Life Outside the Fishbowl

Doctor Who Birthday Party - Bananas Are Good

We decided to carry our Doctor Who theme to the food for Rachel's party.  World Market provided us with Jammie Dodgers and ladyfingers -- a stand-in for fish sticks.  The one thing that was missing was jelly babies - someone had bought all the packs the week prior and the candy store didn't get any more in stock by the party.

We had descriptive signs and some who-phenilia courtesy of Hot Topic.  Thomas decided to arrange all the mini figures into scenes from the show, complete with a hand-written description.

The custard was homemade; the fishsticks were ladyfingers. I used this basic vanilla custard recipe from food.com.

And I insisted on having cakes with edible ball bearings.

We made the TARDIS cake (and it looks homemade), but Rachel was thrilled and that's all that matters. Wilton has some spray color for icing -- if you use a thick coat of the blue you'll get this color.

Doctor Who Birthday Party - Setting the Stage

We had told Rachel that she could have an early birthday party this year, since hers is in the middle of summer when most of her friends are inevitably on vacation.  What started out as a sleepover for up to four girls blossomed exploded into inviting fourteen kids.

I'd been perusing Pinterest for months for ideas. And created a board just for this party.

My original plan was to cover the front door in blue paper and add the details for the
TARDIS.  I picked up some blue posterboard which was too small ... and never made it back to Staples for the roll of blue paper I'd seen ( which in all likelyhood was not going to be wide enough).  So we improvised the morning of the party.

We moved some framed posters out of the kids' room and had stars hanging from the ceiling in a couple of rooms....

and I found this idea on Pinterest that I recreated (minus the hanging pens) ...

A Doctor Who Birthday Party

Yes, I've been absent from the blog again ....  life has thrown quite a few problems in our path over the past month and we're finally feeling more  back to normal. If normal includes two birthday parties in a week's time, that is.

I told Rachel she could have a party before school gets out this year, since hers is in the middle of summer when most people are on vacation. She wanted a Doctor Who theme and she's been planning this for month - literally.  This is where Pinterest became my best friend. I've been pinning all sorts of party ideas.

But first, the invitations.

She wanted Tardis invitations. And they had to open like the doors on the ship.

I found a good photo of the Tardis and printed it using photo paper.  Since the doors open in the middle, I needed to make a gatefold card. The card base is just blue cardstock -- the closest I could get to Tardis blue.

If you're going to make a card like this the best advice I can give is to make a practice one, or two if needed using scrap paper. I ended up printing, constructing, then resizing the image a few times before I was satisfied.

For the interior of the card I used the interior of the tenth Doctor's Tardis (yes, and the exterior is the 11th's - the blue in that image matched the paper better). Using photoshop I added all the pertinent party details in large white type.

And, since the card was custom-made, the envelopes need to be as well.  I used a standard envelope template for my Silhouette, resizing it to fit the card. Rachel helped me assemble them.

And a final touch with a white gel pen .....

This weekend we're going to do a trial run of making sonic screwdriver pens (another Pinterest find).  And I'll be making River Song's diary journals for favors.  Now, if only I could get my hands on some jelly babies...

 

Bridging from Brownies to Juniors

Tuesday was our school-wide bridging for all the Girl Scout troops. All of our 12 Brownies flew up to Juniors. They knew they would be getting their Junior vests and cake, but we added a couple of surprises...

When they crossed over from Daisy Scouts to Brownies we made "I {heart} Brownies" stretch necklaces for them.  This time it was a certificate and a cute bottlecap necklace ...

.. and  junior mints all wrapped in a green ribbon.

Want some ideas for your own bridging? 

Girl Scout bottlecap necklace ideas from Pinterest

Bridging certificate ideas from Pinterest

 

 

 

Memorial Day at Hidden Pond

For the past several years we've been part of a neighborhood Memorial Day observation at the nature center. And every year it reminds me how thankful I am to live America. 

A View of My Room

Karen stopped by to art journal and I not only haven't put away the table, I've moved things onto it. Which isn't a good sign. Scrapbook layouts that need to either be finished, scanned or put away.

And my desk isn't that much better.... pile of journals and sketch books. Another journal in progress which I really need to stitch... and it's a good thing this shot doesn't show the "stuff" on the floor.

But I can close my eyes and image that my space is all neat and organized ... like this....

It's all a matter of perspective, right?

Viva Decor - Inka Gold

Our Michaels has added a whole bunch of stuff - literally overnight. Including Viva Decor's Inka Gold. Which is great, because the handful of tiny bottles I bought several years ago had all dried out.

And I just dove right in, sticking my finger into the green yellow and trying it out in my collage junk journal. I used it on the right-hand page, ontop of the black and white photograph and down the side of the page. I put it on lightly, and I like how it looks like the photo is tinted almost.

So much so I think I need to pick up a few more colors.

More Swatches - Collaged Backgrounds

A few more backgrounds I've been working on in my Swatches junk journal. I'm really, really enjoying this process. It's quite liberating to just grab, rip, cut, arrange and glue. Although I've had to force myself to keep my hands off the current magazines in our living room.

This page spread started with marks on the left-hand size and bold patterned paper on the right, which you can see on this post. I recently rediscovered my boxes of Tim Holtz tissue paper, and have liberally been using them in this journal. There's also bits of sewing patterns and magazine cut outs. I'd say these pages are about half done - I still need to add focal images and journaling, but I like how they are coming along.

And another spread. This one has been built up by layers. And lots of texture, thanks to the line drawings and text.

I started with the black and white drawings on the edges, cut out of an old Washingtonian magazine. On top of that I added a teapot, flowers and clocks. Next was more Tim Holtz tissue paper - a large chunk on the left page; random torn chunks on the right. 

I feel like the left-hand side needs more to balance it out. I've got a kinda revolutionary war/tea party thing kinda going. However, the right page is about ready to add some journaling.

And one final page. More layers, but these are overlapping. The text here is from sewing pattens. And the right hand side? I'm still debating. I really like the doodle on the paper and want to keep that. While I really want to keep this primarily a collage journal I'm considering gessoing around the doodle, or mabe adding an image transfer. Something transparent.

Coptic Journal

My first time making a coptic journal. Yes, I signed up for another online class.  This time it's Jeanne Oliver's "The Journey of Letting Go." Like I mentioned, sometimes I need a big push and this class covered quite a lot of area - from mixed media to charcoal drawings to pastels and more.

So.... I used 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper for the signatures and started with an old Basic Grey paper for my cover. On top of that I collaged quite a bit, used a bit of oil sticks, stamping and stenciling. The edges are covered with Tim Holtz's tissue tape for a little extra durability. The stencil is Dylusions.

And Still More Swatches

I spent a chunk of time yesterday working on this collage book, and managed to make a good start on four new pages. This, after trying to sort through and arrange a basket and large pile of material. Which happened after a good hour sorting through lots of my idea-ology stash after the drawer overflowed....

This spread is pretty finished. I'm debating whether or not to add journaling on the right-hand side.

And I made a good start on a few more pages -