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DIY Super Hero Fort Kit

Posted by: hdeitrick on: April 30, 2013

In: Affordable | Birthday Party | crafts | Money Saving Tips | Special Occassions
4 Comments

Hannah attended her first “friend” birthday party a couple weeks ago and had a blast. When we got the invitation to this little boy’s 5th birthday party my first thought was, I know nothing about boy gifts. Let’s face it, I live in girl world, I never had brothers and I really have no clue what 5 year old boys get excited to play with. I did, however, have a good clue about something this sweet little guy liked because the party theme was batman, spider man and legos.

So I did what most clueless moms do, start browsing pinterest. That’s when I came across the homemade fort kit idea. What boy doesn’t love building a fort, right? I took some ideas from the pin and got to work to make a kit customized for Hannah’s friend. Here’s what I purchased/used/created:

Little red, zipper-top bag (86 cents): The pin had a tutorial for how to make a cloth bag to put the kit in but I am not a great sewer and didn’t want to spend a lot of time trying to make a bag that probably wouldn’t look very good. I made the bag I bought more sturdy by cutting a cardboard circle the same size as the bottom of the bag and then covering it in red craft foam. Here is what that looked like:

Navy blue queen sheet ($2)
I cut an old white t-shirt into 7, 18-inch (1 inch wide) strips to make the “hooks” for the sheet. Just stretch out the strips a little then tie knots on each end of the strip. Make a little loop and then sew onto the sheet. 3 loops go along the long sides of sheet and one in the center. Here is a photo of the loops/hooks:
I took 5 clothespins I already had laying around the house and had Hannah paint them blue. Then I found superhero/lego clip art, printed them out and covered them with laminate I had. I glued the laminated art onto each clothespin to make them more fun and in line with the theme:
Now it’s Dollar Tree time. We got red nylon rope ($1), suction cup hooks ($1), glow sticks ($1) and a flash light ($1) to put into the bag. I also included some popcorn and fruit snacks because building a fort takes lots of energy 😉
The last step was making a cute sign for the front of the bag so the birthday boy would know what he was getting (or really the birthday boy’s mom because she was the one reading it!):

The next week when I ran into the birthday boy’s mom at school, she told me that he absolutely loved the fort kit and had been playing with it non-stop the entire weekend. I’d say the kit was a hit and not bad for just about $7! If you have any questions about the assembly of this kit just leave me a comment and I’ll get back with you! Also, if you’d rather not go to the trouble of making the kit, you can always pay me to make one for you 🙂 I can also do a “girly” one…Hannah has already requested one.

Linked up at New Nostalgia, Housewife How-To’s, Atlantamomofthree and All Things with Purpose.

Tags: birthday gift, children, craft, DIY, fort kit, Kits

A Princess Leia 1st Birthday Party

Posted by: hdeitrick on: April 10, 2013

In: Affordable | Birthday Party | Event Planning | Family
6 Comments

With a name like Leia, you know I couldn’t resist throwing a Star Wars themed first birthday party…heavy emphasis on Princess Leia. You can see the birthday invitation here. I made Leia funfetti cupcakes that were decorated with cream cheese and chocolate frosting, mini chocolate chips, chocolate Oreos, and red decorating gel. The oreos are held on with a dab of chocolate frosting. I displayed the cupcakes on the tower I made (instructions here). I plan on recovering the tower and adding new ribbon for my older daughter’s Disney Princess birthday in May…here we go again! At least I have 6 weeks to ~~recover~~ get things ready for Hannah’s party.

I decorated the kitchen by displaying photos from each month of Leia’s first year clipped onto a piece of light pink sheer fabric. The funny story about this fabric is that it was originally purchased and used at my wedding reception almost 7 years ago. Little did I know then what that part of the decor would be used for later on 🙂 I had a bunch of silver hair clips that I used to clip the photos onto the fabric–just trying to use what I had. I couldn’t find a star wars table cloth that looked girly enough so I just bought a plain pink one and attached star wars graphics I printed out on photo paper as well as some photos of Leia with her Princess Leia hair buns on.

I made a “one” pennant decoration for Leia’s high chair. It also had “Leia” on one side pennant and “Danielle” on the other end pennant. I strung them through light pink ribbon and attached it to the high chair with glue dots. The glue dots peeled right off afterwards.

Leia with my SIL Tiffany

I decorated the blank wall that Leia was going to be sitting in front of to open her gifts with a big poster of photos my cousin Candace took after Leia was first born. You can see part of this in the collage above. This made a pretty backdrop and was also fun to look back on (thanks Candace!).

Now on to the food. I tried to have fun with the food labels. Here’s what we had:

Yoda Soda (pictured in collage above)–it’s actually just 7-Up and Lime Sherbet but it’s really tasty!
Han Solo Ham Sandwiches (I made homemade yeast rolls, filled them with shaved ham and cheddar cheese, then popped them in the oven to warm 30 minutes before lunch time)
Princess Lays Chips (I can hear your groaning)
Yoda Ears (edamame in shells topped with coarse kosher salt)
Vader Veggies & Droid Dip (my mom supplied this with fresh veggies from her garden and delicious spinach artichoke dip–even the spinach was from her garden!)
Light sabers (pretzel rods dipped in raspberry sherbet flavored candy melts then sprinkled with hot pink sugar crystals; I stuck the “sabers” into a bowl filled with pink candied popcorn Hannah and I made)
Princess Leia cupcakes

So now you have some ideas to plan your own girly star wars party–come on, there has to be someone out there that can use this! Also, a big thank you to our friend Bryan Alston who took such great party pictures for us and many of the ones I featured in the collage above. It was a really fun day and I’ll cherish the memories of Leia’s 1st birthday forever!