You might be a redneck if ....

Last weekend my cousins threw my aunt and uncle a joint 60th and 65th birthday. The theme was ... you guessed it ... a redneck party!

This theme was perfect for my family. I would like to think we are a little bit country and a little bit rock-and-roll, but it ends up that we may be more redneck than country. So even though our redneck side can appreciate all of the redneck decorations and games, we are just far enough removed so the theme is fun (and not mocking) and is still an obvious theme (not just a normal Saturday night). But the best part was that the only thing that we needed to purchase for the the red-neck decorations were the teeth (we actually have a dentist in the family).

Once my cousin asked for some help with planning the party I did turn to Pintrest. And found quite a few great ideas such as these:



The difficulty was in choosing  the best ideas that we could put together within the week before the party. This is what we came up with:



Red Solo Lights

1. Red Solo Cup Lights - This was actually my mother's idea. She found mini solo cups at the grocery store - they are shot glass size -and I drilled holes in the bottom so we could stick them on a set of Christmas lights (and garland) we had. You probably do not need a drill for this project, I was just a little power tool happy at the time.









Yup - a jar of redneck teeth

2. Redneck Teeth - You can't have a redneck party without redneck teeth. My cousin found bags of teeth at Walmart in the party section. 









 


Jack Daniel's Soap Pump

3. Jack Daniel's Soap Pump - When I first saw this idea I loved it! It is so simple to do. You take an empty Jack Daniel's bottle, fill it with soap, and screw on the top of a soap pump. I filled it with Softsoap and happily found out that the top fit perfectly!










Cheers!

4. Beer Can Patio Lanterns - I knew there was a reason I didn't return my recycling. Once again I brought out my power drill and made patterned holes in the beer cans so the light could shine through. Then I hung them on a string of Christmas lights by inserting the bulbs in the hole and twisting the tab over the hole to keep them in place. If you really want to be redneck (we just ran out of time) take your cans out to a field for a little target practise instead of using a drill.






Booze, BBQ & Booty Shaking!

5. Party Sign - I basically copied the idea from the post above. I found some scrap wood in the garage, gave it a quick coat of prime and a quick sand, then then I wrote on it using a Sharpie.









6. Camo Bunting - This was a simple no-sew project that took less than an hour. I made a triangle template on a piece of cardstock, traced it out on some scrap pieces of camo (as I said we didn't have to buy anything - there was actually quite large amount of camo available) and cut them out. I then laid out long pieces of Duct Tape - sticky side up - place the triangles on about 1/2 inch from the edge and 1/2 triangle apart, then folder the Duct Tape over (sticky sides together), and was done!



Redneck photo booth set-up
(picture taken after it started to rain)

7. Photo Booth - We set up a photo booth so everyone could take pictures. A large piece of camo was hung from the rafters of the garage and wrapped with an old set of Christmas lights. An old plastic chair (that we still use during outdoor parties) and an old tire that was outside - do you see why we may be a little redneck - was added to round it all off. We then had a selection of redneck clothing (think camo and trucker hats), mullet wigs (yes, we already had these on hand), and of course redneck teeth. Everyone seemed to enjoy acting out their inner redneck.

I set-up a camera on a tripod and light (as it was a little dark in the garage), and  everyone could either use the camera remote, or have someone take the picture for them.



Right at home

8. Pink Flamingos - One of the pins suggested hanging strings of Christmas lights and putting plastic pink flamingos on the lawn - check, and check - these were already existing in place. You might be a redneck if.....









The little pooper

9. Dog Plop Bingo - This was the great idea of my other cousin. It is played like Cow Patty Bingo - an area was marked off in a grid as the Bingo "field" (and the dog was allowed to roam around this area). Everyone then wrote their name down in a square on the corresponding Bingo card. Whoever choose the square (or the one closest) where the dog had his first plop (i.e poop) won.








To round out the decorations we had a camo flag, picnic tables and red check plastic table cloths, camo coasters, a deer skull, and a whole lot of Duct Tape. All the decorations were put up with Duct Tape. Even the flag pole - which broke in a storm last summer- was held up with Duct Tape.






Conclusion: This was a great theme for our party! Decorations were easy and cheap to make, food could be kept to simple BBQ items, and everyone had fun. The only downside was that the day turned cold and rainy so we had to postpone the other redneck games. But since we had so much fun we are planning on holding a part 2 this summer. So there is more to come...

Happy Mother's Day

During my last play date with Kate I had decided to spend some time making a Mother's Day gift for Kate's mom. I was a little worried about the results of our homemade finger paint project so I wanted a back-up.

When I saw this fingerprint necklace I thought it would be perfect!



Source: /www.according-to-kelly.com
via Tanya on Pinterest

It is so simple and sweet. Would be super easy to make, and as a huge bonus I had everything on hand.

Before Kate arrive I opened an old package of white Fimo I had (and when I say old, the Fimo was part of a bead making kit I receive when I was around 14....which is almost 20 years ago!) and I softened it up my kneading it for a bit. Then I rolled a few small balls and set aside for latter.

After our finger painting was complete I just flattened out the balls out and helped Kate press her finger in the middle. It worked great!

I set everything aside and we went for a walk in the park.

Fingerprints

Later that afternoon (after Kate went home) I baked them in the oven.....and burnt them. It may have been the age of the Fimo, or the general baking time didn't apply since they were so small, but most likely it was because I placed them on tinfoil since I didn't like the idea of them baking on a cookie sheet I actually use for cookies. When the white Fimo burns it turns purple and splotchy. But the still looked so cute so I set the aside and tried to figure out if there was a way to fix it.

In the end I decided to try to give the a coat of paint to see if that hid the purple colour. The only problem was if the paint was too think it would fill in the finger print and defeat the point of the whole project.

In the end I used paint markers that I already had for the Anniversary Plate. I painted each pendent, let it dry for about 30 seconds then dabbed it with some paper towel. After the paint dried I thought it looked great.

I added some jump rings and a clip to turn the larger one into a key chain charm, and a chain to the other to make a long pendent necklace or a wrap bracelet.

Fingerprint Key Chain Charm

Fingerprint Pendant

Conclusion: This is such a simple craft to do with young kids (even a baby could do it) that looks great. I have seen similar ideas for Christmas ornaments that would be easy to make and family would love to receive as gifts.

Play Date with Kate

Finger Paints!

Last month I had a play date with my favourite little girl (I can say that as I only have nephews). Since we don't have kids of our own our house is lacking in kid friendly toys. So when I have a play date I usually have to plan ahead - especially now as Kate gets older she may figure out a plastic spatula and a paper towel tube is not a toy...well at least it can't be every time.

Source: www.huckleberrylove.com
via Tanya on Finger Paint

I wanted to try painting, however since Kate is still at the age where she likes to try and eat everything I was hesitant about buying finger paints from a store.Now since Kate isn't my kid I can be a little over protective. It is one thing to make your own kid sick, let them fall and bruise, or run around in dirty clothes, but it is another thing when you have to return the kid to their parents who trusted you to be responsible for their child for a few short hours. And I'm not judging here, if I had kids I am sure they would be the dirtiest, sickest, most bruised kids on the block.

So after some searching I found this recipe that looked simple and seemed to make a nice vibrant paint. And best of all it was editable - though (personally) not appetizing.

The finger paint has a jelly texture which make the colours a little transparent so the colours were not as vibrant as I expected, and I really wanted strong vibrant colours. Checking the recipe again to see if I did anything wrong I notices they used gel food colouring and I had used liquid. I tried adding gel and found it did make a difference. 

After following the instructions (and using gel colour) I ended up with this:

Conclusion: The paint was super easy to make and Kate loved painting with it, and eating some of it. Though even with the gel dye (that I would totally recommend) it is still a gel paint and not as opaque as I was looking for - it will never quite be the same as commercial finger paint.

Time to Paint

Source: www.astimeflies.ca
via Tanya on Pinterest

After seeing this pin I thought it would be perfect for our play date and could be a great Mother's Day craft Kate and I could do for her hard working mother.... and a perfect use for the new finger paint.

Even though I would have like more concentrated colour, in the end I decided to use it for the Mother's Day project anyway. Kate still likes to put new things in her mouth so I wanted to use something that I knew what was in it.








Instead of using the tape to spell out words I used letter stickers that I had.

Because of the gel paint I also painted a basecoat so there would be enough contrast when I removed the stickers.

Then Kate did a wonderful job of painting!

I actually had a hard time removing the stickers from the the small canvas. I'm not sure if it was the canvas, or the paint glued them on. But it worked well for the larger (stiffer) canvas, which luckily was the Mother's Day one.

What do you think? Will Kate be an artist some day?

Conclusion: This was a fun and super easy project. As you can tell the paint was put on pretty think so cracked a bit when it dried. It may help to limit the amount of paint used and/or help spread it around a bit. I am happy wit how it turned out and will include some pictures I took of Kate making it with the gift.