DIY Polymer Clay Journal Ideas

For Christmas and birthdays recently, I've made lots of Polymer Clay journals. I found tutorials on Youtube and was inspired to make them as gifts. I only followed one and a half of them before I started making up my own. They are handmade, special, pretty and practical. Plus they are fun to make, although time-consuming. I sculpted and cooked my clay covers, then super-glued or hot-and-Elmer-glued the covers to the journals. I added some acrylic paint or nail polish to some of them. After everything was dry, I coated the covers in clear nail polish although a regular acrylic gloss would work just as well. For the Starwars one, I glued on scrapbook paper, glued the cooked clay on top, painted the clay, then coated it all in gloss. I must admit I was very pleased with my pun.

There are countless tutorials online. This gift is great for anyone on any occasion. You can even make Polymer clay pens to go with it. Hope you enjoyed!

-Lauryn

Easy Matilda Costume Idea

Here is a super easy tutorial for a Matilda costume from Roald Dahl's book. You probably have the materials on hand already, but if not they are easy to find, and this costume takes only a few minutes to throw together. All that you need is a blue dress, preferably with half-sleeves or long-sleeves. I had mine from a thrift store sale. I suggest you carry a book or two, or a some other element from the story so that people know what character you are. This costume is very quick, and Matilda is a great literary character from an enjoyable classic. This costume is especially good for those who are looking for a costume at the last minute. Not to mention that it isn't too over-the-top, so you could even wear it to work or school.

Here is an illustration by Quentin Blake from quentinblake.com:

I hope you enjoyed! I have more costumes to share, including another Roald Dahl costume, so I'll post again soon!

-Lauryn

DIY Mario Piñata Favor Boxes

I made these Mario mystery boxes for my brother's Modern Mario birthday party. I have another Mario party coming up, and I plan to make these in purple, so of course you don't have to limit yourself to yellow. You can make them, too, by following the steps below:

You Will Need:

-Yellow Streamers

-Glue

-Scissors

-Recylced Cardboard (preferably thin, such as Caprison boxes)

-White Paper

Step 1. 

Cut your boxes into small squares. I cut my Caprison boxes in half, then hot-glued on an extra sqaure to cover the sideless part once the favors were inside.

Step 2. 

Now unroll your streamer, cut it,and fold it up. You will repeat this process, so how much doesn't really matter. I try to do it pretty long to save time. With it folded as in the photo below, make several slits along the bottom edge. Now unroll your bundle of streamers, and you now have a fringe.

Step 3.

Using regular glue, glue your fringe on one row at a time, either going all the way around or doing one side at a time, from bottom to top. you want them to partly overlap.

Step 4. 

Cut out the boxy, Mario-style question mark from white paper, preferrably cardstock. Glue it onto the middle of the front of your mini pinata with regular or hot glue.

You're done!

Wondering what to fill it with besides candy? I will share some cheap, easy, DIY Mario favors soon!

-Lauryn

DIY Frozen Troll Kits Party Favors

 If you follow and keep up with my blog, then you've seen my now four-year-old cousin's Frozen birthday party. You may recall that one of the favors were troll kits. Well, here is the tutorial I promised at last! They are super easy to make, and kids will love them! Plus, they make good boy favors at a Frozen party.

You will need:
-Scissors
-Cardboard
-An ink pen
-Rocks of various sizes
-Small plastic sandwich bags
-Felt
-String or rubber bands
-Googly eyes (optional)
-String again, this time preferably bakers' twine, hemp, or even ribbon
-Sharpies (you do not need to include these in the kits, but they will be necessary to draw mouths and noses)

Step 1. Cut out circles of cardboard and use the pen to create labels. As you can see below, I just wrote 'Create-a-Troll Kit', but you could include more specific directions I suppose.

Step 2. Cut the sheet or sheets of felt into smaller portions, fold them, and tie each bundle with string or wrap them with rubber bands. Those are for clothes. If you want to be more elaborate, you could add in fake moss or something, which I was planning on doing with mine until I realized I was out of stock. Place a bundle of felt (and moss if you use it), two googly eyes, rocks and pebbles (I forgot to gather smaller pebbles for arms and legs), and anything else you would like to include inside of each plastic bag.

3. Use hemp, twine or ribbon to tie a bow around the tops of the bags, and cut off any excess plastic from the tips. Use a hole puncher, scissors or an exacto knife to put a hole in the top of each cardboard label. String the labels on and tie the string or ribbon again to attach them. You're done!

I hope you enjoyed this! I have another Frozen party favor tutorial coming next!
-Lauryn

DIY Out-of-the-Blue Party in a Box

For my grandfather's birthday, I made this party-in-a-box gift. It was late, so I called it the 'out-of-the-blue' party in a box. He lives far away, so I thought this was the perfect gift. It was pretty light to ship, too. Below I will review everything in it so that you can make one, too!

This box included:

-Cupcake topper flags, which can be found at almost any craft store, upon which I wrote "Happy Birthday, ____!" using my grandfather's name in the blank.

- I stuck some blue balloons from Walmart in as well.

- I made a party hat by stapling scrapbook paper into a cone, trimming the edges, and hot-gluing a diamond, then an initial on top of the diamond on the middle. I made a paper pom-pom, but you could buy a pom-pom to glue on top.

- I added a bundle of blue candles from Dollar Tree. 

- I cut strips of tissue paper into confetti, and used the confetti to fill

- a pinata, which you can make with numerous tutorials, such as this one.

To finish it off, I made a banner by hot-gluing paper triangles to bakers twine, and wrote "Happy Birthday" on the banner. Don't forget to add a note reading "Out-of-the-Blue Party in a Box" with a sentimental poem on the back!

I hope to share some costume tutorials soon!