Wild Kratts Party - the food

There's no good party without some yummy food, and this party was no exception. We tried to strike a balance between yummy, healthy, fresh and FUN. In hindsight, I should have added different heights at the table, for a more interesting look, so that is something we'll try to remember for the next birthday party. This is the food we had:

Power cupcakes (check my Wild Kratts Pinterest board for these fabulous power circles - thanks to the generous bloggers who provided them for free!).

Bear teeth (popcorn) 

The most amazing cookies EVER, created by Carla at Daily Cookie.

Can you see how happy this big cookie made this little girl?

Tiger (cheese) and Snake (ham) sandwiches.

Caterpillars

Bugs (cheese, sticks and olives)

The watermelon shark! 

Now, let me tell you most of these ideas were lifted from blogs that showed either Wild Kratts-themed parties or animal-themed parties in them. They are all pinned in my Pinterest Wild Kratts board, and if you are looking for great ideas, I think you should pay a visit to it HERE.


And, before I leave, I would like to show you an easy project for your Wild Kratts party. Have you noticed the food signs? They are cute and so easy to make. Just download this card HERE.

Then print them, write the name of each dish, hold it with a binder clip and some hemp, and your food signs are ready! 

Wild Kratts - Tortuga HQ Pinata

Piñata time! Here is how I made my tortuga HQ:

1.- I took a big bowl and piled up paper balls stuck to one another with tape to make the shape of the turtle's shell. I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures at this stage, but is is pretty easy. Just add paper balls until you feel the shape is just right. Then, cover the whole thing with cling film, several layers. I still needed to make the head, so I used the body of a small plastic bottle as the neck, and a small balloon as the head. The Tortuga HQ's head is not completely round; it has a flat bottom, so I glued a piece of cardboard to the bottom of the balloon and then again covered everything with cling film.

2.- To cover the shape, I used bits of newspaper and engrudo. Engrudo is a paste made of 1 part of flour and 5/6 parts of water. You beat it to make sure there are no lumps, and then you cook it for a few minutes until it thickens, making sure to stir it all the time. Add a tablespoon of vinegar, and you are done. Then, you simply need to place the paper pieces on the shape using engrudo, making sure they slightly overlap one another. Once you have a layer, you let it dry completely (can't tell you how long it will take, as it depends on the humidity in the air, it took me a few hours in Libya, but a complete day here in Trinidad). Then, you apply another layer. I divide my newspapers into black and white and coloured paper and use one kind for each layer, so I will know exactly when my layer has covered every single space. For this piñata I applied 5 layers in all. When it dried completely, I removed the bowl and the paper balls inside the body, and added some wire to the top to hang it from. This is what it looked like:

As you can see, I strengthened the top a little bit, so it could take all the weight of the filling without any problem. I just added a couple more layers of a paper called paper shapers that has glue in in already and you just need to wet it and glue it. You could also do it with masking tape or some extra newspaper layers.

3.- I added little toys, candy and confetti inside. 

Then, I cut a foamboard circle to cover the whole bottom, pierced holes and put about 35 pieces of ribbon hanging from it (one for each kid in the party) and glued it to the turtle using just one layer of paper shaper strips.

To decorate it, I used tissue paper. I cut strips, made fringes, and glue them all around the shape, one above the other, covering the whole surface so that no newspaper would show.

The top of the Tortuga HQ is a glass widow, so I used light blue paper tissue balls to cover that surface. The final touch? The driver's window in the head, and Jimmy in it. I couldn't find a picture of Jimmy driving the Tortuga, so the one I found had to do.

As you can see from the picture, by the time I got to the favour boxes I was totally and absolutely exhausted and could not face another great creative task, so I simply made some popcorn boxes, added the some washi tape to the top, some Wild Kratts to the front, glued tissue paper to the bottom, wrapped the little gifts in it and tied it with ribbon or hemp.

Now, the best pinata picture. The breaking moment (thanks to the tallest dads in the party, who held the piñata up high!).

And yes, it takes days to make it and seconds to break it, but those seconds of utter joy are so worth it!

For those people who wrote to me asking about the piñata, I hope this explanation helps. If you have any questions, leave them here or send me an e-mail, I will be happy to answer them.

Pretty Little Studio Givewaway - Winner

I am ready to finish the Wild Kratts series today, so all the people who have written to ask for pinata instructions or inspiration for the party, you will find them in the next psot! But before I go on, I would like to announce the random winner of that super yummy Pretty Little Studio stuff in my giveaway:

Lucky number 13 is Vicky, who said:

Vicky, please e-mail me your adress so I can have the prize sent to you! Congratulations to Vicky and thank you to all the people who took part in the giveaway.

Birthday Banner Tutorial

It was my turn to post at The Art Studio @ Scrapbook News and Review's blog today, and I created another tutorial. Since my first class, Fabulous Handmade Embellies, is a class abut creating birthday embellies, for this tutorial I created a birthday banner. Now, we've seen so many banners in the past two years, but still, I have never seen one with beads.... oh, yes, I can't stop playing with beads at the moment! Here is my banner:

And this is the layout I created with it:

It is one of the few pictures I have of DD's first birthday, so it deserved avery special page. If you would like step-by-step instructions on how to do it, you can check them here. And if you liked this embellie, I'm sure you'll love the ones we will create in my class, Fabulous Handmade Embellies: Birthdays. You can enroll HERE, and you can leave a comment HERE for a free seat! But remember, there is only a limited number of seats, so if you don't want to miss your chance to take the class, enroll now, and if you win the giveaway you can get a 100% refund!