Father's Day {Inspirations}

I count my girls & myself lucky that we have such an awesome man in our lives. My husband is the kind of dad who is always ready to play...even if it means getting his hair "did" by his daughters, playing princesses or anything else the girls come up with. He's an enthusiastic sport not matter what.


He can always be counted on to prepare their meals, do their hair, and even take care of the laundry now and then (and did I mention he always cleans our bathroom...a job I detest?). He's never the guy who "babysits" his kids...he is truly a hands-on parent. In other words, he really is a "Super Dad" (and husband)!


Father's Day is only a few weeks away, so I thought I 'd share some of the great ideas I've been seeing out there. Our family likes to keep things simple when it comes to gift giving. Gifts from the heart are always our gifts of choice. While I'm sure he wouldn't balk if we were able to get him something "electronic-y" like a cool new phone or a state-of-the-art stereo system, our simple gifts from love always put a smile on his face and in his heart.


Luckily the blogosphere is full of so many great & inexpensive ideas to make Dad feel special. Many gifts that the children can help out with which always makes the day even more fun. Here are some of my favorites. Oh and if my wonderful husband happens to be reading this post...you should probably stop right here so as not to spoil the surprise :)


I love love this cute "All About My Dad" idea from Yesterday on Tuesday. How fun to capture the adorable things your kids say and then frame them with a photo. I can't wait to hear how mine answer these questions and I see it becoming a tradition that we can do every year! You can find the free printable here. And I love how adorable it looks in the frame with the bunting too.






Nothing but country has a number of cute ideas for homemade gifts for dad.


How sweet is this?



or this one?

You can find the free printables and instructions for these ideas and more on their Father's Day Ideas page.


I love this cute shirt & tie cupcake toppers from Haniela's Food & Photography.  You can find the t-shirt cupcake topper tutorial here. 





This next idea is not specifically for Father's Day, but it's one I am using for that purpose. It's a really cool cake idea from Sweetapolita. I have a complete cake crush on her and pretty much love everything she comes up with. If I lived in Canada, I would totally find a way to be her best friend so I could taste test all her cake creations for her :) But I digress...





It's a cake covered in white fondant and then drawn on with edible markers! My oldest daughter is counting down the days when she gets to draw on a cake for daddy. I think this is such a fun idea for the kids and I can't wait to make this cool cake. You can read her post all about The Rainbow Doodle Birthday Cake. And be sure to check out her other gorgeous creations!


If you are not up for making a cake or are pressed for time, there are so many cute & free printables available to dress up a store bought cake or cupcakes. Check out these fun ideas & click on the blog name to download the printable...


From Oopsey Daisy



From Catch My Party...





Another from Catch My Party...


Shindig Parties TO GO is offering this free printable collection. How cute & fun is this?



Of course if the man in your life is of the Super Man variety, than this collection from Living Locurto would be perfect!



Of course a framed print of Daddy's favorite kids would be a great gift as well. Here's a couple creative ideas.


Featured on Paperie Boutique...




And I love this from A Few of My Favorite Things... They also have a few more cute photo/art work ideas so be sure to check them out!



I hope you find some inspiration in some of these great ideas. And I hope all the awesome Dads out there feel the love from the people whose lives wouldn't be the same without them!

The Black Crowes Cake

This year is the year of forty. I will be turning the big 4-0 later this year and since January, I have watched my friends descend into the forties...one by one, toppling over like a row of aging dominoes. 

One of those recently taking the tumble into their forties is my oldest and dearest friend in the world, Missy. She and I became friends at the age of 12 and bonded quickly over a mutual love of Duran Duran! Twenty-eight years later our musical tastes may have changed, but the friendship certainly hasn't.

She lives about 4 hours away so we don't get together often, but I knew I had to arrange a visit for her big birthday. I made the arrangements with her boyfriend and surprised her at her doorstop. It was awesome!

Of course I knew I had to make her special cake! I didn't want it to be a generic "Happy 40th Birthday" cake. I wanted it to be specifically about HER. 

One of her favorite things in the world is the band The Black Crowes. She loves to travel around the state attending their concerts and even met her boyfriend at a show. I checked a few album covers for inspiration and came across the one pictured above. I loved that it was black & white and had such clean, but dramatic look to it. 

So I went to work...

I knew I would use the album cover itself as the cake topper, making the logo out of fondant.

I was a little stumped as to what to do with the rest of the cake, but then got the idea of using feathers. Black Crowes, they're birds, birds have feathers, right? I thought it would look cool. I later found out that they actually have a song called "Feathers" so how perfect was that?

She loved the cake and I love the fact that I finally got to make a cake for my best friend in the whole wide world.

Happy Birthday Missy! You rock!!

Rainbow Cake

There have been lots of really cute popular party themes lately, but one of my favorites is definitely the rainbow party. Kids really seem to love all the bright and cheerful rainbow colors and who could blame them? It definitely makes for a happy & fun party!

So when my friend Sheila told me she was throwing her youngest daughter a rainbow party, I was so excited! I couldn't wait to make this cake! It was so much fun and the kids definitely loved it.

The cake was a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and cookies & cream filling. All the decorations are edible and made from marshmallow fondant.

It worked out perfectly that the birthday girl had exactly enough letters in her name to use each color of the rainbow.

And did I say it was a vanilla cake???

Well it was...with a small twist of course :)

Rainbow inside & out! 

Visit Sheila Sierra Photography for pictures from this cute Rainbow Party!

{DIY} Puppet Theater

My girls, like most kids I imagine, love playing puppet show! I found these really cute and inexpensive puppets at Micheal's last year and we have put on many a show with them...crouched down behind the couch. I considered getting them a puppet theater this past Christmas, but was really put off by the cost, which was out of our budget. 

The thought to make my own struck me when I replaced the girls closets doors with curtains. One too many battles for position in the closet had lead to a few pinched arms in the bi-fold doors. I took them out and put up colorful curtains which I love. The other day I finally got around to (6 months later) shortening them so they didn't drag on the ground. I shortened them just a wee bit too much....oops! But I wasn't about to waste that curtain!

The solution? A doorway puppet theater!

First off, I apologize for the quality of some of these photos. I found it very difficult to take pictures in the hallway with the curtain blocking most of the natural light. But with that said, on with the tutorial...

This little project involves ZERO sewing! I'm not that handy with my sewing yet (working on it) so hot glue and fabric tape were my tools of choice for this. You can certainly put your awesome sewing skills to use if you prefer. 

Supplies needed:

-1 tension curtain rod. I used a shower curtain rod because they are much thicker and with my little ones, I wanted it to be very sturdy.

-1 curtain panel of your choice. Mine was 100% cotton and in retrospect, I think a blend would be much neater because I have ZERO intention of ironing this thing!

-hot glue gun

-self adhesive fabric tape 

-ribbon. I used several different colors and widths, so choose what you like.

-embellishments. I used buttons, but again, choose what you like or have on hand.

-felt in whatever colors you want

-scissors

-measuring tape

-pencil or fabric pencil

-iron 

What I really love about this project (aside from the no sewing) is that you can truly keep it as simple or as embellished as you like! I did not purchase a single supply specifically for this project. Every item I happened to have on hand, which was awesome. At a minimum you will probably need to purchase the tension rod, curtain, and fabric tape. But after that, if you make crafts you probably have most everything else you need in your craft supplies.

The first thing you need to do is to figure out where you want your opening to be. I eyeballed most everything with this project since there honestly is not a whole lot of "wrong" you can do. The only real measuring I did was to find my center point and then I counted out 10 inches on each side to determine how big I wanted my opening.

I was so happy that my curtained happened to be striped because that made it fairly easy to keep my cutting lines straight! But if you have a different pattern, you will probably need to pay more attention to your lines. You can use a pencil on the reverse of the fabric (or right on it if you can see it) to mark your cutting lines.

I wanted the edges of the opening to be neat, so I folded them under all around and then ironed them to keep them flat.

The I used my self-adhesive fabric tape to tape everything down. Make sure when you fold your fabric over, that the excess fabric is at least as wide as your tape or you will have sticky tape exposed.

I flipped the curtain back over and then cut ribbon long enough to form a border around the entire opening. I used the fabric tape to attach the ribbon.

I hung up the curtain to see how it was coming along and noticed that the bottom edge of the opening was sagging a great deal.

That was not going to work so I was a little stumped as to how to fix it. I thought perhaps reinforcing the back with a wooden dowel to give it weight might help. But I didn't have a dowel and really just wanted to finish this without any trips to the store as my little ones were ready to play! So instead, I folded the fabric in the back to create "pleats". I pulled it taught enough, a little on each side, until the sagging was gone. Then I held it all together with the fabric tape. You could probably be more successful with a dowel or another solution, but it worked for me! Of course this made my opening not so square anymore, so I repeated the same process with the top edge. 

With the basic shape complete, I was ready to decorate. I started with some very simple ribbons that I tied a knot in. 

I then hot glued the ribbons onto each corner of the opening like streamers. I glued a button onto each ribbon grouping in order to fill it in and because I just love buttons!

Right about then, my girls couldn't resist anymore and had to do a quick show for me!

After the show was over, I decided maybe the girls should watch a movie so Mommy could finish this up!

My favorite part is the pennant banner. I cut triangles out of felt and then hot glued each one to a long ribbon. I then hot glued the ribbon onto the curtain. For a little more decoration and to cover up the ribbon ends, I glued on some more buttons.

I used chip board letters to spell out {theater} and glued them onto a piece of felt. And of course I added a few more buttons because I just couldn't resist. Another option I considered that would be cute, would be to put the letters on the pennants instead. My daughter really wanted me to spell {puppet theater}, but I didn't have enough letters. 

I chose not to cut any fabric off the end of the curtain. Instead, I used some self adhesive velcro tape that allows me to lengthen and shorten the curtain as needed. I forgot to take pictures of this step (sorry), but basically I put 3 small pieces of velcro across the bottom edge and at 2 different heights on the back of the curtain. This allows me to change the length. Between that and the fact that you can move the tension rod up or down, it allows children of different ages (and heights) to put on shows and of course makes it easy for the grown ups to do a little entertaining as well.

And at the end of play time, you just roll the whole thing up and tuck it under the bed or in a closet. Great for small spaces or even for taking to Grandma's!

I really loved making this project and my girls are thoroughly enjoying it. I hope you give this fun & easy project a try!

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