Birthday Crafting

Thank you for coming.

I made this artist trading card last night.  I'll make copies of it and put them in my son's birthday goodie bags.  That way I won't forget to say thank you to all of his birthday guests for coming.  

Last night I finished making the body of the sackboy / sackbot, and now I'm working on the head.  I finally figured out how to read the pattern.  I know that sounds weird especially since I've made about 7 of them already.  Its a British pattern, and where it says "inc" what it really means is "k & inc1."

I just thought that I would share 2 things that I saw in my yard today.

Watch out, he's a jumper!

Simple Birthday Goodie Bags

The end of birthday season is almost here.  One of the birthdays is for my oldest son whose party is next weekend.  He is having a laser tag party.  He requested that his goodie bags be simple black felt ones.  No painting or anything on them.  To help know whose bag is whose, I added some red and blue felt tags to the ribbon handles (added before the bag was sewn).  Red and blue are the colors of the two teams at the laser tag place.  I'll paint on the names of everyone who I know will be at the party, and then I'll bring a sharpie to write the names of kids who come but did not rsvp.  Right now I know 6 of the 9 kids will be there.  I'm so glad that he wanted a simple bag this year.  It makes getting ready for his party so much easier.  Now I just need to knit a sack bot for him (a robot sack boy from the game Little Big Planet 2).  I found some cotton yarn that looks kind of like woodgrain.  It is the one thing other than the goodie bags that he asked me to make for his birthday.

The felt is eco-fi felt, which is made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles.

Instead of using a die cut of a tag this year, I just cut out some rectangles and cut a slit on one side of the felt tags.

Happy Birthday (Bags)

My oldest son is turning 11 this week, and his party is on Saturday.  I finished sewing 10 goodie bags for the party.  I only needed to make 9 though.

 I made them just like I would a reusable shopping bag.  I then cut out a food box and used it as a label.  I numbered 7 of them 1 - 7.  I left a space to write the child's name, otherwise they can just remember which number is theirs.

The larger cat tag is for my youngest son's bag.  Both of my kids have their name on their tags / bags.  The goodie bags are packed and ready for the party.

Last month I fused a bunch of plastic bags.  Yesterday I turned 2 sheets of them into bags.  This one is slightly clear.

The orange bags were given to me by an employee at Jo Anns.  I thought that the Boston Globe pink was a nice touch for the top of the bag.  Its a tall, thin bag, perfect for a bottle of wine.

I actually used these two bags to wrap some of my son's presents in.

Birthday Goodie Bags

Ever since my oldest son's 4th birthday I have been making the goodie bags for his parties.  I don't like those plastic ones.  The kids take them home and throw them away.  I like the goodie bag to be one of the goodies that they take home and use again and again.  I also hope that they get passed on to younger kids when the other child is to big for them.  This will be the 2nd year that I am making them out of printed fabric.  My son is having a lazer tag party.  I couldn't find any fabric that matched the theme, but this black birthday fabric works great.  I am making them the same way that I make my reusable shopping bags, only smaller.  I need to make 9 for this year.  Seven birthday guests, the birthday boy, and his little brother.

These are the fabric goodies bags from last year's water themed party.

This Pikachu one is from his Pokemon birthday party.  It is made from felt.  I just used fabric paint and google eyes to decorate it.

Here is the back of the Pikachu one, a poke ball.  I started painting these 3 months early, because I was pregnant with my 2nd child.  I knew that he would be born before the party, and that I wouldn't have much time to work on them after his birth.

I think Elmo was from his 5th birthday.  It took a long time to paint all of the Elmo faces.  I prefer to attach the child's name to the handle so that it can be removed and passed on to another child.  The soccer one was for his 6th birthday.

The back of the Elmo bag is fake fur and google eyes to represent some of the monsters on Sesame Street.  The back of the soccer one had glow-in-the-dark paint and the child's name.  I had to make about 27 of the soccer bags, because he wanted to hand them out to his whole class.  He opted to not have a party that year and do something special with us (mom & dad) instead.

Bags not pictured: Spiderman, mini golf, and the webkinz tiger.  The webkinz tiger was the most labor intensive.  I had to fuse a forest printed fabric to felt.  Then I machine applicayed fake tiger fur to it, along with fake white fur for the cheeks.  I embroidered whiskers, sewed on a button nose, and glued google eyes on it.  It looked great, and my youngest son still plays with his bag.

Birthday, Bracelets, and Critters

There was a birthday in my home this week.  I wrapped the presents in fabric and a fused plastic bag tote.  Easy and environmentally friendly gift wrapping.

I made a few more soda tab bracelets yesterday and one more today.  I also got an order for 3 today.  I'm currently painting a pvc pipe display for the bracelets.

My toddler found 5 caterpillars outside today.

All the critters were out enjoying the sunshine.

Here are some bees enjoying a drink of water from the kiddy pool.