Free TMNT Inspired Ninja Turtle Party Printables Download

I reached 3,000 sales on my Etsy shop! So, I want to celebrate by sharing a special freebie. I have a complete TMNT inspired party set for you today. I hope you enjoy it!

I designed these for my son's birthday party a few years ago. He wanted a ninja turtle party. So, I designed my own decorations and accented them with some specific things like napkins and balloons I found at the store.

I had a lot of fun designing this set! I tried to keep everything clean and simple while using a lot of green and hints of the bright red, blue, orange and purple that go with each turtle.

The different weapons are really important to little boys apparently. So, I made sure to include them on the cupcake toppers.

My favorite was the pizza "cowabunga" banner and favor tags. We attached them to homemade sugar cookies. We used white frosting and cinnamon candies to make them look like mini pizzas.

So, here you are! There's no charge for this party set. But, it would make me so happy if you left a comment about how you use them and share the love with a link on your facebook, pinterest, blog, etc.

DOWNLOADS:
Welcome Sign: "WELCOME TO THE PARTY, DUDE!", hang or trim for 8 x 10 frame
Pizza Banner: Spells "COWABUNGA", about 3.5 x 4 inches each piece

Party Circles: Decor or cupcake toppers, "PARTY", "DUDE", & weapons, 2" each
Labels: Great to label food, fold in half to stand or cut in half

Thank You Cards: You or your child can fill in the name & gift, 4 x 6 inches
Invitation: Blank lines to fill in your information, 5 x 7 inches (or trim to 4 x 6)

Favor Tags: Add to goodie bags / party favors
3 Patterns: Green speckles, green pentagon & multi-colored stripe

Please remember my freebies are for personal use only. Do not share, sell, or distribute my files. I retain all copyright. If you would like to share these, please link to this post, not the downloads directly.

Thanks for your support and remember to check out my shop here! Enjoy!

Christ-Centered Easter Activities for Kids with Free Printable Downloads #Hallelujah

Hi, Friends! Our little boy arrived in January! He is a sweetheart. I am trying to savor every moment! Having a newborn in our home again is so neat. But, it's also an adjustment. :)

I was so sad last Sunday when I realized I haven't put up any spring or Easter decorations yet. So, I was really excited to be invited to join with some amazing designers in sharing some special Easter printables to help us remember Jesus Christ.



I was inspired by the printables provided by Mandy from Sugar Bee Crafts. She designed an Easter week advent with something special to do each day that focuses on the Savior. I love that everything is all planned out and ready to go... plus adorable!



If you would like to create your own, you can download the overview of what to do each day here. Next Sunday, March 20th will be the first day (#8). You can put little strips of paper into each egg that give the specifics for each day. They are all ready to go! Here are the first 4 days instructions and last 4.

I love that she has some adaptations for younger children and even provides a chronology activity, journaling sheet, and recipe. She thought of everything!



I wanted to share a printable too. So, I designed one that could be used to decorate an egg carton to store your advent in. Download it here. You can begin your tradition this year and reuse it next year too! There will be 4 extra egg compartments where you can store your recipe, chronology activity, etc.



With a new baby and lot's of deadlines at work, I didn't feel like I could commit to following the advent this year. But, I decided to try her resurrection rolls for a family night treat last night. The recipe is really simple and the kids had so much fun making them! My oldest understood the symbolism too.





The hardest part about the recipe is sealing up all the "cracks" in your dough so the marshmallow doesn't run all over your pan. We are sugar addicts here. So, we added a little glaze (powdered sugar and milk). They were a big hit!

A few years ago I helped the 8 to 12-year-old girls in our congregation with an activity. The leaders invited me to take some of the leftover supplies home to make my own Easter story with visuals. Here is a similar one from the Life Your Way blog.



I have to give Mandy credit for inspiring our lesson too. Seeing how adorable her advent is, I just knew I had to finish putting my Easter story together. Above are the supplies I used: papers with scriptures, items to fill the eggs, plastic Easter eggs, my printable to decorate the egg carton, egg carton, marker to label the eggs, and scissors to cut out the printable pieces.



This is how it turned out after I attached the printables. The long skinny pattern fits just right on the back of the carton. My kids were really excited to see what was inside!



After I printed everything out, I noticed there was text inside the egg carton too. But, a quick search on lds.org helped me find some great art to cover that up too.

The kids really enjoyed the activity. Taking turns letting them open the eggs to see what was inside and trying to guess how it applied to the Easter story kept their attention really well. It was a neat lesson and I just wish I would have started this tradition sooner!



Last, but not least, I printed out this pretty "He is Risen" decor. Download the large image here or smaller pdf. You can frame it, put it on an easel, scale it down to use as a tag... I love having a little Easter decoration up now!

I hope this post will help you get some ideas of how you can celebrate a Christ-centered Easter. I would also like to invite you to view this Easter video on Mormon.org. For more ideas, check out Sugardoodle.net!

Little Pumpkin Party & Free Printable Autumn Garland Download

Thanks for being patient with all of my party posts lately. I have been doing a lot of other projects too that I'm looking forward to showing. First, I want to share this party I designed for my daughter's 2nd birthday in case you are thinking about throwing an autumn party.

Here's a free autumn garland printable file to get you started. Print the file out, cut each leaf out and sew them together. Even if you're not throwing a party, this will make a cute fall decoration. You could also use them for scrapbooking, cards, or a wreath. Personal use only.

Ok, now onto the party. I decided to do a "Little Pumpkin" theme since her birthday is this fall and she's our little pumpkin. :) These designs work great for a toddler's birthday, kid's autumn party, or baby shower.

GOODIES: I had a lot of fun putting the favors together. Kids love these little pumpkin candies and they're so cute. I used this super easy recipe to make pumpkin cookies. Yum! You could also serve this with apple cider.

DECOR: The welcome sign might be my favorite part. I just love the way all the graphics come together. There are so many other cute pumpkin & fall decorations that go great with these colors and theme. You can cut strips of paper and make your own pumpkins like these or make my free leaf garland if you don't want to spend money.

If you want to make a party just like mine, stop by my Esty shop here. I include everything in this set, even the invitations. I think it would be fun to cut around the pumpkin shape to make a unique shape for your invites.

Hope this gives you some inspiration for your fall party!

Robot Birthday Party Planner

I have declared July as PARTY MONTH on the Yay, I Made It! blog. So, first here are all the details of my Robot Birthday party, so you can do it yourself!

I designed this party for my little guy's 3rd Birthday. All the printables are now available in my Etsy shop here.

For the party refreshments, the cake was the biggest hit. Here's the cake tutorial. But, I had fun labeling the party mix as "nuts and bolts" and blue punch as "robot coolant"... ya, I'm kinda a nerd. :) The cupcake toppers turned out really cute.

Another cool idea my friend gave me was to pre-scoop the ice cream into cupcake liners. This worked great and saved time! Just make sure not to do it too far ahead so they get freezer burnt.

One of my favorite decorations is the banner. I designed it so it could be cut out like gears or just circles. The welcome sign would be fun to hang on the front door.

I also made some robots using tin cans and screwing bolts with nuts attached into them. I used two tin cans filled with bolts to hold wooden dowels to string my banner on too.

The final detail I'd like to share is the party favors. They were a lot of fun to make. Find the tutorial here.

There are so many great robot party ideas out there! So have fun with it, and don't forget to check out my printables here. :) They even include an invite & thank you!

More parties coming soon!

Robot Birthday Cake Tutorial

I can't believe it's almost been one year since my little guy turned 3! I thought it was probably time to finish sharing the details from his party. :)

So, today I'm sharing a tutorial on how I made his robot cake. It was a big hit and pretty simple too!

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Purchase a cake mix, vanilla frosting, twinkies, & some candies. You may also need food dye, a candle, and a cake decorating bag or plastic bag cut on the corner.
2. Bake a regular 9 x 13 cake & one cupcake.

3. After the cake is cooled, cut it into 4ths.
4. On the plate you will be serving your cake on, carefully & evenly layer the cake pieces, with frosting between each layer.

5. Frost your layered cake. I used gray frosting I mixed myself with a little blue & orange.
6. Frost 2 twinkies and attach them to either side for arms. I used yellow frosting for this.
7. Frost 2 twinkies and place them on the plate, against the cake for the legs. Mine are mostly red food dye with a little bit of yellow.
8. Frost your cupcake and place it on the top for the head. I mixed turquoise frosting with mostly blue food dye and a hint of green.
9. Now decorate with your candies & frosting.
10. Serve & enjoy.

Check back soon for the complete party details! You can find my robot party printables here.

Robot Birthday Party Favors

Hi Friends! A while ago I threw my little guy a robot party. There are tons of great robot party ideas out there! It was a lot of fun putting together all the best ideas for his special day.

These are the favors I made for the party. I got the original idea from here. However, after I priced out all the goodies I would need for a bunch of kids I knew I needed to adapt the idea to fit my budget.

So, here is my adaptation. The great thing is, you can use this concept with whatever fun things you can find. For example, this gal added googley eyes.



1. Gather your supplies:
• Boxes of snaps, juice boxes or other fun things for bodies
• Now and laters, starbursts, or other goodies for heads
• Tootsie rolls, laffy taffy or other fun things for arms (2 each)
• Tape, scissors, permanent marker, alumium foil, & glue gun
• "Thanks for Coming" printable
2. Wrap your head treat in aluminum foil like a present & draw a face using your marker.
3. Wrap "Thanks for Coming" printable around the "body".
4. Attach the head and arms to the body using hot glue.
5. Be creative, repeat, and have fun with it. Kids love to help with this!

More on our robot party coming soon!

DIY Homemade Doll

I have been having a lot of fun with my Esty shop lately! I added some fabric art I designed. I'm excited to start making projects with it.

This is the first project I made with my doll fabric. It is a gift for my daughter's birthday. I think it would be fun to add ribbons in the dolls hair or a little button on her dress. I didn't because my daughter is one and I didn't want pull things off and choke on them.

It was really simple to make. I just cut around the doll, sewed fabric to the back, and filled it with polyfil. Done!

WARNING: Suffocation hazard.

Cotton Ball Snow Activities

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged! It wasn't my plan at all. However, I have been trying to focus on being consistent with work (I mostly work from home), keeping up with housework, and spending time with the kiddos... Anyway, a side-effect was no blog post for.. 3 months! Wow!

I've missed blogging and feel ready to add some other things I enjoy back into my routine. I've been doing a lot of projects so it will be fun to show them off soon.

First, here's what we did today for our activity... We had a "snowball fight" with cotton balls. Then we put them into a dish towel and threw them up in the air. Finally, we created these little scenes. It was a lot of fun!

Monster Tooth-Fairy Pillow Tutorial

We took my 5-year-old to the dentist last week and he had to get a tooth pulled. Poor guy was very upset about the whole thing. But, when he saw something about the tooth fairy on tv he got super excited.

I got excited about it too and couldn't resist looking up an idea for a special tooth fairy pillow. When I searched Pinterest there were tons of cute monster pillows with a little pocket to hold money. Perfect! This is how I made mine...

1. Gather your supplies: Scissors, needle and thread (or sewing machine), white felt, colored felt, black iron-on (or felt), ribbon for bow-tie, and ribbon for hair (not pictured).
2. Cut your felt pieces. I'm guessing mine are about: (2) 5 x 5.5 inches in blue, (2) 5 x 3.25 inches in blue, (2) 1.5 inches triangles in white, (1) 1.25 circle inches white, and (1) .75 inches in black (or iron-on material)
3. Make a felt sandwich. Layer (1) 5 x 3.25 inches piece, (2) triangles side-by-side as shown, and (1) 5 x 3.25 inches piece.
4. Sew along the edge about .25 inches from the edge. Turn right side out and it should look like this.
5. Make a bow. I did this by making one longer piece of ribbon into a circle and wrapping an shorter piece of ribbon around it going the other direction. Sew the "bow-tie" onto the piece below the triangles.
6. Attach the white and black circles to one of the 5 x 5.5 inch pieces as shown (about an inch from the top). Mine are one white piece of felt sewn on in an "x" and a black iron-on piece ironed on-top of that.
7. Make another felt sandwich. Place the piece with the eye, the piece with the teeth (line up with bottom), and then the other 5 x 5.5 piece.
8. Pin them together. Sew along sides and bottom.
9. Stuff with fiber fill.
10. Fold 4 pieces of ribbon (about 4 inches each) in half. Tuck and pin them inside the monster's head. Sew the top shut through the fabric and ribbons.

Let me know if you have questions. Hope your kiddos like it as much as mine!

Leprechaun Loot Treasure Hunt

Last Saint Patrick's Day our 5-year-old had such a fun day at preschool that he talked about it forever! They did some special activities... not exactly sure what they were. He told me bits and pieces. It involved some silly leprechauns playing tricks on them and ended in finding some yummy treats.

So, this year I want to do something special for him. I made this little "leprechaun loot" treasure hunt. He loves this kind of thing right now so I think it'll be a lot of fun. Here's a free download for you to enjoy too!

Have a nice weekend and don't forget to wear green Saturday!

Kid's Activities

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. My goal is to figure out how to take care of me, my family, and my other responsibilities too. I don't have all the answers yet but I am figuring a few things out. So, I'll be sharing ideas as they come to me.

The first thing that has helped me take care of myself is...Make time each day to do an activity with my kids! Surprised? This is something I have been wanting to do but until now haven't been very consistent with.

Oreo Spiders: Use what you have and like. Rather than buying black licorice whips, we cut chocolate licorice into strips. This idea came from my Pinterest.

Cardboard Airplanes: You can make so much with cardboard! We made an airport to go with these. We have also made cars to "drive".

Cereal necklaces: We made these with things we had around the house. It's a fun way to practice patterns too.

Forts: These were a favorite of mine growing up. Having the kids help with clean-up is important. Mine enjoy learning how to fold blankets as a team.

Homemade donuts: These are super easy! Cut holes out of biscuits from the store (the ones in the tube), deep fry them, place them on paper towels, and coat them with powdered sugar.

What I do: After lunch each day we clean up together. Then, we do an activity together. Above are some of the ones I've taken photos of. Others we have done are: having a snowball fight & building a snowman, making mini pizzas, making cars out of apples & grapes (from my Pinterest), and the current favorite is making maps to find "treasure" around the house. Here are some more I want to try.

Results: I feel less guilty when I take time for my myself because I know I have time set aside for the kids too. Also, the kids aren't always nagging me to let them watch t.v. (they aren't as bored). Another benefit is FUN and learning together.

One challenge I sometimes have is keeping the activities simple and within the given timeframe (so they don't eat up the whole day). I keep reminding myself that it doesn't have to be fancy or elaborate. Some of our favorite activities were impromptu ideas that use things we already had.

I think it's my 5-year-old's favorite time of day. Everyday he asks, "What activity are we doing today, Mom?"

Valentine's Gift Garland

One thing I have been working on a lot lately is setting aside special time with the boys. Each day after lunch we do an activity. I will be posting some of our ideas soon.

First, here is a gift garland we made for my hubby. This would be a fun tradition for any holiday. Each bag has a Valentine and treat inside... one for each of us to spell LOVE.

Here's how we did it...

1. Gather your supplies. I used ribbon too.

2. Make and decorate some cards.

3. Decorate your paper bags

4. Place your treats and cards inside the bags.

5. Fold the tops down, place ribbon at the top, and sew.