Fish Bowl Treat bags for a birthday party

In the name of "use what you have first" before you buy supplies, the girls and I came up with a treat bag we gave away for Lizzy's "sea themed" birthday party. The fish "swims" between 2 pieces of sheer fabric.

I had sheer fabric that I bought on clearance at Joanne's Fabric a few years ago. These are like the tucker bags I posted in June except we used foamy for the back. The sheer fabric is folded in half with the fold side up at the top of the bowl. We tucked a foamy animal inside the fold of sheer fabric, set (yarn) strap in place to be sewed over, pinned it all, then sewed.


Sewing with foamy on the bottom was very easy. We made the stitches very long, which gave the bag a nice look.
After sewing the bags were trimmed with pinking sheers to cut down on fraying.Bags were then decorated on the foamy side by the kids with smaller foamy stickers. While they were eating lunch, some of the older kids filled the bags with real sea shells, taffy, stickers, erasers, and a piece of chocolate :) Our frugal find was finding sea shells at the dollar store.

By the way, I thought I'd let my friends know I'm still alive. We have had alot projects to do this summer which has taken me away from blogging. I've felt a little overwhelmed with them all. I hope to post about them when things slow down, we have pictures :) I can't wait to check out what you all have been blogging about :)

Birthday Party

My oldest baby turns 16 tomorrow, Monday, and so we celebrated Saturday. It turned out that 5 people were able to celebrate with us. We had a spaghetti dinner.
After we ate we looked through my daughters pictures, she is a shutterbug enthusist. It was great for the family to see what she sees. It was the perfect little party for a shy girl. Plus, it seems like the parent's emphasis is on taking care of a large group instead of the birthday child when the party is too big. I hope she thinks it went as well as I did. :)
I am thankful to have the family I have. Each person is unique. I don't think I express this enough with my siblings and cousins. I began praying for them a few months back and since then I see them a little differently.

Apron -- Gift for Sister

I am so thrilled with how this vintage apron came out! My girls modeled it for me b/c my sis is little :)

There is a huge pocket as you can see! You can fit alot in there if you need to :)

I love the high waist band! It give the apron a clean dressed up look! Even the back is cute!

Thanks for calling today sis! It was great to hear your voice, I miss you like crazy and I am glad you like your little gifts! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Gifts for Sister

The girls and I have been working on gifts for my sister's 4oth birthday party.

My oldest daughter made her a pointy kitty. Thanks to WeeWonderfuls you can make your own too, she just asks that you do not sell them. I made her a quilted pot holder, and a few crocheted dishcloths.

For her party we made a few Sunflower decorations. To make the little sunflowers we used a Martha Stewart, Cosmos Craft Punch, punching out 4 from yellow tissue paper and 1 from yellow printer paper. (I found that this type of paper looks cleaner than construction paper.) When I stapled these 5 papers together I put the printer paper sandwiched in between the tissue paper. I then cut out green circles (printer paper) for the back of the sunflower where the ribbon is, and brown (craft foam) circles for the front. I found a cute leaf punch from Target a few years ago (for $1), that seemed perfect for the sunflower leaves which were glued with a hot glue gun. Be sure to have a bowl of water next to you when you work so that when you burn your fingers you can cool them immediately.

The big sunflower below the vase of sunflowers was made by my oldest daughter and she used brown craft foam and yellow tissue paper.

My youngest daughter wanted to make something for "Anty" as well. This would be a great summer project for kids. She cut out the letters by herself. This side says, "Sun," and the other side says "flower". We used a Popsicle stick to support the stem. We covered it with green paper afterwards. We also added a ribbon to hang it from.