DIY: Doggy Princess Tutu...with pearls

DIY: DOGGY PRINCESS TUTU...with PEARLS

The Task: Make a tutu for a doggy princess named Bella. It was her grandpa's birthday and she needed something cute to wear. 

The Ingredients: 1 roll tulle, stretchy ponytail holder or elastic (Bella is extra small so I used the ponytail holder), ribbon, string of pearls, 16 inch long piece of cardboard, glue gun

  

The Purchase Locations: Downtown LA - craft store, jewelry store



The Cost: Approx $6.00

It took me: about 30 minutes 

How to:

1. Take roll of tulle and wrap it long ways around a 16 inch long strip of card board. When all of the tulle has been wrapped around the cardboard, cut the tulle at the top of the cardboard and cut it at the bottom.  Now you have several strips of 16 inch long pieces of tulle.  Repeat this step for each of the rolls of tulle. 

 2. Stretch the ponytail holder around something solid (a piece of cardboard, a book, your knee, whatever) so you can start knotting the tulle around the ponytail holder.  

3. Take two pieces of tulle (one on top of the other) and fold them in half.  Push the looped part up and behind the ponytail holder, then pull the two ends through the loop to create a knot.  Repeat this step until the entire ponytail holder is full. 

4. Tie a ribbon around the middle of the finished tutu. Glue the ribbon to the tutu (I only glued down the part where Bella's tummy was, so her mom and dad could adjust it to fit her waist, as well as get her in and out of it easily).

5. Cut about two-thirds of the tulle off of the stomach area (so your doggy princess can move around easily).

6.  Add a string of pearls to the tutu.  Tie one end of the pearl string to the left side of the tutu, about an inch above where the top of the front left paw would be.  Then, tie the other end of the pearl string to the right side of the tutu, about an inch above where the top of the front right paw would be.  (Because Bella is extra small, the necklace was waaaayy too big.  So, I had to re-string about 20 pearls onto a stretchy piece of string). 

NOTE: I added a little halter ribbon to the tutu thinking it was necessary to hold the tutu in place, but it wasn't necessary. You live and you learn :-)

ENJOY!!

&

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BELLA'S GRANDPA!

Love,

Leah Lynette

Party Favors - Birthday Cigars

Cigars are a great party favor when you have men at your party.  Plus, a lot of ladies love them too. 

The Task: Make an alternative party favor for my "Fabulous" birthday party.  The first favor was a fabulous feather boa.  

The Ingredients: good, not-too-expensive cigars, clear zip bags for each cigar (the shop will give you these for free if you just ask), card stock, scissors, computer, printer, some type of computer program that allows you to do graphics (I used Microsoft Word), stapler, glue stick

The Purchase Locations: A Cigar shop in Downtown LA (referred by a friend who frequents the place, so the owner gave me a good deal), an office supply store

The Cost: Approx. $6.00

It only took me: about 20 minutes

How to:
1. Make a template for the cigar wrapper in your graphics program.  Create a 3 x 1/2 inch long rectangle.  Then, place a 1 inch oval in the center of the rectangle.  Add whatever graphics you choose to the center of the oval. (I added a star, my initials and the year).  Copy and paste as many wrappers as you can to each sheet of card stock. 

2. Print out the wrappers, cut each one out, then wrap each one around the center of the cigar.  Add a little bit of glue to the end of the wrapper to seal it around the cigar.

3. Place the wrapped cigar into the zip bag and seal the bag.

4. Make a template for the "Thank You for Coming" tag in your graphics program.  Create a 2x3 inch rectangle. Add whatever graphics you choose to the bottom of the rectangle.  (I added a star graphic and a "Thank You for Coming" phrase).  Copy and paste as many rectangles as you can to each sheet of card stock. 

5. Print out the "Thank You for Coming" tags, cut each one out, then fold each one in half and staple it over the top of the sealed cigar zip bag.

DIY: "Birthday Cake" Cake Pop Stand

I really like Cake Pops.  And, I think they make great party favors.  Also, they are less messy than a cake.  So, for my birthday, instead of a birthday cake - I made this...

 

 
The Task: Make a cake pop stand in the shape of a birthday cake to hold my cake pop party favors at my birthday party.

The Ingredients: 1 pack of plastic gift wrap (3 sheets), ribbon, flat head sewing pins, party hat, toothpicks, 3 floral styrofoam rings of various sizes, hot glue gun 

The Purchase Locations: Michael's Arts & Crafts (for the ribbon...always hit the clearance bin first; the larger foam ring), Dollar Tree (everything else!)

The Cost: Approx. $10.00

It only took me: about 30 minutes

How to:

1.  Cover each foam ring with a piece of plastic gift wrap.  I pinned the wrap to the bottom of each ring with sewing pins. 

2.  Wrap a ribbon around each ring.  I used sewing pins to hold the ribbon in place.

3.  Push 4 toothpicks halfway into the top of the largest foam ring.  Place the toothpicks around the ring a few inches apart for each other.

4. Place the middle sized ring on top of the larger ring and push it down over the tooth picks.  This makes the stand secure. 

5.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the smallest foam ring. 

6.  Glue the party hat to the top tier.   

7. Get/Make some cakepops and gently push them into the tiers. 

This was the best picture I got of the final project...'cause the cake pops went FAST! 

This stand can be used over and over again!  Just separate the rings, remove the ribbon, remove the gift wrap and start over with new ribbon and wrap.