Strawberry Party Preparations...

Serious party prep is under way for Owen's strawberry themed birthday party. I'm a little nervous I'll never get it all done.  The crafty stuff I always enjoy but the cleaning, cooking & baking often sends me to Frazzleville!  Praying for peace & harmony & a hefty sized dose of energy.  Can't wait to show you it all completed, in my head it looks beautiful. 

Shout out to Felt Path for the inspiration behind the above crown.  She made a lovely crown that is on my Pinterest party board, "A Shindig, a Hoopla".  Her little boy fairy is much cuter.  I made the toadstool cap into a strawberry cap, (hmmm, messy cap, right?)  and added my strawberries and greenery. I kind of find this crown funny because snails like to eat strawberries so I think this little Berry fairy is saying "Ok, eat a little and then move off, Mr. Snail".  He has to protect the berries, right?  Or perhaps he says, "Eat away friend, these are abundant for your use". I digress, clearly needle felting for hours has addled my brain.

What are you working on lately?

DIY, Felt Birthday Ring Decorations

I've been wanting a Birthday Ring for a long time now, I finally splurged and bought one! I found my ring at Joshua, on etsy. I love the Grimm's wooden decorations and I plan to buy a couple of them but mostly I think I will make our decorations. 

Owen's fourth Birthday is coming up, so I've started to think about what decorations would be meaningful for us.  I immediately thought of strawberries oddly enough.  Last year around this time, he had a dream and in his sleep he was saying, "sawberries, sawberries", over and over. When he woke up he asked for them with such urgency!  He gets so excited at the mere thought of strawberries & he often asks me to make a strawberry cake (something I've never made).  The other day I asked him if he wants to have a strawberry party with a strawberry cake.  He was thrilled at the idea & I'm thrilled too, I think I like strawberries just as much as he does.  Though the strawberries of my youth are the tiny sweet ones we used to pick ourselves!  Eeeek, love them!

So my first handmade birthday ring decoration, for Owen, is a strawberry.  I think that is the best thing about making your own decorations, you can make things you may not be able to find anywhere else. 

I've seen a couple of great posts on how to make your own decorations, this one at Rhythm of the Home, and this at Old Recipe for a New World.  Mine is a little different.  For the support I used wooden parts I can find at a Hobby store.  I use 3/4" x 5/8" Spools & 3/8" x 2 3/8" Tie Rack Pegs.  I glued the wooden parts together, using wood glue. Then I cut out the strawberry & leaves out of wool felt. I embroidered little strawberry seeds and then blanket stitched the two sides together over the wooden support. 

Lastly, I sewed the green leaves to the top, sewing the top closed as I went. Easy, peasy! It fits a little loosely, that doesn't bother me.  I think I may try a couple of wire support ones as well though.  More Birthday Ring decorations to come!

If you use this little tutorial to make your own Birthday Ring decorations please link back, I would love to see!

Until next time...