Brit Kit Party

Have you heard of Brit + Co? I hadn’t until recently I found their iPhone app. It’s kind of like Pinterest, but not. You should look into it. They have this fun concept called Brit Kits, and it’s a craft kit that gets sent to your door that has everything you need to do a project (or two). Anyhow, as I was on the app, they said you could apply to be a hostess for a Brit Kit party. So just for kicks, I applied. I got picked for June! Woohoo! It was a Summer Soiree Kit, in all patriotic colors, so I went with patriotic decorating to get my butt in gear for the 4th. (that’s next week, people!)

I have this pretty sweet, vintage rope from my grandma in red, white, and blue. I hung it on our island my hubby built me with giant push pins in red, white, and blue.

I had some things set out for refreshments, which I provided a few, and other guests brought some treats too. This was before they had gotten here.

I have a cool, 3 divided tray so I put red, white, and blue napkins in it, then piled on treats and snacks in matching colors. I also had cookies, water and lemonade. I didn’t get a picture of the cups, but I used plastic cups and wrapped them with some patriotic washi tape from the party kit.

On the table, I had these mason jars holding the scissors, Sharpies, and some swirly pipe cleaners for fun. I got the idea for the mason jars here at It All Started with Paint. So what was in the kits?

It came in a cardboard box with a picture of the finished project on the outside.

The card had how-tos, and we got a pack of paper straws, lollipop sticks, 3 rolls of washi, some baker’s twine, 4 tiles, a foam brush, and some gloss varnish. It also came with a gift card for wine to make it a real party!

Here’s the table all laid out with kits for everyone, and just waiting for the guests to come! Once I explained what Brit Kits were and what the project was, everyone got down to work!

Most everyone had kids with them, but they played outside. A few came in and wanted to help though. And they could, they were easy projects!

I posted this picture on Instagram. It made 4 coasters, 6 fun straws, cupcake/whatever toppers with the lollipop sticks, and a cake bunting.

Here’s the people who stayed long enough for me to remember to take a picture holding up some of their projects. It was a really fun afternoon, and we’re trying to make this a new tradition!

Here’s my mason jars holding the straws, lollipop sticks, and cute bunting. I kinda love it

This was tons of fun, so go plan a girl’s craft night/day/afternoon whatever!

Birthdays!

Yep, I’ve been MIA for the last month. And it was nice. We had 4 close family member birthdays, Easter, several dinner parties (1 that I hosted), teaching preschool for a week, and a birthday party. It’s been a bit hectic. My little princes had a birthday, and wanted to do a Barbie butterfly popstar party, with purple, pink, and sparkly for the colors. Plus, she’s been really wanting a wedding dress for her and her Barbies. So, I’ve had a few projects in the works.

This dress is still a work in progress, but you can see her Barbie had a pretty dress too. I’ll figure out what to do and show you later.

So I got the main ideas for these dresses online. Belle was here, Ken jacket was here, wedding dress with train was here, wedding veil here, and the ball gown here. Poor ballerina, with only 1 foot.

Barbie even has a bouquet she can hold. Don’t worry, Ken is barefoot. I think he came with flip flops that have since been lost?

To prep for the party, I used a Cricut, with a brand new blade, to cut out bunches of purple & pink butterflies, and yellow stars. The dang thing ruined half of them! Argh, I get so frustrated with those machines! I hung those all up with fishing line and sticky tack on the ceiling.

We made flower balloons to hang up, but used push pins to get those to stay in the ceiling.

I used streamers from the dollar store, and cut out some big stars and spray painted them with metallic paint for the other wall.

We bought dollar store fairy wings for all the girls, and the 2 boy cousins got SWAT helmets. Tricky planning with boys!

For party games, I printed a Barbie butterfly picture at Staples, and had them do an engineering print. I only did 18”x24”. Then we colored it.

I picked up some jewel stickers and some foam butterfly stickers while waiting for it to print at Staples, and they were blindfolded and had to stick a jewel on the wings.

We decorated these cardboard butterflies I got at Michaels, and some microphones. If there were more reading kids, we would’ve done some Karaoke.

My cute husband was the star. He painted all the kiddos faces when they came in. Butterflies and Star Wars (for the boys).

He also made the Barbie butterfly cake. Let’s pretend I have a nice pretty tray for it, mkay?

All in all, she had lots of fun! She got even more Barbies too. Maybe I’ll post more now? We’ll see….

An Owl Baby Shower

My super cute sister in law is pregnant with her first. It’s kind of embarrassing, actually. Here she is, cute, small enough to still wear her own jeans (with the button undone, mind you), and just gorgeous as ever. Then there’s me when I get pregnant. I can’t wear my own pants from about 2 months on. Lame. But, she’s cute, and ever since I did my owls for my girls, she’s wanted them. She’s doing her baby girls room in owls, in pink, gray and white. So, when we knew she was pregnant, I started hoarding cute owls from the thrift store. I collected 5 over a few months time.

Cute, right? So I spray painted them in her room’s colors, and displayed them at the baby shower we threw at my mom’s house last month.

Aren’t they so cute? I also made her a pillow from scraps from making her one of these:

My stuffed animal storage. I made her one in fabric she chose, and put on a zipper. She’s going to stuff it to use as an ottoman, and then when baby is older and has buttloads of crap, she’ll stuff it with toys. Brilliant. So back to the pillow. I made this cuties from Make It Love it, from Bernina.

I posted this dude on Instagram, and he’s keeping an eye on the presents. He’s made out of different soft fabrics, and some textured fabrics, like corduroy. You may have noticed the cute chalkboard above too? That was this from the thrift store:

It was 75 cents, I think. I spray painted it pink with all the owls.

Then cut some chalkboard vinyl to size and glued it in. I couldn’t find my chalkboard paint.

Then wrote a happy sign to welcome people to the brunch party!

And now for the awesomest décor part….The cake!

Well, diaper cake. Alyssa makes diaper cakes, trikes, and motorcycles for all her friends, so I made her one. I used this tutorial here to get started.

Then, I decorated the crap out of it with bows. I made 16+ bows. Here’s the pictures of bows, up close…

Those little cuties were some aluminum flowers I got from The Plaid Barn. And oh my irony, look at what today’s deal is!

Owl earrings! Cute!!! Anyway, back to the bows.

I layered some fabric flowers I found in the scrapbooking aisle a few years back, and then added a gem.

Some of my favorite bows the girls had, so I just copied them. For more bow tutorials, go here. I made a ton last year and showed you how!

The black one on the right is a yo-yo flower like Natalie made here, but I used lace. And the white flower and pink flower are both on the link I led you to above. They’re one of my favorites.

Just before the party I finally found green vellum and cut out leaves to hide the cardboard stand part. Super cute.

Even the topper is a bow, clipped on to a white pipe cleaner folded in there.

That’s my dad in the background doing dishes. What a hunk.

Wonder what those pink yarn things are? I made her some of these

Barefoot sandals, tutorial here.

And there’s my crochet circle rug I showed you on Monday.
At the shower we played one game. I printed it from here.

It’s a purse game. I got the winners some candy to say hooray they won, and the one who had the lowest points? They got a Just in Case bag I made them. Tutorial here.

Last but not least, I made Alyssa’s favorite-ish dessert. These bad boys.

Red Velvet Cake Balls. Ooh yeah.

Fun shower, fun gifts, and super cute sis-in-law! Congrats Alyssa!