work for all THIRTEEN girls. Yikes! Anything else was up to me (and up to my wallet). Double yikes! Here is what I came up with...I'm not super thrilled, but it looks decent from a distance and it stays on their heads (a comb is attached to the back of each one). They'll be wearing them at an angle on the sides of their heads, not perched right on top.

They're not as cute as the pumpkin headpieces I made two years ago, but my daughter is happy that we're continuing the tradition of me making part of her costuming. This is the fourth year I've made one of her headpieces, so I'm happy to keep the tradition alive for her.


And, by the way, they will not be wearing the bowlers. Can you imagine this feather creation on top of that hat? That wouldn't be pretty! We couldn't figure out how to make the bowlers work with ballet buns.

Hot glue and feathers everywhere...this accounts for some of my absence!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Vacation


Something about this picture resonates with me. I just love it. It is my favorite picture from our Easter vacation week.
That is my little boy walking up the beach and the church in the background is the Catholic church we attended on Easter Sunday. Such a sweet little church (lots of hand carving and nautical theming on the interior) and very nice people there too.
One last picture to remember our time at the beach this spring--winter hats and coats and rubber rainboots. Chilly temps and some liquid sunshine, but we still made it down to the beach!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Easter Vacation

Happy Easter! It is still the Easter season in the Catholic church, so technically I'm not late with my greetings even if Target has moved on and is selling 4th of July decorations already. We were on vacation for Easter and the week following and it was wonderful! We went on our annual beach trip and it was cold but tons of fun! Before leaving for our trip, we went on an Easter egg hunt.
Yes, the egg hunt was inside our local grocery store! It is fun for the children and perfect for our weather conditions. My children LOVE it and for weeks afterward hope they will find a stray egg leftover from the hunt. (It has never happened, but they still hope!)
Next we set out on our long drive to our vacation destination. Once we arrived, we went for a quick (chilly!) walk and then started getting ready for Easter as it was already Saturday afternoon. First we planted these magic seeds that I came across. (Idea found via Meet the Dubiens) The magic seeds enthralled my children as they had never seen seeds this big!
They planted their seeds in little pots and Easter grass (multi-colored crinkled paper) and put them in front of the "lovely" faux fireplace in the vacation condo. I told them I was pretty sure it would take all night for anything magic to happen, but they still kept checking.
Sure enough, by morning, two bunny lollipops had sprouted out of those pots! So cute! The children were thrilled and hope we come across some magic seeds to plant again next year!
We had a little egg hunt in the condo living area and the children were happy with their baskets. We've used the same baskets since my daughter's first Easter. I bought four identical wicker baskets her first Easter in the hope that I would one day have four children. I have been blessed with two children (and love them dearly, so I don't want to say "only" two children) so it looks like the other two baskets are for Mama and Dada.
These glasses make me smile! I think the Easter Bunny knew that Mama likes to take goofy pictures of her babies and this will make a perfect calendar picture!
Our Easter Sunday Mass was spent at a quaint little ocean front Catholic church. In this picture my children are standing in the church parking lot directly in front of our car. Look at that view! Breathtaking! The church was tiny but so sweet and the priest's message was wonderful. We really enjoyed the service.
One of our family traditions on Easter Sunday is to go for a drive after church and then get ice cream. Well, if you know the area, you can look at this family picture and guess where our vacation drive took us. We had a nice tour of this place and then enjoyed some fresh ice cream. Yum!
And, of course, no Easter is complete in our family without Bunny Cake! This one is rather messy and covered in crumbs and little fingerprints because I had lots of "help", but we had fun working on it together. I baked it home and we decorated it on Easter Sunday.

It was a busy day but so fun and so full of family time. Really a perfect Easter for our family.