This is an easy tutorial for robot shaped crayons only because we were having a robot-themed birthday. It’s really for any kind of shaped crayons – the possibilities are endless. All you need is a few boxes of regular crayons, a silicone mold and an oven.

Step 1: Peel all the wrappers off the crayons. It’s tedious, but put on a movie, grab a glass of wine and get to work.

Step 2: Break the crayons into pieces. For the 1 inch molds we broke each crayon into 3 or 4 pieces.

Step 3: Put broken pieces directly into the silicone mold.

Step 4: Put the mold in an oven or toaster oven set at 350 degrees for approximately 5-7 minutes, or until the wax has melted.

Step 5: Carefully transfer the mold to a shallow dish filled with ice water. Once the wax cools and hardens, pop out the crayons and repeat!

Lots of colors! Erin made a whole rainbow – each kid got at least 8 crayons.

Tips:

• We were looking for a way to melt the wax to pour into the molds when I suggested just melting the wax IN the mold. It worked perfectly, and all the details on the crayons showed up really well.
• This is the silicone robot mold we used for the crayons. It’s technically for chocolate, but any silicone mold would work for crayons.
• Wax DOES burn, so keep an eye on your crayons and don’t try to rush them by turning the oven up too high.
• If you set your mold on a piece of tin foil (see below) the foil cools almost instantly and it’s easy to transfer to the cold water without tipping or sloshing the wax.
• We only filled the molds about half way – it kept the crayons easy for little hands to grab.

Crayons in action!

Robot birthday post coming soon!

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My second most popular post ever is the totally easy, no-sew baby tutu I made for Caroline’s monthday photos during her first year. (Also, ermahgah guys, look at TEENY TINY CAROLINE in that tutu tutorial. I can’t even. I think I need another baby.*) If I had known how much the internet loved tutu tutorials I might have made it slightly less…sarcastic. But in the long run 99% of people seem to have found it helpful rather than rage-inducing. And may I suggest that if a tutu tutorial makes you really, really angry perhaps it is time to reexamine your life?

Anyways, since both Caroline and Evan have beat the crap out of that tutu for the last 18 months, I thought I’d add some “how has it held up?” photos to the old post and publish them here too so my mom doesn’t miss them. The answer is: Pretty well!

Tulle has a tendency to attract dog hair/lint/fuzz/every single crumb within 100 yards so looking back, white might not have been the best option. But it’s also pretty easy to brush off and/or lint roll and/or spray with a water bottle and shake out.

The tulle has gotten pretty tangled from being so well loved (and also stored bunched up in a corner) but can be smoothed out if I comb through it with my fingers. Although the sort of bunchy look isn’t really a bad thing – I feel like it really fits Caroline’s personality. Her nickname is Little Mess. Plus the whole “floating on a cloud” look is why I like baby tutus.

The ribbon waist was a really great idea, since she still fits in it easily. Even though Caroline is still tiny peanut munchkin toddler, Evan has definitely gotten bigger and the tutu still fits him (although her wouldn’t agree to post for pictures). And it’s easy to slide the tulle knots around to make it even.

Have I talked you into making a tutu (or another tutu) yet? Have you seen through my admittedly extremely weak premise and ignored this whole post in favor of just going “Awwww” over Caroline in a tutu photos? Either way, BOTH things can be done if you check out the tutorial here:

*Yeah, I said it. Gimme until after BlogHer, OK? Also, please ignore the giant booboo on Caroline’s head – she got a face rug burn at Target (I don’t even). Maybe I should wrap her in bubblewrap before I consider having another.

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This feels a little bit self congratulatory (especially since the party hasn’t even HAPPENED yet, so I have no proof these things actually WERE good ideas) but I am pretty excited about some of the stuff I’ve put together. This is the 4th party I’ve thrown since I discovered how much I LOVE hosting, and I’m finally getting the hang of it. And by “getting the hang of it” I mean “not spending a zillion dollars on unnecessary crap” and “make sure the guests have fun instead of just making the pictures look good”. So here are a few of the details I think are worth explaining a little more in depth than the coming soon post-party picture post.

DIY lace paper

A fancy hole punch can make regular paper look expensive. I bought this Martha Stewart edge punch at Michael’s with a 50% off coupon I tore out of a magazine. I’ve had it in a drawer for months and has started to think it was a dumb purchase, but it ended up being PERFECT for Caroline’s invitations. Then I carried the pattern over to the signs for the cocoa bar, food labels, cocktail recipes and the favor bags. One $10 box of blank invites and one package of white cardstock was the only other cost. There are tons of patterns that would be cute for other party themes, but the lace worked nicely with my snowflake decorations.

Party favors

I’ve spent a lot of dough (PUNNY!) on stupid crappy plastic party favors in the past, but I’m really excited about this idea. I made two double batches – one pink, one blue – of sparkle play dough (using this recipe I found on Pinterest), divided each color up into 10 smallish balls, popped them in sandwich bags and stapled on a label. It worked out to pennies per favor and I think they kids will really like it. I also made a triple batch of plain white glitter play dough I’m going to have out with a bunch of plastic cookie cutters for the kids to play with at the party. They’re all going to be COVERED in glitter but I figure then they’ll just match my theme better.

Christmas tree turned into a Caroline tree!

Twinkle picture in action

I figured since the Christmas tree was already prominently featured as part of our decor (because it is a GIANT TREE covered in lights in the middle of the room where we have parties) I should make it more Caroliney for her birthday. I am very conscious of the “My birthday never felt special because it was too close to Christmas” problem EVERYONE I MET told me about when I was pregnant. I dreaded telling people I was due December 26th because they always told me about their mother/brother/cousin/dog who was born that week and has hated it their whole life. My attempt to prevent that feeling in Caroline is why we are having this party at all, so I’m doing my best o make the day ALL ABOUT HER. But really, photos + clothespins on the tree is a cute idea with ANY photos.

Which reminds me I made this:

I crack myself up.

DIY Pull String Pinata

I think this is the project I am most excited about. Ever since I saw Young House Love’s party post about their daughter’s 1st birthday I’ve been dying to try making my own pull-string pinata. The idea is a one year old is too young to smack a pinata with a stick (and also hello December birthday in New England, we’re INSIDE, maybe giving kids bats to swing isn’t the best idea) put they can pull a ribbon and have the treats fall out. To make the base, I followed their tutorial here. My original concept was a giant snowball or snowflake but I like how this ended up even better. I just folded coffee filters in half and glued them around with hot glue, overlapping layers.

Close up of the coffee filter petals

My last good idea isn’t so much a really good idea as just a “Why didn’t someone TELL me that before?!” I bought a small glass pitcher at Goodwill to put the cream of coconut in for my grown-up drinks. I figured no one could identify white stuff in a glass pitcher as cream of coconut, so I was just going to write on the glass with a black sharpie and it would be my cream of coconut container FOREVER. But it turns out magic eraser takes permanent marker off of glass super easily.

p.s. I have terrible handwriting

It also worked on clear plastic, which is perfect for my dipping sauces. Regular dry erase would get smudges and illegible as soon as it got dripped on/touched but I tried smudging the sharpie and I can’t.

I’ll try to have a full party recap up on Monday, unless I am so exhausted I end up sleeping straight through Sunday. It’s entirely possible.

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I am super proud of this project because for once it WASN’T inspired by something I saw on Pinterest or in a magazine or some other creative person’s blog. It came out of my very own brain, as small and empty as that brain might be.

And don’t go raining on my parade by telling me you wrote a tutorial for the VERY SAME THING back in 1997 when it was ACTUALLY an original idea because WHATEVER DUDE. We are not special snowflakes so just let me have this one, OK? I spend an embarrassing amount of time looking at things on Pinterest and kicking myself and slapping my forehead saying “Why didn’t I think of that?!” So I finally thought of something, which may or may not kind of suck, but as far as I’m concerned is the BEST CRAFT PROJECT EVAR.

No-Sew Rag Wreath Tutorial

Supplies:
Foam wreath form
Thumbtack/map pins
Fabric
Scissors

Because I am lazy, I bought a roll of pre-coordinated fabric strips from the craft store. I think these are meant for quilting but since that is a craft that requires actual skills you won’t find me anywhere near it. You could, of course, use your own fabric just cut into strips, if you were the kind of person who just kept yards and yards of pretty fabrics lying about. I bow to you.

When you unroll your roll, you’ll see there’s two long lengths of each pattern of fabric, folded in half. I started by cutting at the folds, so I had 4 strips of fabric. Then I cut through all 4 pieces at once to make square-ish squares. It’s not rocket science, so don’t get out your protractor or anything. The goal is to cut up a nice big pile of fabric pieces without injuring yourself. IT’S HARDER THAN IT LOOKS. You should see the blister I got on my middle finger from all the cutting.

I am so hard core. A HARD CORE CRAFTER. I’m packing heat! Oh wait, that’s just a glue gun.

I wrapped some extra fabric around my wreath (it took 2 of the full-length strips) because I didn’t plan to decorate the back and I thought it looked a little nicer with the fabric. Pin the ends with a couple of map pins (note: I bought the map pins at Staples in the fastener aisle. They’re just like the pins my mom used to use when she was tacking up a hem to sew but I would bet they’re cheaper when they’re called “map pins”). I alternated my map pins with some large ball thumb tacks in colors that matched my fabric. The tacks didn’t work as well because they were shorter, but add some texture to the finished product.

Now push a pin through the middle of one of your fabric squares into the wreath. Push JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE once you get it all the way in, so the fabric sticks out. Start filling in the wreath with different colored squares. I found it was easier to cover it with a layer and then go back and fill in as needed. After you’re about 3/4 of the way done you’re going to look at it and think “This looks TERRIBLE” but trust me, keep going. Pull the edges of the fabric out so you can pin new pieces close to the old pieces to get that sticky-outy effect.

Originally, I thought they would kind of look like flowers, but because I just cut squares they aren’t especially flower-like. You could use pinking sheers to make the edges ruffly or cut circles of different sizes, but as I’ve mentioned before, I am L to the A to the Z to the Y and nap times are short.

Once you reach the desired fullness level, use two pins to attach a ribbon to the back and hang it up. Check to make sure there aren’t any bald patches and voila, you have a one of a kind rag wreath.

Ta-da!

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I was daydreaming through the Pottery Barn catalog a few weeks ago and I noticed a solid black globe with chalk writing on it (of course, now that I want to show you I can’t find it online). What is it with PB and their obsession with chalkboard paint? Don’t they realize any idiot can just buy a can of that stuff and paint things with it instead of spending hundreds of dollars on the ones from the catalog? Although I guess the kinds of people who order entire rooms straight from Pottery Barn are too busy playing tennis and vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard and rolling in hundred dollar bills to bother buying paint. So it’s left to people like me to write chalkboard tray and chalkboard globe tutorials. I even fancied the globe up a bit to make it more fun.

I am the wordiest, most rambling blogger ever, so to make this easier on people just looking for a tutorial all the REALLY important parts are in bold.

Materials:
Globe
Chalkboard paint
Contact paper
Scissors
Paintbrush
Printer and paper (optional)

I actually own 6 (SIX!) old, inaccurate globes in various stages of deterioration. I used the worst of them for this project, since the other ones are kind of cool. But as my mother pointed out, globes are some of the most useless dust catchers ever so don’t feel too bad about painting over one. Especially one that still says “U.S.S.R.”

Also on this globe: East/West Germany and Burma

Although you can tell it’s not THAT old because Burkina Faso is called Burkina Faso and not Upper Volta (it was changed in 1984).

She's in the Peace Corps

Instead of covering the whole globe with black paint and then drawing my own world on it (which would also be super cute) I decided to try leaving some of the map showing through. For my first globe I used my son’s name:

I tried printing it directly onto make-your-own sticker paper (also known as 8 1/2 x 11 shipping label paper from Staples). This didn’t work out so well, as you’ll see that in a minute. Then I cut out the letters and stuck them on the globe.

Unfortunately, when I painted over the letters, the sticker paper absorbed the paint…

…So when I tried to peel the stickers off the top layer came up but the adhesive stuck to the globe.

Using several different kinds of knives (a regular old table knife ended up working best) I managed to scrape MOST of it off and only damaged the map underneath in a couple of places. I figured this was my trial run – and the globe I’m going to let my toddler play with – so it’s not the end of the world. Ahahaha! Globe joke!!

Luckily I was able to try again.

This one was in even worse shape - the equator is held together with scotch tape

Globe #2 is missing it’s little time zone circle disk, which meant I didn’t have to take it off the stand to paint all the way to the top. (Globe #1 popped right off the stand but I discovered it’s way easier to paint most of it while it’s still on it. Less rolling!)

Here’s the way this project actually works best: I used contact paper I found at Target to make stickers. It was with the shelf paper that comes in cute patterns (on the aisle with the mops) but I picked the most basic clear kind to ensure it was just one layer and wouldn’t come apart like the label paper. I printed out the word “LOVE” with a heart for the “O” on regular paper, then traced it backwards onto the paper side of the contact paper. That way when you peel the paper off and stick it on the globe the letters face the right way.

Then I painted it with two coats of the chalkboard paint…

…and peeled off the contact paper to see the map underneath!

Now my useless dust collectors are cuter, chalkboard dust collectors.

Here are the tips I have to make this as easy as possible:
1. Choose a font or shape that doesn’t require a ton of detailed cutting. I couldn’t even get the center part of the “A” in Evan to come out right, which is why it’s not there. Besides, you want big sections of the map to show through.
2. Don’t make your shapes/letters too large or the contact paper won’t lie flat when you stick it to the globe. It’s important to get the edges stuck down really well to prevent the paint from seeping underneath.
3. When the paint DOES get under the contact paper, you can veeeeery gently scrape it off with a blade or craft knife. It’s easiest if you do it as soon as possible, so peel the stickers off as soon as the paint is dry(ish).
4. Be sure to follow the instructions for dry-time on the chalkboard paint before you try using chalk on it, or you’ll end up with permanent marks. They’re not joking about that.
5. I bought all my globes for mere dollars at our local flea market, which is kind of a lousy flea market but apparently a gold mine for old globes. I’ve also seen them at antique stores but those tend to be a little pricier because they’re in better condition or actual antiques instead of junk. Shipping a globe is cost prohibitive, so your best bet is garage or yard sales or a trashy flea market in your area. Just keep your eyes open!

Other cool ideas – just paint the ocean or the continents with chalkboard paint so you can color in the rest however you want. Get really ambitious and outline the continents in another color. Use painter’s tape to make stripes and then write cute, clever things all around the world. Your creativity is only limited by your access to cheap globes!

But hey, even if you end up paying $30 for one at an antique store that’s still a LOT cheaper than $297.50. Yikes.

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