Tag Archives: decoration

This tutorial brought to you by the letter P

9 Jun

This party tutorial brought to you by the letter P, as in Patriotic Popsicle Party!

Just throw in some hot dogs and watermelon for a practically perfect patriotic Popsicle party.

Heres what you’ll need:

6- 9″ x 12″ sheets or 1/2 yard of red felt (I used Lipstick)*

6- 9″ x 12″ sheets or 1/2 yard of blue felt (I used Indigo)*

3 – 9″ x 12″ sheets or 1/4 yard of white felt (I used White)*

1 – 9″ x 12″ sheet light tan  felt (I used Pastry)

Stuffing

Sewing needle

Felt Popsicle template with instructions HERE

A printer

Scissors

Popsicle sticks

Felt  glue

Twine or ribbon for banner

Sewing needle

*Matching Thread

6 felt balls (I used Natural)

Card Stock (for invitations, 3 invitations to a sheet)

Woven wreath form

2 containers for table decorations (small buckets would be cute)

Sand (a small amount to fill containers)

Baggies for Popsicle favors

Ribbon, rick rack or twine for Popsicle favors

Printable labels for Popsicle favors (I used Avery 5294)

Frozen Popsicles and lots of ’em (store-bought or homemade see recipe below)

Elmer’s  or school glue (optional)

Outdoor play things like hula hoops, water guns, a sprinkler,or sidewalk chalk (store-bought or homemade in Popsicle molds if you’re a theme purist, recipe below)

Let’s get started:

First I printed out this insanely cute invite designed by Maura Huston of Blackbirdie and Pink Monster Knits onto card stock.

4th of july printable invitation free

Here’s a blank version

4th of July Popsicle party invitation printable free

Download this free printable 4th of July Popsicle party invitation it by control-clicking (Mac) or right-clicking (PC) and saving to your computer.

And while I was at it I created my stickers with another version of Maura Huston’s design:

Popsicle party sticker 4th of July

Download it by control-clicking (Mac) or right-clicking (PC) and saving to your computer

These would also make adorable cupcake toppers, simply print onto card stock and sandwich two together with a toothpick in between!

Next I constructed my decor:

felt Popsicle banner

Felt Popsicle and pin wheel banner:

To make the banner you will first need to make 2 blue popsicles, 2 red popsicles and 1 striped popsicle from felt. Instructions can be found HERE

From there I made my pinwheels from this template

Each pinwheel is 2 colors and for this banner I needed 6 so I cut 12 squares.


how to make a felt pinwheel tutorial

felt craft kids summer party

wool felt pinwheel summer craft tutorial step4wool pinwheel felt craft summer finished

——————————————————————————————————————————————————I stacked two squares together and cut through the dotted lines (but NOT through center ring), the folded the upper right hand corner (marked with a star on template) to the center and stitched down with a small running stitch. I repeated this process with the upper left corner (also marked on the template with a star) this can be done in any order but only fold down the areas marked with stars. Finish by folding the remaining points inward tacking down with a running stitch as you go.

sewing wool felt to twine

With my pinwheels and popsicles done I was ready to assemble my banner, I made a loop on either end of my twine for easier hanging and then sewed each of my pieces to the twine. Pinwheel, felt ball, popsicle (repeat) with the three color version in the center. Technically I guess you could glue them but the Popsicles have to be properly balanced to keep from flipping around and it’s much easier to gauge this by sewing.  When sewing the Popsicles to the twine I noticed that creating a bit of a V shape helped, tacking twine to center and then to both sides nearer the top.

Felt Popsicle table decorations

felt food Popsicle

For these I created 2 Popsicles in red, white and blue as described here.

felt food Popsicle decor

But rather than fitting felt sticks into the bottom I created a little more space inside the popsicle by cutting with my scissors.

wool felt craft

I then slipped real Popsicle sticks through the bottoms and applied a small amount of felt glue (tacky glue will also work) and sewed up the bottoms.

wool felt craft free tutorial summer 4

When I had finished all 6 I simply filled my containers with sand and arranged my Popsicles.

Door Wreath

4th of July wreath

I constructed my wreath by making 3 pinwheels and 3 felt Popsicles and attached them to the wreath with felt glue

(SUPER AWESOME  TIP: double stick tape will hold this puppies in place like you wouldn’t believe, making both your wreath and felt objects easy to store and 100% re-usable.

Favors:

To keep with my theme I made these felt Popsicle magnets.

Popsicle party favors

I made a few brightly colored Popsicles, glued magnets to the back with felt glue, (allowed them to dry 24 hours) placed them in bags, added my stickers and tied some rick rack to the bottom to close them up.

Popsicle magnet tutorial

These look adorable on any fridge and are daily reminders of your awesome shin-dig!

If magnets aren’t you thing try attaching a key ring or for your littlest guests add a mini rattle for sweet summer baby toy.

You may also consider store-bought pinwheels Slinky brand makes an awesome American flag version.

I plan to keep my guests entertained with fun outdoor activities like:

Popsicle stick house building contest (warning men seem to find this activity irresistible and you may lose your co-host for a few hours, possibly days!) Just throw a basket full of Popsicle sticks into a basket and set out some school glue and prepare to oohh and aww.

A sprinkler run, or water gun fight (gotta get those sticky little bodies clean somehow)

Sidewalk chalk, try making it in a popsicle mold with this recipe:

Word of Warning: DO NOT let any plaster of Paris go down the sink. It will harden and ruin your pipes.

  • Petroleum Jelly
  • Plaster of Paris (available at any craft or hardware store)
  • Washable Tempera paint in the colors of your choice
  • A Popsicle mold

Directions:

Grease mold with petroleum jelly.

Mix 1/2 cup of Plaster of Paris with 1/3 cup water. Mix well and slow for about 1 minute.

Immediately add 2 TBS of paint (or more for desired color) and mix well.

Spoon into molds. Tap molds gently to settle. (This will start to set very quickly so work in small batches)

Let chalk dry overnight.

eating popsicles

and of course lots of Popsicle eating!

If you decide to make your own try this DRIPLESS recipe from Kitchen Scrapbook:

Picture courtesy of Kitchen Scrapbook.

 http://kitchenscrapbook.com/2009/07/06/no-drip-popsicles/

Oh and if you like Maura Huston’s work check out her website,  blog, or her knitting pattern now available at our webstore.

HAPPY SUMMER!tutorial felt wreath

Candy canes, no waiting!

10 Dec

candycanes

There will be a wait! You know the drill you go to a crowded mall at some point in December and there it is… the Santa line and whether it’s 9am or 9pm the line is mindbogglingly long. You can hear the other parents curse under their breath at the time of the wait and grumble when Santa needs a 10 minute break . Which is shocking only because unless you have a newborn in tow you should know Santa sitting is an all day event.

Kids whine, need to pee, need to eat, mess up their hair and inevitably want to reach out and ruin small parts of the carefully coiffed Santa land your local mall has worked so hard to put together. And at the end of it all what do you have to show for an entire day spent in line other than a bad $30 5×7 and aching feet…a candy cane of course! At least thats the way it used to be…I know, I know I am aging myself here but now they give out cardboard reindeer hats, or small plastic bouncy balls, but to me candy canes always remind me of a long day waiting for Santa. These felt candy canes are amazingly simple and in the time it takes to wait for Santa you could make 40 or 50 of them.  Besides being an adorable addition to your felt food collection they also look stunning on a Christmas tree!

 

To make 3 You will need:

1 sheet white wool blend felt *

1 sheet lipstick or key lime colored felt (or really any color we have 130 to choose from)

White thread, colored thread to match the color of stripes

A dowel or pencil to help stuff the cane.

Stuffing.

* Attempting to use acrylic felt will result in your stitches tearing

Step 1:

Cut 2 candy cane shapes from the white felt using the template below:

 

Step 2:

Sew along sides only using white thread and a whip stitch  (shown here in purple for clarity.) You’ll want to leave both ends open for stuffing. The trick to making your cane look 3D is stuffing very tightly.

Step three:

Stuff  when you are satisfied with the look of your felt candy cane tuck cane tip inward and sew up.

Stop by the Store

Step 4:

Cut your stripe color from desired color of wool blend felt. Stripes should measure around 12″ long x 1/2 ” wide, if using 9″x 12″ squares of felt you will find these very easy to cut to the right dimensions. Wrap around your candy cane a few times until you get the spacing a look you want. Pin into place if needed.

Step 5: Using matching thread color sew stripe into place. And enjoy your candy cane while remembering all those long-suffering mall parents!

Happy Holidays!

Andie & Sheila

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