Quick and easy My Hero Academia Cosplay repairs and make - Helmar Creative Team

November is one of our biggest Birthday months in this family, so I try to get ahead on Christmas stuff but the Birthday stuff takes over.
Among the birthdays in November is Mr E and this year he is turning the big 13.  I wanted to do something fun as a suprise for him and I thought why not wake him up in a simple cosplay of his favourite female teacher from My Hero Academia.  It had to be simple as my plan was to create this without his knowledge so I could wake him on his Birthday as Ms Joke so I decided to just make a basic version of the shorts, team them with a black tank and a wig and I would be good to go.  I just wouldn't be able to make the gloves and belt with the time I had and in hiding as all the cosplay making supplies are in the room he uses daily for Distance Education.  My plan had a spanner thrown in the works when Mr C read out loud with E sitting within earshot a Facebook status I had made about it just before his Birthday, E isn't on Facebook, so I thought I was safe to post, how silly of me.

Now onto my Ms Joke Shorts
I bought these green men's swimming shorts from Big W after having no luck finding any shorts at any of my local op-shop.
I set myself up on a folding table in the lounge with these, scissors, wide orange ribbon (2 rolls), Helmar Fabric Glue and Helmar Fray Stoppa.

I cut the ribbon into lengths a little longer than the shorts adhered them down to the shorts with Helmar Fabric Glue, trimmed and then sealed the ends of the ribbon with Helmar Fray Stoppa.







Supper simple and quick to make and they look great for what I need them for.

I had ordered E a My Hero Academia Sports Uniform online so he could cosplay his favourite student, unfortunately the white fabric was fraying and some stitching was super close to the edge so while I had my supplies out I decided to use the Helmar Fray Stoppa to ensure it wouldn't get worse.

First I trimmed off the threads.

Then I ran Helmar Fray Stoppa along the edges, I was a bit wobbly with my application but it isn't noticeable once dry and he is wearing it.




















I think we look pretty great for a couple of quick throw together budget cosplays.  :)

A Stranger Birthday Afternoon

My daughter loves Stranger Things so when it came to a Birthday Card for her I decided to make her a Eggos themed card.

I started by designing a cut file for it that would enable it to look like 2 eggos were overlapping.
I cut 1 base, 3 of the full waffles and 2 of the waffles with a section missing.

I then coloured the base and top layers randomly with Distress Ink in Wild Honey and Fossilized Amber to give it a more toasted look.

I then started gluing my layers together with Helmar Acid Free Glue.

I then added my eggos to my card base.

My next step was adding the red lettering for Eggo, I grabbed out some really old Creative Memories alphas and added them to my card.

I then sealed my card with Dorlands Wax Sealant to ensure the alphas wouldn't peal off.







As the boys and I were traveling down on the train for a week long stay with my daughters the week before my daughter's birthday I decided to just pack the card and instead organise everything else once down there.  I arranged some awesome Stranger Things and Spiderman cupcakes to be made by her housemate who has her own cake decorating business in Brisbane (My Sweet Addiction)
I also got my eldest to pick up Christmas lights and I used her scrapping stash to make a box to fit a pack of waffles for a mini themed afternoon tea with just us and her housemates as she prefers small events.

Here is a quick how to of how I made the box.

I glued 2 sheets of yellow cardstock together with a line of Helmar Acid Free Glue.

















I then measured my waffle pack and cut my cardstock to size and then scored it which was difficult as my daughter's scoring tool was missing so I had to use the back of a knife and her trimmer.  I did slip and cut through one section so I just taped it back together with washi tape.
I then cut down the sections that would form the ends.














I then used my Helmar Acid Free Glue to glue my box closed around my waffles.











The card turned out so cute.

At the afternoon tea I sat the card on top of the box so it looked like a box of Eggos.

Fortnite Birthday Party DIYS - Helmar Creative Team

My son really wanted a Fortnite party for his 12^th Birthday and there wasn’t much available that suited so I did a few quick DIY’s for it, I wanted to share with you how I created some of them with Helmar.

Supply DROP container

You will need
Blue storage container
Yellow Cardstock to die cut the letters
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Helmar Crystal Kote Matte Varnish

Cut 2 lots of the letters DROP from yellow cardstock in a sort of stencil font, I used my Silhouette Curio for this but you could do it by hand also.












 Adhere the letters to each side of the container with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

Once Dry give the letters a coat of Helmar Krystal Kote Matte Varnish to protect them.
On the day of the party tie a Yellow balloon to the handles for the DROP to arrive.

Chug Jugs

You will need
Cans of soft drink
Printable chug jug labels
Hemlar Premium Craft Glue

Once you have printed the labels and cut them out adhere them to your cans with Helmar Premium Craft Glue.

Med Kits

You will need
White Cardstock
Red paper, serviette or tissue paper scraps cut into inch wide strips
White paper scraps
Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA

Cut the box shape out of the white cardstock, I used my Silhouette Curio and a box template I found online and sized the file so I could get 2 to a A4 sheet.

Assemble the boxes with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA
Adhere the red strip (I cut mine from a red serviette) around the box.
Adhere a white + (I just cut mine from scrap printer paper) to the top of the box on the red strip.
Before sealing the red strip I added a clear glitter high bounce ball and some lollies in it.

Mini brown paper pags for Fries

You will need
Brown Paper Bags
Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA
12 inch trimmer
Cut each paper bag in quarters.
Cut a half inch away from what will be the bottom for the bags from the top half.
Fold over the side and bottom and glue with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA.

I bought some French Fries Origninal chips and put them in small ziploc bags to keep them fresh until the kids ate them, this went inside the mini brown paper bags.  And they were put on the table next to Burger Gummie lollies from Aldi and served with Pizza. 
The kids loved that they were getting Fortnite food.

I also applied Shield Potion labels I found online to water bottles.  I filled the Drop Box with the Chug Jugs, Shield Potions and $1 water guns from The Reject Shop so it served as a supply drop and prompted a water fight.

I was hoping to convert a donky pinata to a Fortnite Llama pinata by removing the rainbow tissue papers and adhering the correct colours to it with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA but I ran out of time so I just glued a printable version of the saddle bags to my rainbow donky with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA the kids loved it but I couldn't get a good photo as the wind kept blowing it sideways.  It took a while to break due to the wind as the kids kept missing it so we ditched the blindfold due to the wind.

This all came together quickly and they kids loved it all.   Much fun was had and lots of happy memories on the day.

Super Mario Party

Mr E asked for a Super Mario Party  6 days before his party, I had to DIY everything as nothing is available locally or use non-themed items.
While scrolling for inspiration Mr E spotted some cute invites, check out my post I did for the 20 Exploding Box Super Mario Invites.
I decided to take photos once everything was set up so unfortunately that means I don't have many photos suitable for this post as the day of his party wound up being the hottest day this Spring, with very high humidity and very strong winds.  The strongest gust hit just after I hung the Pinata and it snapped the zip-tie that the Pinata was hanging by, my decorations blew away within minutes of my hanging them as it hit just after I hung my decorations, it even blew a entire pack of straws off the  table, it blew bowls of food off the table, etc and then it calmed down a little but I was not hanging decorations or setting things up again to have them blow away again.
Hubby stayed home keeping the Pirana kebabs, Power Stars and Cake in the fridge as long as possible while I set up, once the cake arrived the icing started to melt, so we did cake early and the icing liquified as the kids ate it.  It was a lot of messy fun.

So I am including what photos I can and I will link to the Pinteres posts that inspired me and to the free downloads I used.

I loved the idea of Green Pipes as table decorations and the one on the right would be perfect to put the Pirana Kebabs in (put a freezer bag in first for food hygiene purposes).

Not sure if it is the humidity here butthe paint bubbled.

Here is the Pin that inspired me.

My Pirana Plant Kebabs did not last long enough for me to get a photo, I didn't even get them into the pipe as the kids loved them, 30 were eaten with great enthusiasm within minutes of them arriving from the fridge. For mine I removed the leaves, cut a knotch out of the tip of each strawberry and I only put 5 grapes on each stick so the kids would have a good sized handle to hold.

The Water Bottle Labels were a hit with the kids.

You can find the free prinatable and lots of other great free printables Here.

I loved the idea of using Yellow Plates as Coins hanging with fishing line that I found several Pins of and it took some effore to find round yellow plates here but unfortunately the wind did not agree with the idea.

My poor melting cake.  My friend who does stunning cakes for us was not able to do a cake for Mr E this year so I gave it a go, I used to do cake decorating before my hands got really bad and I certainly can't do cakes the way I used to but I was happy with my Toady/Power Star themed cake until the heat started melting it before I could get a good photo.

The kids loved the gooey mess.

Using a recipe for Rice Bubble treats I learnt off my Grade 5 teacher and adding some Yellow Food Colouring I made some Power Stars, I was inspired by the treats at the bottom right of this Pin.  We have plent left over as they weren't as big of a hit as the Pirana Plant Kebabs.

I was also inspired to make some Toady Marshmallow Pops but unfortunately my hand started to reall play up so my Toady Pops didn't have white dots just red chocolate tops, they were delicious and eaten before I could take a photo.

For the Loot Bags I grabbed these paper bags from The Reject Shop, solid colour bags were not available locally so I had to go with stripes.  I printed the M on some standard printer paper, cut them out with my circle cutter and adhereed them.

I didn't put a lot in as the Pinata had 750grams of lollies in and we were expecting only 10 kids including our 2 so I didn't want to put too much in the loot bags so  they  would have room to put their Pinata lollies they hadn't eaten in.  I included some Mustache stickers and chocolate coins for a Mario themed treat but added some standard party goodies to the bags also.



The Pinata was a Silver Star from Kmart (wish it was gold) and it was really strong, in the end we had 12 kids attend, each child had 3 whacks at it and it didn't brake, the kids wound up having to rip it apart and one boy had a ball running away with it with lollies dropping as he went with the rest of the kids chasing him, it was all in good fun and just him being funny and they all loved it.

Next year I think we will definately have the party at home or I will take photos at home before setting things up.

Super Mario was a fun theme to work with, I highly recommend it.

Super Mario Brothers Birthday Invites

Mr E has been rather indecisive regarding his 10th Birthday Party and with just 6 days to go asked for a Super Mario Party, I was planning on just doing basic invites up quickly now that I finally had a guest list from him but as I scrolled Pinterest for DIY decoration inspiration Mr E spotted these cute exploding box invites as he looked over my shoulder and asked me to make 20 while he was at school that day so he could hand them out the next morning.
I went with simple decoration on the invites due to the limited time I had to create them, the kids loved them and were so excited to recieve them from Mr E.









Here are the cutting and scoring measurements but I recommend watching the below video to see how the process worked.
Cut the cardstock to 9 1/2 x 6 3/4 inch. 
Score at half inch on one side then flip and score ever 2 1/4 inch. Turn 90 degrees and score every 2 1/4.
Then selectively cut on the score lines to get the needed shape.

I don't think I will get much scrapping done this week but I am looking forward to creating things that suit a party in a park that are Super Mario themed.

Connor's Minecraft Party 2014 And Dip Recipe

Connor had a Minecraft themed party for his 9th Birthday in 2014 and Eric had one for his 9th Birthday last year, funny how they seem to have similar wishes at similar ages.
Apologies for the poor picture quality, these were taken over 2 years ago with a inferior camera.

I purchased a couple of packs of the Minecraft Papercraft Sets and put a few pieces together as decoration.
Extra blocks were put out as a activity and each child got to take a block home if they wished.
I got 2 shades of green noodle boxes for treat boxes, some green snack trays and a green & brown plastic table cloth to cover the top of the cupboard.
The water bottle labels, food labels and the banner in the following photo were a free printable I found.

We hung the banner above the table the kids would be doing activities at.

I made a Minecraft Pin The Tail On The Pig with some paper and cardstock, as the kids could feel the legs everyone got the tail in the right place.

The wonderful cake my friend Shirlee made for Connor

Food list and Slim Dip Recipe below, unfortunately no photos for the food out were taken as the kids demolished it very quickly once it was out..

I grabbed some Natural Confectionary Company Berry Bliss lollies for Red Rock, Red Liquorice for TNT, Mini Meringues for Diamonds, as I had to cater to some food intolerances I got some Gluten Free biscuits for Cookies, some Rockmelon for Melon and cut some Carrot Sticks for the kids to dip into the Slime Dip. I also made some Chocolate Rice Treats with Green Icing for Grass Blocks.

Slime Dip - Also known as Herbology Dip at Connor's Harry Potter Themed Birthday in 2013 and Hulk Dip at Eric's Super Hero Birthday in 2014 (I used purple carrots for carrot sticks at these parties and they were a huge hit).

This is very simple to make.  Take a tub of Cream Cheese, a lump or 2 of frozen finely shredded spinach that has been thawed add some finely diced chives and mix together and refrigerate until you need to serve it.

When I find the photos of Eric's Minecraft party set up I will add them to this post.

Pokemon Party

When Mr C asked for a Pokemon themed 10th Birthday Party this sent me into planning, crafting and shopping mode.
We tossed ideas around and someone suggested we set up a table and have games.
We had enough second hand cards for the boys to have a deck each, though once we started learning about the game we realised it was lacking.
He also wanted to give each guest a pokeball charm made from rainbow loom bands and a little Pokemon.  He wanted his tournament to have prizes and I found a Ash Ketchum hat cheap so he was over the moon.
Due to the amount of cards needed to play 2 games at once and the time involved in each game we had to cap numbers.
After making 2 game boards and buying more cards cheaply I discovered there are starter sets.  You can definitely tell we are new to the card game, my older kids just watched the show and weren't interested in the cards.  So I grabbed a starter set, that leaves us with a proper mat and 2 handmade, the proper tokens and 2 sets of handmade.
Even with all our card purchases as I bought second hand in bulk I have pulled this all off below budget.  Also the boys used their own pocket money to buy half of the cards, I just needed to boost the supplies.

 Water themed game board.

 Fire themed game board.





































 First Prize for our mini tournament I scored for $5.98.
The boys love it.

Second and Third place holders with get one of these cuties.

Treat Bags Supplies.

The treat bags will be low on sugary treats as Mr E has Dental Hypoplasia so I have to consider him.

I used this tutorial from Made by Mommy to make pokeball charms.  Making enough was a great way to get some hand therapy in for myself and the boys.

































I scored 24 little pokemon figurines at a bargain price, depending on how many guests we have they will each get at least 1 possibly 3.





















In addition to the cards the boys bought and I bought a bulk lot off ebay and a bulk lot of very worn cards from a local shop that does trades.
I sorted through the boys cards and the extra cards and pulled out the multiples.
Party guests will get 3 cards each in their loot bags.

White paper lanterns that my daughter and I painted the top half red and then put masking tape I coloured black with a permanent marker around the middle.

Yellow printer paper with Pikachu colouring in printables printed on it and cut out to form a banner.

Game table all set up waiting for party guests.

Loot Bags









Each loot bag had a twirl, fredo, pokeball charm, 2 pokemon figures and 3 pokemon cards.

Cake made by my lovely friend Shirlee, unfortunately we were having a very humid day and the figurines she made from fondant collapsed so she replaced them with a toy pokeball and a pikachu she got from the shop, still a awesome cake for my little Pokemon Trainer.




Apart from food I have only spent $75 on this party, that is including decorations, supplies for invites, prizes, extra cards and items for the treat bags.
I was going to bake and create all kinds of themed food but hubby was on a pretty nasty roster in the lead up and after the party and the day of the party was his only day off so with food I went the easy way and just put out chips, store bought muffins, etc.
The kids had a blast, most want to come over regularly and play pokemon, due to time constraints we couldn't play full games so had mini rounds of 20mins and then as time grew short sudden death (first to inflict damage).  Our final it was clear one young boy wanted his friend to win, he had the chance to inflict damage on multiple occasions and didn't take it and when he finally did he gave first prize to his friend.
As for the loot bags they were a hit with all but 1 child but you can't please everyone.