Monkey Pinata

Today I'm going to show you how I took a pumpkin pinata I bought on clearance at Halloween and turned it into a "monkey with jungle theme" pinata.

I am doing this for a friend's baby shower that I am hosting. Her nursery theme is monkeys so I'm trying to bring that theme through for the baby shower. I had this pinata lying around and was going to get rid of it when it hit me that I could do something fun for the shower so that the children have something special for them to do. Yes, there will be lots of children there.

 I first had the fun task of peeling off the Halloween face and patching a few white areas where the tissue paper pulled off too.

I then used my Cricut and the cartridge titled: Birthday Bash. It turned out that the little monkey from this cartridge is getting ready to hit a pinata so it was more than perfect. 

I cut him out at 7 inches and after piecing him together I moved on to the vines. I colored the bat using markings so I could give it some detail.

I needed a jungle leaf and didn't have any on my cartridges so I went searching on the web and found this perfect jungle leaf. The only problem was that the svg file couldn't be found so I used my snipit program (comes with the latest Windows) and then saved it as a jpg and then used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot program to make a mat full,

 

Once I had my leaves cut out, I took a paper bag, cut it in strips and first crinkled the strips and then twisted them to make vines.

When I was done with all this, it was time to glue. I started with craft glue but went to a hot glue gun and in the end I had my jungle themed pinata which now I get to fill and hang for display and fun!

Mother's Day Tea

Last year I put together a Mother/Daughter Tea Party for my friends and it was such a success that I decided to do it again this year but this time I changed it to just a Mother's Day Tea so friends and family with boys could also enjoy. It takes a few months to organize and put together but I have fun doing it. I collected a donation from each mom that will go to the charity Youth On Their Own. I made most of the decorations and even wrote a little story to read to the moms.

Our theme was Purses and moms were asked to bring a purse with a story to share. We had some special purse stories. One mom brought a locket in the shape of a purse. Her grandmother had given it to her and when her daughter had her first haircut, the mom put a lock of her hair in the locket.

     Here is the story I wrote and read: "The Ages and Stages of Purses"
Let's take a trip down memory lane when we were a little girl the age of our little girls now and when you wanted a purse like mommy's.
     Mommy got you the purse and you were so proud that you showed it to everyone and took it everywhere. The things you carried in that purse were simple but used for your entertainment on long car rides or during Sunday's church service. The things that you had in your purse where things such as markers, pencils, scraps of paper to draw on, books, small toys and even tiny stuffed animals.
      Then came the teens years and it wasn't cool to carry a purse so you used your pockets for such things as lip gloss, a lunch ticket, cell phone (if they were around then) and maybe a crumbled up letter from a boy.
     As high school and college came along so did carrying a purse again but it had to be a new type of cool and be a designer purse such as Fossil purses today. It had to be stylish and small - just the right size to carry your school ID and eventually a driver's license and maybe a credit card plus lip stick and mascara, a cell phone (for calling all your friends to talk about nothing but something or today to text about nothing but something), some eye shadow (You were young and you had to look good.), and monthly womanly things that you were totally embarrassed about even though every other girl your age was going through the same thing.
      Then came love, marriage and children. Now the stylish purse was traded in for a diaper bag full of everything a baby needs and more: diapers, wipes, baby bottles, snacks, your cell phone in case the car breaks down, and your wallet with ID.
     After the diaper bag stage, you get to carry a purse again. But now it's not all about style, it's all about size. Your purse is big and convenient and is filled with tissues for runny noses, hand sanitizer, lipstick and a comb for when you've taken too long to get the kids ready and don't have time for yourself, a cellphone (but now to make doctor's appointments or to know when to pick Suzie up from soccer), the crumbled up letters from boys are replaced with receipts from McDonalds and fruit snack wrappers but it's at that time in your life that your daughter looks inside your purse and is so fascinated with it's content and dark mysteries of zipped up pockets that she says, "Mommy can I have a purse of my own?"

Here a pictures of some of the crafts and decorations I made for the party:

I found this jpeg on line and converted it to a SVG to use with my SCAL.

I put a circle in the middle and then put a backing on them and magnets and I got the cutest fridge magnets for the kids to decorate.

I used gold embossing powder for the Love you. on the frames.

I also made these little purses as gifts for each mother. I filled them with candy and a Mother's Day pin.

I also had a drawing for other gifts I made and each mother received a rose before she left which her child/children presented to her.

I am already thinking ahead to next year's Mother's Day Tea and think my theme will be shoes?

My daughter made me breakfast: peanut butter and strawberry jam with banana sandwich.

Happy Mother's Day to every woman because even if you have never given physical birth you have probably touched someone's life in a positive way and that is what being a mother is all about.