Workspace Wednesday...Of a different sort

Normally I would show a glimpse of my craft room today, but since that's not where I am working right now, I will give you a peek at some iphone photos of what I am working on- my master bedroom. Note the peachy pink walls, trim, and doors. Brass everything, circa 1985. And the best part- the mint green carpet! Awesome, right? I meant, mint green is a pretty color, but...for carpet? Maybe not. We started a couple of weeks ago removing wall paper. Unfortunately, it was good wallpaper (20 years ago). Therefore, it was super thick (the steamer didn't loosen it), and it was pasted on. With A LOT of wallpaper paste. We spent a week peeling off wallpaper in teeny tiny strips and chunks. Along with chunks of the paper covering the drywall...what a nightmare! We also scraped popcorn off of the ceiling, which is easy, but super messy! You spray the popcorn down with water ( we picked up a new chemical sprayer at Wal Mart so we didn't have to keep squeezing a trigger bottle, we have a pretty large room), make sure it is well saturated, let it set for a few minutes, then used a wide scraper to scrape it off the ceiling.
So our room looked like this:








 You see all of those spots where the paper came off the drywall? Yeah, they have to be patched. And sanded. And patched some more...AGGGHHH. The prep process is my least favorite but the most necessary part. So. We spent one day spraying the wall down with water, and scraping off GOBS of wallpaper paste (you can't see it in these photos, but it is definitely there!) It took my husband and I working together most of a day to scrape it all off. Then we thought we would see if we could just prime without patching the bare spots. Nope. So we wasted a day priming. Well, I guess the day wasn't entirely wasted, because we did prime the ceiling, which needed it, too. But we could tell that the bare spots were going to show through the wall paint and stick out like a sore thumb. And we discovered that the cheap paint wasn't going to cut it. So, I spent the next 3+ days filling the gashes gouges and tears with this stuff:

And waiting for it to dry, sanding, and finally priming again. 

Trust me, I was so over this project by this point!! But, I was finally ready to start painting! So, I went and got some Olympic One flat finish (a flat finish will hide more imperfections than any kind of paint with a sheen, like satin, eggshell, etc). The color I chose was called Royal Palm:


And this is very close to what my bedroom looks like right now. A construction zone, with mattresses on the floor. I'm hoping that my hubby will get enough time off this weekend for us to put in the floor, as that is something I am not quite prepared to tackle on my own. Fingers crossed! I am so ready to be done with this room! Today, I will be putting a second coat of white (Olympic One Silver Feather, to be exact-the trim color I am putting throughout the whole house) on the doors, and hopefully the hubs will be able to come home and change out the ceiling fan for a new, more modern and updated one, and replace the electrical outlets (they're all outdated, painted over in peach paint to match the old walls, and loose, cords just fall out of them). Luckily he has worked in construction, and is very handy and able to do all of this pretty quickly. He'll replace all of the old outlets and switches with new white ones, and it will look so much better!  Tomorrow, maybe the new plantation blinds can go up. So, there you go. That's what I'm working on. What about you? Do you have any renovation nightmares to share? Or are you getting crafty and doing fun projects for fall or your scrapbooks? If so, I'm a bit jealous, but I'd love to hear about it!

Harry Potter Birthday Party

My son turned 10 this year, and the last Harry Potter movie came out, so what better way to celebrate than with a Harry Potter birthday party? I got tons of ideas from Pinterest, then I decided what I could make work in my house.

The first thing that I made was the sign for "Platform 9 3/4", which I placed by the door (I picked up the file that I printed here-she has TONS of other great printables for a Harry Potter party). The frame was a simple oak frame that I repurposed with black chalkboard spray paint and hi-gloss spray (or you could just use a gloss finish spray paint) but I used what I already had.

My Sign:

The next thing on my list...wands for the Wizards! I found an AWESOME and easy tutorial for making them from cardstock, hot glue, and spray paint-and I love how they turned out!

Ollivander's Wand Shop:

As you can see, I also made "Hogwarts Completion Certificates, but I will show those later ( I gave them out at the end of the party).

As any Harry Potter fan knows, the wizards doesn't choose the wand, the wand chooses the wizard. So, we blindfolded the kids and the let the wands do the rest of the work ;-).

(birthday boy had to put a spell on his sis!)

Now there are lots of ideas for Harry Potter party activities if you google it, but the kids opted to ride four wheelers and play Harry Potter video games.

We had a Sorting Hat Pita Bread with Felix Felicis Spinach dip:

We had a Honeyduke's Sweet Shop:

 A closer look at the spooky sweets:

We had lots of yummy treats: Acid Pops (sour pop rocks), Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (eyeball bubble gum from the Halloween section-also a nod to Moody Mad Eye), Chocolate Frogs, Slytherin Snakes (sour gummy snakes), Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (I couldn't find these, so I just used gourmet jelly beans), Cockroach Clusters (chow mein noodles covered in chocolate), Golden Snitch Cake Pops, and Edible Wands (chocolate licorice), and Nimbus 2000 Broomstick treats.

I made the sign with some googled clip art and cardstock:

There were lots of fun treats there, like Nimbus 2000 Broomstick Treats:

Instructions to make these HERE.

Golden Snitch Cake pops (I got the idea for these here):

I used vanilla almond bark, and mixed golden yellow and lemon yellow food coloring in for the candy coating.I made the wings from a shimmer cardstock, and cut them out with my Cricut.
For the cake, we had a "Hagrid Cake," like the one that Hagrid brought Harry in the first movie, messy pink and green frosting, misspellings, and all.

Here is the cake from the movie:

And, Evan's cake:

(this was the easiest and most fun birthday cake I have ever made-it was so freeing to make it messy on purpose!)

There were Chocolate Frogs:

Which I made with a candy mold from Hobby Lobby, and printed out the labels for.

I also made a banner:

I printed out the Gryffindor house crest for the ends, along with some Harry Potter artwork that I altered in PSE, I cut the letters in red and gold (Gryffindor colors) for the banner from the Parry Hotter font using my Cricut and SCAL, then tied it all together with pieces of black tulle.

Here's another look at the banner and table:

There were "Magical Color Changing Drinks" for "Potions":

(these were easy-I put food coloring in the cups, then the ice cubes, so that when we poured the sprite in, it changed colors)
And, of course you can't have a Harry Potter party without Butterbeer!:

I used this recipe for Magically Easy Butterbeer-  I did have an "oops" moment here-I overbeat the whipped topping and turned it into butter-luckily, I had bought a back up of Cool Whip, so a crisis was averted! It was really good (kind of like a cream soda float)-I'm sure that it would have been even better with the topping it was supposed to have ;-)

Of course, there was singing and candle blowing:

Cards :

(What 10 year old boy doesn't love a whoopie cushion?)

and Presents:

He got lots of Nerf stuff, a video camera, a Super Soaker, money, books...

When it was all over, all of the kids got "Hogwarts Completion Certificates":

This is what they looked like:

I printed them out on vellum, one at a time, and immediately sprinkled them with UTEE and heat embossed-then I rolled them all up like diplomas and tied them with golden yellow grosgrain ribbon.

It was a fun party, and hopefully it made my little man feel special! Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves!

I am linking up to:

A "Something Blue" Bridal Shower

My *baby* sister is getting married in August, and she asked me to be the matron of honor, so of course, I had to think of the perfect bridal shower for her. Let me tell you, the logistics of being the matron of honor while I am in Tennessee and she is in Florida is a little bit tricky! But we finally worked out a date for the shower, and it was off to the races! I finally thought of doing a "Something Blue" shower, after tons of research on the internet.
First, I made the invitations. I cut the words, "Bridal Shower" with my Cricut and Sweethearts cart, and embossed aqua shimmer paper with the "Friends Forever" embossing folder for the Cuttlebug, and embossed the envelope flap with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. Here's another photo of the invite with a couple of the favors ( I will tell you about them in a minute, bear with me!):
I decorated a clipboard for the gift list:I cut the presents from the Sweethearts Cart (after coating the clipboard with an ENTIRE can of white spray paint and clear sealant), and added an adhesive ribbon from DCWV to the bottom and tied lots of aqua and white ribbon and lace scraps to the top.
Next, I made a ton of these little favors: The white dress box is from the Tie the Knot cartridge, embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. Some tips: MAKE SURE your paper is pressed very firmly to the sticky mat before cutting- a brayer would be a great idea! I tied an aqua ribbon around the waist, and used a huge roll of pearls that I picked up at Hobby Lobby when they had their half off bridal sale to decorate the bottom of the dress, and just taped the ends around the edges of the dress. The purse favors are svgs from Dan's blog, and embossed with the Textiles Cuttlebug folder, tied with a tiny white satin ribbon.
Then I made a little lingerie gift box for the tiny blue undies I gave her:
I used the pillow box svg file from Penny Duncan's website, added a black and white sticky border strip around the middle, and tied with an aqua ribbon with black stitching from Doodlebug, and embellished with some pearl corsage pins from WalMart, and a corsage cut from Tie the Knot.
I made some gift bags for the game prizes, using some yummy satin ribbons and cuts from Tie the Knot (the scroll heart and the bell), and Sweethearts (the presents).
Here is a close up of the towel cake I made for the centerpiece. I used the Grungeflowers svg file from Dan's blog for the roses I put on top, and tied some pretty aqua satin ribbon around some plush white towels. The monogram plaque was created with the Tie the Knot cartridge and Swiss Dots embossing folder. My mom's gorgeous crystal cake stand really made it perfect.
Our cousin, Jocelyn, made the cake. It was red velvet and sooo yummy! The "pearls" in front of it are actually Sixlet candies from the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. We had a coffee punch with chocolate and vanilla ice cream in it, which everyone slurped down (3 punch bowls full!).
A side view of the cake:A picture of Jocelyn, my other sister Elisabeth (in the back), the bride-to-be, and myself.A photo of the corsage I made for her with Dan's Grungeroses svg file, paper, ribbon, and tulle. A photo of the banner that I made with the banner , monograms, and lovebird from Tie the Knot, tulle, ribbon, and I "Glimmer Misted" (yes I made that word up) the plaque in the center and embossed with Swiss Dots before attaching the lovebird.A pic of Bethany and me (I think she was very happy with the shower-which makes all of the hard work worth it!)
A photo of Bethany opening gifts -she got tons of great presents (we had a beautiful sunny day-about 72 degrees, and a fantastic turnout). Bethany and our Mom:Bethany and my oldest, Caitlin (they are so close, and you can really tell how much she loves her Aunt Beth!): All in all, It was a gorgeous day and everything went fairly smoothly-Hopefully it will be a treasured memory for my little sis!