That’s it! he’s five, it’s official… I’m not sad, I’m nostalgic! it just went so fast…. but he’s a great kid and he’s coming up with such funny and interesting things, I cannot wait to see what this year will bring (hopefully less arguing with his brother!). So to celebrate little one’s birthday we had a dinosaur party (obviously!) and I just thought I would share with you the things I did for this party. I tried to do most of the things myself as it can get a bit pricey and got other things on the net. So here it is!

Decorations:

I have found this fabulous website called coolest parties and you can print some dinosaur decorations. I printed the dinosaurs on colored paper and turned them into buntings:

I did the same with the leaves, bones and eggs:

I also made some tissue pompom and you can find a tutorial here. I chose to make them green and yellow to remind the natural colours of a forest. I also made some crepe paper streamer:

In the stair case I stuck on the wall and steps some T-Rex prints to show the way to the party:

In the dining room I decorated with more pompom and some dino balloons I found in a shop:

Invitation:

I have found some invitations to print from the same super website coolest parties. The invitations were really well done and with a touch of humour!

Games:

I organised a few games but we did not play all of them as they were quite happy to go and play in the bedroom.

When they first arrived I had set on the living room coffee table some masks that they could colour in. I got the masks from here.

We then played a dinosaur egg hunt. I bought online some polystyrene eggs that I coloured and I hid them around the house. the kids loved it! It was supposed to be an outside activity but since we’re in England and we had our summer in march for a week and it was raining (no kidding?!) we had to do it inside. Never mind I think it was OK, short, but OK.

We then played pass the dinosaur. the children sat in circle and they had to pass a big dinosaur to the dino song. If I had to do it again I would play pass the parcel, because when the music stopped the kid with the dino was out… it was a bit awkward to tell a five year old ” sorry honey but you’re out!”.. But I was really impressed how well they played!

We then played the dinosaur dance. Which is the same as musical statue. They were wearing the dino tails I made. they were cute!

We played pin the horn on the Styracosaurus. I’ve drawn a dinosaur without its front  horn on a big poster and cut out some horn shapes in black paper with the children’s name written on it. It’s my favorite game. It’s so funny ! Some thought it was pin the tail instead, so we had a mix of horns a bit everywhere! (one was actually way off but could not include it in the shot!)

We then guessed quickly how many dinosaur in a box:

Next we played puzzle race. I bought some dino puzzles online. the children had to finish their puzzle first in order to be the winner. It was really nice and quiet just before we ate. 

After we ate, we went to the garden to bash the pinata. I made a dinosaur egg pinata by simply blowing a balloon and glued some news paper strips with PVA glue. Once dried I painted it, popped the balloon inside and filled it with stickers, tattoos and mini dino toys that I found online:

I had a dinosaur bingo planned, thump thump roar (like duck duck goose) but by then the children were all playing in the bedroom and were really happy. We just took this opportunity to have a chat and a glass of bubbly!

Each time one of the children won a game I gave them a little paper medal I made. It said “I heart dinosaur!”

The cake:

Well it had to be a ….wait for it…. dinosaur cake! I found this template to make it. It was really simple and the kids loved helping making it. It was obviously chocolate with green icing:

I added some online bought dino candles et voila!

The party bags:

I bought some green plastic party bags:

I filled them with the puzzle they made previously, the tattoos, stickers, and mini dino they got from the pinata, the mask they made, some crayons with home made dinosaur colouring books:

(To make those, I simply got some dino pics from google images and copied them on Word. I then printed them out and sew them together in the middle.)

They also got some dinosaur eggs in a tiny box that I printed from coolest parties:

So that was that! I hope you’ll have as much fun as me doing your party. My son really liked it and so did his friends (I think). I’m supposed to get ready to do a Moshi Monsters party for my eldest and really haven’t got a clue what to do… if you have any ideas please let me know!

I’m still dealing with dinosaur everything at the minute. As well as getting my youngest’s son’s party on the way the school is having a dinosaur assembly. I proposed to help with a few things and told them I would make some dinosaur tails. I had great fun making them, it was quick and effective! for a little money you can actually make quite a few tails!

So here it is, just bare in mind that I did it quickly (I was on a schedule here!) and the pictures are not of great quality.

You will need: green fabric, red felt, scissors, velcro, threads.

I started by cutting the green fabric:

1 circle (there’s no measuring I did it approximately)

4 long rectangles (the straps to attach the tail around the waist)

the actual tail. I cut two tail shapes but you can cut two triangles. (again no measurements, I just did it thinking of the size of an average 5 year old).

Than I cut the felt:

I copied the curve of the green tail and drew on that curve lots of spikes in triangle shapes. and cut.

And finally the Velcro:

I cut it according to the size of the straps.

Starts by sewing the straps together leaving one of the smallest edge open:

clip the corners and turn inside out. then add the velcro and sew:

then on one tail lay the red spines that way:

lay the other tail on top and pin together:

mark two lines where you will leave a gap open to turn the tail inside out:

sew all the way round stopping where you  marked the lines:

stick the Velcro straps together and twist once one strap. Insert it inside the tail:

I sew them on quick so they won’t fiddle for the next part.

NNext step is a bit tricky, you need to sew your circle on the open end of the tail. start by pinning it all the way round:

sew all the way round. I back-stitched on the straps just to make it more secure.

Turn the tail right side out:

You then need to stuff it:

and stitch the opening closed:

And you are done!!

My son loved it and cannot wait for his birthday party!

His teacher was happy to have some dino tails for the show! I think everyone’s happy !

When offering presents for birthdays I like to wrap them up in decorated brown paper. It’s a nice way to get the children involved as well. There’s a lot of things you can do:

potato printing, stickers, painting, tooth brush paint spraying… possibilities are endless!

My son’s birthday is coming soon and his brother and I wrapped his present in brown paper with dinosaurs on them.

You’ll need brown paper, dino stamps, and letter stamps:

stamp everywhere on the brown paper on a flat surface, using different colours and stamps:

Leave some space to stamp the message you want to say. Wrap your present and then decide where you will stamp the message:

and there you have it: home made dino wrapping paper!

My eldest loved doing this with me as he felt part of the secret and loved stamping.

That’s what i’m asking myself each time I work on my massively huge quilt project.…. I am enjoying it but it seems like a never ending job!!

I decided to cut the quilt in 5 so it could actually fit on my living room floor to tack it. I will join it all up when all the parts are quilted.

I decided to hand quilt it as it definitively won’t go through my tiny sewing machine whose had enough already of my constant use (I got it 2 years ago, and the service man told me it was used like a ten year old machine….). I have already started the quilting part  using perle and as usual love doing it but I’m running out of ideas…

It needs to be modern quilting as my parents won’t have any flowery stuff (and fair enough!) So I looked into Sashiko pattern and I love it! I will be using them a lot more

.I will also be sewing some geometric art deco pattern as they are  masculine and still quite modern. If you have more ideas I’m all ears and would be happy to learn something new!

I’m getting my son’s birthday party ready and I’m trying to make all the decorations myself. I have made a few tissue pom pom and wanted to show you how to make them at it’s really simple, effective and cheap.

You will need a piece of string or flower wire, some tissue paper, and a pair of scissors.

First start by cutting your tissue paper to the desire size. mine is a tinsy one but you can make it as big as you fancy. Just make sure it’s square-ish.. I’ve cut about 9 sheets but you can cut more or less depending on how puffy you want your ball to be.

then fold it like a fan :

In the middle you tie it with a string or thin wire. I like string because it’s all ready to hang.

Then cut the end either pointy or round I wanted mine pointy:

all you need to do is separate the sheets of tissue from one another:

just keep on going:

and then you’re done, if you do some more and different sizes it just look amazing!