DIY Outdoor Mason Jar Lantern

Even though it snowed today in Minnesota we know spring and summer are just around the corner! Over the weekend we made these fun outdoor mason jar lanterns to get ready for warmer days hanging out with family and friends on the deck.

Here is how you can make your own in no time!

Materials Needed:

• Mason Jars with Metal Rings
• Tissue Paper
• Mod Podge
• Outdoor Mod Podge
• Paint Brush
• Doilies
• Twine
• Candle

1. Make sure your mason jars are clean and dry before beginning.
2. Decide how you would like the lace doilies to be displayed on the jars. We chose two different designs: hearts and random placement of lace pieces.

 

3. Use regular mod podge to adhere the lace doilies to the jars with a paint brush. Use mod podge to cover the lace doilies and make sure they are completely stuck to the glass.

4. Place a layer of your tissue paper on the jar over the layer of lace doilies you already adhered. 

 

5. Use the outdoor mod podge and a paint brush to seal the tissue paper on the jar. Make sure all of the edges are sticking to the jar.

 

6. Let the jar dry. 

7. Once the jar is dry you can screw the metal lid on and begin working on the handle. 

8. You may need a second set of hands for this step. Braid three strands of twine together and tie a knot at each end. Wrap another piece of twine a few times around the mouth of the jar loosely and have someone hold the ends. Loop the ends of the braided handle around the twine being held and knot them. Tie the wrapped twine in a knot.

 

9. You're done! Light the candle and enjoy your work.

 

Happy Creating!

-Sam & Carrie

Spring Fun: Pond Skipping

We have a tendency to find odd and amazing things to do year round. When we learn about something as fun as Pond Skipping at our favorite ski hill on a March day (when we've had a very long winter) we jumped on the chance!

So what is pond skipping anyway?

At the end of the ski season when the snow turns to slush this ski hill carves out a "pond" that is just a rectangle hole in the snow filled with river water that's just above freezing temps.

Skippers ranged in age from a little 5 year old to senior citizens. They come flying down a black diamond run and attempt to ski or snowboard across the water to make it to the other side without crashing and splashing. About half of the pond skippers wore costumes. It's as crazy as it sounds- and a total blast to watch.

We were just there to watch the madness, drink beer, hang by the bonfire and eat burgers. It was a very fun Saturday.

Venture on!
-CB & Sam

Tea Party Bridal Shower

A few summers ago we had a Tea Party Bridal Shower for Sam a month and a half before her wedding in late September. We decided on a green and pink floral theme with vintage tea pot motifs. The invitations encouraged guests to wear their fanciest hats and join us for afternoon tea with the bride to be:

Everyone looked fabulous in their fancy hats:

For food we stuck to the green and pink theme with three different flavors of cake pops (strawberry, chocolate, and lemon-recipe and instructions to come). We also had light snacks including: a cheese platter, crackers, pinwheels, fruit salad (recipe to come) and mixed nuts.

We used mason jars with ribbon to hold the silverware:

 The pinwheels had DIY paper flags that we made to tie in the tea party colors:

 To display the cake pops we purchased green and pink flowerpots from Ikea and filled them with dry rice. This allowed us to stick the cake pops right in the rice so they appeared like flowers growing from the pots and were easy for guests to grab.

 Since it was a summer tea party we offered two kinds of iced tea (black tea and passion tea) and lemonade for guests who didn't like tea. We labeled each tea dispenser with a mini chalkboard sign from Michaels craft store. Next to the tea dispensers we had a "tea bar" with a few different types of Starbucks syrup for flavoring, sugar cubes, honey and ice.

 Our great grandmother had an extensive set of antique glass tea sets so each guest was able to use a glass tray with a matching tea cup. These added a fancy touch to the tea party and our Mom was excited that we could use these trays she had been holding on to for special occasions.

The tables were all decorated with white lace tablecloths and these fun green and pink striped pieces of fabrics we used as table runners. We re-purposed TAZO tea tins as vases that we filled with an assortment of pink, green and white farmers market flowers. To make sure the tea tins as vases didn't leak we set the flowers in small glasses of water that were placed in the tins. Each centerpiece also included a glass dish of cashews and party mints. The idea was to have the tea party decor all tie together but not match exactly.

As a "guest book" we had each tea party guest sign a kitchen apron for the bride to be. We used permanent fabric markers that will not wash out when the apron is washed.

As a thank you favor for each guest we sent everyone home with a small floral drinking glass that was filled with different kinds of Starbucks TAZO tea.

The bridal shower was a huge success and captured the feeling of a summer backyard tea party with loved ones we had hoped for.

Now we just need to find another occasion to wear our fancy hats to!

We hope this post can inspire other fancy tea parties with fabulous hats and great celebrations with loved ones. This tea party theme would be perfect for a birthday party, baby shower, or just an afternoon event with friends.

A huge thank you to Ms. Abigail for taking the majority of these pictures for us!

Cheers!
CB & Sam

Angry Birds 3D Toss Game for Kids

For Christmas last year we made this fun Angry Birds 3D Toss Game for a friend's daughter who is 3. The goal was to have a real life game made of boxes that works like the Angry Birds game. It encourages the child to set up the "wall" and "pigs" then throw the "birds" at the wall.

Here is how we made it:
Materials Needed:
-8 or more 3x3 in. paper mache boxes (ours are from Michaels and cost about $1 each)
-3 or more 3 in. paper mache ornament balls (ours are from Michaels)
-Acrylic paint
-Cardstock paper (white to paint pigs on)
-Paint Brushes in various sizes
-Mod Podge (we used gloss and glitter explosion)
-Images of pigs and birds to reference

1. Paint the pigs on white cardstock. Make sure the finished pig will fit on the boxes when cut out. We chose to paint a crowned pig, a normal pig, and a pig in a helmet. {Sam is the mastermind behind these AHH-MAZING pig renditions!}

2. Let the pigs dry. Once dry, cut them out exactly on the line.

3. Paint the boxes whichever background color you would like. We made gray stone walls and painted the boxes for the pigs with a metallic bronze color. To make the stones, we painted the boxes with a few coats of grey paint. Then, using the paintbrush in the photo below, began to draw lumpy rectangle/oval shapes. We chose to have these 'stones' continue around the edges of the box so as to look more architecturally accurate (for paper boxes that is..).

4. Mod Podge the painted pigs to the dried boxes. You should also Mod Podge the other boxes as a way to make them more durable and somewhat waterproof and resistant to sticky child fingers.

5. Paint the birds on the cardboard balls. We painted a yellow, red, and black bird. Use images of the Angry Birds for reference when you're painting. 

6. Mod Podge the birds once they are done drying. 

You're done!

                                                   Check out that glitter Mod Podge!!


Happy Crafting!

-CB & Sam

Paper Circles Banner Tutorial

For our good friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago we did a gray and yellow theme. One of the decorations we made by hand was this super cute paper circle banner. It was very easy and didn't take much time to finish. We had seen similar banners for sale on Etsy and decided to try to make one ourselves.

Materials & Tools Needed:

-Cardstock paper in your theme colors

-Circle cutter or circle stencils (to make 2-4 inch circles)

-Scissors

-Sewing Machine

-Thread

Here are the step by step instructions to make this fun, customized, and easy banner:

Step 1: Cut out your circles. For our 10 ft. banner we used around 40 circles that varied in size from 2 - 4 inches in diameter.

Step 2: Stack the circles in the order you want them in for the banner. This will make sewing them go super fast.

Step 3: Use a sewing machine to sew together your paper circles. Make sure you leave a few inches at each end of the banner to hang it from. We sewed straight through the middle of the circles with two colors of thread (gray on top and yellow on the bottom).

Step 4: Once you reach the edge of the first circle raise the foot of the sewing machine and pull the thread about half an inch away from the needle (to allow space between circles). Then lower the foot again and sew the next circle onto the banner.
Continue this process until you have sewed each circle onto the banner.

Step 5: Make sure you pull the end of the banner thread a couple of inches away from the needle before cutting the thread. We left enough space on either end of the banner to tie the banner.

Step 6: Store the banner in a plastic bag until you are ready to display it at your event. This will keep the banner from getting tangled.

You're done! You now have a cute and custom decoration for any event. This was perfect for a baby shower but could also help celebrate a bithday, bridal shower, family holiday, etc. We gave both 10 ft. banners we made for the baby shower to mommy-to-be to hang in the nursery with her alphabet art that was also made at the shower.

Happy Crafting!

-Venture Sisters

Baby Shower Activity: Nursery Artwork

One of our very best friends is pregnant with her first little one. A group of us hosted her friend baby shower last weekend and it was a huge success.

The most unique activity that we did with all of the guests was to create alphabet artwork for the nursery. All of the women in attendance loved this activity! This was a great project for a number of reasons:
1. Crafting and decorating letters was a good ice breaker at the baby shower
2. It took less than an hour to decorate the entire alphabet
3. Each of the momma-to-be's friends helped to decorate the nursery
4. Each letter reflects the personality of the woman who decorated it
5. One of our very good friends lives out of state but was still able to participate by decorating some letters and mailing them to us before the shower.

Here is a step-by-step list of how to make this activity work at any baby shower:

Before the Baby Shower
1. Purchase all of the wooden letters (and an "&" if you like but one of our crafty ladies made one on her Cricut which worked wonderfully!) in different sizes and fonts. We purchased our letters from Jo-Ann Fabrics, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby (3 of the girls hosting split up the alphabet to purchase at different stores). The letters we collected ranged from 4 - 12 inches.

2. Pick which base color(s) you would like them to be. We had momma-to-be select paint colors (around 9) and then repeated the colors through the alphabet. We laid out all of the letters and selected colors carefully, making sure that the same colors didn't end up next to or above/below one another. This ensured the letters were in a 'random' pattern. We put a little paint dot and the name on the back so that we could remember once we got back home to paint.

3. Paint letters in the selected colors. We had already painted most of our letters with a primer coat, but a few that came home with us to be painted were bare wood. For the primer coat, you can use an actual primer paint or white acrylic. As long as you use matte paint, it won't really matter so just use what you have handy. Painting the colors did go much better on the primed letters and required fewer coats to cover all the grain.

Without primer -- you can still see the wood through the first coat.

With primer -- one or two coats over the white were all we needed.

Our portion of the alphabet. We opted to put the smallest letters on colored plaques to shake it up a bit. To do this we painted the letters white and the plaques whichever color had been selected. We then used a hot glue gun to stick the letters to the plaques. 

Also note that we chose to paint the sides of the letters the same color as the faces.

Day of the Baby Shower
3. Set out all of your crafting supplies at the baby shower. We used cheap, plastic paint drop cloths to cover the tables and had some large t-shirts for coverups if anyone wanted one. Other supplies at our event to decorate letters included: acrylic paint in various colors, paint brushes of different sizes, stencils, ribbon, mod podge, scrap-booking paper, glue gun, and scissors (we should have had more of these because they were in high demand!)

4. Set the baby shower guests loose to be crafty! Have everyone pick a letter to start with and begin decorating. Have people pay attention to the letters above, below and to the left and right of the one they are decorating so that you don't end up with all polkadots, stripes, etc. in a row together. We encouraged the guests who felt they were not creatively-inclined to use stencils, ribbon, and shapes cut from scrap-booking paper. Other guests were happy to paint the designs they had in mind.

Stencils were a perfect tool for this project and made it easy 

for some of the less confident artists to dive right in.

Shapes cut from scrapbooking paper and then mod podged onto 

the letters looked great and were easy to make. We had a 

queue for the scissors though, so more pairs would have been better. 

Special request from Daddy-to-be :)

5. Let all of the paint, mod podge, and glue dry while the rest of the baby shower activities are taking place. We then used one of those cardboard filing boxes with the hand holes to pack all the letters both to and from the shower. (They cost about $1 at office supply stores, but you usually have to buy 5 or 10 at a time. We use them for everything and, because they are so inexpensive, you can just give them away and not worry about getting them back!) Don't try to use a plastic bag. Letters are pokey and will rip through it.

6. We sent momma-to-be home with all of her finished letters in said box. Daddy-to-be helped her hang up the letters in the nursery with command strips and they sent us this picture when they were done. We think it looks pretty amazing!

Happy crafting to you!

-Venture Sisters