A Trolls Themed Birthday Party For My Favorite 2 Year Old

My favorite roles in my life are being a wife and a mom, but just behind those two, it's being an aunt. I love being an aunt, and truth be told, my sweet nephew was the biggest driving force behind me wanting to come back to Texas for this tour. 

That handsome nephew turned 2 this week! I love playing the role of party planner, and my sister and I started planning his party months ago. His favorite movie is Trolls, so we decided that would be the theme! If you haven't watched Trolls, it's adorable and on Netflix, so go pop the popcorn and see what all the fuss is about. 

The cool thing about Trolls is that it is all about bright, bold colors. That made the decorations fun and easy! There were also a lot of ways we were able to save money while throwing this party, and I am excited to share those as well! So here are some of the decorations we decided on, how we did them, and how we saved a buck in the process. ;)

The mantle was my favorite project to work on. I wanted it to be noticeable from across the room and be bright, bold, and fun!

I created this graphic on picmonkey.com (my favorite picture editing/design website), and then I printed it at Walgreens as a poster and glued it to a foam board from The Dollar Tree so it would stand up. Walgreens always has 40% off coupons for photo products, so this project ended up costing about $7.

This project... it still haunts me in my dreams. ;) You may remember reading this blog post about my battle with the crayon art, but the finished product ended up looking exactly like I wanted it to. For the canvas, sticker letters, and crayons (I already owned the paint that I used to paint the trolls), this cost about $15.

I purchased the foam letters from Hobby Lobby, and the banner is just pictures glued onto scrapbook paper that I also purchased from Hobby Lobby.

If I haven't talked about my obsession with The Dollar Tree lately, I'll do it now. It is AMAZING what you can get for $1. A good portion of the party supplies came from The Dollar Tree, including these paper lanterns. They were 2/$1, and I just taped them around the edges of counters to add a fun pop of color. Easy peasy. 

When we decided on Trolls as the theme, I knew I wanted to do a big balloon arch. I knew there was a 50/50 chance of me royally screwing this up, but it was worth trying, and I am happy to report that it was pretty straight forward! I took a long piece of twine and just tied balloons to it. I already had the twine from a previous project, and I purchased the balloons in packs of 25 at The Dollar Tree. This project cost less than $5 but made a big statement when you walked in the room. 

And now for the food... the real reason we have parties. The food was colorful, delicious, and had zero calories (okay, that last part is a lie, but the rest was true). We decided what we were going to serve and then created Trolls-themed labels for each item. 

I created the labels using picmonkey.com, printed them out, and glued them to the leftover scrapbook paper from the banner on the mantle.

The cake was purchased at HEB, and my sister purchased little Trolls characters to stick on top of it. The Happy Birthday candles came from The Dollar Tree. 

The party favors for the kiddos consisted of bubbles (3/$1) from The Dollar Tree, little whistles (a pack of 8/$1), and goodies from this Trolls party favor bundle on Amazon. In total, it cost about $13 for 9 goodie bags. 

All in all, I think it was a really successful party. The kids had fun, the adults enjoyed himself, and my favorite little nephew turned the big 0-2! Happy birthday, little man. You are so loved!

DIY: Melted Crayon Art Hack

Does anyone remember the melted crayons on canvases that monopolized Pinterest a few years back? The crayons look like they are raining colors over a silhouette of a couple with an umbrella, and all of America went nuts and thought we needed to try it. Well, as usual, I am about 4 years late to the trend, but I decided to sit down and try it.

My nephew is about to turn 2 and is having a Trolls themed party. If you've seen the movie Trolls (watch it, so cute), you know that it's all about the bright colors. I thought the melted crayon art would make a cute party decoration, so I set out to give it a whirl. 

You guys, I failed. Epically. It was a total Pinterest FAIL. Just take a look...

I wasted about 2 hours of my life peeling the wrappers off of crayons, hot gluing each crayon, and blow drying the crayons to get them to melt. And this was the result. I was so bummed! I was ready to be done, but I'm stubborn, so I decided I would give it one more go. I researched on Youtube and Pinterest to find different ways to do it, and I think I found the perfect hack to this craft that I'm excited to share with you today.

Forget the blow dryer that splatters hot wax everywhere. Want to do this project in half the time? Use a candle! Here's how:

First things first, you have to use Crayola crayons. I repeat, YOU HAVE TO USE CRAYOLA CRAYONS!

I tried being cheap and using crayons from the Dollar Tree on my first try, and that is where I went the most wrong. Cheap crayons have a waxy film on them that doesn't melt as well. Spring for the Crayola.

Supplies:

Canvas
Crayola crayons
hot glue gun
birthday candles
lighter/matches


Step 1: Take the paper off of the crayons. The paper will catch fire from the candle, so you have to take it off. Crayola glues every inch of that paper to the crayon, so the easiest way to take off the paper is to soak your crayons in water for 30-60 minutes. The paper should peel off easier after that. Feel free to leave them in there longer than 60 minutes. Nothing bad will happen to your crayons.

Step 2: Make sure your crayons are dry if they soaked in water, and hot glue each candle to the top of your canvas. Use painters tape to tape off any area on your canvas where you don't want the crayon to melt.

Step 3: Light a birthday candle and hold it to the tip of the crayons to melt. Each crayon should melt in a few seconds. Try to aim the candle to the tip of the crayon without letting the flame touch the canvas. I went through about 6 birthday candles for this project.

Ta da!! Easy, simple, and exactly what I was going for. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that this is for my nephew's Trolls themed party. So I stuck on a quote from the movie and drew the main characters at the bottom of my canvas.

If you ever find yourself wanting to attempt the melted crayon art, please learn from my mistakes. The first night was rough, but applying a few simple hacks to this project gave me the fast, easy end result I was looking for!

DIY m&m Baby Halloween Costume

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BacktoBabyBasics #CollectiveBias

Life around here lately has been all things baby. In addition to expecting my own little bundle of joy in a few months, my first nephew came into the world! It's been great spending so much time with him, and selfishly it's going to prove so helpful come February when my son is born. I am learning how to do the newborn thing and loving aunt life! With my nephew's first holiday being Halloween, I wanted to put together an easy little DIY Halloween costume. This took 5 minutes to put together and came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

To dress your baby like a little m&m, head to Babies "R" Us to pick up a few essentials! It was really nice being able to walk into a Babies "R" Us vice shopping online. Not only do they have all of the baby necessities, but they are experts in the baby industry and can provide some much needed guidance to this clueless mama to be!

Supplies needed to create your own DIY m&m baby Halloween costume are:

1. bodysuit in the color of your choice (I love the red m&m's so I chose red!)

2. a sheet of white felt

3. fabric glue

4. scissors

5. "m" letter silhouette (just search m&m's "m" and print)

4. m&m's for snacking and to get you into the Halloween spirit!

1. Cut out the "m" and trace it onto the white felt. I traced the back so that no pen marks would be visible when it came time to apply the letter!

2. Apply fabric glue to the back of the "m" and press letter firmly onto the center of the bodysuit. 

3. That's it! Eat a handful of m&m's for your trouble and step back and admire your extremely easy yet adorable work. 

I am going to give this to my sister as a little "Halloween gift" for my nephew, and I grabbed a package of Huggies Natural Care Wipes to throw in as well. If there is one thing I have learned in my nephew's first month of life, it's that this kid goes through far more diapers and wipes than I ever thought possible! My sister will probably appreciate the package of wipes more than the costume!

For the mamas out there, Babies "R" Us is hosting a First Halloween instore event on 10/15 from 11am-12pm. They will have a keepsake craft and parade around the store to celebrate baby's first Halloween! They will help prepare mamas for the colder weather with different solutions and tips while hosting giveaways and raffles! Meet and mingle with local moms and have fun! 

Look for Huggies Natural Care Wipes in the diaper section of your local Babies "R" Us!

What are some of your favorite Halloween baby crafts?

DIY Monsterific Halloween Candy Stand

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WalmartMonsters #MiniMonsters #Walmart 

Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays to celebrate as an adult. I used to think Halloween was just for kids and never really got too excited about it, but that ship has sailed! Parker and I love Halloween! Passing out candy, throwing parties for our friends, and of course all the sweet treats... it's good stuff!

Halloween parties are so much fun to plan, and today I want to share a quick and easy way to throw the perfect Monsterific Halloween Bash! Monsters are fun and epitomize the Halloween spirit, so I came up with a DIY Monsterific Candy Stand to serve all of your favorite Halloween candy.

I found some cool new Mini Monster-themed cans of Canada Dry® at Walmart that became the inspiration for the stand. The Mini Monster Cans are so festive and perfect for any Monsterific get-together. For this simple little candy stand, you will need a candy bucket (also found at Walmart), your favorite Halloween candy, and two 6-packs of your favorite Mini Monster Cans soda flavor. I chose Canada Dry, but you can also choose Sunkist®, A&W®, 7UP®, Squirt®, and Big Red®. Get creative and mix it up!

Stack your Mini Monster Cans in a circle with 6 on each layer. I chose to go with two layers since my candy stand was going to be displayed on a table. These cans stack well, so go as high as you want!

Top with your candy bucket and fill it up with candy! Easy peasy!

Another great feature of these Mini Monster Cans is they come with an interactive app! The Mini Monsters Augmented Reality App brings each can to life with an augmented reality experience. The monsters actually interact with each other, and the app allows you to take selfies with the monsters. This would be a great party activity! You can activate the experience by downloading the app by visiting www.minimonsters.com. Here are a couple of snapshots of the app from my phone!

If you're interested in making your own Monsterific Halloween Candy Stand, head to Walmart and find everything you need to get started! Bonus: there is currently an Ibotta offer for these Mini Monster Cans! T-minus 1 month until Halloween, yall! Tis the season for candy and all things monsterific!

DIY Smooth Legs Peppermint Sugar Scrub

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #StimulateTheSenses #CollectiveBias

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I. Love. Summer. Love it! I love the sun, I love the cute shorts and sundresses, I love the pool... I just love it all. Since we girls find ourselves bare-legged for most of the Summer season, I thought I would share my latest favorite way to keep those legs silky smooth. It's not an expensive lotion or complicated beauty regimen. It's a sugar scrub! This peppermint sugar scrub exfoliates legs, leaving the smoothest finish! My favorite part? This scrub is made in 5 minutes and only has 3 ingredients! That's called winning, my friends. 

First, gather your supplies. You will need:

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup coconut oil

10-15 drops of Nature's Truth Peppermint Essential Oil

small mason jar

Step 1: Pour sugar into your mason jar.

Step 2: Add coconut oil. No need to mix yet!

Step 3: Add Nature's Truth Peppermint Essential Oil drops. I would put in about 10-15 drops, depending on how potent you want the peppermint to be. 

Step 4: Stir together with a spoon until the mixture becomes nice and fluffy. It should be gritty like a sugar scrub but easy to stir and break apart. 

That's it! Rub on your legs and enjoy feeling silky smooth! The secret behind this sugar scrub is the peppermint oil. It is refreshing and stimulating and great for massages. Each time you apply it to your legs, the cool and minty sensation will work with the sugar and coconut oil to help get those legs silky smooth for Summer! I chose Nature's Truth Essential Oils because they are great in DIY projects of many kinds. Soaps, candles, air fresheners... the sky is the limit! 

I used Nature's Truth Peppermint Essential Oil in the sugar scrub, but I also picked up a Tea Tree oil since it is known to be purifying and rejuvenating. I am already thinking about a diffuser with Tea Tree oil for my next DIY project!

This DIY Smooth Legs Peppermint Sugar Scrub makes a fabulous gift for your girlfriends or yourself! It's quick, fun, and effective. To make your own, head to CVS and look for Nature's Truth Essential Oils in the vitamin section. Don't forget to print off the coupon before you go!

What are some of your favorite Summer DIY projects?