Shake it Up

My best customer is back at it again!  Her darling daughter turned six and she
pulled out all the stops to bring her dream to reality.

The birthday girl told her mom this year she wanted her party to be Shake it Up.  Don't know what that is?  It's a Disney show.  Oh wait, let me rephrase that - a cancelled Disney show.  Why mention the cancelled part, you ask?  Well because when a show is cancelled it becomes next to impossible to find the licensed products for it and that's what happened here.  Thank heavens for Ebay!  A search on the site and she found what she was looking for to make this party the awesome affair her daughter has become accustomed to.  She enlisted my help to put together a few little touches and she was on her way.

Thanks to a local kids party establishment, she was able to have a rockin' dance party -- Shake it Up style!

First things first, she wanted a cake topper.  She found one she liked and asked if I could recreate it for her.  She was able to find a few photos online of the main characters of the show for me to choose from.  After choosing the best ones, I headed off to the UPS store to have them enlarged.  Using the foam core board that I purchased from Hobby Lobby, I traced and cut out the two shapes.

After gluing the photos to the foam core and using sandwich toothpicks, I secured the characters to the styrofoam base.  Things were coming together well, but this was just the beginning - I needed to also cut her name out in foam core and paint the base orange.

Using floral wire, I was able to attach the 'Shake it Up' sign behind the characters.  Perfect!

Added on a few more decorative touches and one cake topper is finished.  Now it's time to work on the party favors.

The original party plans included a pinata but unfortunately the establishment did not allow things to be hung from the ceiling so that meant plan B.  Using the drink cups she received as part of her party pack, I created these candy cups (again, based on something she found elsewhere) that each of her guests received.

A late RSVP meant that the birthday girl would either have to forgo her candy cup or we'd have to come up with another idea.  Enter the birthday girls candy favor!  I found this cup at Michael's and after sending a few pictures of various cups to her mom for her approval, she liked this one the best.  What a time saver smart phone technology is!

Using my Oracal 651 outdoor vinyl (works best if you plan to wash the item), I personalized the cup first.

A trip to Party City and I picked up a variety of candy to add to the cup, being careful not to pick any peanut products as the birthday girl is highly allergic.  Talk about "WOW" factor!!

The day arrived and it was party time!  All pictures shown were given to me by my customer as I was unable to attend the party myself.  The birthday girl had a blast!

Party favors for the guests

Music CD's with personalized CD covers.  The back of this even had her picture on it -- too cute!

Another close-up

Photo op with the stars (and their choice of photo prop)

Birthday with flare!  Yes, I even made the cupcake toppers you see here too. :-)

Once again, I want to thank the Glenn family for allowing me to help make their baby girl's
birthday everything she wanted.  Until next year....

All Wrapped Up

When you think of cheerleading, what does that bring to mind?  Cute little girls in their uniforms performing massive acrobatic stunts and perfectly choreographed routines?  Yup, that's what I envision too.  But I've recently learned that there is a place for a craft lady like me in cheerleading...behind the scenes.

My fav customer's daughter is a part of a local cheer squad and they have kept me quite busy this cheer season.  Originally the plan was to blog each thing I did for them, but let's be honest here -- most of my crafts happen after 9pm so the idea of getting them completed on time, staging and taking pictures AND getting up a blog post was way too overwhelming for me.  So I decided to do one post with pics of the items I did.  *Warning:  Poor picture quality*  Late night crafting means I forgo the Canon for my phone camera and pray for a good result (don't judge).

Here is my season with the Cheer Jewels all wrapped up!

These are the awesome cupcake toppers.  After each competition (monthly), the girls receive a 'cheer' inspired goody bag.  A couple of the bags included cupcakes topped with these personalized toppers.

February was all about "love".  Red, pink and white M&M's in candy containers that I purchased from Pick Your Plum were included in the bags.

Year end girls' gift - a framed group picture.  I hand painted each one with the squad's colors and a megaphone then used vinyl for the name.

The end of season card made for the two coaches -- each girl signed {forgot to take a pic...again, don't judge}

The ultimate coaches gift - a spa basket which included a luxury spa gift card to a well known local spa, monogrammed spa robes and several goodies from The Body Shop.  The assistant coaches (two high school students) received a mani/pedi at another local establishment.  Oooh-la-la!

What fun it's been this season helping out behind the scenes for the Cheer Jewels.  Now it's time to sit back and relax...that is until next season!


UPDATE:  My customer sent me a forwarded messages from the head coach.  Here is what she had to say  "I'm not sure who all helped put the basket together so please pass along to whomever.  I just wanted to say how awesome the whole basket was.  The Cheer Jewel card is adorable!!  The robe is my new best friend and the lotions and shower gels are heavenly!  Thanks again for all the time and work it took to put that together.  Very nice!!!"

And this is why I do what I do!  This note has had me smiling for over an hour.  I'm so happy that they are happy -- SCORE!