paper bag owl pinata :: a tutorial

i cannot believe that today is the last day of may! i feel like i blinked and the entire month was gone. i am still planning to post some of our fun birthday celebration photos... soon, very, very soon!!

but first how about i share some of our party crafts with you? this one is my favorite - a quick and easy make-it-the-night-before-the-party pinata tutorial. esme and i actually did make this one the evening before the party!

here is what you will need ::

brown paper bags - 2 or 3

construction paper for the eyes and beek (white, black and yellow)

masking tape, and/or glue (we used both)

rope, string, or yarn to hang your pinata

and of course some sweet treats!

start by filling one of your bags with your pinata goodies.

cut off a long piece of your rope/yarn/string to hang your pinata. mine was approximately 5 feet in length. (always better to cut it too long rather than too short!) and i doubled mine up to make sure it was nice and strong. next i folded the top of the bag over 3 times sandwiching our rope-yarn in between. we used a little glue in between the folds and then lots of masking tape on top of the last fold to secure everything.

now it is time to decorate your owl! this is the super fun part and you can get pretty creative and make your owl's face anyway you like. here is how we did ours ::

to make the eyes we simple traced the inside of the masking tape roll on the black paper for pupils and the outside of the roll for the whites of his eyes. the beek is just a small triangle cut from the yellow paper. to make wings we cut ruffle-y feathers from one of our extra paper bags and glued them to the pinata in layers. glue your eyes and beek in place and you are done! look at that, you just made your very own pinata in probably less time than it took to write this tutorial. now sit back and enjoy your beautiful work. and don't forget to take a few photos of your feathered friend!

we hung our pinata from the playset and the littles used a piece of pvc pipe to break it open. (that is our little friend freya having her turn) it held up just fine and everyone had a couple turns before the candy fell out. we had lots of toddlers and preschoolers and a few grade school aged kids at our party. i think if you are making a paper bag pinata for older kids you could easily use two bags and it would work great. and you could make any little creature you wanted! just imagine the possibilities... also, you could paint the eyes and wings onto your bag or even use colorful markers before you filled it with goodies. or maybe add craft feathers and google eyes to your creation! 

if you make your own paper bag pinata please leave me a message so i can come check it out!

happy crafting, friends!

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thank you so much {and a giveaway winner!}

thank you for all the sweet and thoughtful happy birthday wishes that were left for esme. i read every single one of them to her and they made her day even more special.

today we choose a winner for our little knit kit giveaway {esme wanted you all to win, by the way}.

we will be making a kit for felicia of 3 little birds stitch. YaY!

{big sigh} we survived birthday month. and we had a whole lot of fun! i have a couple birthday craft tutorials to share with you as well as some party pics! i will work on getting them posted this weekend.

thanks again {and again} for celebrating with us, friends.

with love, erika and the may birthday bunch.

sweet birthday girl EIGHT {and a giveaway!}

 our sweet and sassy little esme is eight years old today. i stayed up way past bedtime making rice cereal treats with chocolate on top for her entire class. that is what she requested and i have to admit i was a wee bit relieved to get out of baking. it is birthday month after all - i have done my fair share of baking recently.

and now, onto esme's special birthday giveaway!

do you all remember the little knit kits i introduced last christmas? if not let me tell you all about them. they include a 2 ounce ball of hand painted wool yarn and small (6 inch) handmade, wooden needles that are the perfect size for small hands learning to knit. everything is contained in an adorable project tote.

 

and the wool yarn included with each little knit kit is a very special magic yarn ball. a magic yarn ball contains little treasures carefully wound into the yarn. these small surprises are discovered as your child knits the yarn! 

esme received her very own little knit kit for christmas and she started knitting that same day. she has made a few mistakes and has even ripped all of her work out and started over a couple times but even so she loves it!

 for this giveaway we are offering one little knit kit in the color/print of the winner's choosing! you tell us what your child would love and we will put a custom little knit kit together with handmade needles, a hand painted magic yarn ball, all neatly tucked into a cute project tote and send it your way! girly, boyish, or neutral, we can make a kit for anyone.

to enter simply leave a happy birthday wish for esme in the comments on this post.

we will choose a winner at random on the evening of may 25th.

PLEASE make sure you leave me a way to contact you.

i will e-mail the winner and discuss fabric options and yarn colors and their custom little knit kit will be put together and mailed within 10 days.

i can only ship with the US at this time. thank you for understanding.

also, i would love for you to follow my blog and stop by for another visit soon, or check out inspired mama MAKES! on facebook. neither are neccesary to win but they are pretty nice things to do.

and the fun doesn't stop here - it is giveaway day at sew, mama, sew so don't miss out!

HaPpY giveaway day, friends!

have fun, best of luck, i hope you all win something wonderful! 

comments are closed - we will post the lucky winner's name tomorrow! thanks friends!

sunday musings, updates and upcomings.

today we went to the east end market and harper bought this little sock frog. he loves it, so much that he asked me to come outside and take photos of him in the herb garden. he named him "ribbit". esme picked out a small yellow and blue sock kitty with button eyes. then we took our new creaturely friends across the street to the sweet shoppe. one jaw breaker, a small bag of assorted taffy, and a couple peppermint sticks later we were on our way home.

i had intentions of coming to post the birthday month giveaway winners no less than a dozen times this weekend. so sorry if you have been waiting on the edge of your seat! a sweet local friend won luca's birthday giveaway and we delivered her goodies yesterday. aimee from in a cobweb cottage by the sea won harper's birthday giveaway and her coloring wallet is all packed up and will be on it's way to her in the morning.

and, tomorrow is esme's birthday which means one more special giveaway! YaY! so stop by in the morning to see what she has planned for you.

good night, dear friends! see you in the morning!

erika

small style :: bossy pants

while out and about on a recent thrifting trip we discovered this little gem - brand new, bright red suspenders, still in the original packaging. you just simply can't leave something like that at the store, friends. i wasn't sure if harper would even wear them but it turns out he is easily convinced when little clampy buckles are involved. 

 my favorite part is the little leather cross-patch on the back that says "THE BOSS". there have been a lot of "what's up, boss?" and "you're the boss!" tossed around the house since the suspenders arrived, usually delivered in a thick jersey accent for full effect.

and here is what the package has to say about little red suspenders for kids ::

For kids who aspire to be a contractor, fireman, or just want to look cool, Little Red Suspenders are the answer.

okay seriously, who can argue with that?!

i am linking up with morgan at mama loves papa today - pay her a visit for more sweet small style!

just because.

one more sweet photo of my boys. that's all.

don't forget to enter our giveaway!

big birthday boy FOUR {and a giveaway!}

this post was intended for thursday but with blogger being down for maintenece all day it just never happened. so let's just carry on and pretend that the following was posted on harper's day, yesterday may 12th, okay? okay.

yay, yay, yay today is harper's day! my sweet boy is 4 (FOUR!!) today!

i asked him if he felt like four when he woke up this morning and he looked at me and very seriously said "i think i do, mom."

this is what i get when i jubilantly say "show me how old you are!"

and just look at these two. oh, be still my mama heart. those little sandles that luca has on were harper's first sandles. i just happened to discover them when i cleaned the closet in my sewing room. i am so happy i held on to them! luca reminds me so, so much of harper at this age. same amazing eye lashes. same crazy curls. they make a pretty dynamic duo, for sure!

okay, now onto harper's birthday giveaway! my little guy's current favorite activity is creating wonderful works of art. i have given him his own little corner in my sewing room and he spends a whole lot of time in there coloring, cutting, and gluing stuff. i sewed him his own coloring wallet a couple years ago when he was really too small to care about coloring. but now... he carries that thing everywhere with him!

so for harper's giveaway we picked out this cute little owl print coloring wallet. unfamiliar with coloring wallets? well, let me tell you all about it!

it is handmade (by me!) in an adorable cotton owl print. it comes with a sketch pad that fits in the pocket on the far right. on the left there are little slots for crayons to slide into. 8-10 crayons will easily fit and there is a small flap to keep everything in it's place. the center pocket holds all of your child's drawings. if you prefer a small box of 8 crayons will fit right into the center pocket, but my kiddos never, ever return their crayons to the box! it all folds up and is secured with a button and elastic closure.

to enter this giveaway simply leave a comment with a happy birthday wish for harper! we will be sure to read to him each one of your kind sentiments!

also, i would love to have you all follow our little blog and stop back by for another visit! if you choose to do so go ahead and enter again by leaving a seperate comment. if you already follow inspired mama musings please let me know that too, and thank you ♥

we will close the comments on the evening of wednesday may 18th and announce a winner the following morning.

good luck, i hope you win!

comments are closed - winner will be posted soon!

happy mama's day!

{me and my beautiful mama circa 1975}

i hope you are all pampered and showered with love today, sweet friends. we all totally deserve it, yes?
♥ happiest mother's day ♥

oh, and don't forget to check out luca's first birthday givaway!

ONE! my birthday boy {and a giveaway!}

"Don't cry because it is over. Smile because it happened."

Dr. Seuss

my sweet baby boy is one year old today. never has time passed so quickly as now. *sniff* this little boy with the ginger curls and silly grin has brought so much joy and love to our our family.

today we are going to get out of the house and see where the afternoon take us. maybe we'll visit the coffee shop, and then the saturday market. perhaps a stop at our favorite thrift store to see if there are any treasures waiting. oh, and cake, of course there will be cake. and singing and laughing and so many kisses.

we are planning a woodland themed party to celebrate all three of our may kiddos next week. i sewed luca a little wool felt party crown and a quilted bib so he will be properly dressed for the festivities.




aw, just look at that adorable woodland babe of mine ♥

and look, i made a woodland set for one of you too!

in celebration of luca's first year we are giving away this adorable wool felt forest crown and a quilted woodland bib. the crown features a happy tree with button leaves and the sweetest forest friends ribbon trim. it has a cotton covered elastic back and will stretch to fit until your child is 5 or 6 years, at least.

the bib has a patchwork top in some of my favorite prints (oh, that wood grain! swoon!!) and a layer of organic cotton batting in the middle. it is generously sized to keep your little one mess free!

to enter this giveaway simply leave a comment on this post. maybe a happy first birthday message for little luca!

we will have 2 more super fun birthday giveaways later this month so be sure to follow this blog so you don't miss out - and hey, go ahead and throw your name into the hat one more time for doing so by leaving an extra comment. also be sure to tell your friends to stop by and join the celebration!

on the evening of wednesday may 11th we will choose a winner at random.

i will be back in a couple days with a proper birthday post and lots of photos of luca's special day.

happiest weekend wishes, dear friends!

erika

comments closed! i will post the lucky winners name in the morning :)

small style :: favorites

my favorite small boys in their favorite small style ::

favorite thrifted pirate tee. i wash it, he wears it. very seldom does it make it to his drawer.

this is currently his favorite pair of shoes. glow-in-the-dark halloween faux crocs (those are little ghosts on the top of each shoe) at least a size too big. but they are quick and easy to put on and we haven't bought sandles yet so i am just going with it for now.

our favorite cloth diaper - cute little owls sewn by my talented friend jess.

favorite bottoms - knit-by-mama monster pants. they are wool and also function as his cloth diaper cover.

and luca's favorite footwear... none at all. thank goodness summer is right around the corner!

oh, and he is walking now. so nearly all of my photos look...

like...

this.

{sigh}

don't forget to stop by for our first birthday month giveaway this weekend!

and i am linking up with mama loves papa today - pay her a visit for more sweet small style!

birthday, birthday, BIRTHDAY month!

one year ago i looked like this.

we were patiently waiting for our new baby to arrive. we didn't know if a new little boy or girl would be joining our family but we didn't have much longer to wait.

and now we are excitedly planning a first birthday celebration for our little guy. next weekend our luca-bird will be one year old!

and that's not all - harper and esme also have birthdays in may. may is birthday month is our home! lots of planning and partying, and singing. yummy cake and favorite meals. handmade gifts and cards in the mail.

we love may and all of the happy days that it brings. in the celebration spirit we decided we would like to include you all in our birthday fun. we will be hosting a super-fun handmade GiVeAwAy for each kiddo's birthday this month! that's right, all three of them! you won't want to miss out!

the first giveaway will be posted on saturday may 7th in honor of little luca's first year.
♥
we look forward to seeing you, so don't forget!
until then, happy may day, friends!