Frozen Birthday Party

I have no idea how, but, before my very eyes, my sweet niece Camdyn is turning 4! Crazy!!! Like most four-year-old girls her age, she is completely obsessed with Frozen, so her party theme was a no-brainer. What was not so simple, however, were all of the little details her mom put into this adorable party for all of us to enjoy! Check out all of the funsies in the pics below...

The almost four-year-old humoring her aunt by taking a picture by her food table

Drink options included "Melted Olaf" (aka-ice water) and "Melted Snow Monster" (a fun and fizzy blue concoction that was quite tasty)

Frozen snow castles created by pouring water and food coloring into beach pails, freezing them and placing them on a cotton ball-covered cookie sheet

Each food item offered went along adorably with the theme! Sno-Cap candies became the Snow Caps of Arendale, Anna and Elsa's kingdom

Green rock candy resembled Anna's frozen coronation gown

Blue and clear-colored rock candy on a stick served as Elsa's frozen fractals all around

No party is complete without powdered donut holes, aka "Snowballs"

Chicken and ham salad sandwiches were served as the main entreé and went along with Anna and Hans' favorite food choice

Who doesn't love frozen grapes???

Pretzel sticks were adorably labeled "Sven's antlers" to pay homage to everyone's favorite reindeer (besides Rudolph, that is).

And let's not forget everyone's favorite character, Olaf and his removable (cheese puff-like) nose

The pretty birthday girl posing by her Olaf poster...

My sister-in-law frosted a Blue Velvet (for obvious reasons) cake and embellished it with beautiful, blue, rock candy and Frozen character figurines

How cool is that light-up birthday candle??? And how sweet is that birthday girl?

Playing "Pin the Nose on the Olaf"---stiff competition

The bar has been set very high for Frozen-themed parties after this little shindig!

Detachable Olaf Plush

Do you wanna build a snowman??? A question familiar to probably every child in America and beyond, courtesy of Disney's fantastic movie Frozen! And who doesn't love that adorable snowman obsessed with the season that would deduce him to a puddle, as well as constantly getting himself decapitated and impaled throughout his adventures with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Sven! Olaf is a character you can't help but love and my nephew, Derek, is no exception. Check out the stuffed Olaf I created for him. The best part??? He's detachable...just like in the movie! Now Olaf can get into all sorts of pretend play mischief, too!!!

I must note that I am sort of a "cut and wing it" kind of sewer, so there is no specific pattern for you to follow, but I can give you the basic idea as to how you can make an Olaf for yourself! Here goes...

Materials:

-1 yard white felt

-white thread

-needle

-sewing machine

-fabric scissors

-black, orange, and dark brown felt

-Velcro (about 1 ft. total of soft and rough sides)

Instructions:

1. Placing two pieces of felt together, cut out an uneven circle of about 8" in diameter (keep in mind, one of the most endearing things about Olaf is his 

    uneven-ness and whacky ways, so there is no need for precision here). Put both pieces off to the side.

2. Create 2 uneven circles out of white felt approximately 6" in diameter. Place both pieces to the side for later.

3. Create two oval-ish shapes (almost bell shaped) approximately 8"x6" (at its widest point). Refer to the pictures below to get an idea of the shape. 

    Place to the side with the others

4. Using white felt, cut out a rouded rectangle for teeth,  two-2" circlesr eyes, and 2-2x4" rounded rectangles for feet.

5. Using black felt, create three uneven circles approximately 4" in diameter for buttons, two circles about 1" in diameter for the eyes, and one mouth, approximately 4x6" at its largest point (refer to picture)

6. Using dark brown felt, cut out 3-4, 3" long strips for Olaf's hair, two, long, triangular pieces for his eyebrows, and two arms about 6" in length.

7. Take one of the white felt pieces that will make Olaf's head and pin on the mouth, teeth, nose, and eyes (white and black circles) in the appropriate 

     places.

8. Using white thread, handstitch the pieces to the felt

9. Using one of the middle pieces, pin on a black button. Handstitch the button onto the felt.

10. Using one of the large, bottom pieces, pin two black buttons onto the felt and handstitch.

11. Match each of the white pieces felt up so that the eyes, nose, buttons, mouth, etc. are placed in the insides. Pin the hair, arms and legs to each ot the 

      corresponding pieces and place the remaining material into the middle of the white felt so that no parts of the hair, arms, or legs are sticking out. Pin 

      matching pieces together (should be a total of three).

12. Sew around each pinned piece, leaving a 2-3 each gap to stuff them. Once sewn, flip rightside out, stuff, and handstitch to close.

13. Handstitch a 3" piece of rough Velcro to the bottom of Olaf's face, a 3" soft piece to the top of Olaf's mid-section, a 3" rough piece to the bottom of the mid-section, and a 3" soft piece to the top of the bottom part of Olaf.

14. Attach Olaf and enjoy the detachable fun!!!

Transform Stickers to Create Reusable, On-the-Go Activities

My house currently looks like every sticker in the world exploded ALL over it! I'm constantly pulling wads of wet stickers out of my laundry, scraping them off of floors and furniture and finding them on my clothing as I walk into work. Needless to say, we go through A LOT of stickers in my household, and I've been dying to figure out a way to hold on to some of the cute stickers we purchase and not have to spend my entire life unsticking them! As it turned out, the solution was simple!

Using my handy dandy Purple Cow laminator (which I am completely obsessed with), I laminated the stickers and cut them out, leaving a small border of laminate around each. I then placed a small piece of rough Velcro on the backs of the stickers. In case you weren't already aware, rough Velcro sticks to felt beautifully! With that being said, I placed the laminated stickers onto various colors of felt sheets, which I jazzed up a tiny bit to match the theme of the stickers. Oh, and PS-Michael's has a HUGE and inexpensive variety of licensed character stickers, which are very popular in my household! Also, The Dollar Tree just started selling some super cute Very Hungry Caterpillar stickers, which I was super pumped to make reusable (love me some Eric Carle)!

And there you have it, folks! Simply fold up the felt and pack it and the reusable stickers in a baggie to bring with you when you need it the most!

Frozen Glove Puppet Theatre

I finally had the chance to watch Frozen (I know...its about time, right?!?!), and LOVED it! Disney has absolutely done it again! Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff (two of my Broadway faves) did not disappoint, and who knew Kristen Bell had such an amazing voice (is there anything that girl can't do)? As always, the minor characters stole my heart! Sven was adorable and there are no words to describe my newfound love for everything Olaf! My 20-month-old was a huge fan too and has made mama proud with her attempts to sing "Wetty Go!!!" All in all, my new favorite movie! It seemed obvious to me that my next craft project had to be themed around this wonderful film, so I immediately got to work to make a miniature puppet theatre using a glove, iron-on transfers, and five of Frozen's finest cast members, courtesy of Sweeps4Bloggers! I have included instructions AND a printable of the characters for you to make your very own!

Materials:

-Frozen characters printable

-felt

-iron

-fabric scissors

-glove

-hot glue gun/glue sticks

-rough Velcro

Instructions:

1. Print characters onto iron-on transfer paper (any kind is fine, just be sure to follow the directions precisely!)

2. Cut out characters

3. Transfer characters to felt

4. Cut out felt characters (Note: After cutting the characters out like I did in the picture below, I decided to cut them again more precisely, but you get the idea!)

5. Hot glue rough-sided Velcro to the backs of each felt character (no soft Velcro needed, as the rough Velcro will stick to the mitten on its own)

6. Place felt characters onto the glove in any order you'd prefer!

The sky is the limit as far as how this glove can be used! I would love to hear how you used yours! On that note, I do believe its time to watch Frozen again...