Party Activity: Decorating Paper "Teacups"

     Here is a fun party activity and a great way to make sure no one gets their drinks mixed up.

Materials:
*Paper cups
*Scissors
*Glue
*Cardstock
*Tape
*Crayons

Directions:
*Cut off the top and bottom of one paper cup and split it along the seam.  You should end up with a band that looks something like this (ignore the handles for now; they will come into play later):

Note: if you're using Hannaford paper cups, you might be able to skip this step and use my above template, but since there is no standardized shape for paper cups, it will not work for all brands.
*Trace it onto cardstock.  You can either trace it onto as many sheets as you want or you can trace it onto one and photocopy the rest.  Cut out the shapes.
*Create handles.  You can either print and cut out my handle design (see above) or create your own.
*Fold over the flaps on the handles.  Glue together the remaining portion of the handles, not including the flaps.
*Once the handles are dry, glue them to the paper cups to make them look more like teacups.  The handles are not necessarily durable enough to be used to drink and are there for aesthetics, so make sure the partygoers are aware of this.
*When the day of the party arrives, give each partygoer one of the strips of paper and some crayons or markers to decorate.  Once they are finished with their design, tape the paper to one of the teacups.

Alice in Wonderland "Drink Me" Bottles

Materials:
*Glass vials (I got mine from the wedding section at Joann, but I've read that old frappuccino bottles work well for this).
*Cream colored cardstock
*Scissors
*Hole punch
*Twine

Directions:
*Print out as many copies of the below "drink me" tag as you need onto the cream colored cardstock.  Alternately, if you'd like to do the lettering yourself, you could use the tag template from last week's post and either import it into Microsoft Publisher or a similar program and add the text in your desired font, or print the template and hand write the words.

*Punch a hole in the top of each tag.
*Tie the tags to the glass bottles using twine.

Teacup Tags and Snack Ideas for Alice in Wonderland Party

Teacup Snack Tags

     Label your party foods with these adorable teacup tags.

Materials:
*Patterned cardstock
*Cream colored cardstock
*Teacup template
*Pencil
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*Hole punch
*Twine
*Tape

Directions:
*Procure a teacup template.  I used the one from Everything Alice that is supposed to be used for making invitations, but there are probably plenty of ones freely available online you could print.
*Trace the template onto the patterned cardstock as many times as you need food labels.
*Cut out the teacups, using the X-acto knife when necessary.
*Using the template provided below or by designing a tag of your own, create labels for your snacks.  I opened the template up in Microsoft Publisher and added text that way, but you could also use a similar program or hand write the labels.

*Print out and cut out the labels.
*Punch a hole in the top of each label.
*Tie some twine to the labels and then tape them to the teacups.

Snack Ideas

For snacks, we had almond comfits (Jordan almonds), since comfits are the prize for the caucus race in the book.  We also had White Rabbit crackers, which were Annie's White Cheddar Bunnies, bread and butterflies (toast with butter and cinnamon sugar cut into butterfly shapes), and "Eat Me" cupcakes made using Funfetti cake and Brian's homemade icing.

Alice in Wonderland Silhouette Cake Toppers

Materials:
*Full body photos of people and pets to represent various Wonderland characters printed onto printer paper
*Pencil
*Printer paper
*Tape
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*Cardstock
*Laminator
*Toothpicks

Directions:
*Pick out a full body photo of someone who could play the role of one of the characters from Alice in Wonderland and print it onto printer paper.
*Tape a photo up to a window.
*Tape a sheet of printer paper over the photo.
*Trace the outline of the figure onto the printer paper and then remove the tracing from the window.
*Make any modifications to the silhouette that you need to.  For example, in the original photo I used for my Alice silhouette, I had my arms in the air.  I had to redraw my arms to make them work better for the cupcake topper.
*Pick one attribute for each Wonderland character and if it would affect the shape of the character's silhouette, draw it in.  I drew a bow onto my Alice template and a hat onto my Mad Hatter template.
*Cut out the silhouettes and trace them onto a cardstock sheet of your choice.
*Cut the silhouettes from cardstock.
*Add any details that you think are important to the characters.  For example, I gave my Cheshire Cat a grin.
*Laminate the silhouettes and cut them out.  Leave some extra plastic at the bottom of each one to stick into the cake and help prop them up with toothpicks.  Alternately, you could attach the figures to popsicle sticks and that may help them stand up better.

     Here are the cake toppers on my birthday cake.  I did not think the placement through well before putting them into the cake and so it ended up looking unbalanced.  It would have worked much better had I put the Mad Hatter and Alice on opposite sides, but it was an interesting cake.

Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party

     On Sunday I had my Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party, so for the next few weeks (or months) I'll be posting some Alice in Wonderland themed crafts.  Today's post will be an overview of the party so you can get a sense of what it looked like and I'll try to link to each craft as I write the posts.  You may also want to see my earlier post on my Alice in Wonderland charm bracelet.

     First up is the snack table.  This was one of my favorite things about the party.  I really liked the setup and the happy sunflowers are so adorable!

     On the ceiling are some playing card streamers.  I used extra fabric to cover up the printers and then added decorations to the top.  On one of the printers you can see a mouse and a rabbit inside teacups:

     To make the mouse I used the templates and instructions for the "Lavender Dormice" in the book Everything Alice, with some modifications.

     For the White Rabbit, I used the template and instructions for the White Rabbit in the "Wonderland Mobile" in Everything Alice, again with some modifications.  In the book they do some gorgeous embroidery on the rabbit, but I don't know how to embroider things and so I left that off.

     On the other printer you see my key tree and my old stuffed animal cat, David Copperfield, playing the role of Dinah.  I made him a clay name tag with the name "Dinah" on it using the same technique as I did when I made the clay nameplate earrings.

     Here's the crafting table.  We decorated paper "teacups" and made some paper fans.  I found some oversized playing cards at a yard sale a little while back and I taped a few of them to the booth for some added decoration.  It's hard to see from this picture, but I have a clear plastic tablecloth covering the cloth one.  I found that was the perfect way to have a nice tablecloth without having to worry about it getting stained.  On the wall are some Alice in Wonderland themed photos and artwork that I used to replace the regular photos I have hanging on the wall.  You can also see that I kept my whimsical spring floral arrangement and my spring butterfly mobile out for the party.  I thought they went well with the rest of the decor.

     Here are the decorations on the other wall.  Some of them are kind of hard to see, but I'll have better pics in a later post.

     These are the plates, napkins, and straws I used.  They all came from Dollar Tree.  And here are some photos from the party:

     Here are some of the guests being crafty.  Katie is wearing Cheshire Cat ears.

     Here's me as Alice and Brian as the Mad Hatter.

     Trying to give dad bunny ears.

Cake time!

Dinosaur Stamped Napkins

     Here's an easy way to dress up napkins for your next party.  If you already have a collection of stamps, it will cost you virtually nothing to put these together.

Materials:
*Stamps
*Ink
*White napkins

Directions:
*Stamp designs onto the bottom right corner of each napkin.  That's really all there is to it.

Mod Podge Halloween Plate and Halloween Party Ideas

     This past weekend my partner Brian and I invited some family members over for a Halloween party.  I've wanted to have a Halloween party for some time now, but never have been able to, so I was glad to finally host one.  This post includes instructions on how to make one of the crafts I made for my party, the Halloween egg platter, but also some ideas for party snacks, food related crafts, indoor and outdoor decor, and activities for your party.

Halloween Plate

Materials:

*Plate

*Halloween paper napkin

*Mod Podge

*Paintbrush

*Scissors

Directions:

*Trim napkin to fit the bottom of the plate.

*Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the backside of the plate and then stick on the napkin.  Let dry.

*Once dry, apply a thin coat of Mod Podge over the napkin to seal it.  Let dry.  The plate should be hand washable, but I wouldn't recommend submerging it in water if possible and I also doubt it would fare well in a dishwasher.

Halloween Party Snacks and Food Related Crafts

     Serve your guests these deviled eggs that will keep an eye on them.  Just make deviled eggs as you usually would (or use Brian's recipe, given below) and then cut up a few olives into thin slices and use those for the pupils of the eyes.  Also, if you're interested in making your own witch costume, here's how I made the one I'm wearing in the photo.

Brian's Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:

*1 dozen eggs

*5 tbsp mayonnaise

*1 tsp mustard

*Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

*Place eggs in a pot of water and bring to a roaring boil.

*Once boiling, turn the heat down some and cook for 20 minutes.

*Take eggs off the stove and drain the water.  Set aside to cool.

*Once cool, cut the eggs in half and scoop the yolks out into a blender.  Add the mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper and blend until smooth.

*Scrape the yolk mixture into a sealable plastic bag and cut off one of the corners.  Squeeze the mix into the egg whites through the hole in the corner.

     These cemetery cupcakes/cake are easy to make and delicious.  Brian used a devil's food cake mix and his vanilla icing recipe (can be found in this blog post) with some added green food coloring to make it look like grass.  Mys sister Katie and I used ground up Newman's O's (which Brian ground in the blender) for the dirt and chocolate orange Milano cookies for the tombstones.  Like the cupcake stand?  Here are the directions for how to make it.

     Here's the snack table setup we had at the party.  Brian's mom made the witch's brooms by poking pretzels into peanut butter cups.  The gray thing in the very back, which is mostly hidden behind the food, is holding food picks, which we used to skewer cheese cubes.  The directions are here.  Also, if you like the tablecloth, here's how I made it.

     This is what I did for the table setup.  Here's how to make the goblets.  I plan to write about the coasters (which you can't see very well here) in a forthcoming post.

Indoor Decor

     Here are some simple DIY decorations.  Directions for the Halloween curtain are here.  Here's how to make the creepy dolls.  I made the tablecloth using basic tie dyeing techniques described here.  The morphing holographic photos came from Dollar Tree and Rite Aid, but I wrote about how you can make them look nicer here (even though it isn't mentioned in the post title).

     Some more decorations.  The little figurines and light up haunted grove my mom gave me years ago.  The Halloween tree with the ornaments I made and I also made the potion bottles.  Although I didn't include photos here, for the party I also put up my felt sleepy bat, my Halloween fuse bead magnets, and my Halloween banner.

Outdoor Decor

     Now for some outdoor decorating ideas.  I got the eyeball path markers from Kmart.  They light up and play spooky sounds when someone walks near them.  Two of the foam tombstones I made, and you can find directions for them here, while two came from Dollar Tree and I forget where the two little ones came from.

     And a few more outdoor decorations.  This spooky eyeball wreath I made also glows in the dark (directions here).  I printed the door hanger from Family Fun's website years ago, but I can't seem to find the link for it anymore.

Activities

     Looking for some ideas for activities for your party?  We had a Yankee swap at ours.  I used the mini paper witch hats I made a few weeks ago and either hid a little gift under them or adhered a piece of painter's tape to the bottom with a number on it.  Each number corresponded to a particular gift that was too large to fit under one of the hats.  Brian's mom got a bookmark that I made from the swap, as did Brian's sister Alissa.  It wasn't one of these monster ones, but these are pretty popular and they're Halloween related, so I figured I would link to it to give an idea of a possible bookmark you could make.

     My brother Adam got a photo of a giant pink dinosaur skeleton (the one by Perry's Nut House in Belfast),  It can be fun to have some gag gifts, as long as your participants are good sports.

     My dad got a pom pom pal I made.  I also got one, but I gave it to Katie because she had to miss the party for work.

     Brian (who is wearing the vampire cape I made for Halloween last year) ended up with some plastic Halloween rings.  Alissa's boyfriend Kyle ended up with some Halloween earrings and mom got some fall leaf ones that I made by punching leaf shapes out of patterned cardstock and adding ear wires to them.  We had two additional gifts left over at the end, a bookmark that mom got and some googly eyed thumbtacks (just take thumbtacks and glue googly eyes to them) that Alissa received.

     For our other activity, we made caramel apples.  Not exactly picturesque, but they're tasty nonetheless.  Well, that's all for now.  I hope you've enjoyed this blog post and I hope that it has given you plenty of ideas for your own Halloween party!  If you are hosting a party of your own, I'd love to hear what your ideas are/how it goes in the comments below.

Glitter Drip Wine Glasses

Materials:
*Wine glass
*Glitter
*Mod Podge
*Squirt bottle of some form (I used an empty shampoo bottle)
*Funnel (optional, but makes getting the Mod Podge into the squirt bottle much easier)
*Acrylic sealer
*Painter's tape
*Cling wrap

Directions:
*Cover the rim of the glass with painter's tape.
*Pour some Mod Podge into the squirt bottle.
*Squeeze Mod Podge along the bottom of the tape line.  The more you squeeze out in one spot, the longer the drip will be.  You should end up with something like this:

*Let the Mod Podge dry for five minutes and then pour glitter over the Mod Podge.  Set aside to dry for 24 hours.
*After it has finished drying, cover the top of the glass with cling wrap and tape so that the acrylic sealer cannot get inside the glass.
*Spray with acrylic sealer and let dry for the required amount of time given on the bottle.
*Once dry, carefully peel off the painter's tape and cling wrap.

Clay Halloween Cocktail Picks and Spidery "Stone" Holder

     These cute little food picks and holder serve a dual purpose: they are both a decoration and something you can use to skewer cheese cubes.

Cocktail picks
Materials:
*Metal cocktail picks (could also use bamboo probably)
*Clay in various colors
*Red permanent marker (to draw blood veins on the eyeball)

Directions:
*Mold clay into Halloween shapes around the tops of the cocktail picks.
*Bake in the oven following the directions on the clay packets.  Let cool.
*Once the clay is cool enough to touch, add any needed details (such as blood veins on the eyeball) using a permanent marker.

Holder
Materials:
*Styrofoam
*Gray paint
*Paintbrush
*Spider rings
*Webbing
*Scissors

Directions:
*Paint the Styrofoam gray.  Set it aside to dry.
*Once the paint has dried, pull spider webbing across it.
*Snip the ring base off a couple of spider rings and place the spiders on the webbing.
*Poke the cocktail picks into the top of the Styrofoam.

Halloween Spider Cupcake Stand

Materials:
*Two clear plastic plates (I used the clear plates with textured-line pattern from Dollar Tree)
*Tea light candle holder
*Plastic spider ring
*Spider webbing
*White fabric paint
*Sparkly black spray paint
*All purpose adhesive
*Scissors

Directions:
*Turn the plates upside down so that the backside of the plate is facing upward.  If you're using ones with a textured line pattern like I did, follow the lines with the white fabric paint.  Otherwise, design your own webby pattern.  Once you've finished adding lines, set aside to dry.
*Once the paint has dried, spray the backsides of the plate with glitter paint, following the directions on the bottle.  Let dry.
*Once the plates have dried for the requisite amount of time, glue the bottom of the candle holder to the center of the front side of one of the plates.
*Place some spider webbing inside the candle holder.
*Cut the ring base off the spider ring and then place the spider inside, pulling the webbing around it a little.
*Glue the top of the candle holder to the center of the backside of the remaining plate and then set aside to dry.

Top view of the plate design

Close up of the spider

Personalized Pirate Paper Cups

Materials:
*Paper cups
*Scissors
*White printer paper
*Cardstock
*Computer and printer
*Pencil
*Tape

Directions:
*Disassemble a paper cup.  It should separate into two pieces, a curved, rainbow-like shape and a circle.  Discard the circle.
*Snip off the rim of the cup and the folded over part at the bottom that had been used to hold the circle in place.
*Trace the shape of the cup onto a sheet of white printer paper and cut it out.  This will be your template.
*Create your personalized cup design.  Here's the design I used:

*Print out your design.  Position the template so that your image is in the center of the template.  Trace around the template and cut out.
*Tape your design to a paper cup.
*Repeat for the remainder of the cups.

Pirate Octopus Cupcake Toppers

     On Sunday I had my pirate themed birthday party, so for the next few weeks I'll be posting pirate themed crafts.  If you're planning a pirate party, you may also want to check out an older post of mine, Growing Alum Crystals and Treasure Chest Display.

Materials:
*Black clay
*Green clay (or other color you would like to use to make the octopus's body)
*Black permanent marker
*Baking sheet

Directions:
*Mold green clay into the shape of an octopus.
*Use black clay to make the eye and the patch for the eye patch.
*Bake clay according to the directions on the package.
*Remove from oven and set aside to cool.  Once it's cool, draw on the string part of the eye patch using a permanent marker.

Sharpie Mugs + Brownie in a Mug Recipe

     Here is a craft and a recipe in one blog post.  I don't usually post recipes because my cooking skills extend only as far as making spaghetti, but sometimes Brian will come up with something awesome that I can't help but share.  One day Brian came across a brownie recipe that you cook by microwaving in a mug.  We tried out the recipe and it was okay, but not amazing, so Brian used his baking prowess to concoct his own version, which came out wonderfully.  I wanted some way to showcase Brian's delicious recipe on my blog and so I searched the internet for mug decorating ideas, which is how I found out about Sharpie mugs.
     Since Brian and I are both math grad students, I decided to decorate our mugs with math jokes.  If you're not interested in advanced math, feel free to skip ahead to the next section, but I figured I would share the jokes so that any mathematicians in my audience could perhaps get a chuckle.  One reads, "You may be a mathematician if, when being interrogated as a suspect by the police and asked to prove your innocence, you begin by saying, 'Assume, to the contrary, that I'm guilty . . .' (at which point you are arrested)."  The other says, "You may be a mathematician if you know the Greek alphabet, but not a word of Greek" and includes some Greek letters that I find myself using often at the bottom.

Sharpie Mugs

     I found this craft here and have included my own, slightly modified version of the directions below.

Materials:
*Plain mugs
*Oil based paint markers (such as the ones by Sharpie)
*Baking sheet
*Pen
*Pencil
*Printer paper
*Scissors
*Painter's tape

Directions:
*Pick up a solid colored mug.  Thrift stores and dollar stores are great places to find plain mugs for low prices.  I ended up getting mine from Goodwill for a dollar each.
*Rinse off your mug to remove any dirt or other grime that could prevent the paint from sticking to the mug.  Isopropyl alcohol is recommended as a cleaning agent, although I did not try this.
*Cut a sheet of white printer paper down to the size you would like your design to be and sketch out your design in pen or pencil.
*Once you have your design ready, shade in the back side of the piece of paper with pencil, such as pictured below:

*Tape your design to your mug using painter's tape, making sure not to cover up any part of your design with tape:

*Carefully trace over your design with a pen or pencil.  Once you've finished, peel off the paper and tape and beneath your design should show up lightly in pencil, such as in the picture below:

*Trace the pencil lines with your oil based paint marker.
*Let your mug dry for 24 hours.
*Place the mug on a cookie sheet and pop it into the oven and turn the oven to 425 degrees.  By placing the mug in the oven while it is heating, you reduce the likelihood that the mug will break due to a temperature differential.
*Once the oven finishes preheating, bake the mug for 30 minutes.  When 30 minutes is up, turn off the oven.  Leave the mug inside the oven while it cools.  This again makes it less likely to break.
*As soon as the mug is cool, it's ready to use.  To increase the longevity of your mug, I recommend hand washing it when you're done rather than using a dishwasher.

Brownie in a Mug

Ingredients:
* 3 tbsp hot cocoa powder
*2 tbsp flower
*1/4 tsp vanilla
*1 tbsp oil
*2 tbsp water
*Optional: vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, sprinkles, or other toppings

Directions:
*Combine flour and hot cocoa mix in a mug.
*Add vanilla, oil, and water.  Mix until smooth.
*Cook in the microwave for about 1 minute and 40 seconds.  It should look something like this when it's finished:

*Let cool for a couple of minutes, as the brownie can be very hot.
*Top with ice cream, whipped cream, sprinkles, or other favorite brownie toppings and enjoy :)