Old-Fashioned Games #2

I have mentioned before that I was working on some simple, old-fashioned games to fill the village green at the Carlisle Country Craft and Old-Fashioned Market Mercantile in August.  Here is game #2 if you are looking for a fun little activity with kids.

Who doesn't love hopscotch?  For this one, I used a piece of a table cloth that I picked up at the Goodwill, and some leftover seam binding.  I used different colours for each of the sections because I want it to have a kind of patchwork look to it (the time span we are going for at the show is about mid 1800s to 1910).  Plus, I didn't have very much of each of the colours.  My squares are 11", mostly because my tablecloth was only 78" long...I would go with 12-13" if I had an unlimited amount of space.

I made the numbers from seam binding as well, and just sewed them on.  At first I was trying regular numbers, but it was rather difficult to make the 2 and 3, so I switched to the straight lines of roman numerals.

The "stones" are small bean bags made of old children's shirts.  I may or may not add a coloured stripe or circle to the ones that are the same colour.  I haven't decided yet.  They are 3" squares, with 1/3 cup of beans inside.
Note: if you are playing this game indoors, I would stop here.  It won't slip on carpet, and for wood floors, you could just lay it out on those anti-slip mats.

Mine, however, is for outdoors - and it has to last a whole weekend.  I lined the back with a sturdy piece of fabric (that happened to be a futon cover in a previous life).  I sewed it together front to front and then turned it right side out and sewed around the edges a second time.  It should be pretty tough.

Once the front and backing were sewn together, I edged all  around the squares a second time.  It gives it a quilted look while making it less likely to slip around when a child jumps on it.  I plan on adding grommet holes to the corners, and quite probably the long sides as well, so that we can anchor the game down with tent pegs.

In case you are curious, this went together in an afternoon.

Linking up with: Keep Calm Craft On at Frontier Dreams
                         Hand & Homemade Mondays at On The Old Path
                         The Backyard Farming Connection
                         Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder
                         Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

A simple game with items on hand.

In August, I will be attending the Carlisle Country Craft and Old-Fashioned Market that is part art/craft show but also includes family games, costumes, food and drinks, animals and demonstrations of old-fashioned and pioneer skills.  I'm in the process of getting some of the games ready for the village green, and thought I would share the first one since it would be a great indoor or outdoor activity for any event (including an "I'm bored" day).

In keeping with the theme of the event, I have kept it as old-fashioned as possible by using the fruit buckets. Note: If you are making this at home, you could easily swap out shoe boxes, mixing bowls, or whatever you have on hand.

The "points" tags are made of leftover bits of felt and pieces of a ruined wool sweater.  I just drew out some numbers (on paper)  until I was happy with the size, traced them onto the felt, cut them and hand-stitched them onto the front circle of felt.  The backing is a second piece of felt.  The two circles are blanket-stitched together to hide the stitching of the number and make it a little more durable.
Note:  My tags have to be weather proof as the event is held rain or shine.  If you  are using this game indoors, you could simply draw the numbers on to a card stock tag.

The bean bags are made of some old children's shirts.  I found the ideal size to be 4 1/2" squares filled with 2/3 of a cup of dried beans.  With 4 patterns, children can play alone, against an opponent, or even in teams.

I did make some smaller squares (3 1/2") that were filled with only 1/3 of a cup of dried beans.  If I can find one more bucket, I will pair the smaller bean bags with it as a "target practice" or solo play.
Note: If you are using this game last minute, you can easily make quick bean bags using small children's socks filled with beans and tied firmly shut with yarn.

Linking up with: Fiber Arts Friday on Wisdom Begins in Wonder
                         Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia
                        The backyard Farming Connetion

Graduation

I know some of you have been patiently following along as I prepared decorations for my son's graduation.

I know I promised to post pictures of the event with everything in place.

When I walked into the hall, it was nothing at all like what they had told me.  The plan flew out the window and we had to readjust everything.  Luckily, they had two little dividers in the hall just sitting in a corner, so I quickly claimed those to make the best of things.  My big plans for the cake table got downgraded to just this one garland with a backdrop of ferns...

...and most of the other garlands got put to use in this makeshift backdrop for the photo booth.  (Meet the boys if you haven't before...).

I had big plans to take pictures of everything set up, but when I finished my part, other people had to work on theirs.  When we showed up for the event, there were lights to turn on, candles to light, people needing help, and children meeting up (some of them for the last time as they move in separate directions).   So, no pictures of centerpieces, photo booths, stage display, etc.  Instead, the centerpieces went home with the students, the garlands are at the school for future events (bake sales, open house, spirit committee, book sales), and the photo booth props are at the school for one last hurrah.

Next time...

Linking up with: Eco Kids Tuesday at Like Mama Like Daughter since some of them have been following
                        along from the start.

Graduation Prep Part 4 - Centerpieces

For those of you who are new, this series is about decorating for a school event (in this case, grade 8 graduation) on a very limited budget.  I'm a true believer that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a nice event, and that a little effort can make those dollars stretch a lot farther than buying a bunch of cheap, decorations that make very little impact.


The tables we will be using for the event are your standard folding rectangular table (usually seat about 8).  I'm going to lay 3 pieces of ribbon (from my stash) lengthwise along the table, and then in the center, there will be one of these "lanterns":

along with a large pinwheel and a potted plant with a glittered pinwheel in it (groups of 3, right?).

 

 These are the little potted plants that the pinwheels will be in...they will be wrapped in matching paper the day or two before so that I can still water them for the next two weeks.

Originally, the plants were going to be significantly larger - I was thinking a nice flowering plant - but then something happened.  The money for graduation dinner (each family pays for their own dinner - the school pays for the students) and the money for the year end class trip was STOLEN!  The money was due, turned in, locked up, and the STOLEN all on the same day!  suspicious!!!  So, needless to say, the "decorating money" shrunk even more.  So instead, I dug these up from my front yard and potted them up in little pots I had in the shed, and will camouflage that with some pretty paper. 

I know most of my readers can tell how to make this little "lantern" just by looking at it, but for those of you who are new to crafting, here are the steps:

 Wrap a piece of jewellery wire around the jar (don't cut it yet) and twist it together tightly until the short end is all used up.

 Decide how long you want the handle to be, and then cut the wire (using wire cutters, not scissors) about 

1 1/2" longer.

 Add some beads to the handle - the beads you want for both sides...all at the same time.

 Slide the end of your wire under the piece of wire wrapped around the lid.

 Twist it together and then slide half the beads back over to the second side.

You can make them all the same if you want, but I was using up beads (white, black and blue) to match the party colours.  Then just add your sand (or rocks, or glass beads, or even coloured water) and add your candles.

Total tally for the 24 "lanterns":  $3 and change for a bag of sand

       -the jars were free - my family and friends have been saving spaghetti sauce jars for the past year or so

       -the beads were from my stash thanks to my dear sister

       -the candles I found at the dollar store ---25 candles for a total of $6.25

Total for the potted plants: $1.00 each roll for 2 rolls of wrapping paper that I am hoping will do all 28        plants, and some potting soil (about $3.00 worth) from a large bag.

The downside is that in the last month of school, the grade 8 class usually "pays it forward" by doing a fundraiser for next year's graduation.  This year, they are going to do 3, but all of that money will be used to replace the money that was stolen.  So, one person's actions have actually affected 2 years worth of graduating students at least.  On the bright side, the principal is hoping this will be a life lesson in "resiliency".

Linking up with: Keep Calm Craft On over at Frontier Dreams

                         Eco Kids Tuesday at Like Mama Like Daughter

                         Creative Friday over at Natural Suburbia

Graduation Prep - Part 3...Pinwheels

Before I start, let me give credit where credit is due...the inspiration for this project came from something I found on Pinterest that was originally posted on Miss Mustard Seed (that's the link for her original tutorial)...I made mine slightly differently so I am also posting my tutorial.

The grade 8 class has been talking about making choices and choosing the direction they are going to go in the next couple of years, so I thought the following quote would be a good jumping off point for graduation:  "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." - Jimmy Dean.  I didn't think sailboats would work very well for this particular class, so I decided to go with pinwheels instead.

 

I made two kinds of pinwheels...some on card stock, without a stick, and some using pages from an old picture book (the same book we used for the art show interactive activity) that are on a stick.

So, for the basic pinwheel shape, you just simply cut a square (I cut the card stock pinwheels 6" square and the book page pinwheels 4" square) and then cut diagonal lines part way across from each corner (I used 3" cuts for the 6" squares and 2 1/4" cuts for the 4" squares).  I will continue the rest using the book page paper, and then hop back at the end for the card stock.

 

 Once you have your squares cut, use white craft glue to glue down each point to the middle.

 Then paint on glue to the edges - I did two points at a time, which is about how much I could handle without making a huge mess.

Then sprinkle glitter onto the wet glue, rotate it, and continue on with the other two points.

I let mine dry on an open cereal box to try to contain some of the glitter...

 ...and to more easily move them all away from the cat.

Before I glittered them, I actually spent a couple of hours trying to figure out a way to make them so they would spin using just the materials I had on hand.  I couldn't.  So, I just hot glued these large skewers onto the back.  Incidentally, I probably spent way way more time than I needed to looking for just the right pages to cut.  I wanted a picture on the back and words on the front.

 All lined up and ready for the next step...24 of them!

 I printed out the quote on plain white paper and cut them into strips, making sure to align the wording to leave a blank space on the left and right margins.  I rolled the right margin around a skewer...

 And then wrapped the left margin around the pinwheel skewer, hot glued it on, and called it done.

For the card stock pinwheels, I glittered them while flat using glitter glue.  Note: the glitter glue I had years ago was in a skinny little tube that you just squeezed on in a thin line.  The glue I bought this time had about a 1/3" hole at the top, so I ended up having to brush it all on with a paint brush anyways.  I like the white glue and glitter results much better.  Then I used a small punch and hammer to punch a hole through each point and through the center and used a brad to hold it in place.

 

I left half of them un-glittered as I'm not too sure how boys feel about glitter everywhere, plus, the blue glitter wouldn't show up very well on the black pinwheels anyways.

I almost forgot the tally:  The paper pinwheels (24 in total) cost me a grand total of $1.00 for the glitter.  I happened to have the skewers on hand and I always have white glue in the house.  The card stock pinwheels cost $1.50 for the glitter glue, I had a package of brads and the card stock from another project (I used 5 different colours).  Each 12" x 12" card stock made 4 pinwheels in case you want to try and need to buy some card stock first.  Personally, I prefer the book page pinwheels by far!

Come on back next week to see how I tie the centerpieces all together...

Linking up with:  Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity
                          Keep Calm Craft On at Frontier Dreams
                          Eco Kids Tuesday at Like Mama Like Daughter

                          Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

Graduation Prep - Part 2

 I thought it would be fun for the kids to have a kind of DIY photo booth available at their graduation...

 I had an old gold frame in the basement that we have used for the art show a couple of times, and just spray painted it black with leftover paint from one of S's school projects.  By the way...meet N (he's not the one graduating, obviously).

I made a giant pinwheel for one of the props. I used a 12" x 12" piece of card stock and "borrowed" some spray adhesive from work to attach some gift wrap to the back of it.  I actually used a nail to pin this one shut - with glass beads to act as a kind of "stopper" and then nailed it to a giant skewer.  Inspiration for this one comes from a picture I found on pinterest - which happens to come from etsy.  I figure it is OK to copy the idea since it is for personal use and not to sell, but the link goes to the etsy shop.

I made these Batman style thought bubble type things and couldn't resist adding the Bazinga.  The inspiration for this is also from Pinterest.  I just drew them freehand onto some file folders (raided from the school's supply cupboard) and wrote the letters on with black permanent marker.  I may add some glitter to the outline if time permits - but for now, I'm calling these done.

 Mustaches on a stick seem to be all the rage, and although you can buy these pre-made at plenty of party supply stores, I used some card stock from my stash to make these.  They are just hot glued on to kitchen skewers.  You can draw these out yourself, copy them from cartoon characters, or google free mustache clip art to get plenty of options.  I did a combination of the three...

...and lipstick for the girls.  All of the props-on-a-stick will be displayed in a small bucket filled with sand so they stand up nicely.

All of these above will only work if two people are in the frame together, each holding one side and one prop, so for individual shots, I bought a couple of hands free props:

 Some sequined masks...

...and some giant glasses and feather boas - they are only 13 years old after all.

I still have to come up with some sort of backdrop, but that will have to wait until I see the actual room they are using - the school rented a hall, and I haven't had a chance to go check it out yet.  The tablecloth will come from the school...one of the cloth ones I made a few years ago in school colours.

Oh, I almost forgot...the tally:  the frame was free, as were all of the props on a stick.  Total cost for the photo booth: between $6.00 and $10.00 because the glasses, boas and masks came from the dollar store but some were over a dollar.

From a couple of the comments on part 1 of this series it occurs to me that I should clarify...the decorations I am making are not for an at home party...they are for the school's actual graduation ceremony.  I'm just helping out.

I'm currently working on the centerpieces, so part 3 should follow next week...

Linking up with: Homemade Monday on Frugal By Choice, Cheap by Necessity
                         Keep Calm Craft On over at Frontier Dreams 
                         Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

Graduation decorations - part 1

My oldest graduates from elementary school in just over a month and I have been hard at work getting things ready for the graduation.  I thought I would share some of the (very low budget) decorations as they could work well for any party, really.

Today: the cake table...

 I have been making multiple garlands to hang on the wall behind the cake table, as well as on the front of the table cloth so that the cake table will look more interesting from far away.  I printed huge letters on the computer (Times New Roman font if I remember correctly) and then cut them out from card stock and threaded them onto some butchers twine.

 

Then I tied a whole bunch of ribbons, tulle, fabric scraps and seam binding onto the twine.  Total time:  maybe half an hour?

I usually try to avoid the dollar store so that I am not tempted to pick up extra "stuff" but I do tend to go there when I need inexpensive craft supplies for an event at the school.  I was able to pick up bags of mini pom-poms, sorted by colour in each bag, for $1 a piece.  Each bag made one garland about 6 feet long (or so).

 Total time for each pom-pom garland: 15- 20 minutes - but it's fun and you can do it while checking over your kids' homework or something.

I also made a paper garland using squares cut from one of the "too-damaged to sell" books from the used book sale and some wrapping paper that I bought for the centerpieces.  Pretty self-explanatory from the pictures, but you just lay down a large square, squish on a blob of tacky glue, lay your twine over top, and then add another square over that.  I ended up gluing squares to the back too, just in case it tries to flip all over the place when hung on the wall - so I don't end up with a whole row of blah squares.  Total time:  probably close to an hour counting cutting and gluing time together.

The last garland is made of triangles of bristol board that I got from the school's supply room.  They are sewn on my sewing machine using the basting stitch.  I cut 4 2" strips from each colour of board and it made So.Much.Garland!  Note: use quilting thread or button thread for this one - and you will have to play around with the tension on your machine.  Total time for meters and meters of garland: probably 45 minutes.

This is a very rough sketch of what it will look like.  There will be three glass cylinders at the back of the table with a flower or a pinwheel inside and topped off with a paper lantern.  There will also be a row of small glass bottles along the back and each one will have one flower or leaf popped inside.  And of course, the cake and cupcakes.

Here's the cost breakdown:
3 paper lanterns that light up from the dollar store:  $1.00 each.
3 bags of pom-poms:  $1.00 each
The card stock, fabric scraps, glass bottles, and glass cylinders are all supplies from my house.  The flowers and leaves will come from my garden.  The bristol board was from the school.  The table cloth will be one of several I made for the school a few years back so they would stop buying and throwing away a dozen plastic tablecloths for each event.  All free.

Grand total: $6.00 - not counting the cake :)  I don't want to tally the time.

Sharing today at: Keep Calm Craft on over at Frontier Dreams.
                          Ecokids Tuesday at Like Mama Like Daughter
                          Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia
                          Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder -because a couple of these are fiber-ey, and heck...I like to join in on that one, and I have nothing else fiber-ey in the works right now (frowny-face).
                          From the Farm blog hop #34
                          Homemade Mondays on Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity
                          Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Creek Cottage