Freezer Paper Stenciling on Shirts

  My friend, Ashley, over at There is No Place Like Homemade has a great tutorial for using freezer paper stencils to paint on shirts.  I loved the way her Star Wars shirts turned out and wanted to give it a shot with shirts for my own kids.

    I think they turned out pretty decent!  Still have to heat-fix the paint in place, but this is how they looked this morning after peeling off the freezer paper stencil.

     Still have a little more work to do in order to finish them up, but I'd say that this was probably one of my favorite projects I've done recently!  Scarlett's birthday is coming up, so the Tinkerbell shirt will be for her party.  Going to hot-fix some rhinestones on there to "bling" it up for her.  Also, have to make one more shirt for Kai (aside from his ninja and dino shirt seen here), and two more for Cam (who got the Harry Potter shirt).  One quick word of advice.... when picking out a shirt, keep in mind that dark colors = a lot more coats of paint needed.  That Harry Potter shirt took about 5 coats of paint.  Also, the intricate wording of the Harry Potter shirt meant that I had to be super careful to make sure that every little crevice was not forgotten. 

     I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the freezer paper stencils, which helped reduce cutting time and allowed me to get a lot of painting done in a short amount of time.  The Tinkerbell silhouette had to be completely reworked in the Silhoutte software and was probably my biggest holdup.  Even with the Tinkerbell issues, it was still a super-fun project and I highly recommend it!

Harry Potter Party

All the planning and all the prep for my son's Harry Potter birthday party made it a great success!  It was a lot of work, but I think that the results really paid off in the end.

It did take me a few days to finally put this up on the blog.  Honestly, I was dead tired.  :)

Without further ado, the pics from the party.

The very first taste of the Harry Potter theme greeted guests at the door with the "Hogwarts Express- 9 3/4" platform sign.  Gotta ride the train to make it in!  Once guests came through the door, the rest of the party decorations were in full view.

     I knew that I wanted to have the illusion of candles floating since I had seen it in one of the movie scenes in the dining hall at Hogwarts.  I had done a few Google searches and came across a picture in the Image search that showed "floating candles" but couldn't access the link and didn't have an explanation.  Looking at the tiny picture, I thought that I could come up with a way to have a similar effect.  Not sure if it was the same or not as what I had seen, but this was my take on it.

I took four eyescrews and screwed them into the ceiling (well, my husband did under my direction).  Two were on one side of the kitchen, two on the other.  The ones closest to the lights over the dining room table were closer together than the ones on the end I was standing to take this picture... putting the focus on the table.  After that, clear fishing line was strung two form two lines running across.

    I then took sheets of printer paper, cut them in half width-wise and then rolled each side up into a tube and taped it with clear tape in three spots down the seam.  I then used the Silhouette cutter to do a print and cut (I know, I know, I do this all the time) to make the candle flames. 

    For the flames, I drew a semi-rounded long triangle.  Then, I selected the triangle, flipped it vertically and had the tips of the flames touching.  Right clicked the mouse and selected "weld" to have it all be one piece.  Next, I drew another smaller long, rounded triangle in the base and made the fill color dark orange.  Removed the "cut" line from the smaller triangle (didn't want to cut that), copied it, flipped it vertically and put it on the top.   Finally to finish the whole thing off, select your entire double sided flame and use the replicate tool to make multiples.  Print it with registration marks and send to Silhouette to be cut.

Once cut, the flames look like this...

Put a glue dot on the base of one side of the flame and secure to the paper tube candle.  Another glue dot will go in the center where the thin points meet, which will rest on the fishing line and keep the candle from sliding.  Finally, secure the other side of the flame with another glue dot on the base of the other side... gluing it inside the candle tube.

   Repeat again... and again, and again.  You'll eventually have a row of floating candles (or two rows if you did it like me).

   Hedwig was in position over the dining room table on his chandelier perch. 

Photo taken before candle strings were added.



  And the table was set.  We originally had a skull on there, but it scared Scarlett so bad that she wouldn't go into the kitchen and took it from "Harry Potter" to uber-creepy seance.  I put it away.

   The chocolate frogs were made using Wilton milk chocolate candy melts and a candy mold found on Amazon.  The Gillyweed jar was a glass jar purchased at Hobby Lobby with some oregano from my garden stuffed in.  The liquid luck had been filled up and chilled the night before and the Harry Potter books had maps, general information on Hogwarts, spells, etc.

   My living room had a few decorations put up as well.  The "Wanted" posters (see previous post) were put up both in the living room and the kitchen, a Hogwarts banner and Gryffindor banner were hung from the ceiling,  the Nimbus 2000's were in the corner (ready for the "Find the Snitch" game later), and black balloons were thrown on the floor for fun.  The first Harry Potter was on t.v. for extra "Potter-ness".

Then there was the potion station with refreshment goblets.

    Before any of the guests arrived, my husband and I decided to do a test run of the fog machine for the "Find the Snitch" game.  I had never used one before and wanted to give it a go before the party started and we looked like stupid goobers.

Eureka!  It works!

   When all of the guests arrived and had a chance to settle in and munch on some snacks, it was time to pick teams for "Find the Snitch".   Two teams were put into the sorting hat and each child had to reach in and pick a team.

  We then booted up the fog machine and I explained the rules while the fog was forming.  The rules to the game being:

1.)  You must stay on your Nimbus 2000.

2.)  Watch out for the little kids.

3.)  The team who finds the most Snitches is the winner.

The Snitches they had to find?  (You guys will probably recognize these from my previous post.)

So everyone downed some "Liquid Luck" to help improve their chances of Snitch success. 

And the hunt began!  (This was the only picture I could use because the first game was too fogged out.)

After "Find the Snitch", we had the raffle for the Weasley & Weasley "Beetle Eyes".  Everyone (guests only) had to put their Hogwarts train ticket in the sorting hat and my birthday boy picked a name at random.  The Beetle Eyes were "Sixlets" candies.  Unfortunately, beetles are scarce in the winter.  :)

After the raffle, it was time for "Magic School".  The party guests lined up with their wands and brooms and were taught a few spells and tricks out of the Harry Potter book I made.

Then there was cake:

"Yay!" for Walmart cake!  I was too busy to add another project to the mix so I let this one slide.

You can still see some residual fog in the picture above.  Also, my younger son was sobbing almost the entire party because it wasn't his birthday.  (You can see how much it bothered me, I couldn't help but laugh my butt off at those crocodile tears.)

   Presents followed the cake and then it was time for everyone to go home.  Party guests got to take their wands, Nimbus 2000's, Harry Potter book, and Snitch. 

    Cameron was super happy with his party and it was a lot of fun to do. 

More Party Prep

Okay, so I'm slightly under the impression that I may have gone a bit overboard with the Harry Potter party.  Between my husband's head shaking and my son's bug-eyed looks of disbelief... I've come to the conclusion that I may have just stepped a tad bit over the line of "normal".

Oh well, it's a project.  I love projects.  :)

So here is where we are... get ready for a photo bomb.

Using artwork from the online Silhouette store, I was able to print off a few "Wanted" posters.

   These will be stuck up all over the house.

Next, I'm working on a Harry Potter information "book".  I was able to find this free map and so I printed that to go in the middle of the book.  More information on the book as I complete it.  (Possibly next blog entry.)

     After going to a bunch of different stores, I was able to find the majority of my party supplies.  Big "thank you" to the folks at Party City who didn't even bat an eye when they had to climb the gigantic ladder to get down the witch hat from the tippy top shelf.  The brooms are future Nimbus 2000's.

     Hobby Lobby had all their glassware on sale for 50% off, so I picked up some tiny bottles with cork stoppers for the "Liquid Luck".  Still need to make the labels.

   Then I found a giant paper mache egg in the wood department that will work great as Harry Potter's gold dragon egg. 

   I purchased some wooden dowels and wooden "knob ends" to make magic wands.  Glued them together and painted them.

I thought about shaping the dowels to be more pointy, but the I remembered that I have a 2-year old and didn't want to tempt fate.  Blunt wands it is!

    Also in the wood section, I was hunting down some wooden balls to work as snitches.  All of the ones I found that were already drilled had flat planes on the drilled side.  Me being the way I am, I just decided to purchase plain round ones and drill the holes myself.

Drilling

 

Painting.  (Insert toothpick into one end, spin and paint, switch ends and repeat)



Dry on toothpicks so the paint doesn't smudge.



Glue feathers in holes using E6000.  Feathers equal in size.

Snitches Complete!  We've had horrible weather here lately, so I had to come up with an idea other than outside Quidditch.  Don't want the kids getting hit by lightning!  Perhaps a game of "Find the Snitch". 

   Finally, the last thing I've been working on was the Hogwarts Express sign.  This was mostly made using my Silhouette Machine.

    Found a piece of wood in the wood section, painted the top, side lip, and bottom a dark red color. 

Then, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the "Hogwarts Express" lettering.

Sponged on the gold paint.....

Then I used the Silhouette's "Print and Cut" feature to make the "9 3/4" circle and the crest.  Put those on with Mod Podge, and then sealed with a clear coat of Krylon.

Still drying.



    Still have to make the potion labels, finish the golden dragon egg, and a lot more.  As before, I will keep you posted and will definitely post pictures when everything is up and decorated. 

Getting Ready for a Magical Party

My oldest son just turned 9.  He is totally into Harry Potter and reads the books constantly, over and over again; so when I asked him what kind of party he wanted.... no surprise.  "Harry Potter, Mom!"

     I've seen bits and pieces of the movies.  Never been able to catch one all the way through, but I think I have the general gist of it.  Plus, with a H.P. obsessed kid, it's not hard to pick up extra tidbits here and there.

     My first venture into this magical party prep had to start at the beginning... with invitations.

     Finished these today using the Silhouette's "Print and Cut" feature.  The Harry Potter font for the invites was found here at DaFont.com.  It was free to download and worked perfectly.  All of the clipart was purchased from the Silhouette Online Store.

     The ticket at the bottom of the invitation is cut with a perforated cut to make for easy removal from the invite.  The registration marks that were on the page were cut off by making a large rectangle cut around the entire page, just inside the marks.  That way, they show up to align the image (for perforation around the ticket), but aren't in the completed project.

    Roll up, tape closed with clear tape, and finish with a bright red ribbon.

    Now to make the "magical prize", potion drinks, and other random magical goodies.  Will keep you all posted.