DIY Disco Ball Pinata and Party Decorations

DIY Disco Ball Pinata

I have made quite a few pinatas over the last few years but they all started with a cereal box. This one was totally different because it is a ball. I couldn't find a balloon big enough so I got a space hopper out of the shed and it was the perfect size.

Firstly, I covered the space hopper with cling film. I then tore up strips of paper and mixed some pva glue with water. I used 2 parts glue to 1 part water. I used newspaper to begin with but it wasn't thick enough so I used printer paper after the first coat. Using a large paintbrush I applied the glue mixture over the strips of paper as I laid them on the ball. I continued doing this layering the strips over each other until the ball was almost covered. I had to leave a hole at each end, one to remove the pin and the other end had the handles so I just left a space around them. Once it was dry, I repeated the process until it held the shape well. This took 3 coats. 

Once it was completely dry. I removed the pin from the space hopper and let the air out. I carefully removed it from the paper shell. I covered the hole at the bottom with duct tape and placed strips of paper on the inside over the sticky area. Using a small screwdriver I made 2 small holes (beside each other) at the bottom and 2 (1 on each side) at the top. I then threaded string through 1 hole in the top down through the holes in the bottom and up through the one on the opposite side. I tied the string at the top and put duct tape over the holes at the bottom and around the holes at the top to reinforce them. I then filled it with goodies and then used duct tape to close the top. I then covered the top and bottom with paper strips and glue to blend it all in. 

Once it had all dried, I gave it a coat of silver acrylic paint. I then took sheets of silver tissue paper and cut them into strips about 3 inches wide. I cut into the strips to give the classic pinata look, making sure to leave a band at the top to attach to the ball. I decided which side was going to be the bottom and then turned it to the top. In a circular motion, I glued on the strips upside down until I got halfway down. I then flipped it over (now right side up) and glued the strips on so that the feathery part was facing downward. I continued until it was completely covered. 

Voila! Ready for bashing!

DIY Backdrop

For this I used 2 metallic curtains and 2 net curtains. Using glitter card and different punches, I punched out shapes in different colours and then stitched them together on the sewing machine. I took a piece of wire the width of the metallic curtains and threaded it through the top of the net curtains. I hot glued the metallic curtains and strips of glittery shapes to the top of the net curtain. I put a couple of hooks on the wall and wound the end of the wire around the hooks.

The kids had an absolute ball posing for photos against the backdrop!

Paper Microphones

For this you will need toilet roll tubes and polystyrene balls. I painted the tubes with black acrylic paint and I painted the balls with silver acrylic paint. Once they were dry, I hot glued the balls to the tubes. 

The kids decorated their microphones during the party with sequins, gems, butterflies and flowers. 

We had a Just Dance competition so I made a trophy out of a glass jar painted with chalkboard paint and a glittery polystyrene ball.

For the party bags, I bought brown lunch bags and the boys helped me decorate them with glittery shapes, paper flowers and minion stamps. It's a really inexpensive way to make party bags or gift bags.

Hopefully this will inspire you to create party decorations etc in an inexpensive way. 

DIY Lyric Scarf

This is a simple project that I have been wanting to try for a while. I absolutely LOVE the musical Wicked. I love everything about it - music, costumes, everything! When I decided to try this project I knew I wanted to use the lyrics from For Good because the words are so beautiful.

 Materials needed:

Lightweight fabric or ready made scarf

Fabric pens

I made my scarf from a lightweight fabric which happened to have lines through it. This was really helpful when writing because I had a line to follow. I wanted to make a triangle scarf rather than a square scarf. The fabric didn't sit right when it was doubled so I cut it in half. My fabric measured 128cms up and 128cms across with the diagonal cut from the top corner to the bottom.

I wrote on the fabric then finished the edges afterwards. I started at the top and worked my way down. I had to write the lyrics 3 times to fill the fabric. I changed colours so that a section near the top and bottom was green. It did use a lot of ink so if you are using just one colour, you will probably need two pens of the same colour. Once I filled the fabric with lyrics, I let it dry then finished the edges by folding over twice and stitching on the sewing machine. I then heat set it with the iron to fix the ink in the fabric. That was it, not difficult at all! 

For this one I used lyrics from Somewhere Over The Rainbow and I added more colours so the overall effect was more colourful.

Painted table, chairs and spray painted stools.

After successfully painting my sideboard I decided to paint my dining table and chairs. This was more tricky because they're not real wood. Firstly, I lightly sanded the table and chairs to remove some of the laquer. The chairs had quite a thick coating on them and were badly scratched so I removed as much as I could. I then washed and dried them to remove the dust.

Before

After

I wanted more of a matt finish on the table so I used a DIY chalk paint recipe I had seen on Pinterest. I altered it a bit using 6 dsps of  paint, 1 dsp plaster of paris and 2 dsps water. This made 1 batch. I only mixed up one batch at a time because it went hard, even though I put it in an airtight jar!  The paint I used was eggshell which was quite thick so that's why I altered the recipe. I applied it with a roller on the large areas and a brush on the small areas. It took 3 coats to get a decent finish and I had to sand it lightly between coats to get rid of spots of plaster of paris. I possibly didn't mix it enough but overall I was happy with how it went on and I liked the end result. I then applied Rustoleum Clear Sealer in a matt finish to give added protection.

For the chairs, I used the grey wood paint that I had used on part of the sideboard. I applied it with a brush. It took 2 coats to get an even finish.

I wanted to add a touch of copper to the colour scheme so I bought Valspar Metallic Copper spray paint. I gave my stools (which were originally black - sorry I forgot to take a before shot) a good spray with it. I must say, I was really impressed with how it went on and I couldn't believe how quickly it dried! I absolutely love how they turned out so I decided to spray a pendant light shade and a metal plant pot too. It looks a bit odd at the moment because we don't have the new floor down yet but I think it will work when it all comes together.

I don't know how the painted table and chairs will last with family life, a clumsy husband and extreme crafting but after a couple of weeks of use they have survived so far. The chairs are starting to get marked again, I think it's from buttons on the back of jeans rubbing on them. For that reason, I think I will make seat pads which will give added comfort too. 

DIY Notebooks

This is a little project that the kids can help with. The notebooks are made from cardboard from a cereal box and printer paper. You can decorate them any way you like but we decided to do a minion and comic book theme.

Materials

For the notebooks you will need:
Cereal box
Printer paper (or any plain paper)
Needle and thread
Ruler
Pencil
4 pegs or clips (not essential but helpful)

To decorate the minion notebook you will need:
Yellow paint or yellow card
Blue card
Grey card
White paper
Coloured markers
2 buttons
PVA glue

To decorate the comic notebook you will need:
Red paint or red card
Images cut from a comic book or magazine
PVA glue

To start with, open out the cereal box and cut a rectangle about 1cm bigger than the paper you are using. I used A4 printer paper. If you're box isn't big enough, trim the paper so the cardboard is bigger than the paper.

Next, take your paper and fold each sheet in half. I used 15 sheets because my paper is quite thick. If you are using thin paper, you can add more but bear in mind that you will have to put a needle and thread through it and the thicker it is, the tougher it will be.

Measure the cardboard and mark the halfway point. 

Using a ruler and the handle of a spoon, score down the middle. This will make it easier to fold the cardboard. Place all the paper on the cardboard cover. Make sure the fold lines match then mark dots an inch apart from the top of the paper (not the card) down to the bottom.

Place pegs or clips on each side to hold it all together. I found it easier to pierce the paper and cardboard with the needle before I began sewing. I did a few sheets at a time until the needle made it through all the layers.  Thread your needle, match up the ends of the thread and tie a knot.

Pierce a hole in the cardboard at the top of the paper and put the needle through from the back to the front so your knot will be on the back. Now go to the first hole, sew through and bring the needle back through the next hole. Continue all the way down.

Once you get to the bottom, bring the needle through a hole at the bottom of the paper then work upwards to fill in the spaces.

When you get back to the top, turn the book towards you so that the loose thread is at the bottom. Take the needle through the last loop then push the needle to the back.

Tie the threads together at the back making sure they are secure.  You now have a notebook, well done!

You can leave it as it is or start decorating.

Minion

Paint the outside or cover with yellow card. Cut out the dungarees, pocket and straps from blue card and glue in place. Add detail along the edges with pencil. Glue the buttons in place. Cut out 2 grey circles and 2 white circles (slightly smaller than the grey). Glue them together. Using a brown marker, draw the centre of the eyes. Add a small black circle for the pupil. Finally add a dot of white paint. Draw on the edge of the goggles, mouth and hair with a black marker.

Comic book

Paint the cover red or cover it with red card. Cut out pictures from comic books or magazines. Glue the pictures onto the cover overlapping them to cover most of the page.

Small Minion Notebook

For this notebook, I cut a small piece of card and cut the paper to match. I punched 3 holes in the top and used jewellery wire to make the rings. You could use string or ribbon instead, just leave enough room to open the pages, don't tie it too tight. This was much quicker to make than the other notebooks.

Don't forget, I'd love to see what you manage to create. You can post photos on my Angela Catherine Crafts Facebook page.

Good luck and happy crafting!

Sofa and Sideboard Re-vamp

 We are currently in the middle of extending and renovating our house. It has been a long, slow process and we still have a long, long way to go. I've had to come up with cheap ways to furnish the new space. I thought I'd share some of them with you to give you all some inspiration (even if it's not to your taste, you'll get the idea!)

SOFA MAKE-OVER

We picked up an Ikea sofa in the clearance section for £50. It didn't have a cover but I wanted to cover it with my own fabric anyway. I bought 5 metres of heavyweight velvet for the sofa and 1 metre for the cushions from The Cotton Print Factory in Glasgow. The fabric cost around £45. Now, I should have made a pattern for the sofa before I started but I was too eager to get the fabric on so I winged it! I made a load of mistakes and had to hand stitch lots of it but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I machine stitched the back panel and base then I loosely cut fabric to the shape of the arms and machine stitched that at the bottom. I then stapled the fabric to the underside and began cutting and hand stitching the rest. It took hours and hours and I had to stop numerous times because my fingers were raw and sore. After a couple of hours each night for about a week, I finished it - yay!

 BEFORE

 AFTER

SIDEBOARD MAKE-OVER

We have had this sideboard for about 10 years. It has lasted well but with two boys in the house, it has been bumped and scratched. Also, it doesn't quite fit with the new colour scheme so I decided to paint it. I took off all the handles and gave them a spray with chrome effect spray paint. I got my husband to take it all apart so I could paint all the parts. I used a light grey on the parts that are inset and white on the rest. As I wanted this to be a cheap project, I used paint that I already had in the house so it didn't cost anything. I was pleased with how it turned out and it now fills part of the new space in the kitchen.

BEFORE

AFTER

Folded Book Wall Hanging Letter Holder

Today I am going to share a tutorial on how to make a wall hanging letter holder from an old, unloved book. This is my first attempt at blogging so please bear with me!

Firstly, I wouldn't recommend using good books. Books that have pages missing, a broken spine or generally look tatty are ideal. Really anything that would be heading for the recycling centre would be best, that way you can transform something unwanted into a usable item. If the thought of using a book makes you cringe, an old phone book, catalogue etc would work too, the overall look will be different depending on the size and colour of the pages.

Materials needed:

Paperback book

Glue (Tacky glue or a hot glue gun)

Ribbon or twine

Glitter

Beads from old or broken jewellery

Ok, so let's get started. First, take your book and remove 5 pages from the front and 5 from the back. You will need these later for the flowers.

Start at the front of the book and turn it towards you. Fold the first page in half towards the spine.

For the second page, fold the corners in towards the middle so that they meet - creating a point - then score the folds.

This creates the pattern for the diamond effect. Continue folding 1 page in half, the next with the corners folded towards the middle until you have folded all pages.

It will get more difficult to fold as you go on because the pages will fill out.  Once you have all the pages folded, cut the cover leaving about 2" on the front and 2" on the back.

Take a piece of ribbon or twine and using a hot glue gun, glue one of the ends to the front and one to the back in-between the cover and the first/last page. Make sure the ribbon/twine is secure enough to hold the book.

Now for the flowers:

Take one of the pages that you took out of the book at the beginning. Fold the bottom right corner up towards the left edge creating a triangle. 

Cut the remaining piece off leaving the folded triangle.

Turn the triangle so that the long folded edge is at the bottom. Take each corner and fold towards the top point.

Take the right side and open out so that the crease lies along the bottom edge.

Do the same on the other side.

Fold the corner down so that the crease lies along the edge.

Fold back towards the middle.

Do the same on the other side then pinch and glue the inner parts together. This makes one petal. You will need 5 for each flower.

Once you have 5 petals made, glue the edge of each petal and stick together. If you are using tacky glue, use a peg to hold them together while they dry.

Once the 5 petals are stuck together, start on the next flower.

Decide what bead or button you would like to use for the centre and hot glue it in.

Brush the edges of the flower with glue and dip in glitter. You now have 2 flowers ready to be hot glued to your letter holder.

Glue the flowers where you want them. Voila! You now have a hanging letter holder. 

I would love to see what you all come up with. You can upload your creations on my Angela Catherine Crafts Facebook page. Good luck and most importantly, have fun crafting!