Getting my craft on!

I have a little treat for you guys today!  I’ve been crafting all weekend (you know in between changing diapers, giving baths, washing clothes, cleaning out my closet, making returns, etc.) and you can say I’m rather exhausted!  It was so much fun though!  Crafting I mean.

Alivia’s birthday is on Monday so we are having her birthday party this Sunday and I’m a little excited!  Okay, ALOT excited!  I didn’t do a theme this year ‘cause, quite frankly, I wasn’t sure which theme Alivia would have liked best.  One day Mickey Mouse is her favorite, the next it’s The Little Einsteins, and today it’s Jake and the Neverland Pirates!  Is your head spinning yet?  Mine is.  Since her taste is changing every day, I figured as long as I used bright and colorful party decorations than she would be happy!

With that in mind, I decided on paper pinwheels and flowers!  I bought a beautiful fabric banner from Etsy about two weeks ago and decided to make party decorations using the colors from the banner.  Since the banner contained just about every color you could imagine (you think I would have taken a picture), I had fun mixing and matching papers!

First, I needed a center piece for my table.  Since I bought bright pink and lime green table cloths, napkins, and paper goods, I decided on these colors for my center piece!  I’m really happy with how it turned out!  I haven’t done anything crafty in about 12 years so you can imagine I was a little rusty!

*Note: These are non-spinning pinwheels.  I used hot glue to keep my centers down and then glued them to dowels.

 

I had to personalize it with my baby’s name!  Don’t ask where I got this idea!  It took a bit of experimenting  before I settled on hanging the letters from the ribbon.

Additionally, I made origami flowers which I will be laying on my fireplace mantle above where the banner will be hung!  I found a tutorial on how to make these online.  They are quite time consuming but so worth it!  Each petal is one piece of paper!  A lot of folding involved, but how cute is the end result right? 


And another view.

So you could get a look at the origami boxes I made also (just for these pictures).

And totally unrelated to party decorations, but I thought I’d share another use for these paper flowers!  How about on a gift box?  It just happened to be mom’s birthday this past weekend so I was able to put my idea to use.  She absolutely loved it!  

Although, I will not be using the paper rose I made below, I wanted to share it with you.  How sweet right?  Yep, created from another tutorial online!  It would look so much better with double sided paper.

Lastly, my pinwheel garland!  I have two large posts that separate my living room from my kitchen that I will use to hang these on!  Sorry, I didn’t get a better picture.  I have them sprawled out on my family room floor and the lighting isn’t that great.  Hopefully I’ll get better pictures of them on her birthday!

Now for the best part!  A list of all my resources so you guys can do them yourself!

1. All crafting supplies purchased at Michaels!  The link will take you to their weekly ad for coupons!  My supplies included:
a. 65 lb. double sided card stock
b. pretty assorted papers
c. hole puncher
d. flower puncher (makes paper flowers)
e. glue gun and glue sticks
f. ribbons (for the vase I used for the center piece)
g. rhinestones and buttons
h. dowels (pre-cut)
i. yarn
j. colored beads/rocks (to fill vase)
k. letter stickers

2. Origami flower tutorial can be found HERE! 

3. Origami box tutorial can be found HERE!

4. Pinwheel garland can be found HERE!  (I used both 65lb. double sided card stock and regular paper for my pinwheels.  I used rhinestone, flower cut outs, and buttons for my centers and different color yarns to hang them on)

5. Paper rose tutorial can be found HERE!

6. And incase you’d like a tutorial on how to make a spinning pinwheel, you can find one HERE!  Let’s face it, the working ones are much more fun!
 

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On a final note, I’m linking up my cutie to the following photo challenges.  I just love the details in this picture.  The eyelashes, the button nose, the peach fuzz, etc.  It’s all good!  And, yeah, I meant to cut out her mouth.  I wouldn’t have thought it would come out this great cropped the way it is, but I’m lovin’ it!

Oh, and did I mention I just got my Macbook Pro with Retina Display in the mail today (all of a couple hours ago)?  I’m CRAZY excited!  I haven’t even been able to take it out of the box yet!