Gobble Gobble

My older sister is a big wig at a swim school and she decided to make thanksgiving decorations for around the swimming pool with the help of my little sister. They're so crafty! Here's how they did it.

Materials needed:

Tacky glue or felt glue

A variety of colors of felt 

Directions:

Big sister free hand cut all of it. Don't worry too much about perfect cutting. All turkeys are different. Start with cutting out the body, just a general turkey shape in a dark brown felt.

Next cut out the head and neck in a tan felt.

Position the neck on the body and fold back where it overlaps. Apply the glue to the neck where it overlaps. This helps you glue just the felt and not the table.

Cut out the beak and glue it on in a similar manner.

Then cut out the eyes in white felt and eye pupils out of black felt and glue on.

She then cut out a snorkel mask out of blue and the top out of green felt (it is a swim school after all). Glue the pieces on.

Cut a waddle out of red and glue it under the neck.

Cut out two crescents to form the shape of the wing.

Next cut out tail feathers in a variety of colors.

Make a line of glue along the edge of one feather and place another on top of the glue line.

Continue until you have completed the tail and glue on the back of the body. 

Then cut out the legs and glue on.

And you're done!

They made 5 of these and voila! Swimming turkeys!

You can decorate these turkeys in any manner you like. You could put a pilgrim hat on them or any theme that works for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for my wonderfully creative sisters and my whole family. What are you thankful for?

Monsters University Costumes

My little sister is incredibly talented, so are my big sister and myself, but lil sis thought up and carried out the idea to create custom stencils for our Monsters University costumes. Check out these great costumes that were put together with simple shirts and Greek letters stenciled on and some fancy headgear made with dollar store supplies.

My girls and I are sorority sisters from the sorority PNK, Python Nu Kappa.

I couldn't find plain pink shirts on short notice so I dyed some white shirts pink. My lil sis made the stencils and we painted the letters on together. It was a simple process. I wish I had done step by step pictures. I think I'll have to revisit that craft again. I sewed the skirts and leg warmers and paired it with pink leggings.

My dad was in the fraternity OK, Oozma Kappa. 

I really wanted him to grow out his mustache and be Don Carlton, but apparently mustaches don't grow in overnight!

Here are my sisters! Big sis, on the left, isn't in a sorority, but she is clearly a college student at MU! Lil sis, in the center, is in HSS, Etta Hiss Hiss. She has pink and purple streaks in her hair and pink and purple dots all over her.

My husband is definitely not the fraternity type of guy, but he does attend MU and is wearing the shirt to prove it. He is modeling another of lil sis's creations. I wish I had a better picture of him wearing it. It says MU. I think I'll just make him wear it one day and snap his picture. ;) 

The below picture could totally be in one of those "When you see it..." feeds. LOL

AJ is part of ROR fraternity, Roar Omega Roar.

And last but not least is my mom!

She was in the sorority EEK, Slumga Slugma Kappa.

Thank you so much Chantelle for all your help. Everything was amazing!

I love my family!

Monsters University Party

I am so proud of all the decoration and prep I did for my baby girl's second birthday I just had to share it with you all. It was a combination of homemade and store bought.

My sisters and my mom helped out a lot and made my vision of a Monsters University Party come true.

The tissue paper pom poms were made by my mom from left over tissue paper from birthday presents and the piñata I made. See the post about how I made the Sully inspired pinata here.

My sister and I made the Pumpkin Mike Wazowski. See the post about it here. I also painted another pumpkin pink to make the display a little girlier.

The Monsters Inc M doubled as Monsters themed and an M for My daughters name! This was so simple and my sister made it out of plain poster board. It was the perfect decor for the front door.

We had a costume party and I decided that my girls and I would be Sorority Sisters from the sorority PNK.

I sewed the skirts and boots. I couldn't find plain pink shirts on short notice so I dyed white shirts pink and my sister made stencils for the Greek letters that we painted on with fabric paint. I added pink leggings to the outfit and painted our faces with the help of my older sister and voila! Python Nu Kappa sorority sisters!

My little sister made stencils for most of the family so we could all be part of a sorority or fraternity at Monsters University. Stay tuned for a post featuring all her amazing creations!

I even started the custom Monsters University theme from the start with the invitation. I created it all by myself. If you can't tell I'm a tiny bit proud of myself.

Pumpkin Mike Wazowski

Here is another DIY piece of Monsters University decor that tied the theme together with Halloween. My little sister and I made Mike Wazowski out of a pumpkin.

For those of you that don't know Mike Wazowski is the little one eyed green guy that starred in Monsters Inc and Monsters University along with Sully the inspiration for my DIY piñata. You can find the post with detailed instructions here.

I started with yet another fake pumpkin that we purchased last year after the holiday season.

I then spray painted it with some left over spray paint that a friend had leftover from a previous project. I love free craft supplies! There was just the perfect amount to finish covering the whole pumpkin.

My sister then painted the face on the pumpkin. 

A simple and easy addition to our Monsters University Party decor. It is also a great addition to our Halloween decorations that we can use again and again every year.

My adventure in party planning

This month I took on the rather daunting job of planning and hosting my daughter's second birthday! I can't believe my baby is two! I tried to keep things simple, but I got a little bit away from myself. During a bout of pinning I came across a pin of how to make your own piñata and thought "that doesn't look that hard." So I decided then and there I would make the piñata for my daughter's party. Truth be told it was very easy just very time consuming. Here are step by step instructions for how I did it.

Here is the finished product!

The theme was Monsters University and costumes were encouraged. I love that my daughter's birthday is in October and a costume party seemed perfectly logical! I also created both of my daughters and my costume with some help from my sisters, but that is for a later post. This piñata was inspired Sully of Monsters Inc and Monsters University. He is the big blue and purple monster.

Step one: 

Find a cardboard box as big as you want the piñata to be.

Step two:

Trace the shape of the piñata on one side. I chose to do the number 2 because it was my daughter's 2nd birthday.

Step three: 

Cut through both sides of the box to create two cut outs of the shape of the piñata.

Step four: 

Cut several strips of cardboard that are the same width and begin taping them to one side of the piñata to create a three dimensional shape.

Step five:

Continue taping the inside, but don't do the entire shape or you won't be able to tape the inside for the back side of the piñata.

Step six:

Begin taping the back of the piñata to the strips that are attached to the front of the piñata.

Step seven: 

Continue taping strips of cardboard all around the remainder of the shape until completed. Don't forget to leave an opening to fill the piñata with candy.

Step eight:

Paint the entire piñata the base color. I used spray paint to make it a quick job.

Step nine:

Begin cutting strips of tissue paper and cutting fringe into the strips and glueing to the piñata.

Since I was modeling this piñata after Sully of Monsters Inc. and Monsters University it was blue with lavender spots. I cut lavender paper ovals and glued lavender tissue paper fringe to them and glued it to the piñata.

Keep on covering the entire piñata with tissue paper fringe until completely covered.

Step ten: 

Fill with candy. Don't get too emotionally attached since the point of the piñata is to beat it to a pulp to get to the candy. Enjoy!