HO HO HOme Depot Party - Part II

If you've read Part I of the HO HO Home Depot party with all menu and all the decor details of this party, I am sure you anxious to see how the actual craft project was made! It was just too long to fit in one post, so here it is...

Party Activity:  If you are having a Home Depot party, you have to have a fun project for guests.  I wanted to pick something that would be easy to make in one evening and still allow us to have time to chat/have dinner. This project was perfect!  The employees at my local Home Depot were amazing at helping me get what I needed.  To make this project, you will need:

• Two pieces of 1'x4' wood
• 1 1/4" Screws
• Wood glue
• Paint - Jim, from Home Depot recommended Satin finish
• Paintbrushes
• Table saw/Drill

Step 1: Saw the wood.  You can make this project whatever size you want, but I gave each guest 2 pieces of wood with instructions to cut five 36" pieces, one 30" piece for the brim, and one *** piece for the bracing on the back.

Step 2:  Assemble the project with wood glue.  You could skip this step, but I think it helps hold the pieces in place before drilling.  If your wood has writing on it (which most will), have your guests make sure the writing is on the back side of the project so you don't have to worry about it showing. We glued the bracing piece to the bottom/back of the project as shown here.

Step 3:  Drill the bracing piece into the back making sure the screws don't go all the way through to the front of the project.  Drill the hat brim on as well.  I instructed guests to do both of these from the back so the screws wouldn't show on the front.

Step 4:  Paint your project!  Most of the girls did one thick coat of paint, but you could do a second if you have time in your party.  The guests painted the base, and then we had dinner while that dried.  Then we came out to paint the face.

If you have kids at your party, give them popsicle sticks and have them create the same project minus the sawing and drilling!  My oldest daughter loves to craft and always wants to be a part of my dinners somehow, so this was perfect.

The girls and I had a ton of fun making these, and I think they will be a fun holiday decoration for years to come!

Thank you again to the employees at Home Depot for helping to make this craft night possible!

HO HO HOme Depot Party - Part I

HO  HO  HO...it's Christmas time! I love the holiday season, and I can't seem to have enough holiday decor around my house, so for this month's dinner party, it was Christmas craft time!  That's right, we had fun with a HO HO HOme Depot themed monthly dinner!  Special thanks to the employees at the Anaheim Home Depot who were awesome in helping me figure out the best supplies to build our craft.

Invite:  I love the Home Depot gift card that has the Santa working at the tool bench, so I wanted to incorporate that into my design.  I made the invite on PhotoShop with this image at the top, and the basic party information below.  I sent it out to my girls electronically, but if the guests you are inviting live nearby, I think it would be cute to hand deliver the invite nailed to a small piece of wood.  Just added fun.

Entry Decor:  I made a wreath for my front door out of a 100-foot extension cord, and then tied a bow with yellow CAUTION tape.

I also set out an example of the craft project we were all going to make for the party.  I chose to paint a Santa, but the girls had the option of painting a Snowman, the Grinch, or a Santa.

Inside Decor:  I went with holiday colors for the decor with a little Home Depot orange thrown in here and there.  I set out tools from my garage mixed with various Christmas decorations, and that was it.

For the centerpiece, I set out my husband's red toolbox and some random tools.  I bought a Home Depot apron (only 99 cents), and the "H" and "O" letters (Michaels), to spell out the HO HO HOme Depot theme.

I also made these cute Christmas lights on a string using paint swatches from Home Depot.  I got two lights out of each swatch, added shiny silver cardstock to the top, and taped the light to a piece of ribbon.

For place cards, I used these super cute aprons that are Home Depot gift card holders!  I took out the gift card from the pocket on the front (because it hid part of the logo).  I cut the letters of each guest's name out of cardstock using my Cricut and glued them on the line.  You can write them on with Sharpie, but I wanted guests to be able to reuse the apron if they wanted to give a gift card to someone for Christmas.  One of my guest's ended up putting this on her Christmas tree as an ornament!  I love it!

I designed a couple of wine labels to match the holiday spirit -- "HO HO HO Pour the MERLOT" on the chest of Santa and "I'm Dreaming of a White WINE Christmas."

For wine charms, I got some screws and nuts from my husband's toolbox.  I dipped one side of each of them in paint and kept the other side metal.  I used holiday colors to match the theme, and then tied them onto the glass stem with white ribbon.

Menu:  At first I had a hard time deciding what to serve because I wasn't sure if we would actually have time to sit and eat or if we'd be working on our projects the entire time.  I started off with a Roasted Pepper Tomato Soup with a bread-stick that I served in a mug.  I served this in a mug not only because it is "wintery", but also so guests could drink this while they were working on the project and not have to worry about having a spoon.  Both the soup and the bread-sticks were straight from the box, I didn't make them from scratch.  They were delicious, and all I had to do was heat them up!

After assembling, drilling, and painting the base of the craft project, we came inside for dinner while the paint dried.  I served chicken kabobs that I added the head and base of a hammer to make them fit with the theme.  I just printed them on cardstock, cut them out, and taped them to the stick right before serving.

I served the rice in a paint tray from Home Depot.

For dessert, I served vanilla ice cream with showmen made out of Kit Kat bars.  Perfect because they totally match the wood craft project we were making as the Kit Kats look like pallets. I used candy melts as "glue" for these.  The black round candy I bought at a local cake shop, but the rest I just got at the grocery store.  The nose is a gumdrop that I cut.

Party Favor:  Even though guests were already leaving with the craft project as a party favor, I made this small one as well.  I cut pieces of wood and painted them red.  Then I used my Cricut to cut a vellum HO HO HO.  I added a ribbon and some mini ornaments (from the dollar store) with hot glue.

Can't wait to show you the woodworking craft project details.  Check out the HO HO Home Depot party - Part II post to see how we made these adorable holiday decorations!

Trolls Birthday -- Fun & Favors

Not only was the decor of my daughter's Trolls birthday party colorful and fun (check out Trolls Party Part I), but we had some fun favors and party activities which I am so excited to share with you!  Oriental Trading has so many items that made these favors and activities easy to do.

Color is essential at a Trolls party, so I made a HUG TIME banner and set out the party favors and cakes on a table right as guests walked in the house.

What is a Troll party without colorful Troll hair!  You can purchase Troll headbands online, but these are so easy to make even a non-crafty person can do it.  I made a headband for each child to wear throughout the party.  For my headbands, I used the following:

• Colorful headbands at least 1 cm width 
• 6" tulle in bright colors from Oriental Trading
• Embroidery thread to match each color of tulle
• Glitter flower stickers from Oriental Trading

Making these headbands has only a few easy steps.

1. Cut your tulle into 22" pieces.  
2. Fold each piece in half and lay it over the headband with the loop towards the center and the loose ends pointing out.  Wrap the loose ends around the headband and pull up through the loop until the knot is snug against the headband.  You don't want it super tight.  
3. Repeat this step 9 times, so you have 10 pieces of tulle on your headband.
4. Gather the loose end of the tulle together, about 6-8 inches from the headband, and tie embroidery thread around the tulle to secure it together. 
5. Pick your flower stickers and stick them on however you want! I added a bit of hot glue to the back of the stickers to make sure they stayed, but this is not essential.

I made some without flowers for the boys as well as some solid color ones to so each headband was different.

Along with the headbands, each guest took home a Troll favor bag.  The pink and blue treat bags are from Oriental Trading, and I took these bright bags and added a Branch or Poppy character head to the front.  I used my Cricut to create these.

Inside the bag were fun goodies mostly from Oriental Trading that I let my daughter pick out when we looked at OT's website.  She picked sticky neon hibiscus flowers on a string that we re-wrapped in small cellophane bags, pink twisty lollipops, and glittery notepads. I added a cardstock Poppy head to the bottom of the twisty lollipop.  On velum, I printed the same 2" circles I used for the cupcake toppers, and stuck these to the front of the notepads to tie in the theme.  I purchased Trolls pencils from Amazon to finish out the favor.

 

Cake/Cupcakes:  Jenna wanted "cupcakes and rainbows" for her birthday party, so I of course had to do cupcakes with rainbow-like frosting.  I baked Funfetti cupcakes, and piped on swirled icing.  I added a 2" cupcake topper with various characters from the movie.

I also made this Poppy cake for the birthday girl. I baked two 8" circle cakes and one 9x13" cake.  One of the circles became the head, the other became the two ears, and the rectangular cake became her hair.  I had a hard time getting Poppy's hair as bright as I would have liked using the color dyes I bought from Michaels.  If you plan on making a Poppy cake, I'd go to your local cake shop and buy what they recommend.

My daughter loved it though, so that's all that matters, right?

Party Activities:  We rented a bright bouncer and my father-in-law played music for a "dance party."  Some of the kids and Jenna had fun singing-a-long with some of Trolls songs.

Poppy loves to scrapbook in the movie, but I wanted to put a twist on this concept.  For the a party craft, the kids decorated rocks to look like Trolls!  They had so much fun!

I set up a table with lots of fun supplies.   My daughter and I painted the rocks in various colors prior to the party, so that they were ready to go and the kids didn't have to wait for them to dry before decorating.  Here's a list of the supplies I set out:

• Rocks (purchased from Home Depot)
• Glitter Flower stickers from Oriental Trading -- yep...the same ones I used on the Troll headbands
• Neon Fringe Boas from Oriental Trading
• Scraps of bright paper for ears
• Cardstock Troll noses in various sizes
• Googly eyes in various sizes
• Glitter jewels (purchased at Target)
• Sharpies/Glue

I love the creativity of the each kid's creation.  All of the Trolls looked completely different and the kids had fun making them.  The neon fringe boas were great because they were bright, and the kids could cut them any length they wanted. I would definitely recommend this craft if you are having a Trolls party!

We had a great time, and I hope you liked both this post and my previous post to give you even more ideas for a future Trolls party!  

Disclosure: I partnered with Oriental Trading Company for this post. I received product(s) in exchange for my honest and unbiased thoughts. All thoughts and opinions stated are my own and are in no way influenced by my partnership with the above mentioned brand.  

Trolls Birthday - Decorations & Delights

My daughter loves the movie Trolls, so when I asked her what she wanted her birthday party theme to be, Trolls was her first answer.  Honestly, if you haven't seen this movie, put it on your to-do list because it is so sweet and the soundtrack is great.  Luckily for me, Oriental Trading has some bright and fun decorations that I used to help make this theme come alive.  This Trolls Party post will focus on decorations and food.  For the fun activities and favors, check out Part II of my Trolls party post.

Invite:  I designed the invite on Photoshop using bright backgrounds and Troll characters. I also created matching Thank You cards and included a photo of my daughter from the party in the white box instead of the party info.  Before we get to the info of the party, let me show you that photo of our beautiful birthday girl...

Jenna wanted to be Poppy, and I found a simple pillowcase-style Poppy dress on Etsy.  This dress is from LindsayBoutique.  We paired the dress with some sparkly pink leggings and a Poppy headband I made using a headband, hot pink tulle, light teal ribbon, and glitter flower stickers from Oriental Trading.  You can tell by her smile, she loved it, right?

Entry Decor:  One request of my daughter's was to have "cupcakes and rainbows" at her party just like Poppy does at her party. I created a rainbow balloon arch at the entry to partially fulfill this request.  As a high school Activities Director, I make balloon arches often, but you can youtube how to make one as well.

I also painted a block of wood with Poppy to welcome guests.  I added a speaking bubble with cardstock and stapled some hot pink tulle from Oriental Trading to create her hair.

Inside Decor: I decorated the tables with bright pink, blue, and green tablecloths from Oriental Trading, and added plush Trolls characters and bright flowers as centerpieces.  In the flowers, I also added bits of colorful tulle that I had left after making Troll headbands for the kids.

I love the rainbow background I created behind my table with more of the Oriental Trading tablecloths!  Who says tablecloths can only be used to cover tables?!  This was simple to make.  I draped each tablecloth and stapled it into the wood of the window frame.  Then I covered the tops with clouds I cut out of posterboard.  This would make a great photo background as well if you wanted do a Trolls photobooth.

I saw these fun green grass balls from Oriental Trading, and knew they would be perfect for a Troll party.  I set each grass ball on top of a vase that I wrapped with green cardstock.  These are the large balls, and they were the perfect size for this.  They are super light, so they would work great as hanging decor as well.  I can't wait to use these for a future party.

I created a banner between the grass balls that read Dance & Sing...another popular phrase from the Trolls movie.

The plates, cups, and polkadot straws are also from Oriental Trading.  I paired these themed items with simple bright colored napkins and dessert plates.

Menu:  The party was from 2-4, so I served simple snacks rather than a meal, but I tried to keep the snacks within the theme as well.  I didn't really think anyone would eat purple cabbage, so I decided to try a Beet Humus that was purple to complete my veggie rainbow.  I purchased the beet humus, but there are recipes out there if you want to make your own.

The fruit I attempted to arrange in a slightly arching rainbow.

Instead of regular salsa, we served Rainbow Salsa (recipe and photo credit to Gimme Some Oven). I've made this salsa before, and it is tasty.

For the cake/favor table inside, I created a simple banner out of cardstock with HUG TIME as it's message. This matched the Dance & Sing banner outside. For more on the details of this Trolls party favors, cake, and party activities, check out Part II of this Trolls party post!


Disclosure: I partnered with Oriental Trading Company for this post. I received product(s) in exchange for my honest and unbiased thoughts. All thoughts and opinions stated are my own and are in no way influenced by my partnership with the above mentioned brand.