Dinosaur Birthday Party

 I few months back I helped one of my pals host a 7th birthday party for her daughter.  She wanted dinosaurs.

I made these little egg dino invites (which I posted about previously).  The goal was as much DIY as possible.  

 The memories I have are the ones at home where my mom decorated the house and baked the cake.  Instead of ice cream we served pudding layers with oreos and topped with chocolate rocks and dinosaurs.  The kids loved these.

 I also made some games (via pinterest ideas).  Pin the horn on the triceratops.

 Feed the T-Rex.

 I put out bubbles and chalk (it was near Easter, so I found some shaped like eggs).

I also made a photo booth with props.  I put out a bunch of supplies so the kiddos could decorate a 'frame.'  The girls loved this most.  I used my little Polaroid to take pictures.  

 I also made some party hats using some from the dollar tree.  We set out some snacky foods and gave them fun dino names.  Dino eggs, dino bones, herbivore and carnivore treats etc.

 She even had her sons get a dino costume and one popped out mid party.  Side note, they had t-shirts made for each family member.  I made a seven-o-saurus for the birthday girl, then bro-a-saurus, dad-o-saurus, and mom-o-saurus wore their shirts.

 The last activity was a 'dinosaur' egg hut.  Her older brothers helped hide them.  I bought some shades of green eggs and a TON of dino fillers from Oriental Trading (dino erasers, gummies, stamps, stickers, finger puppets etc).  I put a different item in each color egg and initially told each kiddo to find one of each color egg, then let them go to town once we knew they had found one of each prize.  This also allowed me to tell the parents with kid allergies etc not to pick up any yellow eggs (the only on with a food item).

It was a hit, and I know she will have memories of this to last a lifetime.  

Dinosaur Party Hats

 I helped out with a dinosaur party a few months back.  The goal was to make as many 'at home' projects and save as much money as possible.  I looked up party hats and found that designs generally ranged around 4 bucks for 8.  I needed 24.

 I found that the dollar store had some generic hats 8 for a dollar, so I bought those and used some construction paper (a great time to buy construction paper is during the back to school sales in August).  I measured one hat out to get the right shape to cover the hat and used this for my template.  I then wrapped it around each hat and stapled it.  The staples didn't matter b/c I used the scales to cover up the staples.

I super glued the scales down the staples.  For a few bucks I made a bunch of dino hats for what I would have spent over twenty bucks for, AND I varied the colors to make it a little more fun.

DIY Dinosaur Party Projects

I recently helped a friend host a birthday party for her daughter's 7th birthday.  The goal was to do as many simple/diy projects as possible.  I tried to pick things that weren't intimidating.  One thing we made were these pudding cups.  We did this in place of ice cream and served them next to the cake.  We crushed oreos and made layers of oreos and pudding.  On the top I also placed a little plastic dinosaur in each and some chocolate rocks and we called it prehistoric dirt.  

I also made this banner.  I googled an outline for a dino skull and then just placed it over construction paper and cut out the shape.  I punched out the birthday girl's names and strung them all together.  I love layering banners so I also added the pompom puffs from the dollar store, and some dino punches.  All for less than two bucks.  

I also decorated a frame and made some picks and took pictures of each kiddo.  They loved this.  I put out some stickers and paper 'frames.'  They glued the picture to the middle and decorated the frame.
More to come, but...so far-minus some construction paper (you can grab for pennies at back to school sales in the fall), most of these has been practically free.

Dinosaur Party Details

A month or so back I helped with a dinosaur themed party.  I have lots of finished details I'll share in another post, but here is some of the prep.  I made a shirt using my cricut machine and some iron on vinyl.  The nice thing about the dinosaur is you could print out a design from online and lay vinyl over and cut it out and make your own without a machine.  I also made a welcome sign for the door using one of the dinosaur metal cut outs I found at Hobby Lobby.  They had two different designs and I grabbed it when it was half off.  Again, I added a vinyl message that I'm pealing off...a ribbon and a bow to greet guest.  

 There are several different activities, but one that was age appropriate, and seasonal (though I thing you can get away with this all year) was an egg hunt....a DINOSAUR egg hunt.  I ordered the fillers from Oriental Trading.  I found a couple coupons by searching online so I got 10 dollars off my order and free shipping.  I ordered some eggs with puppets inside (it was the same cost with or without the eggs for these puppets).  I also ordered stamps, gummies, erasers, stickers, foam stickers, and 144 different shades of green eggs (they have a ton of different colors).

 I also made a banner-modeling it after a bunch I saw online.

 I just looked up a skull outline, printed it and then placed my paper behind it and cut.  I free handed a tail and then made little banners with her name spelled across it.

More details to come...

DIY Dinosaur Invitations

 I helped out a pal with a dinosaur themed party project.  I added the additional task of doing it on the cheap just to see what I could do....and because she was game.  I wanted to go back to basics of how things used to be before people rented ballrooms and cotton candy machines for their kid's 2nd birthday.  No cutting machines or fancy scrapbook paper.  Don't get me wrong-I'm a girl that even owns a little cotton candy machine, BUT.....my challenge was to try to pull from my stash and not go purchase.

 I started by finding a free outline of a dinosaur.  I pasted it to word and then typed the invitation info so that it fit in the dino.  I then cut out along the outline.  It would be cute on green paper, but what I had was white copy paper, so white is what I went with.  I did glue it to some orange construction paper and make a border just to make it pop a bit.

 I then cut out two egg shapes (big enough to cover the size of the dino.  I cut the one of them in half in a zig zag (like a cracking egg).  I embellished and layered it a bit to give it some fun colors, but the gist is I took the bottom half, some tacky glue, and glued it down.

 When it dried it made this pocket (where I slipped my dinosaur).

 I did NOT glue the top half on.  I punch a hole in the side of the bottom half with the glued pocket, and the side of the top half and pushed a brad through.  Again, I had some (they sell them at craft stores and office supply stores-you can even get fun colors).  If you don't have brads-you could use ribbons.

This allows the top half to tilt out and then you pull the dino out of the pocket with the invite information.
Lots more DIY dino to come....

Dino Jars

 Here's my next thirty craft using the stuff I recently snagged at the Dollar General.  I've seen versions of these jars around...in particular one for Easter using small bunnies (still looking for those little bunnies).  You could certainly use old mayo jars etc at instead of these jars, but I found these in the Christmas section on sale for 25 cents, so I decided to splurge. I also found a pack of dinosaurs for a buck.  I use little dinosaurs for a lot of random crafts, and I have been buying some for 'half off' at the craft store-the original price is 10 dollars!  The only difference I see, having used both, is the packaging!  I've got a few more ideas for these dinos, but in the meantime...a jar.

I'll be making these in multiple colors.  These would be cute for party favors, storage in rooms, gifts, whatever.  I glued down the dino with E6000 (any strong glue would work).  When it tried, I used a primer (b/c it's plastic) then some green spray.

Bone Bread

I saw this idea in a Family Fun magazine.  It doesn't get much easier.  It would be cute for a Dinosaur themed party as well, and I was in the mood for dinosaurs after visiting Dinosaur Valley (which I posted about in my last post). 

I bought bread sticks in a can, cut the edge of each stick, and curled down the side. 

I sprayed the sticks down with spray butter, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and baked as direct. 

Dinosaur Valley

This past weekend I headed into the Texas Hill Country.  I passed a state park we used to frequent when I was younger, Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas.  It is about 2 hours outside of Dallas, and down some really pretty two lane highways.  That's my favorite kind of drive.  It was a cloudy day, but I snapped a few pictures anyway.  The camping area wasn't as big as I remembered, but I do remember playing around in the dinosaur footprints when I was younger, and imagining them walking down this valley. 

There are four sites with footprints present (Actually, just three, the 4th has eroded since I was little, so I guess it goes without saying, this is a rare treat, getting rarer each year). 

 It's not as easy to traverse down to the river as I remember, despite the stairs, it's a little steep.  The mud didn't help. 

You can see some of the prints from above. 

I did get close to this set of prints. 

The largest prints were completely cover with the excess of rain we've been having over the last month, but there are several different dinosaur prints present, and there's nothing like standing in those footprints in the summer months.  You can also swim down the slowly moving river.  There is a place called 'Dinosaur World' outside the State Park Gates that was pretty crowded, and there is a Nuclear Power Plant you can tour.  I did this, but I don't remember it well, but I'm pretty sure this is where I gained my super powers.  I can't tell you want they are b/c I have to maintain my day to day identity, and if you knew....well, I'd never have time to save the world with all the autographs I'd be forced to sign.  (Christy's superpower-overexageration, dramatization, and an occasional dip in the world of procrastination.)  Glen Rose also has a small antiquing area, but I went through the town too late, which means I just have to add it to the list of places to stop next time around.  Life is so rough!  This afternoon....I'll post a Dinosaur World inspired treat.  Get your popcorn ready for that show...or not.