How to Train Your Dragon Party

I threw this party for my son who was turning six. It was very inexpensive and not too time consuming and lots of fun.


The invitation I printed on tan construction paper and then crinkled it up.
They were all riding the bus home with my son so I knew they would need a snack, so what else, but goldfish since that is what Hiccup first feeds Toothless.
I decided I wanted them all to be little Vikings like the kids on the movie, so it started out with the hat idea.
Then of course they needed a shield and weapon. I was going to make balloon swords but then I was making some hatchets for the hatchet throw and decided they weren't hard at all and went ahead and made one for each of them.

Now that the costume was done, we needed training games. I decided on an obstacle course, just from things I had around the house. They weaved through cones, crawled under something, jumped over something, walked across a board, and then down a slide. The next game we played was the hatchet throw. They had to throw them through an opening in a box. Then we had target practice where they had to throw bean bag fish (I just made some out of felt and beans) through the mouth of a Toothless cutout. I just cut it out of black poster board, nothing fancy. Then I wanted a dodging game for them practicing getting out of the way of dragon fire. I first was going to have one dragon with a can of silly string and the kids had to dodge it, but I didn't get to the dollar store when I was shopping in the next town (we don't have one in our tiny town) but didn't get to it. We just ended up using a soft bouncy ball. My older son was the dragon and all the little vikings got to use their shields and axes to block the "fire". 5 and 6 year olds don't have a long attention span so this was good for them, but if there were older boys you maybe could do more games. Lastly we went on a dragon hunt. I had just printed out pictures of the 6 main dragons featured on the movie, hid them in the yard, and they each found one to claim their prize.

The prize was a coloring book from the movie found at the $ store and a Dragon Training 101 Survival kit. This ended up being quite a lot more than I thought, but I kept thinking of things to put in. I originally started with using the leftover candy from decorating the cake but then added a few more. It included gummi worms (whips), fruit slices (wings), marshmallows (rocks), dum dums (stone hammers), round cookies (shields), and licorice (spears). I put them in a ziploc bag and made a candy bag topper and stapled them on top.



I made the Night Fury cake using this template from Family Fun, but changed the head and back legs to make it look more like a night fury. I got that idea from this blog. We don't eat chocolate so I ended up using the purple fruit slices for the spine and horns and thought they ended up being better for the night fury anyway. I am not a cake decorator by any means, but I like to do fun cakes for each of my kids' birthday so I try. Again since we don't eat chocolate I had to start from white frosting and added about 1 1/2 tsp. black food coloring to get this dark gray color, but I have heard you can get black pretty easy starting with chocolate frosting.

Dresses, Dresses, Dresses

So you know my obsessive personality, well I got into dresses and and made three for Dorothy. It will probably be another 2 years before I ever do it again especially since I have no where to buy fabric.

I made this one out of mom's old t-shirt using this tutorial as a guideline. I would us a less stretchy one next time, but it turned out ok for a play dress.


This one is the shirring one I tried, but I definitely should have gone with twice the length and not just 1 1/2.

I modified this dress and made it using the elastic thread. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Advent Calendar

I made this advent calender in December but I packed it away with all of the Christmas stuff and forgot to put it on here.  I got the idea from A Feathered Nest.

It was a ton of work and I learned so much in the process of making it. This was my first time working with felt and I discovered how awesome and fun felt is!  I, of course see all the mistakes and things I would change but I guess that is part of the learning process.

Hoodie Towels

So since my sister started this but then doesn't take the time to actually post the incredible things that she makes, I decided I better do one since she asked me ages ago even though what I do pales in comparison to what she does.

My standard baby gift is a hoodie towel and an outfit. We have 8 babies being born in my ward between now and June so I needed to make up a stock of towels to give out. I usually just make a standard one, but I have gotten creative twice. The first time around was when my daughter was born because I had seen a ladybug towel and that is how I was decorating her room so I gave it a shot. And on Saturday I decided to try my hand at a lion towel because I am throwing a shower for a girl that is decorating his room with jungle animals. So here they are!

Anxiety

30 women all around my age. How much will 30 women eat? Will they even eat the salad? How many heads of lettuce should I get? She said to get 6 bags of salad...but those bags are iceberg lettuce, I hate iceberg lettuce. I'll just make the salad and get some romaine and green leaf lettuce, much better. Oh but I need to get carrots and cucumber and broccoli and celery and green onion... How many heads of lettuce? 4? I guess so. Why did I volunteer to do food??!! I hate preparing food for people. I always watch their faces when they take a bite and read into every blink, glance and mouth wipe. They hate it...they want to puke...ahhh....why did I offer to do this, I always regret it.

All of the vegetables cost 10 bucks, wow, what a steal, now to just wash and chop them all. Ok this is taking much longer than I thought and I am hurrying so it looks crappy...dangit! It took me 3 hours to cut all those vegetables and it looks terrible, I may accidentally forget the salad...oops...I'll just go buy the bags real quick. I hate wasting money more than preparing food for people so that won't work. Dammit! I forgot the salad dressing....wait church functions aren't supposed to make me swear...ahh...now I feel terrible. I need salad dressing. I'll just stop at Henry's on the way there. Of course, Henry's doesn't have any normal dressing, it is all organic and free of things and very expensive. What do I get?! I'm late! Why do I put things off like this?! I'll just get this, I heard people saying they loved it once.

Ok, I finally made it. Oh no! People are actually here. 30 women...I should not be nervous, these are my peers. I should feel comfortable with them, they are all in their pajamas and I am in mine at this fun sleep-over themed get-to-know-you social event....nothing in that sentence comforts me, though...absolutely nothing. Get-to-know-who? I already know these people and I know none of them like me so why am I here. Oh, I planned it...that's why...shoot. Maybe I could go in the kitchen and wash dishes. Perfect! Oh there are only a few platters to wash, that will only take a few minutes. Eat! Everyone else is eating. It is just pizza, everyone likes Papa John's Pizza, phew! But the salad and the dressing...someone just poked around in the salad and then put the tongs backs...opting out I see... that's ok...I understand. The next girl with her nose in the air takes a little salad and then picks up the dressing, reads the title, scoffs and then turns it around to read the ingredients and then puts it down...then picks the next bottle...oh, same stuff...turns to her friend, there is only one type of dressing, she says with disgust. The girl replies with a humph...they turn up their noses and walk back to their seats. Uuuuggghhh..... Oh man, I should have gotten the ranch even though it was 6 bucks. Oh geez. This is the worst. I made way too much salad...what was I thinking? I am so retarded when it comes to these things, why do I try? Ok just forget about it and get some and sit down and eat. The pizza is good and so is the salad, but I made it so, of course, I think it is good.

My turn to introduce myself...Oh gosh...I think I am going to puke, my throat is so dry...what will I say...oh that was a stupid thing to say...everyone is looking at me, just look down, no one cares, just stop talking. Ok...done. Glad that is over. But what did I say? Something stupid no doubt. Now onto the games...I think I better go clean up...oops I didn't put my name in the bowl...too bad. Not really.

Good thing I won't have to plan another one of these for a while.....I hope I get released soon.

Matching wallet

And to match the corduroy Phoebe bag I made a wallet of sorts. I really just wanted an excuse to use the remaining 2 buttons and fabric. I did not have a pattern for this so it took much longer than the bag. It is basically an envelope. The hardest part was figuring out how to line it with the side panels in the right places. After several drawings and ponderings and test sewings and a few exasperated sighs, I figured it out. First I cut out my wallet shape in the corduroy and the lining fabric. Then I measured the sides to see how big the I needed to make the side panels. For the side panels, I sewed the corduroy and the striped lining fabric right sides together just at the top and then flipped them right sides out and put a piece of wonder-under inside and ironed it so it would be a little stiffer. Then I zig-zagged the remaining 3 sides (still right side out- the edges will not be seen). I used what I learned making the Phoebe bag (in the "Prepare the exterior" step) and pinned the side panels to the wallet-- corduroy to corduroy, then right side of lining fabric on top of the panels. I thought, "Oh boy, this is not going to work..." so I sewed a wide running stitch and flipped it right side out and to my utter shock, it worked. So this is probably really confusing but just follow the directions for the Phoebe bag and apply that same concept to this wallet. I sewed all the way around the wallet and left the bottom end open so I could flip it right side out. I also top-stitched the flap and the side panels.

Corduroy Jacket/Bag

I found this really cute pattern for a purse on a blog called Artsy-Crafty Babe. She has some great patterns and some great ideas. She has a couple of free patterns that I really liked so I downloaded them and tried one of them out.

I had this corduroy jacket that I bought at a thrift store. I loved the color, the fabrics, the buttons, and the pockets but it did not fit me right.

It made a better purse. I used the Phoebe Bag pattern by Rebeka Lambert.
This bag now has all of the best parts of the jacket. I sure had fun making it.