Spongebob and Patrick Cupcakes

Ok, so I totally admit I am a crazy Mom and person in general.  So even though my son was going to be having a big birthday party (Board Game Theme party I have posted about before), I also wanted him to be able to take in cupcakes to school on his actual birthday.  So me being the type to go way too far, made Spongebob and Patrick cupcakes purely for him to take into school.  But man did they turn out cute!

So I did 12 of each character...yup again a lot of different colors and still only 4 bags and no identical tips!  Really need to buy more!  Anyway, I do not free hand anything but the faces.  I print out the images I want to make, cut them out, and then trace around them with a toothpick onto the base frosted cupcake.  I will freely admit that this was really tedious and I probably included way more detail than I should have attempted...I mean I attempted to give Spongebob his collar and tie!  But like I said, I know I am just a wee bit crazy!

Thanks for checking out my (crazy) kind of engineering!

Board Game Theme Party Cake

This is the last of my Board Game Theme Party posts....hope I haven't bored you!  I was just pretty excited about all that went into it and wanted to share every piece.  If you missed the first 3 posts, click the following links to check them out: Board Game Theme Party, Life-Size Candyland, Goodie Bags & Birthday Clue.


So this is the cake that I made for my son's Board Game Theme party.  I tried to incorporate things from the party to tie it together.  So the top of the cake has the Twister board, the pawn shape that I put on their t-shirts, and scrabble tiles (that were on the invitation) that spelled out my son's name.  Then I made the Candyland path around the side of the cake.

This cake made me want to go out and buy my cake decorating bags and identical tips as there was a lot of different colors (7 in case you were curious).  Even though it took awhile because of the switching of colors, I love how it turned out.  To make decorating easier, I wanted to try and do all of one color so I wasn't switching colors the entire time, so I drew the design on the cake with a toothpick so I knew exactly where all of the red went, etc.  


Well I hope that I might have given someone, somewhere some ideas for a Board Game Theme party or whatever.  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Board Game Theme Party: Goodie Bags and Birthday Clue

So I have already covered some of my son's Board Game Theme Party, so if you missed them, mkae sure you check out: Board Game Theme Party and Life-Size Candyland.  I will save the cake as a separate post...not that it was anything crazy...just want to keep cakes to their own posts.  

So for the goodie bags for the kids, I went ultra simple (mainly because my craft stuff was still in boxes!) with just white bags and taping the "Clue" card that had each of their pictures on it...more on that below.  Inside the bag was a travel game from a dollar store, the pawn t-shirts that I made for them (which we put on most of the kids when they arrived), and a bag of "Treats from their Trip through Candyland".  I had ginger snap cookies from the Gingerbread Tree, Candy Canes for the Peppermint Forest, Gumdrops from Gumdrop Mountains, Lollipop from Lollipop Woods, and a chocolate bar from the Chocolate Swamp.  It was a fun way to add treats to the bag and still keep with my Board Game theme.

So at the party we played the Life-Size Candyland game that I created, Twister, and a Birthday version of the game Clue.  All of the kids at the party were the characters, the locations were rooms in my house, and instead of weapons,  we used birthday decorations.  So our story was someone stole party decorations from a room...they had to figure out who, where, and what.  So I created the "detective notebook" like they have in Clue and the individual cards for each character, room, and decoration.  


My plan was for them to play it like the game of Clue...they have to meet up with someone in one of the rooms, make a guess, and see if the other person could prove them wrong with the cards in their hands.  Biggest problem was that with 13 kids, they only got 2 cards each.  That made it very difficult to "prove someone wrong" because they were not very likely to guess what was in the other person's hands.  

The other problem we ran into was that only about 2-3 of the kids had actually played Clue, so the concept of the game was difficult.  So in the end we had the kids all in one room and just had them walk around and look at each other's cards.  Even with our very modified version, the kids seemed to have fun.  


Well that is everything but the cake which I will post a little later.  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Board Game Theme Party: Life-size Candyland

This is the second post for my son's Board Game Theme party.  I totally blame this idea on Pinterest.  See I saw the "pin" of someone creating giant lollipops and repinned it for a future date.  Well it stuck with me and I decided to run with it.  So I created a life-size version of the game Candyland in my basement.  

I taped down sheets of construction paper to create the Candyland path and included all of the special spots, Rainbow Trail, and Gumdrop Path.  Then I tried to decorate each of the different areas of Candyland.  

I created the Gingerbread Tree from a roll of kraft paper and crumpled green tissue paper.  I used the tree on the actual game for reference.  I don't usually think I am good at drawing, but I was pretty pleased how well my tree turned out.  

My parents actually had light-up candy canes for outdoor Christmas decorations, so we borrowed those and stuck them in pots filled with dirt to make the Peppermint Forest.  They were in a perfect spot in the basement because they lit up a darker area.

For the Gumdrop Mountains, I used pots again to create my gumdrops.  I covered them with kraft paper, painted them (my kids helped), and then added a "sugar" sprinkle.  The "sugar" sprinkle was made by taking two styrofoam balls and rubbing them together.  Rubbing the balls together pretty much disintegrates the balls into tiny styrofoam flakes.  So I sprayed the gumdrops with a spray adhesive and then sprinkle the styrofoam flakes over them.  

The lollipops for the Lollipop Woods were created using a rolled up white poster board for the "stick", a balloon, and clear cellophane.  Like I said this was taken from an idea I saw on Pinterest.  We had difficulty getting them to stand up, so we weighted the bottoms with a bag full of pebbles (or sand) and then taping them to the floor.  It worked pretty well!

The peanuts in Peanut Acres on the other hand were a little shaky, but they got the point across.  I taped two balloons together and then wrapped them with crinkled kraft paper. 

The chocolate bars in the Chocolate Swamp were just boxes covered in kraft paper (this stuff can be found at dollar stores!) and painted to look like a chocolate bar.  Then for the finale, I had my Mom whom actually is an artist paint a castle on a large sheet of paper to be our Candy Castle.   

When the kids actually played the game, I ran around and gave them a card from the actual Candyland game so they could move spaces.  The kids had a blast and kept wanting to play it!  The hardest part was knowing by the end of the party that the whole thing would most likely be destroyed...and it was.  We let them go play it while kids finished eating and while waiting for parents to come...yup that was the end of it.  I was kind of sad simply because I wanted to play it too!  

Thanks f0r checking out my kind of engineering!

Board Game Theme Party

UPDATE:  I made the files I used for creating my Board Game Theme Party Invitations available (for a small fee) for download at the following link.  It will include blank versions of the invitation (one with reference to a birthday and one without), Candyland Goodie Bag Tags (seen HERE), and the file I used to make the T-shirts.  I hope this makes it easier to get the files as I am not very good about answering email requests!

Buy now

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My son recently celebrated his 7th birthday.  We limit the kids to a big party every other year which worked out even more perfectly that they fall on opposite years between my two kids.  Then on the "off" years we either do just a family thing or a couple of friends type of celebration.  Well this year was a "big" party for him.  It took us awhile to come up with a theme, but we finally agreed on making it a Board Game theme...you know like Clue, Sorry, Scrabble, Candyland, etc.  He has always loved board games and our overflowing game closet shows it...in the new house we actually have a single game closet which is exciting, but it still needs shelves so that they aren't stacked all on top of each other!  

So since my entire craft room is still in boxes, I had to make the invitation entirely on the computer, but I think it turned out quite nicely.  I tried to incorporate different game titles and the pawn shapes that would become recurrent during the party.

For some decorations, I made Connect 4 tokens and then had my husband hang them from an empty curtain rod...one benefit to just moving into the house!  It turned out very cute but unfortunately didn't last long.  It was hanging right where the kids all ate and I am pretty sure they helped bring parts of it down!  

I managed to find a picture of every kid coming to the party (you could always ask their parents for it) that I needed for a game I had planned...more on that later...so I decided to make a Guess Who game/decoration.  

The Guess Who boards were simply a blue poster board with the pictures of everyone at the party printed on regular copy paper and taped to the backside of the poster board.  I made two "boards" so it could actually be played like Guess Who.  Not sure any of the kids played it at the actual party, but my son enjoyed it afterwards!

During the party, we had a few games ready to play as everyone arrived.  Then I split the kids into two groups (I had 13 kids total) and one group played a double mat Twister (just put two mats next to each other) and the other group played a life-size Candyland game I created in my basement.  I will have a separate post on that one!  Then when each group finished, we switched.  After a pizza and fruit lunch, we then had the kids play a birthday version of Clue that I created.  Probably have to do a separate post on that one too.

One other special thing I did as part of their goodie bags (you guessed it...a separate post on that one too...if I included everything this post would be super long!), I made them all t-shirts with their own color pawn on it and a saying, "Life is a game.  Enjoy playing it!".  When each kid arrived at the party, we had them put a t-shirt on (well almost all of them did) so that they became a "pawn" in our games.  I always make them get together for a group shot using cake and ice cream as an incentive!  

So I have a few more posts on the subject of this Board Game party, so I hope you stick with me.  Until then, thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

No Foolin'...It's April 1st

Happy April 1st!  How did it become April already?  And Easter is just next weekend...simply crazy!  I am ignoring the fact that means it is April Fool's Day this year as I am totally not prepared!  For the last couple of years I have tried to make a silly dinner for the family on or aorund April 1st...not sure it has ever fallen on the actual day just cuz' that is how I roll sometimes.  So since I am ill-prepared this year, I thought I would show you what I did a couple years ago.  I did something last year, but I cannot find the picture of it for the life of me...maybe I actually forgot to take a picture of it which would be absolutely crazy for me! 

Anyway, we had fish sticks with ketchup, peas, and a cupcake for dessert...or did we?!  I think we ate in reverse order and had teh cupcakes first.  They did look like cupcakes with pretty pink frosting, but really they were mini meatloafs with pink mashed potatoes on top!  The fish sticks were the vanilla wafer cookies coated in peanut butter and rolled in crushed up corn flakes and the peas were just green Laffy Taffy.  Then the ketchup was some strawberry jam whipped up to make it smoother.  All of the recipes for these can be found at Family Fun.  I will say that my son was a little nervous to eat everything because while it did look like the food it was suppose to look like it was also a little off.  I think the funniest was watching him take a big bite of cupcake and quickly find out it wasn't cupcake at all!


So while I may not make it to have any fun foods this year (although I have always been late in the past...I could still squeeze it in), I hope you enjoyed the look at what I have done.  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering! 

What's Been Going On

Chirp, chirp....are those crickets I hear on the ol' blog?  Wow it has been awhile since I have been on here!  The picture to the left gives an explanation for my absence...we moved into our new house!  


We moved in at the beginning of February and are still getting things set up.  Question for those that have moved...how soon till you feel completely moved in?  It is definitely a long process.  Thankfully the house was in great condition and most of the paint colors are perfect.  We did paint and tile the laundry room (pics of that to come) and we are beginning work on the office.  The house is a great fit for us and we feel blessed everyday living here!


Here are some pics of the inside and one showing the house:

The last picture is the office that we are beginning work on it.  That is where my crafting stuff will be...but right now it is still in boxes!  Not a lot of crafting going on right now!!

I will leave you with my favorite view...the view of a sunset from our back deck!

Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Happy Turtle Bday

Today is my last day with Hambo Stamps (for now...hoping they will let me back in the pig pen another time!).  It has been a quick and fun 4 months working with Hambo's awesome images! So thank you to Monica, the owner of Hambo Stamps, for entrusting me to represent your stamp company!  I thoroughly enjoyed it!


In other sad news, this is our last week in our current house...oh wait that means we will be in the new house soon, so I should be partying.  If only I could find room among all of these boxes!


So to help me celebrate the new house, the adorable turtle is bringing me a house-warming present.  I know the card says Happy Bday, but oh well!!  I colored the image directly with markers...think it is a cool look with line images...although it can get tricky trying to figure out what line should be what color!


Off I go to find my children in the boxes so I can put them to bed!  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!


The Engineering Details
Stamps - Turtle Present (Hambo Stamps); Paper - Wild Wasabi, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White (SU!); Ink - Wild Wasabi, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie (SU!); Accessories - Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Photo Corner Punch (SU!), Signo white gel pen, Cuttlebug Birthday Wishes Die (Provo), paper piercer, dimensionals

"Green Eggs and"...Hambo Blog Hop

Welcome to the “Green Eggs and….Hambo!” Blog Hop sponsored by Hambo Stamps! The Bacon Bits are here to help you start your New Year’s reading list off right with a little book title laughter and fun.  If you arrived here from Jen N’s blog, you are in the right place. If not, you will want to start back at the beginning at the Hambo blog – TALK TO THE HAM.  We don’t want you to miss anything!


My book may not be on your reading list, but more on your kids reading list.  Let's see if you can guess it from this: "Today your are you!  That is truer than true!  There is no one alive who is you-er than you!...I am what I am!  That's a great thing to be!  If I say so myself, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!".  So do you got it?  "Happy Birthday to You" by Dr. Seuss is my chosen book and I thought that Bear and Rabbit should be hear to help get the party started...they even brought presents!!  My card uses an old Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #219 for my layout.  The Bear and Rabbit image were stamped on watercolor paper and watercolored with an aquabrush.  


A little surprise is hiding on one of the blogs today, so be sure to leave some comment love as you “hoof it” around the hop. One lucky commenter on the mystery hop spot will be in hog heaven and win a prize from Hambo Stamps!


We love comments anytime, but the deadline for prize entries is Tuesday, January 31 at 5 PM CST. Our current team will be retiring that day, and we will be welcoming a new Design Team AND celebrating the Hambo Hoedown’s ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY on February 1st. Blog Hop winners will be announced at the Hoedown on the 1st.


Next up on the hop is Libby.  You will love what she has to show you today!  Below is the Blog Hop List in case you get lost.  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Talk to the Ham

Jennifer S

Melissa

Karin

Pat

Laura

Stephanie

Sherry

Leslie

Judy

Sandy

Michele

Allison

Jessica

Jen N

Andrea <-You're Here!

Libby

The Engineering Details
Stamps - Bear and Rabbit, Get This Party Started Sentiment (Hambo Stamps); Paper - Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo, Crumb Cake (SU!), Green at Heart Paper Pad (Basic Grey), watercolor paper; Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black, Momento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry (SU!); Accessories - Circles, Labels 14 Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Pink Rhinsteones (Bazzill Basics), aquabrush, dimensionals

Don't Waste a Mime

Seriously, I want to just fast forward a couple of weeks at the least so I don't have to actually experience this move!  Everyone keeps asking me how the packing is going and I honestly cannot tell.  There are boxes everywhere, but rooms that I have not touched (like the kids rooms which I am saving till last).  This is the week for kitchen stuff and kid stuff, so maybe after that I will feel like I am doing better.  Ugh!  


Breaking from my packing routine, I thought I would share a fun card using one of my favorite Hambo Stamps, the Mime!  He just cracks me up!  Then the sentiment to go with it, is just perfect!  The layout is from an old Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #214.  The sparkly black paper is from the Incandescent line at Paper Temptress.  


Alright I have stopped packing long enough...off I go again...then again I am actually kind of tired...maybe it is just bedtime.  Either way, thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details
Stamps - Mime, Thing to Waste Sentiment (Hambo Stamps); Paper - Yoyo Yellow (SU!), Nero Incandescent (Paper Temptress), watercolor paper; Ink - Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White Craft (SU!), Brilliance Graphite Black, Momento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Accessories - white and black embossing powder, Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Photo Corner Punch (SU!), Sparkle Black Dots (Imaginensce), aquabrush, dimensionals

Don't Let the Dog Eat Your Homework

We finally got some snow this winter!  Normally we would have had lots of snow by now, but so far this winter we have had very little.  It will be gone tomorrow though as it is suppose to rain...such a weird winter!  Anyway, the kids, my husband, and I took advantage of a free day (yeah we are suppose to be packing, but oh well!) in which their was snow and went sledding...and snow angels...and snowball fights.  It was a blast!


Did you all check out the Send a Smile 4 Kids Challenge Blog??  Hambo is the sponsor right now and we are showing off the new Bailey Digi, which just so happens to be based on a real puppy named Bailey.  So make sure you join in!!


I made this card school related as part of a submission to Paper Crafts.  No luck this time, but I still thought it was cute!  

The inside of the card ties the notebook paper to the paper pieced dog.  I wish I liked my handwriting...I tried so many times to write this on the notebook paper on the front, but hated my handwriting each time!  Oh well!


Well now I really am off to pack some more boxes.  Less than 2 weeks left in our current house!  Eeek!  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!


The Engineering Details
Stamps - Bailey Digi (Hambo Stamps); Paper - Not Quite Navy, Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake (SU!), Basics White Paper Pad (Basic Grey); Ink - None; Accessories - Alphabet Border Punch (Martha Stewart), Black and white twine (Unknown), Binding Edge Punch (EK Success), dimensionals

Sending a Smile

So I am joining in on the Hambo Hoedown this week.  Love me some Hoedown once in awhile! Just saying it make me feel like square dancing!  This week is a special week...Hambo Hoedown is in honor of Send a Smile 4 Kids which is a fabulous group that collects handmade cards to be used at Children's Hospitals to try and cheer up the patients.  


The challenge for Hambo Hoedown #49 is "Anything Goes"...can't be any easier than that!  And if you participated last week and sent a pic of your card, you got the adorable Bailey Digi (shown on my card).  The little bailey dog is so sweet and is sure to brighten anyone's day!  If you didn't participate, you can still purchase the Bailey digi at the Hambo Store.  


I used the latest Sketch for You to Try for January for my layout.  I printed bailey out on watercolor paper and watercolored him/her from there.  With trying to get a bunch of cards done before I pack up my craft area, I kept the design very simple...but I kind of like it too!


Anyway, please join in on the Hoedown and check out the Send a Smile 4 Kids Challenge Blog...they will have a new challenge on January 21 that is sponsored by Hambo Stamps.  So get to it and help Send a Smile to someone that needs it!


Thanks for checking out my kind of enginnering!


The Engineering Details
Stamps - Bailey Digi (Hambo Stamps); Paper - Real Red, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip (SU!), watercolor paper, heart pattern paper (unknown); Ink - Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive (SU!); Accessories - Red Rhinestones (Me & My Big Ideas), Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), dimensionals, aquabrush

Be Mime

Wow where have I been...it is already mid-January!  Oh yeah...I have been under boxes, boxes, and more boxes.  See, my husband and I are buying a new house (close at the end of the month), so we are packing, packing, fixing, and more packing.  It amazes me how much stuff we have collected over the years.  Maybe it is not a lot until you have to pack it all up!  Ugh! Anyway, that is the main reason for my absence.  This is my last month with Hambo Stamps, so I have a slew to show you before the months ends...hopefully I get them all in!


First up is one of the stamps that I wanted since joining the Hambo Stamps team...the Mime.  The Mime by himself is great, but pair him with the sentiments and he is simply awesome!  For this card I used the SCS Inspiration Challenge #318 which showed a loopy frame with hearts in the corner.  Ok so I went with very direct inspiration!  


A couple of wonderful Hambo Stamps notes:  there is a call out for the next Design Team...but you have to hurry cuz it ends tomorrow!  You can find out all of the details HERE.  Also (ending tomorrow) is the sign-up for the "Green Eggs and...Hambo" Design Team and Customer Blog Hop which will take place on January 27.  Check out the info for that HERE.  I hope you will join along as it should be a great time!


Now off to go pack some more...oh wait I actually still have to still keep doing laundry and ironing too while we are packing.  Have I ever said how much I love said with much sarcasm) moving?!  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!


The Engineering Details
Stamps - Mime, Be Mime Sentiment (Hambo Stamps); Paper - Going Gray, Real Red, Basic Black (SU!), watercolor paper; Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black, Momento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Real Red (SU!); Accessories - Apron Border Die (The Cat's Pajamas), aquabrush, dimensionals