Category Archives: Craft and DIY Ideas

May5

Japanese Children’s Day

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Along with being the Cinco de Mayo, today is also a fun festival in Japan, Children’s Day!  Originally it was called Boy’s Day, celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month, and Girl’s Day being the 3rd day of the 3rd month, but more recently the 5th of May has been remade as Children’s Day to celebrate all children.

I happened upon this fun and cute craft on Squirrelly Minds that is perfect for today!  How to make Japanese flying carp streamers, which is the traditional symbol for this day…a carp for each boy of the house!  (Now I assume that it would be a carp for each child!)  I have been saving up toilet paper rolls for the last few days so we can try our hand at these cute crafts.

Koinobori (Japanese Flying Carp) DIY from Squirrelly Minds

These photos are reposted with the  permission of Tan from Squirrelly Minds and here’s the link to her blog with the photo tutorial on how to make these colorful carp!  Aren’t they the cutest things?  Thank  you Tan!!

I had thought we would make these Japanese carp yesterday, but while we were looking at her site, we also found out that there is a Kodomo-no-hi celebration at the Japanese Gardens near where we live, so have decided to check that out!  There will be carp and kite making for the kids, stories and other fun stuff!  I’ll post a photo of our Japanese inspired creative efforts later!!  It is very early spring here, with yesterday being the first really really warm day of the season….there are still patches of snow around and yesterday I saw a pond still mostly covered in ice!!  It has been a long long winter this year….and finally it feels like spring!!  Nice weather to fly a kite or a carp!!

Yesterday we had a little Cinco de Mayo lunch at our house, though I made Guatemalan food! (of course!)  Last year I did a bit more Cinco de Mayo fun stuff, which you can see  here: cinco de mayo.

Have a happy Children’s Day and Cinco de Mayo :)

May3

DIY Recycled 10-minute Mini Piñata

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DIY Recycled 10-minute Mini Piñata

Flashes of genius happen at the strangest times.  Like when you are shredding documents.  And then emptying the shredder.  And you think, “this shredded paper is so cool, what could we make out of it??”  How about a Piñata?  A mini piñata that won’t take much time to make.  A recycled earth-friendly piñata.  Sounds good to me, I say to myself.

First of all, I collected all the kids’ field trip forms that are always sitting around cluttering up my counter….they are usually printed on brightly colored paper….perfect for a cinco de mayo type piñata.  I mentioned that I had already emptied the shredder, so then my daughter had a fun time feeding in all the colored paper that I had decided to recycle.  Now empty the shredder again…denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata

Lovely!!

I’d be happy to just have the shreds sitting around in a jar to decorate….not everyone’s idea of glamorous decor….denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataFind some little boxes to use, and some tape and something to hang the thing with…like string or ribbon…we found a box from icing colors, so even the box looked colorful….denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataNow would be a good time to fill the box with candy….if you want to!!  Then knot a length of string and secure it in the corner of the box, then fold the flaps down to hold the string in place and tape it all closed.  Can you see the loop of string coming out of the corner?denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataCover one side of the box with glue, plain old white school glue…denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata

Grab a small handful of the shredded paper and start sticking it on!  Don’t be a perfectionist!denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataGlue paper on another side,  doesn’t really matter what order you do the sides in!denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataMy 6 year old daughter and I each made one…denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñatadenna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñataSeriously, it took about 10 minutes to make one of these little guys!denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata

Now hang it up!!  And add a little tissue paper tail….denna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñatadenna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñatadenna's ideas: how to make a recycled mini piñata(I “boosted” the color in these photos…I wish I had kitchen walls this lovely papaya shade of burning orange!)

Apr5

Fast and Easy DIY Hello Kitty Party Banner

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I love fabulous crafts that are fast and easy!!!  Especially when they are party decorations.

This party banner for a Hello Kitty themed party, or any girly party, takes about 10 minutes to whip together. Or maybe less…. I love things that whip up in 10 miutes or less!  Have I mentioned that I do all my party stuff quite last minute?  It’s the planning and getting ideas that takes weeks and weeks and hours of pinning on Pinterest…..

The other great thing about this cute little banner is that it costs under $2 to make.  Well, since I already had ribbon, it really only cost $0.99, but then add sales tax….so rounding up to $2 is fine.  The tricky part is finding Hello Kitty playing cards.  (I mean it might be tricky for you to find at your stores…)  I just walked into The Party Store and peeked in the Hello Kitty party favors bin and there they were…the last pack.  The possibilities for using them seemed endless and I had so many plans….but getting back to last minute party decorating….they became a fast and easy party banner.

What you need:  Hello Kitty cards, tape and ribbon, like the kind you wrap presents with.

denna's ideas: Fast and Easy Hello Kitty Party Banner from playing cardsWhat to do:  lay a long length of ribbon out on your workspace….slip a Kitty card, playing card side up, under the ribbon.  Add a curled up piece of tape on top of the ribbon going over the card…see…. denna's ideas: Fast and Easy Hello Kitty Party Banner how tothen set the next card, face up, on top.  It’s impossible to match up the heads on the front and back of the banner, so alternate the heads…upsidedown for the back one, rightside up for the front one then rightside up for the next back one, upsidedown for the next top one…and so on :) denna's ideas: Fast and Easy Hello Kitty Party Banner how toSpace them out a little or a lot, whatever you like.  If you have more time, it would be cute to add something extra between the Hello Kitties, but if 10 minutes is all the time you have, it still looks…hello cute!denna's ideas: Fast and Easy Hello Kitty Party Banner from playing cardsNow all you have to do is hang it up!  I had it hanging low over the dessert table at our recent Hello Kitty Party. Right above some Balloon Ice Cream Cones.

Hey….another fast and easy party decoration!  Turn balloons into ice cream cones by adding a paper cone to the bottom (I happened to have some ceramic waffle-cone dessert holders, so used them), smear glue stick onto the balloons and add sprinkles…real ones!!  Or you could add paper confetti for sprinkles.  Make a cherry for on top with crunched up red tissue paper.  The hardest part was figuring how to stick the “cherries” on top…in the end I used the glue stick.

denna's ideas: Hello Kitty Banner and party ice cream balloonsThere you go, two easy party decorating ideas for your next girly party….I’ll be posting some more Hello Kitty Party Ideas soon….