First Day of School Survival Kit

 This year I thought we could start the year out with a little survival kit for the teachers.

Using large recycled peanut butter jars I was able to fashion cute little survival kits.

Materials:
   Large jar
   Tea (2 kinds)
   Instant coffee (4 packets)
   Chocolate bar
   Hard candy
   Hand sanitizer
   Chewing Gum
   Craft paper
   Glue
   Pens

I was inspired by several different posts in Pinterest but was concerned about sending glass mason jars on the bus with my kids.

Problem solved.  I can't bare to throw away peanut butter jars.  I use them for everything.

Using a lot of supplies from my scrapbooking supplies I was able to decorate the recycled peanut butter jars.

These are pretty simply decorated.  Most of it was pen work with colored sharpies.  I used oval cutters and long strips of cardstock.






The writing reads:

"Welcome back to school" - around the edge
"Survival Kit" - in the center

"Thank you for all you do!" - on the back

It worked out great and the teachers loved them!

Dragon Training Party

Did you see How to Train Your Dragon 2?  Wasn't it awesome!?!  My son decided he had to have a Dragon Training birthday party this summer.  Here is how we pulled it off.

  I created an invite like a movie admission ticket.  Using free wallpaper images from Dreamworks and text effects I was able to create time invite in my photo suite program.  Dreamworks also has party invites on their site that you can print out.


PARTY DECOR
  Dragon emblem and balloons on the mailbox.
  Viking Hats
  Viking Shields
   Balloon Swords
   Stuffed Toothless toy - Walmart
  How to Train your Dragon gift bag (table decor)
  Red and black table ware & paper party supplies

Viking Helmets were an easy do-at-home project with mostly all scraps that were laying around.

We had one helmet for every dragon trainer.











Next, every viking needs a shield.  First rule of Dragon training - get a shield.

I used an appliance cardboard box and duct tape to make these.  Two circles per dragon trainer.  I made loops of duct tape and threaded it through the first circle and secured it to the inside.












Then I took the matching circle and taped the edge, sealing the armbands inside and make a "metal" edge.

I then created a small duct tape circle for the center of each shield.

The first things our dragon trainers did upon arriving at their training date was decorate their shield.












Here is my Hiccup.  He even made a flame sword himself for his dragon training.


For our guest dragon trainers I got some long balloon-animal balloons and found a YouTube video on how to make a sword.  I think this was even more exciting to them than the costumes.











PARTY GAMES
  Shield Decorating
  Racing Paint
  Dragon Races
  Pinata

Racing Paint was simple and made them so happy.  I found face paint crayons (super easy to use and no mess).  I duplicated the face paint seen in the movie during the dragon racing games.

Dragon Racing

I set up an obstacle course in our back yard using just about anything I could find in my house.

Construction stakes with paper flags, old fence posts as balance beams, toddler tunnel, water balloons, and of course baskets for their sheep.

Each child ran through the obstacle course carrying their sheep and put it in these baskets at the end.  They each had four sheep to put in the basket.








Here are our fluffy little sheep.


Aren't they cute!!














Dragon Egg Pinata was a hit.  It took them forever to break it open.  They loved it!!

Party favors for a dollar at Walmart!

 Toothless birthday cake.  The cake topper was bought online.

The cake is a chocolate box cake, two layers with frosting in between.

I prefer a cream cheese frosting to other kinds.  It's got a great texture and flavor and sets up like a buttercream once chilled.











MENU

     Meatlug Treat - Grapes
     Fishleg Snacks - Goldfish
     Dragon Eggs - Cakeballs
     Dragon Teeth - Apple Slices
     Hiccup Skewers - Ham & Cheese skewers
     Astrid Crunch - Chex Mix
     Gobber Peg Legs - Chocolate dipped pretzel rods
     Nightfury Juice - (Our Journey)

 
The tags were made with images all available on the Dreamworks site.  I used wood texture, metal texture and a viking script all available free on the internet to create the food tags.

Once printed I glued them to cereal box cardboard and bent them into self-standing food tags.

The cake balls were dipped in blue candy melt then rolled in chocolate sprinkles.  They were a mess but my son loved them.

 To end the day each kid got a special Viking bag which contained their pinata candy and some dragon eggs (cake balls) to take home.

The image is a printout available on Dreamworks website.  Be sure to check out their site as they have lots of things there for your little dragon lover.

A pretty simple party that went over HUGE with the 5 yr old crowd we entertained.

Fluffy Sheep

I made these to go with my son's Dragon Training birthday party game, but you could use them as snowballs, sheep or anything else you can imagine.

 Materials:
     Thick soft yarn (I got baby blanket yarn on clearance)
     Scissors
     Patience

Wrap yarn around your hand sixteen times.  Do you have to do 16?  No.  That's just how I did mine.

Cut a short section of yarn.

 Slide the yarn off your hand.  Use the short section of yarn to knot off the center of your wrapped yarn.

Taking your scissors cut all the loops on each end of the wrapped yarn.














Next pull apart the yarn.  I pulled each strand of yarn in half to the center.

This one is partially done.  You can see that by splitting the yarn it becomes curly and fluffy.

Look at my little herd of sheep!

After finishing these I thought "why didn't I think of this for my daughter's Frozen birthday".  They could have had a snowball fight.

I have tucked this little things away for a mid-winter indoor snowball fight this year.

Have fun!

Dragon Egg Pinata

 Materials:
      Ballooon
      Newspaper
      White liquid craft glue
      Water
      Tissue Paper
       Ribbon
       Candy
       Utility Knife

To start I inflated a large party balloon.

Mixing white liquid craft glue and water (50/50 mix) in an old peanut butter jar I poured some glue mix out onto a plate.

Tear up newspaper pieces into small pieces.

Wet each piece with the glue mixture and place on the balloon.

After a the balloon is fully covered let dry completely.

I used a mixing bowl to hold my balloon so it wouldn't roll away.

I did 6 layers of newspaper to be sure the pinata was strong.  Be sure each layer is dry before starting a new layer.

 Using a utility knife cut a small door in the top of the pinata.

Also cut two holes on either side of the pinata.  Run a ribbon through the holes and tie a knot on the inside.

Fill with candy and then tape the door shut.













 Cut 2"x 2" pieces of colored tissue paper.  I separated my colors into other mixing bowls.

 Using full strength liquid craft glue runs small lines on the pinata.

Pinch a piece of tissue paper and place onto the glue.

Repeat - A LOT!

 I tried to make our pinata look like a dragon egg.  Here it is almost finished.

All done!

The kids loved the dragon egg pinata.  In review I probably could have gone with one or two less layers of papermache (the newspaper and glue step).  The kids used a wooden baseball bat and it took almost 15 min to bust this thing open.  They had an awesome time attacking it.

Viking Helmets

 Materials:
    Large Carboard Boxes
    Hot Glue Gun & Glue
    Scissors
    Masking Tape
    Duct Tape

To start off measure your child's head.  If most of the guests are about their age you can make them all the same size.

My daughter is a bit older so I had to make one special for her.

After cutting out each section for the hat I used hot glue to seal it into a band about 4" wide and long enough to wrap around my son's head.

 Next I cut 1" strips that were long enough to go across the helmet band but leave a bit of height (gentle arch).

 These were secured in a criss-cross pattern with hot glue.

 Next for the horns.  Draw out a shape on the cardboard that you like for your horn shape.  Remember to leave a small tab at the attachment point.

 Cutting a hole in your helment band, poke through the tab of the horn.  Next you need to spread the cardboard out flat by splitting the tab in half.

 Tape each side of the tab flat to the inside of the helmet band.

 Your next step is to wrap the helmet horns in masking tape.

Once the horns are wrapped you can wrap the helmet band.  I found it much easier to run the duct tape lengthwise around the band.  I had to make slits in the tape to work around the horns but it went much faster than completely wrapping the band in tape.

Don't forget to wrap the crossbars going over the top of the helmet.













This one wasn't quite my size, but here is the finished product.