Magic In A Hat

I finished!  Do you hear me Ann!  I actually FIniSheD!

This kinda turned into the project that never ended.  I just kept finding more and more parts to add or make.

I made 16 of these Magic Hat center pieces for the Blue and Gold Cub Scout Banquet back there in Arizona where we moved from.

We started with a lot of pieces, and eventually got them all put together.

I threw in the cubes for the photo cubes.  Just in case you don't remember, the printables are shown below or can be downloaded HERE.

Emmers got to be my big helper through the whole project.  She painted and sorted and stacked with the best of them.  The one thing she really wanted to do was swing the hammer and slam some nails.  Sadly, that wish was not fulfilled.

We did play one wild matching game with this pile of wooden playing cards I made :0)  There are only four, the heart, diamond, spade, and club, but it made for a pretty fun game.  I made 16 sets of 4!  Don't ask me WHY I decided to make WOODEN playing cards.  About halfway through I realized it would have been way less work to use REAL playing cards...but then we never would have played our matching game.  {trying to see the bright side :0}

I thought a magic hat and a pile of cards would just not be complete without a magic wand!  That is why I made 16 of those too.  We like to make sure each family goes home with a centerpiece set.  I am so sad not to be there this year to join in the fun, but I am super excited to get these centerpieces there and still be apart of things that way.

OK Ann, it is up to you to take oodles of pictures and give us a detailed description about what all you guys eat and do at your Magical Blue and Gold Banquet!

We will be anxiously waiting to "hare" all about it *Tee-HeE*

I think the fumes from the finishing spray have officially fried my brain.

Anyway, to my cub scouts so many miles away, 

I hope you LOVE them!

And good luck to all you fabulous cub scout leaders out there scrambling to get ready for Blue and Gold Banquet.  It touches my heart to think of all the boys that will benefit from your hard work!

Keep it up!  You do a noble work :0)

Princesses Peggies

I have been looking and looking for the pictures I took of my Princess Peggies just before Christmas, but just can't find them!  I don't know what file I deleted or disk I formatted to lose them, but all the pics of my present making are gone :0{  

Anyway, here are my Princess Peggies I made for some adorable little girls this year. 

I made 5 sets, seven princesses in each set.  I got the idea from THIS ETSY LISTING I came across on Pinterest forever ago.  I used the man pegs {found at Hobby Lobby $3.99 a bag of 8- Use a 50% off coupon and they are only $2!!!}, mainly because that was all that they had at my local store, but really, I like the man pegs better for the princesses due to the fluffiness of their dress shoulders   I thought it was a bit more of what the princesses would look like than the woman pegs.  Here are some pics so you know what I am talking about...

Woman peg

Man Peg

Anyway, I would have liked some closer pictures to look at, so here are some up close of mine.

I will totally admit I was very apprehensive whether I could actually paint these and have them look good, but when I finally hit the deadline and had to force myself to start painting, it was actually totally rewarding and exciting to see these little darlings come to life!

The Jasmine and Merida I had to just make up.  They were not part of the original set.  I was also informed that I forgot Rapunzel.  I guess I will have to keep that in mind for next time ;0)

So let's talk shop!

I had to sit back and think a while on how best to paint these.  I started by painting all of the peggies flesh color. Do note that they don't all have the same color of skin, so consider painting some pegs in different flesh tone shades.

Next, I painted the dresses, then all the dress trim, before painting the hair.  Just about all of the princesses have long hair, so you want to get the dresses painted first so you can have the hair cascading down their backs.  If you look close at Ariel below you can see I painted the hair before I realized I forgot the top of her mermaid tail.  I ended up just painting right over the end of her hair.  :0)  That makes it unique, right?!?

Here is the mug-shot series of shots so you can get an idea of the side and rear of the peggies.

I probably could have painted the bottoms of the hair better, but it is actually harder than you would think to get that looking beautiful.  Also, the original set had beads for buns and things, but my princesses were going to 1 year olds and such so I decided I didn't want anything on the dolls that could be taken off.

The hair was painted, then all the crowns or headbands, Cinderella's necklace, eyes and the rest.

I finished them off with a coat of polyurethane to keep everything looking fresh.

Since I had all the paint needed, this gift cost me a pretty $2 to make.  

Love it!

But what I probably loved more...

Emmalee's Princesses!  How cute and amazing is that!  My 4yr old painted that Ariel after looking at mine!  The belly button might be a little out of place, but who can say that Ariel's belly button wasn't a little 

ske-wampus after all the magical transformations!?! 

Love it!  And Love my crafty girlie!!!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Crafting!

Snowman @ My Door

So proud, that is what I am.  I actually finished my Snowman in a relatively useful amount of time AND hung him on my door!

Remember this guy from last week?

Well, I made him a brother...with a body {so unfair!} and gave him some coal for buttons too :0)

Love him!  It is awesome to checkout the door from the street and see such a handsome fellow staring back at me :0)

Now to make something for the door with a Valentines feel...hmmmm...

Survivor Blue and Gold Cubes

And here is the Survivor Blue and Gold collection :0)

Took me a little while to get it all done, but this special request was just to fun to put off.

Camille, the fabulous leader that requested the blocks has kindly shared the following plans for the Survivor Blue and Gold:

Ideas for our Survivor Blue and Gold. I have to say that I don't feel like I am very creative, so I borrow a lot from others to get my ideas, then I tweak them for what I want. So, here it goes:
Our Survivor theme started from a website I saw called The Savvy Grandma.

I love the decorations and the way she used the space to make it look not so much like the church gym! I also wanted to have more of a party theme rather than our typical Pack Meeting. We won't be giving out awards. Here is our plan:

We will start with the decorations of desert island/jungle/camping. We have four colors, one for each table as we will have four long tables. Colors are green, blue, brown, and yellow. I may also attempt to make the campfires that Vanessa has here on this website for centerpiece decorations.

As people arrive there will be scraps of fabric on each table for them to make head bands for their survivor tribe. Each table is one tribe

.
6:30 dinner (taco salad)
During dinner- event one ( during dinner the ‘survivors’ will have to complete three challenges for face paint stripes. Challenges such as stand and sing I’m a little Teapot, each person tie a square knot, and then each cub has to put a cup of popcorn on each foot, walk to the front of the room and recite the Cub Promise.)

7:00 event one (balloon challenge. Build a structure of balloons with masking tape and can’t tape it to the floor.)

7: 20 event two (gross food challenge. Candy covered with whipped cream and the Cubs have a relay race to see who finishes first.)

7: 40 dessert, skits (the boys will all bring a cake decorated by them and their family. Each den will do a skit)

7:55 slideshow( of the past year)

8pm closing prayer

Presents for the boys-The AWESOME Survivor Cubes Vanessa made and a campfire neckerchief

Here is the link for the slide:
http://alpinedistrictcubs.blogspot.com/2012/04/campfire-neckerchief-slides-core-value.html

Good luck to you all and I hope this helps with some ideas for you.

If you are doing Survivor for your Blue and Gold banquet this year, you can grab these files HERE with dropbox.  I have included the first print with the years 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 all at that link.

Just to be redundant...

 I cut the blocks out of 4x4 {actual size 3.5 x 3.5}  posts.  It is my understanding that if you don't have a saw or a dad in the pack that can cut wood, Home Depot or Lowes will cut them for you, but you might have to pay a little extra.  If they happen to say no, I would say the small ma-n-pa lumber stores will cut them for you.  Just tell them to cut them to 3 1/2" long.  

Now, the cube prints are actually sized for 4x6 photo prints.  Just send them to your favorite photo lab.  Most labs will let you email the files over now.  I print one of each file for every cube you are going to make.

Paint the cubes {technically you only need to paint about 1" in from all the corners since the photos will cover the middle of the blocks}.  Cut the photos down to the square {they print on a 4x6 photo, but the actual print is only 3.5x3.5 (or actually smaller) square.  I use mod podge to glue the pictures to the blocks.  Paint one side of the cube with mod podge, a nice even, healthy coat, then place the print on top.  I rub it down, then use a credit card or old gift card to kinda squeegie across the print to make sure there are no bubbles underneath.  Be sure not to squeeze out all of the glue though.  It will cause your picture to pull away from the cube as it dries and result in bubbles under your picture.

Normally I do one print on all of the blocks, then start back at the first block and do print number two.  Do all the sides in this assembly-line-style until you are finished.  Once all the prints are glued to the sides AND THE GLUE HAS DRIED, paint an even coat of mod podge over the top.  You may have a couple edges not stuck down.  This is a good time to shove some glue underneath and to rub the print down, then mod podge over the top.  I set out bbq skewers across my covered table to rest the blocks on while they dry.  You do not need to do anything to the bottom of the cube, but it is nice to paint that side completely just to give it a finished feel.  If you are a crazy overachiever, you can glue some felt to the bottom.

Here are links to the other styles I have so far. 

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/11/blue-gold-early-birds.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/04/blue-and-gold-inspiration.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/01/western-theme-blue-and-gold-prints.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/01/great-outdoors-photo-cubes.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/01/angry-bird-printables.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2013/01/magic-b-cubes.html

Good luck all you fabulous CubScouty leaders out there!

Magic B&G Cubes

New cubes for Cub Scout Blue and Gold! 

Our old pack back in Arizona has the theme of "Magic" or "Abracadabra" for their B&G this year.  Here are the printables just in case you ever end up in charge and decide to go with a similar theme!

You can find the download for the "magic" set HERE with Dropbox!

And if you wanna go a little more red and black with your blue and gold...

You can get these files HERE

I have a couple extra this year after seeing the very different requests I have been getting from viewers.  Also, here is a rough description of instructions for making the cubes:

 I cut the blocks out of 4x4 {actual size 3.5 x 3.5}  posts.  It is my understanding that if you don't have a saw or a dad in the pack that can cut wood, Home Depot or Lowes will cut them for you, but you might have to pay a little extra.  If they happen to say no, I would say the small ma-n-pa lumber stores will cut them for you.  Just tell them to cut them to 3 1/2" long.  

Now, the cube prints are actually sized for 4x6 photo prints.  Just send them to your favorite photo lab.  Most labs will let you email the files over now.  I print one of each file for every cube you are going to make.

Paint the cubes {technically you only need to paint about 1" in from all the corners since the photos will cover the middle of the blocks}.  Cut the photos down to the square {they print on a 4x6 photo, but the actual print is only 3.5x3.5 (or actually smaller) square.  I use mod podge to glue the pictures to the blocks.  Paint one side of the cube with mod podge, a nice even, healthy coat, then place the print on top.  I rub it down, then use a credit card or old gift card to kinda squeegie across the print to make sure there are no bubbles underneath.  Be sure not to squeeze out all of the glue though.  It will cause your picture to pull away from the cube as it dries and result in bubbles under your picture.

Normally I do one print on all of the blocks, then start back at the first block and do print number two.  Do all the sides in this assembly-line-style until you are finished.  Once all the prints are glued to the sides AND THE GLUE HAS DRIED, paint an even coat of mod podge over the top.  You may have a couple edges not stuck down.  This is a good time to shove some glue underneath and to rub the print down, then mod podge over the top.  I set out bbq skewers across my covered table to rest the blocks on while they dry.  You do not need to do anything to the bottom of the cube, but it is nice to paint that side completely just to give it a finished feel.  If you are a crazy overachiever, you can glue some felt to the bottom.

Also here are the different styles I have so far.  I will be adding a "survivor" set later this week.  

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/11/blue-gold-early-birds.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/04/blue-and-gold-inspiration.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/01/western-theme-blue-and-gold-prints.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/01/great-outdoors-photo-cubes.html

http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2012/01/angry-bird-printables.html

Happy Crafting everyone!