We made a jellyfish, but using the balloon shape as your base you could make a lot of different things!  The obvious alternative is a balloon pinata or a hot air balloon.  Or what about a globe?  So cool for a travel themed party.

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What you Will Need:

Cup with something heavy to hold it down

Tape

Balloon (We used oval shape but you could use round for a different look)

White Glue & Water for Paper Mache

Large bowl to place your pinata in to paint so it stands up

Paper: newspaper works great.  We had old packing paper so we used what we had.

Flat bottom Styrofoam wreath.  We got ours at Michaels.

Shimmer ribbon for the tentacles.  Also found at Michaels.

Shimmer paint for the jellyfish.  Martha Stewart paints worked the best, but you could use any shimmer craft paint.

String to tie the pinata up.  We used twine.  It worked great!

Instructions:

1. Find a cup and put a rock or something heavy in it to hold it down.

2. Blow up your balloon and tape it to the cup.

3.  Mix your paper mache.

Option 1: I used white glue (2 parts) and water (1 part).  It was easy to make and required basically no work.  Win!

Option 2: You could also mix your paper machier with flour, water and sugar. Combine 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and 2 cups cold water in a bowl. Add this mixture to a saucepan of 2 cups boiling water and bring it to a boil again. Remove from the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar. Then, let it cool (it will thicken). Once it cools, the paste is ready for use.

4.  Apply strips of paper about 1 inch by 6 inches to the balloon.  I did not actually have all the same size strips and it was fine.  I let my kids go at the paper and rip it up and we slapped it on there.  I tried to help them smooth as we went.  My kids were 3 and 5 so let’s just say mine was the smoothest.  That’s cool though, we used their balloons and made fun jellyfish heads that the kids wore as blindfolds for pin the shell on the mermaid.

For a stable pinata, you will need at least 3 layers.  I used 4 layers of paper for added stability.  Don’t go overboard here.  It’s not like you will really want to add another layer – it takes a bit of time – but you want the kids to be able to break the pinata.  That is the fun part!  If the pinata feels to hard when you are finished, you can weaken it in certain points by poking a knife into it.  I don’t have pictures of this step but we did this in a couple places since the bat bearers were 3-6 years old.

5. and 6. Just keep adding those layers

7.  Place your basically dry pinata in a large bowl and pop the balloon.  Then add the layers to any missing spots on the bottom and be sure to leave a hole for your goodies!

8.  Tie shimmering ribbons around your wreath to make the jellyfish tentacles.

9. Use your shimmer paint to go wild on the jellyfish pinata.  It looks so cool when it is all painted!  I simply hot glued my wreath tentacles to my pinata and we had no problems.

10. Attach hanger and give that baby a whirl!  Here’s what I did.  I don’t have any detailed pictures.  I used twine and drilled four holes in a square around my goody hole.  I then stuffed the twine in through one hole and out the other side.  When you looked inside my pinata you saw an x where the twine crossed.  I left a LOT of length on the twine.  I pulled all my ends up and tied a knot about 2 feet above the pinata, leaving feet of twine left over so my husband could hold the pinata at differing heights for the kids.  This was a great idea.

Then just let the kids beat that candy out!  Wahoo!

This really was a super simple project and one the kids loved!  The jellyfish literally gleamed in the sun and I have to say, I was impressed at how our not so smooth papering looked a lot like a jellyfish.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Hopefully you can enjoy a homemade pinata at your next bash!

Stay tuned for the rest of the tutorials from our ocean themed party.  Because everyone wants a life sized mixed media mermaid to play pin the shell, right?

Sophia is intensely interested in my doodles and has started doodling herself.  She is self-conscious about her shapes and her color choice.  She worries that her drawings do not look like mine.  I tell her I have been practicing my doodles since I was a little girl, and I still have room to grow.  I also reveal to hear that doodles are perfect because they are from you.  They are your feelings laid on paper.  They are colors and shapes and emotions.  In short, they are what they are and they are a part of you.  It is personal art and there is no right or wrong.

Today I was doodling as the kids and I practiced drawing the famous Mo Willem’s pigeon.  I am simply faster at drawing the pigeon and my nature makes me immediately start to color while I wait.  We try to draw or color every day.  Usually we have some time where the coloring books are out and some time where we practice drawing something.  This is not forced by me, they want to learn to draw.  I am no great drawing master, but my prowess with basic shapes is advanced to them, so I will do as a teacher for the time being.

I doodled my usual mix of colors and shapes with Sophia’s new glitter gel pens.  I loved the smooth ink and the sparkling result and continued to doodle after the kids had finished, wanting to complete my tiny picture thought.

When I looked up, Sophia had a new piece of paper and was beginning her own tiny doodle.  My heart swelled as I realized she was imitating me.  There will only be so many years she will do this, I know.  Soon she will embrace her independence in every way and have her own inspiration for drawing and everything else.  But today, she wanted to draw like her Mommy.  She was disappointed, but I was so proud. A doodle is never a disappointment.

These shapes are tiny and something about my crazy type A personality loves fitting the colorful puzzle together.  These entire drawings are about 3 inches wide.  It is hard for Sophia.  She has never made a puzzle of shapes before.  She has never worked in such a tiny area of a blank page.  She is fast becoming an expert at basic shapes, but this is something different.  I think she rocked it.  It may not look like much, but for a 5 year old with a tiny area and ultra fine point pens, this was no easy beginning.

After a few minutes, she asked me if we could trade pictures.  She said my doodle made her happy.  I told her I usually tape my doodles into my journal.  She has recently started her own journal and said she thought my drawing would be beautiful in it.  I asked her if I could per her drawing, her first real doodle, in mine.

A doodle for a doodle and we both have what we wanted, a beautiful piece of each others hearts.

We love keeping a journal and for kids a doodle journal can be a great thing!  We write the date at the top of each page and then the kids are free to draw or write words or feelings throughout the day.  There are pages that Sophia says are private and there are many she shares with me.  I feel honored.

What do your children want to imitate?  Are they nervous about their art or excited to try new things?  Do you journal or doodle still?  I can’t be the only one!

Last year on Valentine’s Day we made photo frames and took pictures and get this…I did it for Sophia’s entire class.   Be careful doing this…the mommy bar applies to other parents too.

We painted 15 frames red and pink the night before, made a huge trip to Michael’s for supplies, organized everything and hit the 3′s for some frame decorating and picture taking.  I brought a 4 week old Violet into the class in her carrier with all the supplies.  The kids decorated with my help for an hour or so and then after taking a picture of each one I came home, nursed Violet and printed out all the pictures and brought them back into class to put in these frames for their mommies and daddies.  Sophia thought this was fabulous.  I did too, but it took a long time.

This week I realized that I have created children who expect fantastic crafts all the time.  Whenever there is not something awesome going on, they expect a cool art project from mom or ask to build something and paint it.  

Over the weekend Sophia asked when we were making Valentine’s for her class.  I almost jumped and said “Right now sweetie!” but then I was hit with a wave of exhaustion and explained that this year Target would be providing out Valentine’s.  She was more than a little upset.  I think she was assuming we would still rock an awesome project for this holiday of hearts.

Just moments after Sophia and Miles wished me a Happy Valentines Day they asked what our Love project was going to be.

Crap.  Violet is sick.  I am sick.  I am barely making it through the days here and I had nothing.  Well, I did have a text message from a friend reminding me that I was watching her son for an hour or so in the afternoon.  I felt so bad.  I had nothing.  No plans.  No special paper.  No hanging heart mobiles or Valentine treasure boxes.  I pulled “We’ll make a Valentine for Daddy” out of my ass and tried to ignore the confused  and disappointed look on Sophia’s face.  Miles was cool with this.  Anything for Daddy is good for him. 

So we got home from school, got out some construction paper, scissors, heart craft punches and glitter and made cards for Daddy.  Without the glitter I would have been toast but kids and glitter make for lots of smiles and a huge mess.  Miles made the green one.  Sophia cut her own heart (I was so proud) and rocked the purple and red.

Sophia said it was fun and that when I felt better maybe we would do something bigger again.   I told her that lots of kids do not do big projects every day and she told me that’s one of her favorite things.  That makes me special.  My heart melted. 

That, people, is a mommy bat set too high.  I don’t have it in me.  I can’t nurse the baby and do the laundry and do crafts and clean the house and make dinner.  Maybe I could institute a 1 day per week project with the other days sticking to coloring and glue.  Maybe we could make a really cool calendar and mark the craft day with lots of glitter (there I go again).  I am hopeless. 

Any suggestions?  I need to lower the mommy bar enough so that it hits me in the face when I try to tackle way too much with too little time again.

Where is your Mommy Bar?  Did your abilities change when you added more children?  Do you still try to do everything or have you made some cuts?  Do your kids understand?  Seriously, I need my kids to be okay with me doing just a little less.  Thanks for any and all advice!

I think they turned out super cute and the kids love them!  I am still trying to convince Miles to let us use some of his little animals in our forest but here’s how it looks with just the trees on a little sparkly snow.

This project is super easy.  I was hoping there would be a little more for my kids to do.  It would be perfect for ages6 and up.  Kids who are able to use real scissors and cut well with a grown-up’s supervision will be fine with this.  Sophia helped me cut but she, at 4, got frustrated with her circles.  She was able to help assemble the trees and place them on our snowy board. 

What You Will Need:

1.  Paper:  It can be wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, wallpaper or any paper large enough to hold your circles and easy enough to fold 8 times in half.  We used Ikea wrapping paper for our gold and glitter tree and scrapbook paper for the others.  I got an entire scrapbooker paper pack at Michaels for only $11 that was more than enough for this project and all my other holiday paper needs.

2.  Scissors

3.  Rod or Small Dowel:  I used kabob sticks as they were the thinnest I could find and a meat needle to make the holes.

4.  Glue

5.  Styrofoam or something to stick dowel in.

6.  Fake snow:  I got a bunch at Michael’s for $4.00 and have a bunch left over.

7.  Decorations:  To decorate plain paper or your forest you can use glitter, stickers or markers.  You can choose to decorate your forest any way you like!

8.  Surface for Forest:  I had a board laying around (of course, I build furniture) but any flat surface will do.  You are just wrapping the snow around it.

How to Make The Trees

This is so simple.  I have shown a three, four and five tier tree.  I like the 4 and 5 tier the best.  Each tree takes about 10-15 minutes to fully assemble.

1.  Choose paper and trace circles.   Most paper packs come with only 2 sheets of each style so you will need to choose 2 coordinating papers to get four tiers (see my green tree).  For three tiers 2 sheets of 12×12 paper will work.  I used mixing bowls and Tupperware lids to make my circles.  Just hunt around your pantry.  You want anywhere from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 difference from circle to circle.

2.  Cut out circles

3.  Fold the circles:  This is where the BHG instructions were not good at all.  What you want to do is take your circle and fold it in half.  Open it.  Fold it in half again.  Open it.  Do this 8 times until you have a 16 piece pie.  From those creases, pleat your circle and it will stand on its own.

4.  Poke holes on the tip of each tier and stand up.  Poke your dowel through and arrange tiers.

5.  Stick your dowel into a piece of Styrofoam (or something else that will hold it) so it will stand up and finalize tiers.  If some are falling down, some scotch tape will hold it up if wrapped around your stick.

6.  Cut out two circles from scrap of other trees to make the tree topper and hide the stick.  Glue two circles together and press firmly around the stick for about 30 seconds, or until the glue is set.

7.  Wrap some snow around your board or other surface and place trees on top.

8.  If you want to add little cone trees as we did, simply cut out some cute paper and make into a cone.  Staple the edges together and cut off the excess at bottom so tree sits flat.

9.  Accessorize and enjoy!  I think some pretty ornaments or sparkly balls would look cute sitting in the snow.  Small animals would also be adorable.

Happy Holidays!  Let me know if you have any questions and of course – please shoot me pics if you do this project!  It would be great done with wrapping paper on an even larger scale where kids got to decorate each tier.  This would also make it more fun for the little ones!

Presenting Princess Sophia

Sophia realized she was a princess right out of the womb at a very early age.  Since the time she could speak her royalty has been a main topic of conversation.  She has had dress up clothes since shortly after her first birthday and yes, she loved them then and is obsessed with them now.  Between gifts and donations she now could clothe a small court in fancy dresses, heels and jewels and is taking applications for ladies maids.  The only pay is the pleasure of her slightly bossy company.  I have already been told that I can wait on her because I am pretty and good at working (Gee, thanks).  I tried to explain that I was the Queen and she just laughed and told me I was funny.  Other applicants will have to try out for the privilege to serve her.  Ross is not good enough.  Miles is not pretty enough, but he can be a handsome prince. 

As an aside – I think Sophia and my husband are in cahoots to keep me working for her and him playing guitar for her on the couch.   I also think if I asked him why he married me he would say something along the lines of pretty, funny (or maybe just pretty funny) and a good worker.  Where’s the romance huh?

Besides creating her royal court, she has been concerned about the fact that she has not had a princess party since her birthday in September.  We have discussed the annual nature of birthdays and parties but with Hanukkah already here and Christmas just weeks away she has been constantly begging for another princess party – not a holiday party.  I am considered quite the cheeky lady in waiting for actually denying the princess’ requests on such a regular basis.  According to Princess Sophia “It’s going to take such a long time until I am 4 and I really need a party!”  Don’t we all?  She is disappointed.

Then, this weekend, I convinced Sophia that I am, in fact, a kick ass mother and wonderful Queen.  While walking through Nordstrom for some tights we ran smack dab into a giant Princess Party.  With Make-Up.  And Crowns.  And Crafts.  And cookies.  And other princesses.  She thinks I did it.  She thinks it was a big surprise!  She screamed “Oh, Thank You Mom!”  I made her say thanks to all the nice ladies who threw the party but I took the credit.  I myself cannot thank Nordstrom enough.  They threw a little girl princess party that rocked!  

First, there was a long table with a white tablecloth and on this table was a giant tower of juice boxes and gourmet white cookies with pink and white icing.  They were in little clear bags with sparkling ribbons.  They were delicious!  The girls hosting the party gave some to Miles and Ross too before we went them on their way to Get Our Princess On!   At the other end of the table was a glitter picture frame project where we decked out our frame in preparation for our Princess Photo Shoot!  We had a blast meeting other little royals and socializing over our apple juice, cookies and glitter!

Glitter Crafts - Perfect!

Then, as if the cookies and crafts were not enough excitement, the little girls got to have their full glitter make-up done in one of the grown-up chairs by a real make-up artist.  The pink glitter was included in everything from the lip gloss to the blush to the eyeshadow.  I don’t think Sophia has ever had so much fun!  Her whole face was sparkling and her smile was ear to ear.  When they gave her a sparkling crown and wand her “Oh my goodness they are beautiful!” scream rang through the girls department.  I don’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry at her overwhelming enthusiasm.  While it was all very funny, Sophia and all the other girls were just beautiful and the moments spent with their moms and dads were priceless. 

Following the application of gobs of makeup we were sent on to our Princess Photo Shoot in front of a dazzling Christmas tree on a red velvet chair.  Sophia said it was perfect for her!  So, fully decked out in her crown and wand we proceeded to the picture station and smiled for our royal portrait.

She Graces Us with a Smile!

All of this partying was completely FREE!  Sophia hugged all the Nordstrom girls ( I wanted to give them mushy kisses for giving my daugther so much joy)  and then we got another beautifully wrapped bag of cookies, for the baby of course, and went to meet Daddy and Miles.  They actually asked me if we would be back for the Tutu and Tiaras party next month.  UM….YES!  I COULD BE IN LABOR AND WE WOULD NOT MISS IT!  Sophia agreed with a hearty “Of Course we will be here!  I am a ballerina too!”

So thank you Nordstrom.  Usually having fun in your store costs a lot more money.  And causes marital distress.  This was awesome.  We Got Our Princess On and We LOVED it!

I would love to hear of any randonly wonderful things you have discovered with your kids.  When you thank God that some marketing genius thought of this activity to get you in the store…or whatever…you get it.  Share!

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