Caddy for silverware

Next in line for D's big day is a silverware caddy..

Had to be yellow and white - there are so many disposable caddies available online at party supply stores and beautiful ones over at Etsy.
Either they are pricey or they are not fully aligned with the party theme
Excuses excuses to DIY ;)

Michaels' has these cute little wooden crates for about $4.

First, I spray painted the whole crate a nice butter cream yellow.
Then incorporated the white.

Then it was time for some pattern.

Sometime ago - stumbled upon these lovely Moroccan print printables.
Just cut them out to the size of the wooden strips and stuck with a cello tape - not ready to commit yet.
May be I will change it after the party to something else - may be I will keep it - not sure.

Also made another mini chevron bin (to hold straws) with this caddy. But that's another post :)

Puzzles

Latest DIY is home made puzzles for D!

We have a long long flight coming up. India trip :) These puzzles are to go into the busy bag that I am trying to put together for our Mr. small boy :)

Supplies needed:
Pictures - preferably regular photo prints instead of on paper.
popsicle sticks
modpodge
craft (exacto) knife

All supplies available at craft stores and walgreens prints pictures for cheap and fast!

First I cut up the pictures using the craft knife into strips of thickness matching that of the popsicle sticks.

Then just brush on a thin even layer of mod-podge on the Popsicle sticks and just glue on the cup strips. A 4x7 picture roughly cuts into 5 or 6 strips (depending on the contents of the picture).

Here you can see strong daddy cracking the puzzle in record time. Oh! I say strong because without him I would not have been able to open the cap of mod podge bottle which was stuck pretty tight. ;) And without which this project could not have been completed! ;P

Very very simple project. Definitely not an original idea - It was pinspired. (Is that word allowed?) :)
Many blogs with instructions on pinterest.

I ended up making about 6 puzzles.

I hope D likes them...

If not right now, he should have fun with these in a few months' time. But I know the sheer novelty will keep him occupied for a while on the flight.

Choo choo train - cake topper

The next big day for us is D's birthday. Oh! how eager we all are for this day. This year he turns 2 and we are planning to have over all of D's friends and our friends for a small dinner party.

And there is no bigger motivation than this for me to DIY!! :D
 
First up Choo choo train cake topper.

D loves trains lately - he loves loves loves them.
So a train had to be included in the party somehow. So here is a cake topper.
Such a simple small project - did it all in one evening while multi tasking - that simple!

I have somehow landed with a sizeable collection of paint chips and in all good colors.
I cut up the shapes on paint chips and assembled them on a white felt sheet

I glued all the pieces of the train and 3 bogies to the white felt sheet piece.

Closer look at the engine. Since the shapes are all mostly straight lines. I did not even need a stencil or anything, I just roughly measured and cut up the shapes.

Baby D taking a closer look at the train.

It was so hard for him to keep his hands off the train. He helped in the project too :)

Buttons - they have to be symbol / representative of cuteness. Instantly buttons can add cuteness factor to most things. I had to add buttons!

Since these need to be pierced to the cake - I added lollipop sticks to the back of each piece - used washi tape to attach the stick.

So, I am planning for the party to be in yellow and white. So I added another yellow foam layer at the back of each piece.

Here is the train assembled.

Choo choooooo... :)

Another tray DIY

Scored a lovely 14 inch tray from home goods - not that this tray is not pretty already - but I had to paint over it  just to DIY and up cycle it my way :) 

After spray painting it white I got stuck at picking fabric for the tray...

Had a bunch of geometric fabric - originally for a different project - but I'm very very tempted to use one of them for the tray

Below is the short list - deciding deciding... on which to commit to. 

By far this is my biggest DIY nemesis - to choose and commit to one design. Generally I end up having so many choices and each one looks so good - picking just one of them is such a stressful thing :) and to think DIY is my stress buster!! Irony!! Lol!

In fact that choice making or the lack of it is the main driving force for this second DIY tray - I love the first one but I could not just stop there ;) 

So which fabric did I end up picking?

The lovely light blue 

Here is how it looks...

Linking this to Caffinated crafters