Cinco De Mayo piñata

So, this is what I've been busy with this week, amongst other things... A donkey piñata that we named pinto bean... It was simple and fun to do; it just took a lot longer to decorate him than I planed on.
Here's how you make a donkey piñata (the same concept for any piñata).

Here's what you'll need:

Balloons (I used water balloons)
Heavy Paper (I used brown paper wrapping paper)
2 Paper towel rolls OR 4 toilet paper rolls
Tape
Newspaper cut up into 2 in strips
Glue water (1 C flour mixed with 2 C water)
Crepe paper rolls (I used green, white and red)
Tacky glue
Pencil
Scissor
Google eyes


Here's how I did it.
First I formed the donkey's body by blowing up balloons and wrapping them in brown paper wrapping paper

Then I added the toilet paper rolls to make legs

I made the neck/head, ears and nose by doing the same thing that I did for the body.

Next we took the strips of newspaper, dipped it into the glue water and applied it to the donkey (our hands were too messy to take pictures but here are pictures of how it looked after we cleaned up):

We did the top first

Then turned it on it back and did it's stomach

The sun dried it up fast!

Once it was completely dried and harden we took it in and made an opening for the candy and poped the balloons from the inside:

Now to decorate it...
I took the crepe paper rolls and cut them in small squares

I then took the glue and, in sections, put it on the donkey. Add the crepe paper squares using the eraser side of the pencil

Then add the google eyes and a few strips of crepe paper for the tail... Here he is:

I wonder how she's going to act when we hit him for some candy? Maybe we shouldn't have named him lol.

$50 Visa Gift Card GIVE AWAY

To celebrate my new blog AND my birthday this May, I'm hosting my very first give away! I'll be giving a $50 visa gift card to TWO people on May 17th....

Here's how you can enter to win:
*submit a comment for each one---adding to your chances of winning

• Be or become a blog follower! 
• Be a Facebook friend at Simpsonized Crafts...And Then Some
• Check out some of my post and tell me what's your favorite.
• Tell me a little about yourself such as what you like to do (or WOULD like to do) on your spare time.
• Post about this give away at your blog/site; (Add your link to the post in your comment)

*IF you DON'T have a blog account or facebook account, subscribe to my blog via email :) and submit a comment letting me know.

The deadline for all entries is May 16 and I'll be picking two random winners on May 17th. The winners will have till May 21st to contact me with their address via email at simpsonizedcrafts@yahoo.com

I look forward to meeting all of you!
Happy Winnings!

Linking up this give away to

DIY Mirror Nightstand

I'm so excited about this project! This has been something I wanted but not bad enough to pay $600 or even $100 for it... SO, of course I tried making it.
Here it is:

I paid a total of $20 to make this table!

I used my old nightstand, here's what it looked like before:

I cut off the legs and middle shelf with a jig saw (saving the legs and table top)

I measured the mirrors and cut the table top to that size,

I also used the mirror measurements to cut wood for the sides (scrap wood),

making a box/crate:

Then I glued the mirrors on

The space on the sides fit the small mirror tiles at your local craft store perfectly.

I painted the legs black

I then added/wood glued the legs to the four corners inside the crate.

Turn around and you're done!

I'm linking this project to:

And WHATEVER GOES WEDNESDAY at Someday Crafts

Upholstered Head board

Edit: I'm linking this up to:

I just finished this yesterday and LOVE it! I was a little worried at first because my original plan was to use fake leather.... but... I found this upholstery fabric in the clearance rack and couldn't pass it up. Instead of typing out how I did this, I decided to just google instructions and found this simple one to follow.
(I used 4in foam instead of 2in)

To ADD the buttons:

-Drill 1/4in. holes in the back of the wood where you plan on adding the buttons. (Drilling the wood only, DONT go through foam or fabric)
-Using a 4in. upholstering needle and button thread, thread, from the back, all the way through, leaving a 4in. length of thread hanging in the back,
-Thread the button on
-Thread, from the front, back through.
-Pull the threads to make the button sink into the fabric and foam, staple gun the thread to the wood when desired tightness is achieved
-Follow previous instructions until all buttons are threaded.

I hope that makes sense! :) Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm linking up this project to:

Cinco De Mayo Dress

Cinco De Mayo is right around the corner and I'm thinking of having a little fiesta! :)
I had this spare twin size red sheet and thought it would be fun to make my daughters a skirt to celebrate. After making the skirts, I figured they'd need a shirt to go along with that..... And why not a little hair flower....Man lol.
The great part is this is SOOOOOOO simple!!!!

I measured my daughter from the waist to her heel (she's 20in)
I fold the sheet in half, length wise (hot dog style)
I measured and cut (length wise) 20in (since it's a sheet you're using, one side is already hemmed! Yea!)
I trimmed (already hemmed side) with ribbon
I did a ruffle seam on the opposite side (cut edge), and pulled for a light ruffle.
I measured my daughter's waist (she's 18in)
I cut elastic 18in
I then made a waist-band 4in wide and 19in length (I added 1in to her waist measurement)
I fold the waist band right side in and sewed length wise, turned right side out, thread the elastic through, based the edge with the elastic hanging out 1/4in
I then sewed the band to the ruffled edge of the skirt (length wise)
Lastly, put the two lengths sides together (right side in) and sew from top to bottom
Turn right side out and you're done!

For the Shirt, I just took a white under shirt (T-Shirt) and attached my ruffle from shoulder hem to opposite shoulder hem.

For the flower, I took my ruffle, and in a circular motion, attached it to a piece of interfacing. Adding a clip to the back

*It sounds more complicated then it really is...so....I'm going to be making a picture tutorial when I make my other daughter's. Check back soon!

I'm linking this project to:


And WHATEVER GOES WEDNESDAY at Someday Crafts

Earth Day

I know this is after the fact but here's what I did for Earth Day... Ideas for next year lol

For breakfast, I made earth pancakes: (not perfect but hey, they're pancakes)

My daughter LOVES pancakes

Click here to see how I did this

For our activity today, we learned about the word "Nature" (my girls are under 3). I gave them a  brown paper bag and sent them outside to fill it up with nature items. They were WAY excited to do this (figures, the simplest things). Here are a couple of pictures of them (we had friends over).

After we were done, we brought them in, showed each other what we collected, and turned our brown paper bags into "Nature Books".

We colored on white paper and taped on the flowers and leafs we found.

For dinner we had chicken pillows (earth).

brown rice (sand)

broccoli heads (trees)

and blue cool aid with cantaloupe fish (water).

For desert we had, of course, mud and worm pies in water bottle bottoms.... It was fun :)

click here for the recipes for a Earth Day Dinner

Click here to see how I made the cantaloupe fish.

Click here to get this recipe

For the table setting, I just put brown paper bags down with river rocks in the middle, the water and fish cool aid was the perfect centerpiece.