mimi wanted to have a science birthday party. given that the party will be 1. here at the house and 2. pricier than previous birthday parties (it's the same price for 9 kids as it was for 20-24 at our previous parties), we had to keep the numbers down to 9 kids. it was hard to tell her only 9-- so many kids she wanted to include/didnt want to leave out. one boy she wanted to invite JUST FOR EYE CANDY because even though they never play together [at school], she told me one night during our prebedtime chats that she "liked the way he looked." i managed to talk her out of inviting him...you can look at him all you want for free, all day at school, chica, but mama's not paying for you to look at him at your party. i have to draw the line there.
we did eventually get the list pared down and the invitations made. this is as far as i have gotten with her party planning... seriously, the days seem to just go by so fast!!! i drop mimi off at school, and then before i know it, it's time to pick her up, eat dinner, go to class, get ready for bed! why do i remember the days dragging on when i was stay at home with mimi? i dont know if it's ozzy that makes my day speed by, or the short winter days, or maybe i've gotten so slow that everything else seems that much faster??? or maybe i'm just spending way too much time on facebook.
sorry, i digress. the invitations were as far as i've gotten.
there's not too many options out there if you're planning a science party. i did find a couple of invitations, but they were not that cute. i wanted something science related, but fun, maybe even a tad bit girly. after perusing everything related to kids and science online, i came upon the idea of making flask shaped shaker cards, watched a "shaker" tutorial on youtube, and then set about making mimi's party invitations. (here's the shaker in action)
the gas coming out the flask was an important part of the design, but i couldnt really decide how i wanted to make that happen. i tried drawing a cloud; decoupaging torn tissue paper; gluing down cotton. none of them looked 'right.' so then i started to doodle with a white marker and found the design pleasing and stuck with it. i drew out the swirls on one sheet of colored paper and then photocopied it so i would not have to hand draw it on each one. there was the added bonus of also not having to hunt down more of the same green paper, too. (there wasnt really any rhyme or reason for why i chose this green paper.
mostly i used it because i had it -- i didnt want to go out and buy more scrapbook paper when i had so many sheets of it coming out of every orifice in my house.
it was the least distracting design.
it was kind of girly.
and the flower print and green color were about as sciency as my paper stash got).
for the back paper, i searched all over to find a bubbly design, and not being able to find the right one, i just created one using the draw tools on Word. (i have all this stuff saved on my computer, so if you want the images for your own science party without having to redo it yourself, let me know)
for the wording, i found some inkjet transparency paper on clearance at amazon and printed out the wording on the transparency film. made up a rhyme (i can't help it, i must rhyme when i make cards. so take note, people, if i ever make invitations for you, it WILL rhyme), aligned the text to fit the flask shape. i was able to fit 4 on each sheet.
when the general structure was prepped/glued, mimi scooped in about a teaspoon of colored seed beads and a small cut-out of an atom (also drawn on Word and printed on transparency film. she cut them all out for me, as well) and then i sealed them shut. when the glue dried, mimi added the pretty little gems and shimmery dots to the cloud. not sure which set to use, i bought both the blue green gems and the shimmery colored dots at a craft store, and when i asked mimi which set she preferred, she said, why dont we use both? and so we did. the gems give it sparkle and the dots give it color. smart girl! (as an afterthought, maybe even a smattering of glitter in the cloud and inside the shaker might be cute too). i also thought about putting on some embossing powder on the cloud to give it a bit more dimension, but then realized that that was more work than i was willing to do. (gasp! yes, you heard it here.)
i finished the fronts off with a simple dot border cut with scallop scissors. for the backs, i had printed out the party info with little blocks that i made on Word to resemble the table of elements, spelling out the word FUN. i carefully aligned and glued the bubble dot back paper to the reverse side of this sheet. [if i were to do this over again, instead of cutting out the paper and gluing it, i would have made a doc w/them prealigned and then printed out the sheets front and back, with the bubble dots on one side and the party info on the other, thereby eliminating the gluing step.]
mimi wrote out her friends names on the envelopes and colored them in with bright colors.
and they are now ready to go!
we did eventually get the list pared down and the invitations made. this is as far as i have gotten with her party planning... seriously, the days seem to just go by so fast!!! i drop mimi off at school, and then before i know it, it's time to pick her up, eat dinner, go to class, get ready for bed! why do i remember the days dragging on when i was stay at home with mimi? i dont know if it's ozzy that makes my day speed by, or the short winter days, or maybe i've gotten so slow that everything else seems that much faster??? or maybe i'm just spending way too much time on facebook.
sorry, i digress. the invitations were as far as i've gotten.
there's not too many options out there if you're planning a science party. i did find a couple of invitations, but they were not that cute. i wanted something science related, but fun, maybe even a tad bit girly. after perusing everything related to kids and science online, i came upon the idea of making flask shaped shaker cards, watched a "shaker" tutorial on youtube, and then set about making mimi's party invitations. (here's the shaker in action)
the gas coming out the flask was an important part of the design, but i couldnt really decide how i wanted to make that happen. i tried drawing a cloud; decoupaging torn tissue paper; gluing down cotton. none of them looked 'right.' so then i started to doodle with a white marker and found the design pleasing and stuck with it. i drew out the swirls on one sheet of colored paper and then photocopied it so i would not have to hand draw it on each one. there was the added bonus of also not having to hunt down more of the same green paper, too. (there wasnt really any rhyme or reason for why i chose this green paper.
mostly i used it because i had it -- i didnt want to go out and buy more scrapbook paper when i had so many sheets of it coming out of every orifice in my house.
it was the least distracting design.
it was kind of girly.
and the flower print and green color were about as sciency as my paper stash got).
for the back paper, i searched all over to find a bubbly design, and not being able to find the right one, i just created one using the draw tools on Word. (i have all this stuff saved on my computer, so if you want the images for your own science party without having to redo it yourself, let me know)
for the wording, i found some inkjet transparency paper on clearance at amazon and printed out the wording on the transparency film. made up a rhyme (i can't help it, i must rhyme when i make cards. so take note, people, if i ever make invitations for you, it WILL rhyme), aligned the text to fit the flask shape. i was able to fit 4 on each sheet.
when the general structure was prepped/glued, mimi scooped in about a teaspoon of colored seed beads and a small cut-out of an atom (also drawn on Word and printed on transparency film. she cut them all out for me, as well) and then i sealed them shut. when the glue dried, mimi added the pretty little gems and shimmery dots to the cloud. not sure which set to use, i bought both the blue green gems and the shimmery colored dots at a craft store, and when i asked mimi which set she preferred, she said, why dont we use both? and so we did. the gems give it sparkle and the dots give it color. smart girl! (as an afterthought, maybe even a smattering of glitter in the cloud and inside the shaker might be cute too). i also thought about putting on some embossing powder on the cloud to give it a bit more dimension, but then realized that that was more work than i was willing to do. (gasp! yes, you heard it here.)
i finished the fronts off with a simple dot border cut with scallop scissors. for the backs, i had printed out the party info with little blocks that i made on Word to resemble the table of elements, spelling out the word FUN. i carefully aligned and glued the bubble dot back paper to the reverse side of this sheet. [if i were to do this over again, instead of cutting out the paper and gluing it, i would have made a doc w/them prealigned and then printed out the sheets front and back, with the bubble dots on one side and the party info on the other, thereby eliminating the gluing step.]
mimi wrote out her friends names on the envelopes and colored them in with bright colors.
and they are now ready to go!
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