Seal Party!!!!

For my Munchkins birthday this year, we worked on a seal theme chosen by the Munchkin herself. After searching around the web I realized, "Hey, Seal Parties.......NOT that popular."  

So, I had to make up the theme myself!! Here's the basic gist:

A fun interactive seal card inviation. Click HERE to see the video tutorial.

Our playroom became an underwater adventure room. I used crepe streamers in various shades of green and taped them to the ceiling and tossed them on the floor to be seaweed. White balloons became Harp Seal pups with a black permanent marker. I found a fishing net on sale for $2 and I draped that on the ceiling to give the room a little extra decor. :-) 

I sewed up some little black mesh bags and put in some sea themed coloring pages that I printed out, sea themed silly bands holding the coloring pages in place, clothespin fish that the munchkin and I made together, clothespin seals, a curly-q silly straw, and a small selection of plastic sea animals. The mesh bag was tied with a bit of the "seaweed" crepe. 

I also made some more polymer clay seals for the Munchkins collection:

Of course, we had our Rocker Seal:

And, I even made a cake. It was the most delicious 3 tiered yellow cake with buttercream frosting and fondant seals, rocks, and sea weed. Unfortunately, I didn't take any good pictures of the cake!! Here is the best that I could get:

The little white circles around cake and on the rock are actually nautilus sea shells. The picture doesn't do it any justice; I had to mess with the all the photo editor settings just to get this picture looking the way it does. :( But, you get the idea, right?? 

The Munchkin had a total blast. The seal party was a success with the young and the old. :-) 

Just before writing this post, I received an email from a woman (and fellow blogger) named Andie who had hosted a seal party last year!! If only I had known sooner, I would have found some inspiration from her party I am sure. :-) Here is the LINK should you want to check it out!!

I am linking up to all these Great Blog Parties, check them out and be inspired!!

Thrifty Thursday
Whatever Goes Wednesday 

Frugalicious Friday

Sunflower Wallflower

Here's the latest craft!!  I made this in the span of time it took to watch a movie. Quick and simple is the way to go, right?? Well, it's the way I like to go....otherwise I stay up all night 'cause I can't set the project down. :-) I love the way these flowers can lighten up a whole room in the house.

For this project you need:

Styrofoam circles

Paint

Wooden Popsicle sticks
Exacto Tool

See what I mean? REALLY simple. 

~Paint the popsicle sticks a sunflowery color....I used a variety of colors because I like the darker-at-the- center, deep orange toned flowers. Let them dry.

~Using an exacto, make a slice all the way around the edge of the styrofoam circle, pointing it in towards the center. This is where you're going to be putting your popsicle sticks. 

~Paint the styrofoam for the seeded, darker area. Let dry.

~Push the painted wooden petals into the slice you made and place them evenly around the entire circle. 

Taaaa DAAAA!!

I Linked Up to these Parties!! Check them out and be inspired!!

Under $100 Linky Party
Thrifty Thursday
Frugalicious Friday

Whatever Goes Wednesday 

Seal Theme Still Going Strong

Well, we had my Munchkins 4th birthday party today!! I stuck strong to the seal theme as best as I could. What do you think of my Rocking Seal? 

I just used a couple of pieces of thin styrofoam and traced the shape of a seal on each. Then, I tried to spray paint it. It turns out, I am totally clueless when it comes to painting styrofoam. Did you guys know that it reacts to spray paint like THIS:

I went through a whole can of spray paint as I stubbornly refused to accept the fact that is was NOT going to work. I love the crater in the above picture....I think I thought if I just held it long enough, it would eventually work. It just dissolved away. But, I'm persistent. :-) Finally I gave up and painted them with some regular acrylic.

I attached them to the regular rocking horse with some thin wooden dowels (I just poked the dowels right through the foam) and I wrapped some mesh around the dowels to make them look a little bit more pretty. The seal rocker was a success at the party. And, I think we'll probably use the seals to adorn the Munchkins room later!!

Here are the Parties I Linked Up To (Check them out, you'll be INSPIRED!!)

Works For Me Wednesdays
Under $100 Linky Party
Thrifty Thursday
Frugalicious Friday 

California Blooms Craft

I just received in the mail the most beautiful flowers from California Blooms!!!! My Munchkin picked out the colors, as we will be celebrating the kiddo's birthday party this weekend.  The bouquet we were sent was Mixed Roses....with colors from lavender to orange and anywhere in between. We even had some bright yellows and a pale green. 

I couldn't have been more pleased with the product. Honestly, it boggles my mind how roses can be delivered fresh from Californa and last so long. The product was shipped Wednesday, we got it by FedEx on Friday and they haven't wilted a bit (As of Monday!!). They came packed in a moss type material with a little ice pack under the rose heads and then wrapped in heavy brown paper. It was a charming display, even in the box. Speaking of the box.... we're going to be using it for the Munchkins birthday party tomorrow (more on that in a few days!!). 

I tried something fun with one of the roses. I did a little printing. Our party is Seal Themed....so I am garnering up any kind of nautical art I can make. Here's how the print turned out ( I made little gift tags out of them):

It's a really fun print, huh?? In my mind, this blue print looks like wild ocean waves being sloshed around. So, I trimmed the tags to have a wavy feel to the edges.

If you are interested in buying your own bouquet (which I **highly** recommend) you can check out their website:

http://www.californiablooms.com/

or call their toll free #:

1-888-600-8865

You can also find them on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaBlooms 

And, Twitter:

http://twitter.com/calblooms 

I received a bouquet of roses in compensation for a review of California Blooms. However the review is *entirely* my own opinion and written in my own words. I am a woman of my word (and one of *many* words sometimes)....believe me when I say that if I don't like something you'll know it. :-) Obviously, I was thrilled with my roses!!

I joined these linky parties: