Pirate Party Day 5: Pirate Birthday Banner

I'm writing this in between a cleaning overhaul of the house and organzing all the party stuff!

I can't believe the party is tomorrow....and the forecast is still showing rain.

Oh well.

I wanted to show you the fun birthday banner I made- it's my first one I attempted to make from scratch so be kind :)

I made these circle letters on Word and printed them out on white cardstock.

Pirate Party Day 4: Pirate Loot Bags (and 3 free printables!)

I am pretty much staying a couple hours ahead of each post.

Literally.

I keep thinking I will have all this time (why do I think that??) to get all this stuff done...

and I really just don't :)

But I manage to get it done and then post about it a few hours later.

But today I had a research final...so that's a good excuse right?

Hopefully there will be plenty to party with tomorrow- I have several things to show ya!

Today I went about putting together little pirate-y goodie bags and have some way fun printables to share with my favoritest followers (ummm....that would be you!)

I went easy and cheap for these little suckers but they are way cute so that isn't even a factor :)

These are the loot bag toppers I designed and printed out.

(scroll to bottom to download them for youself!)

I printed them on white cardstock and they are 5x7, which fit perfectly with any regular snack-size ziploc bags you get.

And you're other special ingredients....

*stapler

*Snack-size baggies

Our little pirate friends are getting chocolate gold dubloons

(little man thinks it's way cool that I convinced Jake to give me some- haha!)

and a cute pirate eye patch I got from Target.

These are super easy.

Cut out the printable treat bag toppers and then fold them in half like so...

Then staple them along each end of the baggies to close :)

And you have loot bags worthy of any mini landlubber that comes your way :)

And another fun piece of eye candy is the 'Get Your Loot' sign I whipped up and framed.

It lets everyone know what they are there for and, most importantly, not to leave it behind!

(Another special thanks to Sprik Space for the fantastic pattern pieces that I've used as backgrounds for most of my prints!) :)

(and yes, you can download this too...head to the bottom!)

I'm in love with the black, red and blue colors.

Maybe because I don't get to use those combinations very often.

It's fun to branch out :)

And I'm kind of proud of my little sign

(and am in love with the cute little ship)

Alrighty, mateys.

The loot YOU were waiting for is here:

Black and White Loot Bag Topper:

(Click here to download)

Red and White Loot Bag Topper:

(Click here to download)

"Get Your Loot" Sign

I printed mine in an 8x10 and it turned out great!

(Click here to download)

Hope you like your loot!!

**Go here to check out the whole party

and here for the free complete set of printables**

Linking to:

Simply Creations @ Simple Home Life

Remodaholics Anonymous @ Remodaholic

FFA Friday @ Sassy Sites

Friday Flair @ Whipperberry

Sister Sunday @ Sisters of the Wild West

Pirate Party Day 3: Where to put all your booty and a free pirate printable!

That title is a mouthful, eh?

Remember yesterday when I showed you all the pirate treasure the mini mateys will be digging up in their make-shift beach?

Well I wanted to show you what I came up with for them to carry all their loot in.

These aren't their 'loot bags' for the end of the party...just some fun party favors for playing the 'game'.

I searched craft stores and the dollar stores for some kind of net to have them use, but came up empty handed.

I was about to give up and just give them boring sandwich bags when I suddenly had a lightbulb moment while walking down the dollar store aisles for the hundredth time.

And it happened when I saw these guys...

I was actually just staring randomly, frustrated that I wasn't finding what I was wanting...

and suddenly these guys had major potential.

Yes, they are plastic cups.

Yes...these have fantastic potential :)

That night (I was dying to see if they'd actually turn out the way I was picturing it)

I grabbed my supplies and went to work...

*scissors

*printed pirate printables (read on to find out more)

*hole punch

*jute

I made these way cute stickers to put on the cups.

(yet another way to use Sprik Space's fantastic free pattern pieces)

And, of course, I'm giving you the file so you can use it for your own pirate-y adventures.

Go here to download and pretty please send pictures if you end up using them!!!

I printed them off of my Inkjet Sticker Project Paper that I got many moons ago...

It's great stuff and so easy to use.

You print on it just like you would regular printer paper, just set your settings to 'other special paper' when printing.

I printed mine nine to a page.

They were just the right size that way.

Here the cups are with step one completed:

Looking better already, huh?

And here's a peak at my special little helper, Hobby:

He seems to think the scissors would be fun to play with.

I keep trying to tell him...

Hubby (not Hobby) helped me with the rest...

basically we just punched holes on either side of the cup but this is harder than it seems.

The plastic did not like getting cut through, and we had some pretty strong little hole punchers.

But we made it through.

And then tied jute through the holes for a handle of sorts.

And then they were ready for their photo shoot...

I think they turned out way cute for plastic cups.

And they definitely made little man excited.

But who wouldn't be excited when there are buckets filled with treasure lying around?

I mean, I know it gets me excited.

Or maybe it's just the cute stickers and burlap.

Most likely :)

So there ya are, fun buckets to put all your pirate booty!

(and did I mention they were just two bucks for the lot of 'em?)

I'm so excited for the kids to get digging on saturday.

Although I still have a million more projects left to do.

I think I"ll be sad when I no longer have an excuse to make pirate-y stuff though.

So I have to milk it as long as I can, right?

Argh!!!

**Go here to check out the whole party

and here for the free complete set of printables**

• Hookin up with HOH @ House of Hepworths

Pirate Treasure

I thought I'd share a quick glimpse into all the pirate loot I've picked up this past week.

One great idea I found was to fill a kiddie pool with sand and let the kiddos dig for treasure.

I'm super excited because little man loves to dig and...

I get to pick out all sorts of fun sparkly treasures for them to dig up!!

I have a way cute printable and treasure bucket idea coming up but you'll have to wait til tomorrow for that :)

For now...here's a glimpse at all the treasure they'll be searching for...

Shells, gold dubloons, sparkly rings and necklaces...

Colored gems...

and foam sea animals.

Plus some fun shovels to dig for their loot!

**Go here to check out the whole party

and here for the free complete set of printables**

Pirate Party Day 2: Pirate Ship Wreaths

So Arkansas is in full-blown Tornado season at the moment.

It's been storming all week but last night got pretty sketchy.

We took Little man to Olive Garden for his birthday dinner and ended up having to stay in their walk-in freezer for a while to sit the tornados out.

Eek.

And they are back tonight in full force.

They called last night a 'moderate' storm and tonight a 'severe'.

So send your prayers towards us tonight.

Especially those in Vilonia that were hit last night.

I'm getting a little nervous that little man's pirate party might be blown indoors due to rain.

But I'm trying to stay positive, all while making back-up plans in the back of my head.

So are you guys ready for day two?

If you have been following me for a while, you might remember the puppy party we threw for little man last year.

I made some dog collar wreaths and they've stuck around til this year in the party box.

I dug them out and gave them a little makeover:

Pirate Party Week Day 1: Scalawag Worthy Invitations

Are you guys excited about Pirate Party Week?

Sunshine-y & Quick Makeover

Remember how I teased you on facebook about possibly doing a laundry room/closet makeover during my spring break?

Well...I ended up following through with it.

I just haven't got my butt in gear enough to show you the grand reveal (and it's a pretty grand one!)

So here's a little sneak of what's on the inside.

A very small peak that really won't tell you a whole lot but still :)

It's something, right?

I found this little cutie at Goodwill a while ago and fell in love with the cute rounded bowls and small spoons.

I am so inspired by Kristi and The Speckled Dog and all the gorgeous-ness she whips out.

So this is my shout-out to her :)

I totally thought of her while painting this piece in a sunshine-y yellow.

I gave it a good distressing too.

Nothing but the best, of course.

Sorry this doesn't tell you a bit about my laundry room.

(no...the green chippy table is most defintely not inside my laundry room, just sayin')

But I love these little bowls.

So I just had to share.

I'm always amazed at what a little paint can do.

I'm hanging onto the spoons- I know they'll come in handy eventually.

Have you found any fun finds lately?

Linking to:

• Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Felt & Fabric Ruffle Wreath

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend...

I am completely worn out from mine but it was a good one :)

I"ve been promising you fun spring projects forever and finally am getting around to delievering.

sorry 'bout that.

I've been doing other fun things like taking my GRE test for graduate school (yuck)

and picking out new flooring (a huge YAYY).

I'm excited to show you my super fabulous ruffle wreath...

although I don't know if it's technically a ruffle wreath but it's ruffly to me and I get to name it :)

My biggest tip with this wreath is to do a normal sized wreath form!!!
Ack.

I had this humongous lovely from a Goodwill shopping day:

and I just didn't really realize how big it was.

It's HUGE.

I mean, big big and bigger than I was thinking in my head :)

I bought a yard of brown felt (super cheap at Hobby Lobby) and started cutting circles.

This part took me a good week because I got super bored with cutting circles.

It wouldn't take long if you had amazing work ethic though. Haha.

There were hundreds of circles.

Little man did all the stacking because he's OCD like that.

I used push pins to attach them to the wreath.

I just folded them in half and pinned them into the wreath form.

Then I seperated the folds to make them look more ruffly.

The yard of felt was just barely enough to cover the top and sides of this sucker.

The inside perimeter ended up not being able to be covered.

Enter frustration.

Remember my yummy fabric from my chair revamp?

It always makes me happy to look at and I had some scraps leftover so I started playing with it.

I love when projects start to fail because that's when they usually change for the better.

In this case, I loved this much MUCH better than just being all ruffly brown.

Check it out...I'm in absolute LOVE with the pop of color.

I ended up taking a strip of my fabric and hotgluing it into the inside perimeter of the wreath.

Then I undid the row of ruffles closest to it and repinned them down over the fabric to give a smooth line.

Yumm.

I was super excited about the turn of events for my little humongous ruffly wreath.

It was just the pop of spring my front door needed.

I made a loopy flower from my fabric too and attached it to the front.

The inside of the flower has a huge button from my stash.

And of course, I had an 'H' just lying around begging to be put on.

Wanna know something about using a humongous wreath form?

It is super heavy.

Even without anything on it. the straw form was rather bulky.

So hanging it was a pain.

I should have wrapped the ribbon around it before pinning my ruffles on...

and I could go back and do that.

But I was tired of those pins after about two hundred or so of them.

So the ribbon is pinned AND hotglued on.

Trust me, it ended up on the floor a couple times before the hot glue entered in.

Oh well.

What is it about this fabric that makes me so happy?

I'm pretty sure I bought another yard of it the other day because I need it somewhere else.

So...is it worthy of being called a ruffly wreath?

Really. It's the monster of all ruffle wreaths.

But well worth it in the end.

Sometimes I love crafting fails...because if it had ended up all brown it probably would have ended with frustration and a huge pile of felt circles.

Ack.

Yay for epic crafting fails...sometimes, that is :)

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• Spring has Sprung @ Craftoholics Anonymous
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• Anything Related @ All Thingz Related
• Show me what ya got @ Not Just a Housewife
• One project at a time @ A Bowl Full of Lemons
• Tuesday to do @ The Blackberry Vine
• Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
• Under 100$ @ Beyond the Picket Fence
• Simply Creations Friday Link Party @ Simply Creations
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• Feature Friday @ Spunky Junky
• Tickled Pink @ 504 Main
• Friday Flair @ Whipperberry
• Friday Favorites @ Inpsiring Creations
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• Creative-ly You @ The Creative Crate
• Sister Sunday @ Sisters of the Wild West
• Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming
• Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Naptime