Rainbow Art Party, Part Three

Juliette's birthday party is a week away!  Yikes!  I'm starting to go into panic mode because, as usual, I'm not as organized as I should be!  At this point, I am finalizing my plans and making lists, lists and more lists!  I'm accumulating a pile of stuff that has been ordered and delivered and stuff I've picked up or made myself.  I'm checking the weather, and praying that we will be outside and I don't have to cover my furniture with plastic.  (Four year olds.  Paint.  My living room.  Not a good combination.)  Right now a 0% chance of rain is expected.  Thank goodness.

Here's what I've been up to:

First, I finalized what activities we are going to do.  We decided on painting individual canvases, putting colored sand in jars, making personalized puzzles, playing with homemade play dough, drawing with chalk on the driveway and painting three large canvases for Juliette's room.  With so many takeaway projects, I've decided not to do any additional party favors.   This saves me money and saves my friends from having to toss yet another bag of unwanted party favors while their kids are at school.

Then I went ahead and placed orders.  The puzzles, colored sand, jars and funnels I ordered from Oriental Trading Company.  The acrylic paint and the canvases I ordered from Wholesale Arts and Frames.  This company was a total find!  The 9 x 12 canvases are stretched on a 3/4" frame and cost only $1.80 a piece!  What a score!  Also, you know how you can never find the phone number to talk to a human on websites now?  I hate that!  This company had their phone number on the top of every page!  AND it was in the 818!  That's where I live!  So I called them up, placed my order and the next day drove out to their warehouse, which was less than a half hour away.  With so many bulky items (the canvases) and heavy items (the paint) I saved a ton of money in shipping.  And by paying in cash, they gave me a further discount!  Awesome!

I've also been collecting RSVPs and thinking about what needs to be done around the house.  Notice I said thinking about.  Not actually doing anything.  The house needs to be cleaned, but how far in advance do I really want to do that?  My kids can destroy a clean house in approximately 78 seconds.  And I need to weed the flower beds.  Maybe I can bribe a small child with Minecraft time to do that.  Ugh.  Hate weeding.  I also need to replant my pots, which somehow got frost this year!  That doesn't happen too often!  On the list.  Maybe it will get done, maybe not.  I haven't thought too much about decorations, other than the fabric rainbow wreath for the front door.  I need to figure that out.  Uh oh.  Running out of time!

Tomorrow, I'll go to the Dollar Store and see what I can knock out there.  I'll buy the dry goods tomorrow also, so that I can just have to buy the fresh ingredients on Saturday.  And I still need to figure out what to feed the grown ups.  Tomorrow.

Here is my list now.  I've divided it by project or food type so that I can organize everything the day before and make set up easier.  Also, it'll ensure that I have absolutely every little thing.  Checked items are items I already have.  Some things I have to check on.

Supplies Needed for Juliette’s Party

Individual Canvases

ü  9 x 12 Canvases

ü  Paint

            Paintbrushes (look)

            Paintshirts (cut shirts)

            Bowls for Paint

            Pencil for names

            Tablecloth

            Table

Juliette’s Room Art Work

ü  18 x 24 Canvases

ü  Paint

            Paintbrushes (look)

            Paintshirts (cut shirts)

            Bowls for Paint

ü  Pencil for names

            Tablecloth

            Table

Colored Sand

ü  Sand

ü  Jars

ü  Funnels

ü  Cookie sheets covered with foil

            Table

            Tablecloth

ü  Sharpie for names

Puzzles

ü  Blank Puzzles

ü  Markers (gather)

            Share table with sand

            Plastic Baggies

ü  Sharpie for Names

Homemade Playdough

ü  Flour

ü  Salt

ü  Water

            Cream of Tartar

            Vegetable Oil

            Gel Food Coloring

            Cookie Cutters

            Rolling Pins

            Table

            Tablecloth

Chalk on Driveway

            Sidewalk Chalk

Macaroni Art

            Macaroni

ü  Liquid Food Coloring

            Rubbing Alcohol

            Large Baggies

            Yarn

            Construction Paper

Cupcakes

            White Cake Mix

            Sour Cream

ü  Eggs

ü  Coconut Oil

ü  Food Coloring

ü  Milk

            Butter

            Powdered Sugar

            Vanilla

ü  Salt

            Cupcake holders

Rainbow Fruit

            Strawberries

            Cuties

            Pineapple

            Kiwi

            Blueberries

            Red Grapes

            White Platter or Glass Bowl

Rainbow Veggies

            Red Peppers

            Carrots

            Yellow Peppers

            Celery Sticks

            Ranch Dressing

            Clear Plastic Cups

Popcorn

            Popcorn Kernels

            White Chocolate

ü  Liquid Food Coloring

ü  Red Bowl

Cloud Sandwiches

            Bread

            Peanut Butter

            Jelly

            Turkey

            Cheese

ü  Cookie Cutter

Adult Sandwiches

            ????

Water

            Water Bottles

ü  Sharpie

Adult Beverages

            ????

Fabric Wreath

            Fabric Scraps

            Pinking Shears

            Wreath Frame

Rainbow Pennant

            Plastic Pennants? (check)

Rainbow Flag

ü  PACE flag

Rainbow Balloons

            Balloons

            Waxed Kitchen Twine

ü  Needle

Rainbow Streamers

            Streamers

Tissue Paper Puff Balls

            Tissue Paper

            Pipe Cleaners (check)

Extras

            Tablecloths

            Paper plates

            Napkins

Flowers

            Seasonal/colorful flowers

ü  Mason Jars

ü  Vases

Rentals

            Low Tables

            Kid size chairs

      

Still a lot to do.  From here I will make more specific lists as to what to buy from each different store.  That way Jason can do some of the shopping for me!  Lucky guy! 

Right now we are late for going to our friends' for watching the Super Bowl.  Must finish cooking!  Off I go!      

Rainbow Fabric Wreath

Each year for Christmas, the kids create gifts to give to their grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbors.  A few Christmases ago Annalise and I came up with the brilliant idea to make wreaths for the grandparents made out of pinecones and glass ornament balls.  So cute, right?  Can't you picture it?  I looked online (pre-Pinterest) to find directions and the only directions I found were for gluing, using a hot glue gun, the ornaments to the wreath.  This may have held the ornaments for one Christmas (if we glued them correctly, that is).  But I knew with our hot summers (and an even hotter one in Arizona with one set of grandparents) that the ornaments would not stayed glued on to the wreaths.  I had visions of shattered glass on my front porch, where bare feet prevail year round.  Not pretty.  So I invented my own way of attaching the ornaments... with floral wire.  Brilliant, right?  Yeah, not so much.  It was a total pain in the ass.  Annalise (who was I think 8 at the time) could hardly participate in the process because she couldn't wrap the wire tight enough.  And the gift was supposed to be from her.  The balls flopped all over the place, leaving too many holes in the wreath.  They ended up requiring way more ornaments than we had estimated, making our homemade gift ridiculously expensive as well.  Needless to say, we didn't make it to a second wreath.  (How were we going to get that thing safely to Arizona anyway?  Let's just say it wasn't a fully thought through plan.  This seems to be a pattern.)  Each Christmas my mom proudly displays her ornament wreath on her front door and each time I come to the door I growl at it a bit, say a few choice curse words and go on my way.

There is a point to this story.  We had two more wire wreath frames (because I was going to make one of the ornament frames for ourselves, too!  What a great idea!) and still no gift for Grandma and Papa.  Enter Plan B.  We had some extra Christmas fabric laying around because my mom makes fabric bags for all our Christmas gifts, which is awesome and another entry into itself.  I snagged her pinking shears and started cutting up strips of fabric.  The fabric was easily tied by Annalise onto the wreath frame and Grandma and Papa got a great Christmas wreath that is easily transportable and storable, and will not break or cut anyone's bare foot.  Grandma proudly displays it above her fireplace each Christmas.  And it's pretty cute, too.  And way less frustrating.  I never cuss at it.

With Juliette's rainbow party coming up, I saw a bunch of cute rainbow wreaths on Pinterest and decided I needed to make another fabric scrap wreath.  (After all I still had that extra wreath frame just sitting around.)  So I did!  Want to see it?  You know you want to...

Ta da!  I gotta admit.  I'm a little proud.  (Mostly just because I actually finished something I started.)  This is a super easy, kid-friendly, inexpensive project to do.  And easy to adapt to any holiday, season or color scheme.

Here's how I made this wreath...

First I gathered up all our scraps of fabric in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

And then I called my friend Amber and asked her for her scraps.  I wanted variety.

Then I cut the fabric into 6 - 8 inch strips, depending on the scrap of fabric.  In no way was I exact.  I only measured to give you an idea of about how long to make the strips.  (When the wreath is finished, you can trim up the ends if you want a more uniform length.)

My (ok Mom's) pinking shears are tough to use, so this part I needed to do.  The kids can do the tying.

Then I tied one strip of each color (except purple since I didn't have any yet) to mark the spots where I would start each section.  I only tied each piece one time (not a double knot).

The wreath is already divided into nine sections, so with six colors, each color got a section and a half.  Then I started tying.  I had more blue than anything else, so I started with blue.  I used a variety of fabrics for each color and spread them around so no one fabric bunched up.  I'm estimating about 40 strips of fabric for each section.  It varies depending on the type of fabric.  You just want to hide the frame.

Juliette likes it.

Even after raiding Amber's stash I still needed to buy some fabric.  I bought 1/8 of a yard (which was still more than I needed, but the smallest size that JoAnn's will cut) of a couple yellows, oranges and purples.  I wasn't picky with which fabrics I chose, so I chose just on price.  On average, I spent about 75 cents per fabric.  I had only one coupon, which was a 40% off one item.  It went to the white chocolate pretzels that Juliette and I shared.  That was a healthy, well-balanced lunch.  All in this wreath cost me about $6.  Actually this is way more than I wanted to spend.  I was hoping it would be freeeeeeeee!  If you are a sewer you will have way more fabric scraps than I have, making this a super cheap project.  I have no idea how much the wreath frame cost nor where I bought it to begin with.  I'm guessing Michael's.  In time, the wreath took a couple nights, plopped on the couch in front of the TV, but expect it to take longer if you have little hands helping you.

Extreme close up...

Here's our front door.  Super welcoming, right?  Especially with the fingerprints all over!  What a bright, beautiful January day!  The wreath will be up for the rainbow party, but expect it to make a repeat performance each year for Saint Patrick's Day!