A Lalaloopsy Birthday - and New Bedroom!

So I realize it's been FOREVER since I last posted! I've been traveling like crazy for work, and I've realized that the few moments I do have at home need to be focused on my kiddos. Because of all of that, I'm JUST getting around to posting about my (not-so) little girl's Lalaloopsy birthday party and new Lalaloopsy bedroom! I am completely thrilled with how it all turned out. My family was able to drive down from Ohio to celebrate with us, and she had a wonderful weekend with them.

Her cake was just a bit over the top, but I really couldn't help myself! I just kept adding, and adding, and adding...until there was absolutely NO MORE ROOM to add any more!!

Her bedroom was my favorite part of the whole thing. She has an incredibly tiny room that, until the redecorating, only had a toddler bed. She's getting to be tall and lanky (could it be genetic?), so the switch to a twin bed was a must.

We found super huge vinyl wall clings that added the perfect touch.

I try to contain her growing collection of Lalaloopsy dolls on top of her bookshelf, but it looks like I'm going to have to find more space if any more are added!

And now to my favorite part of the decor...the plush tree and clouds!

Let me begin by saying that yes, I own a sewing machine, but it's mostly used for scrapbooking. I am by no means a great seamstress. I hate buying things that I'm pretty sure I could make.

After flipping through Lalaloopsy books and studying the pictures on their packaging, I knew the look that I was going for. I bought a few coordinating fat quarters and material for the base of the tree and got to stitching!

To me, the technique (and I use that term loosely) that 'made' these pieces is the extra stitching around the edges. After praying that I wouldn't completely jam or break the sewing machine, I flattened the edges of the stuffed pieces and shoved it back through the machine, pinching and praying with each little stitch. Not only did it make the pieces fluffier (here I go with horrible terminology again...the extra stitch packed the stuffing in tighter, making it fluffier...make sense?), but it gave it the look that I was trying to replicate from all of the pictures.



The extra stitching wasn't as evident on the clouds, so I added a hand stitched border using blue floss



And then came the dilemma of getting these 'pillows' attached to the wall. I essentially wanted to hang them somehow, so I stitched a few loops on the backs and hung them using the teeny tiniest of those removable wall hooks. They work perfectly!!!

Here's a list of where we found everything, in case you're looking to create a Lalaloopsy bedroom for your little princess!!

The bedding is from Wal-Mart

The wall clings are from AllPosters.com

Her cute little chandelier is from Lowes

Picked up the fabric at JoAnn's

M-I-N-N-I-E M-O-U-S-E!!!!

Ok, I realize the song is M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E, but this weekend at the Deeply Rooted House, it's was all about Minnie and a birthday party for a sweet little girl!

Her birthday isn't actually for a few weeks, but we'll be in a post-moving frenzy at that point, so we decided to celebrate a bit early.

There's more in here, right??

Love these Melissa and Doug dress up dolls!

Now, if you've seen my previous posts on this little missy's first birthday party (with the owl cake), or her older brother's Word World cake, you've seen that cakes are my 'thing' for their parties. I love making them, taking oodles and oodles of way-too-much time to make them completely awesome. And this year?

Epic fail.

So you've heard we're moving, right? Last week of work, packing, stress, and a busy (i-had-to-go-to-a-stampin'-up-party-that-morinig) day? Time escaped me, and alas, the cake didn't happen.
Cupcakes, however, did:

Did you know that when you put a Starburst in the microwave for 19 seconds, it becomes a pliable, but not-yet-sticky molding putty? I did!!! Chocolate wafers for the ears, white chocolate chips for the dots, and molded Starbursts for the bows. Yum!!

As crunched for time as I was, I did have a few minutes to make some totally cute party favors for all of the kids:

I decided I had enough time to make these about 15 minutes before the party started!! They're super, super easy!!

1. Cut circles from craft foam (I used one of the paper cups for the party to trace a circle)
2. Cut a curve from the circle so it will fit to the headband
3. Apply a 1" Glue Line® to the curve on the craft foam, adhere to the headband.

To go from 'Mickey' to 'Minnie', make a bow and stick it on between the ears using a Craft Glue Dot®.



Even after the party, they'll still love to play with them!

Another way to easily customize your party is to make cup cozies!

I used a coffee cup cozie as a template and traced that onto my patterned paper:

I used the Mickey Font cartridge on my Cricut to cut the Mickey shape with the '2'. While I was hurriedly cutting foam ears (remember? Just before the party started?), my husband stole the 1" Glue Strips®, glued these to fit the cups, and grabbed the Mini Glue Dots® to stick the shape on. 

Parties can be exhausting! At least I always have six months to recover from one child's birthday before the next one rolls around!!



I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team.

Tina's Big 3-0 Birthday Bash Blog Hop

Tina's Big Birthday Bash Blog Hop!

First we would love to welcome you to celebrate Tina's Big 3-0 Birthday Bash Blog Hop. With that being said, Happy Happy Birthday Tina! We wish you the happiest of birthdays with all your wishes and dreams come true. This hop is to celebrate Tina's birthday and shower her with birthday wishes! Be sure to stop and make sure you wish Tina a Happy Birthday.

There is a phenomenal line-up today showering Tina with birthday wishes and don't want you to miss a single thing!!!

There is some wonderful blog candy if you remark on each stop along the birthday trail of wishes along with becoming a follower, if you aren't already! This blog candy will blow you away so, be sure to leave your comments along the birthday trail!!!

1. K Andrews Design Stamp Set- Scripture Sayings 
2. $30 GC to Scraptastical Kreations!
3. 11x14 Print from My Family Keepsakes

If you happened to visit my blog by accident, I want you to check out the complete hop by stopping first at the beginning of the birthday wishes! You should have come from visiting Enjoli's blog.


On to my project!

 I created a Happy Birthday tag. I just got the My Mind's Eye Rosy "Everything" Stamps from the Lost & Found line, and I couldn't wait to use it! I used my typewriter to type the sentiment, and used the Wood Background Stamp from Scrappy Cat for the floral background (stamped with Studio G ink). The bracket is felt from Inque Botique, and I added a bit o' twine from Doodlebug.

Your next stop along wishing Tina the Big 3-0 Birthday Bash Blog Hop Wishes is Jamie's blog.

Just in case you get lost, here's the whole line up:

1. Tina
2. Ashley
3. Caroline
4. CallyAnn
5. Barbara
6. Susan
7. Ellen
8. Amanda 
9. Shawnee
10. Amy Jo
11. Nikki
12. Lynne
13. Monica
14. Anita
15. Enjoli
16. Erin {you are here}
17. Jamie {go here next!}
    
18. Shannon
19. Janet
20. Lori Apgar
21. Debbie

Thanks again for stopping and checking out my project for Tina today!!!! Happy Birthday Tina!

Non-Christmas(ish) Party Fun with Glue Dots!

I love birthdays! I love that everyone has that one special day that they get celebrated.
But.

 {are there any Christmas babies out there??}

Yeah. Christmas babies tend to have their birthdays accidentally forgotten in the hustle and bustle of the season, or may get a 'combo gift'...
                "This present is for your birthday and Christmas!"


So this year, I wanted to do something special for my 'Christmas baby' friend. We'll be having a normal, non-Christmas(ish) party for her this year. I was in charge of dessert and favors.   (!!!)

As much as I love birthdays, I love a good sale, too!! In all of the crafty stores, Christmas displays and goodies are speedily being set up and readied for the upcoming Christmas season...with $ales!! I went shopping for favors and was viciously attacked by 50% off Christmas items!!

So with my non-Christmas(ish) party theme, I snatched up an arm-full of clear plastic Christmas ornaments :)

Favors:

These are super easy to make and a lot of fun, too!! I'll walk you through the steps. Ready?
You'll need the following supplies:

• Clear ornament (I chose plastic...from experience!)
• Glue Lines® and an assortment of other Glue Dots®
• Coordinating glitter, ribbon and paper flowers
• Glittered chipboard letters (I used Thickers)
• Wood floor finish (I've used a few different brands that have all worked)
• Small piece of plastic wrap

 
The first step is to pour a bit of the floor finish into the clean ornament, cover the opening with plastic wrap, and make sure the entire inside of the ornament is coated.

Once the inside is coated, pour out the excess liquid and pour in the glitter. Give it a good shake to make sure it gets everywhere! Put the hanger back onto the top.

Cut your ribbon to fit around the ornament and apply your Glue Lines® to the back.

Peel off the plastic from the Glue Lines® and adhere your ribbon around the ornament. Use Ultra Thin Glue Dots® to apply paper flowers and finish off with your chipboard letter!




For the second ornament, I glittered the inside and used varying sizes of Glue Dots® (Mini, Permanent, and Craft) and randomly adhered them to the outside of the ornament. Press the dots into the glitter and wipe off the excess. Decorate with paper flowers and chipboard letter.

Cake:
When it comes to cake, I ran straight to the cupcake shop!! I love making kids cakes, but thought cupcakes would be more appropriate for this party. I wanted to dress them up a bit, so I used the Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge to cut out cute butterfly cupcake wrappers. I cut out some coordinating paper to line the wrappers and used some Micro Glue Dots® to adhere them.

Can you see those micro dots?? They're there!! Get out the magnifying glass!!

Use a 1" Glue Line® on the end where the tabs are (I don't care for using the tabs...they always fall apart!), wrap the liner around the cupcake and glue for a perfect fit.

I love them! I think everything turned out really well and we'll have a great non-Christmas(ish) birthday party.

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team.

It's My Birthday Blog Hop, Day 2!!

Thanks for stopping back by!! Again, you should have gotten here from Gloria's blog. If this is your first stop, click here to start over back with the Birthday Girl!

I already had out all of the supplies for the first card, so I thought I'd make a coordinating, yet different card for my second project.

The materials are all pretty much the same for this card, keeping the ric rac trim as a common element. This card stock is the reverse of the piece used for yesterday's card. I used the same chipboard stickers, sentiment and leather trim as the first card, as well.

On this card I felt like there was a bit too much 'white space', so I spritzed a bit of walnut ink to take away some of the emptiness.



Hope you enjoyed these birthday cards!

Your next stop is over to Jennifer's blog.

(but here's the whole line up, just in case!)

Alina 

Anita

Haidee

Jen

Daphne 

Jess

 

Gloria

Erin {you are here} 

Jennifer {your next stop!}

Paula

used in this project:

InLinkz.com