Thursday, June 11, 2009

Fit For Royalty



It's amazing what you can get with a small budget and a little imagination :-)
For my daughters 1st Birthday, we had a Princess theme Party but these ideas can also be used for a boys Prince Charming Theme or Medieval Castle Theme.

Have fun turning your living room into a castle with these ideas.







Feel Free to Contact Me with questions or Service Inquiries : Maritza_McIntosh@yahoo.com

Wall with exposed bricks

1. On a regular printing paper we drew and colored some bricks in three different layouts.

2. Then we made about 10 color copies of each sheet

3. Next we cut them out
4. Finally, with double-sided tape put them up in random spots on your wall
Textured walls: An office stapler is ideal because of the small staples won't leave noticeable marks on your wall, and it wasn't to difficult to pull down after the party.


Castle Flag Banners
1. Using a disposable table cloth cut out your preferred banner size.
2. Fold in half
3. On the closed side cut out a right angle to create the two tails.
4. Next, tape your logo to the center or draw one
5. Finally, use some of your left over streamers to create a border. Tape on with double-sided tape.


Make your own Castle
1. Find the biggest piece of cardboard you can find (Furniture stores are usually good)
2. It's up to your budget but flat paint is good enough to use. Get a Roller for painting for comfort with extension and paint the cardboard a base coat with the most affordable gallon of paint you can find.
3. After it's dry, with a pencil (ink leaks through paint) to serve as guides, sketch out the Basics first: Windows, Draw Bridge, Folds and Parts to be cut.
4. Fold the cardboard into its castle shape
5. Paint the details on the castle
6. and finally when paint is dry use a blade and a exacto-knife to cut-out all the parts that need to be cut.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Red Carpet Runway Backdrop under $40

For my little sisters Masquerade Theme Quince the souvenirs were Photo Key chains and for the photo, we wanted a red carpet look. It turns out that it's very expensive to have those backdrops made, so I made it myself !
Create your own red carpet event look, with your own homemade Red Carpet Backdrop!
this would've cost about $400.00 to get made, but it only cost me less than $40 (Stencil $3, Spray Paint $13, Fabric $22) and 4hours to make it myself.
My first one, not perfect but yours and my next one will be .
1. Create a Stencil for your repeated image.
a. buy stencil sheets
b. with a thin perment marker trace your design onto the stencil
(remember, when creating your own stencil that there can't be any closed circles like in the letters o,a,P,e,d,B ect. look at an already made stencil to guide you)
c. use an exacto knife to cut out your stencil
2. Backdrop Material
a. I used Fabric because my mom wanted it as a keepsake...
Muslin Fabric is what is usually used for photography backdrops because it's cheap, but if you find another type of fabric for a better price and wide enough feel free to use it. Buy the widest you can find at least 60" to prevent seamed sections.
b. if you don't have a red carpet handy, no problem! Look for a roll of red fabric I found it for $1 a yard
3. Line up & Paint
a. find a large enough work area to spread out the fabric
b. then, before stenciling figure-out how you're going to layout your stencil straight and keep the distance from each even. Not to hard, especially if you're using more than one stencil in your pattern.
c. now, here's where I made the mistake,I thought it would be faster & easier to use spray paint (very very messy! not faster! I should've listen to mom :-D)
mom recommends using a stencil brush and acrylic paint less mess, it's cheap, and you don't need a mask or have to go outside.
Good Luck!
Feel free to contact me with questions.
I also used this technique to make monograms on the chairs & table clothe runners

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