Graduation Cupcake Tower & "Hollywood Premiere" 8th Grade Dance

My son Michael is graduating 8th grade this week (insert tears here), and this weekend was his 8th grade dance to celebrate this pending rite of passage.  The 8th graders chose the theme "Hollywood Preimere". 

In several moments of insanity during the parents meeting, I volunteered to make 100-150 cupcakes, a large sign, a movie clapboard and stars to put on the bathroom.  Ummm, yeah...what was I thinking? 

And then it occured to me that I needed to present the 100 or so cupcakes in a formal manner.  After pricing a cupcake tower that would hold almost 100 cupcakes at the oh so low price of $99, it quickly became clear that this was going to have to be a DIY project. 

 So behold my homemade creation with a "Hollywood" flair...

The cost? 

Between 10 and 12 dollars.

It held 92 cupcakes, but I think I could have put 100 on it if I had been more strategic at placing them.

So how did I make it you ask? 

Well the Pepsi addiciton finally paid off! Pepsi cans and the support of the top tier is a baby formula container all wrapped in aluminum foil. 

Each tier is made with some cardboard cakeboards, and I actually ended up cutting some of the tiers out of a heavier cardboard from a box we had laying around. 

 Note -

 Should you make one, I would double the cakeboards by gluing them together to make them thicker and more durable)

The structure was amazingly strong and sturdy.  I hot glued it all together, however there was a potential issue with the school's air conditioning so I began to worry that hot glue might begin melting in a humid hot environment so for a precaution, I also used some clear packaging tape  to make sure it stayed together.  But I will tell you that I accidently left out a tier and had a very hard time prying it apart, and I totally believe that the hot glue would have been fine.

I took the tulle and gathered it with my sewing maching to make a black ruffle and hot glued it on to the tiers..  Added silver and gold star garland I found at AC Moore which I also hot glued.  And then topped it with a dollar store balloon weight, which I have to say went very well with the Hollywood Theme. 

So here are some action shots..

And just for fun, here is the clapboard (with my son's school's name removed for safety reasons)

 I used my Cricut to cut the letters out of white cardstock and then modpodged them on.  I originally intended to use vinyl letterring cut out with the Cricut, but it refused to firmly stick to the OSB Wood that was donated.  The modpodge worked great and sealed it so no worries.


And what about the large sign I made?  A black twin flat sheet from Walmart for 4 bucks to which I once again used my Cricut to cut the letters, but this time out of white vinyl essentially making big vinyl letter stickers.  I also cut the stars from cardstock with the Cricut and then chose to cover them in foil tissue paper that I found at Dollar General to glam it up.  

Again, I removed my son's school's name for safety reasons. 

I know the lettering was a bit crooked and that is because when I put them on, I had hung it up by a rope.  It was intended to be hanging outside on a baseball field fence to be seen as the guests walked up, but because of threatening skies, we decided it was best to staple it up inside.  The 2011 is seriously crooked because a certain toddler in my care decided to rearrange them an hour before I was suppose to leave to put it up so I just stuck them back on.

And here are some pictures of from the "Hollywood Premiere"

Another Mom made the Hollywood letters out of foam and Plaster of Paris.  Then she made concrete bases with dows for them to be displayed.  I love it!  I think it really pulled together the theme.

The kids were given stars to decorate and those are the ones near the film strip.

And here is my son with one of his best friends. 

They have been friends since they were infants, and

for the first time will be heading off to school in different directions come fall.

Everyone seemed to have a great time at the dance including all the moms! 

Joining the parties over at....

Sweet little Emma!

I apologize for my lack of postings in the past 6 + months.  Morning sickness and fatigue kept me at bay, but now that is all over with the arrival of our sweet little Emma.

  She was born in November, and we are so completely totally in love with her!

Sometimes the greatest gifts in life are the most unexpected ones like our darling Emma.

It's been a month and a half, and we don't know how we lived without her...

I mean look at these precious little piggies!

 And this sweet little angelic face..I could just kiss her little chubby cheeks all day!  

Big Brothers/Big Sister/Lil Sister shirts...

We have probably one more week until we get to meet our newest bundle of joy and before she gets here, I had to make each of my kids a shirt to proudly announce the arrival of their newest sibling . 

Enter my Cricut...

I had no idea that the Cricut was not only great for scrapbooking and cutting vinyl, but low and behold it also cuts fabric!!!  Using the Cricut, not only saves time cutting the fabric, but it cuts almost perfectly...certainly better than I could have freehand. 

If you're interested in the directions on how to cut fabric with the Cricut, check out Joy's Life for more information.

  I used no sew Heat and Bond to make this the simpliest project ever.  Just iron on the letters and they are permenantly attached.  It doesn't get easier than this!

So here is the one for our new addition....

And one for the BIG 4 year old sister!

Then my 14 year old felt left out...I didn't think he would wear one, but he begged me to make him one so here we go...

And then I couldn't leave out my 18 year old stepson, even though he probably won't wear his

 so here is the final results!

 These shirts probably took less than an hour to make! 

I will definately be using the Cricut to cut more fabrics becaue it was so easy!  



Thank you Someday Crafts!

Just wanted to stop in and say that my Bandana Quilt and Curtains were featured over at Someday Crafts! 

I am so excited!!!!  Someday Crafts is one of my favorite blogs and I am thrilled to have been featured!

  If you are ever looking for inspiration, Someday Crafts is the place to go! Just click here!

Classic Cowgirl Bedroom....Bandana Quilt, Curtains and more!

Due to our impending November arrival of our second daughter, we decided to make my sewing room into our 4 year old daughter's bedroom, and the new baby will have her old room.   Ally wanted the theme of her new room to be horses, and she wanted it to be blue. 

It soon became apparent that this low budget makeover was going to be blowing the budget if I purchased premade bedding so after brainstorming, I decided to make a quilt out of banadanas!  It was a very easy and low cost way to get the look we were going for.  

So without further adieu, I present to you Ally's "cowgirl" quilt! 

This quilt cost me a whooping $18 dollars to make...

I spent $16 for 16 banadanas (Our Walmart sells them 2 for $2), the quilt batting I had picked up at a yardsale brand new over a year ago for $2, and I used a flat navy sheet from my stash of unused linens.

The bandana pillows cost me $2 each for the bandanas, but I used old throw pillows and recovered them.  I also made a pillowcase from some scraps of eyelet to soften up the dark colors.

Originally I was just going to do eyelet curtains, but decided to make bandana panels on each side of the window to carry the theme.  I also bought the white embroidered material on clearance which significantly saved me money compared to buying eyelet.  The total cost for each window $12.  I bit higher than I would have liked, but definitely worth it to carry the theme and soften the look.  Eventually I also want to add tie backs, I might use rafia for that.

To start adding in the horse theme, I took two pictures that I had photographed during one of our trips to Assateague, Maryland and had them blown up into canvases, thanks to a special at ArtsCow.  The canvases cost me a total of $16 for the two of them with free shipping. 

I was very impressed with the quality of ArtsCow and they do have some great specials and credits.  Shipping was a little slow and can be expensive if you don't get a deal on free shipping.  They are located in Hong Kong hence slow shipping times.  I framed both canvases, one frame I had already, the other I picked up at our local Goodwill for $2.

 

To carry on the cowgirl theme, I made a "rodeo" sign using a piece of scrapwood my Uncle was throwing out and used a stencil from my Cricut.  Quick and easy, just stained the wood, stuck the vinyl stencil to the wood and spray painted it.  The white hat was my late grandmother's so it has sentimentle value and the brown hat is one from my daughter's 2nd birthday party.  The rack was bought at an antique store a couple years ago.

Total cost spent so far... $76

I still have some things that I want to add such as these bookshelves from Knock Off Wood (waiting for our 90 degree weather to break) and possibly make a new bed if I can get a great deal on wood , a nightstand, pictures and more accesories, but so far I LOVE how it looks! 

I'm linking this project to....

I built it and you can too!

One of the things I love most about the world of blogs is the inspiration and creativity that people are willing to share with others.  I have mentioned before my adoration for Ana at Knock Off Wood.  She lives in Alaska, and builds her own furniture...and has even built her own house with her husband!  Her blog is filled with FREE plans on how to build furniture similar to pottery barn among other stores.  And the best part, she caters her directions to the amateur woodworker like me!

So without further adieu...

here is the picnic table that I built with one of Ana's plans.

It took me about 6 to 7 hours total with cutting the wood (1hour), assembling (3-4 hours), sanding and painting (2 hours).  I countersunk all my screws and hid them from screwing them through the bottom rather than through the top, this actually added a lot of time to the assembly. 

 My husband did help me with some assembly because I needed someone to hold the boards in place for the seats while I attached them from underneath, but other than that, I built it all by myself!!!  And all it took was a miter saw and a drill!

This table cost me approximately $25 in wood.  I chose to make it with non-pressure treated wood since it was going to be used for children, and I painted it with an exterior paint to help prevent it from decaying.  I spent another $12 in screws and exterior wood glue.  That being said, I still have plenty of screws and glue left for the next project.  I also have a little wood leftover, and I am hoping to make something with the scraps. The paint was free as I already had it for another project.

I am very happy how it turned out, it is very sturdy and strong!  It easily holds even my weight and my husbands.  And the best part is that the kids love it!  I know we'll be having lots of picnics and tea parties on it.  It will definitely be put to good use!

Thanks Ana for the plans!  I definitely have a list of future projects from your website!

My poor neglected blog....I've missed you!

You know it has been awhile since you blogged when family starts called you and emailing you asking why you haven't blogged.  Sorry to let everybody down, but we are in the midst of chaos over here.  So here is a little update on life at Foxtale Follies.

Collin is graduating in one short month from high school, and he has picked out the college he will attend.  He is working his butt off at two jobs trying to save enough money to cover his college tuition to avoid student debt.  We are soooo proud of him for trying to avoid debt, and hope that we can help him in as many ways possible.   I can't believe that he will be leaving us at the end of August to go live on campus...we are so excited for him, but sad to see him go.  Although he assures us that he will be home every weekend, we are pretty sure that won't be happening.  Last week was prom so things have been a whirlwind of excitment around here!

Michael has grown a foot in about a week.  I realized it one day when I was lecturing him, and he was eye level with me...I actually had to stop what I was saying and regroup.  I am six foot tall so he will be well over that, but I am not surprised...I always knew he would be the tall and skinny one.  He reminds me a lot of my brother.  He is really getting into bike riding, and that has been nice for him and his dad to do together.  And he keeps bringing up the rule I have about no girlfriends until college...yeah, I am thinking someone is on his radar, but he is only in 7th grade...so really, does he need a girlfriend right now??  I think not!  Right?!

Ally is getting ready to turn 4 next month, and wants a big party.  I am pretty sure she isn't getting a big party!  She has been such a joy to be around, and I am so glad that I have been able to be home with her through these years.  Having a girl is way different than having boys, that I can say.  But I have enjoyed both immensely, and I am really thankful that we were blessed with a girl.  Each of the kids has brought us so much happiness! 

 

And then onto our little suprise venture....this one really, really threw us for a loop.  I always wanted a big family, my husband never envisioned having a big family.  It's funny how things work out.  We both decided after our daughter that we were not having anymore.  We had a plan, I was going back to school once our daughter was in school herself.  But one pregnancy test later, and life is what happens when you are busy making plans.  We've accepted it, we're even excited about it.  We find out next week what "it" is so we are happily making our predictions. 

So that is life at the moment.  Between party planning, doctors appointments, a camping trip, morning sickness, and the rigors of daily life we have been really, really busy, but not to worry....we're still around! (-;