The idea of the party is that the young witches in training were invited to participate in a magic workshop covering the topics of Ancient Runes, Divination, Potions, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, and ending with a Field Trip to Honeydukes Sweets Shop.  As mentioned in the invitation this all took place at Hogwarts Castle, which was disguised as a muggle home.

As the guests arrived they were given an Ancient Rune parchment puzzle.  They used a rune code to decode the secret messages.  They were also given a real magic wand.  My father made these wands the same way a woodworker would make a staircase spindle.  (I don’t know much more than that!)  Each one was different just like in the books and movies.  I stained the wands with a water based polyurethane/stain.

We set up my daughter’s room as the Divination classroom.  She has a tent that worked perfect for our palm reading.  The girls came in one at a time and had their palms read in the tent set up with dim lighting.  I am no expert in palm reading!  I looked up a few charts online and went from there.  I think towards the end they were all getting the same fortune.

Potions class was set up in the kitchen.  We combined glue and Borax to make slime.  (There are a lot of slime recipes out on the Internet.)  We also colored it with neon food coloring.  To get their slime home we just put the finished “potions” in a zip lock baggie.

Herbology was outside on the back deck.  No one was really operating this station because it was just a Venus Fly Trap with some facts written out about this carnivorous plant.  No action required, just a stop on the way out to the back yard.

The flow of Ancient Runes, Divination, Potions, and Herbology lead everyone into the back yard.  While those lessons were come and go as you please, Defense Against the Dark Arts was a group activity.  We had a super scary black dragon pinata that the witches had to defeat.  Once the evil dragon was slain Harry Potter stickers, glow sticks, and bookmarks came out of its belly.

While everyone was outside in the Defense Against The Dark Arts lesson, the Transfiguration wizard was inside setting up his show.  We found a great magician for hire that even wore a full wizard costume.  Every little witch-in-training had some part in the show.  Obviously this was the main event and was well-loved by all the little girls and parents alike.  This fantastic wizard, Tim Balaster, even made each of the witches a balloon animal during cake time.

While Transfiguration was taking place I snuck outside to the back yard to set up the cake table.  We had a great Gryffindor cake created by our local bakery.  I also made up some pumpkin juice which wasn’t bad; quite good in fact.  (Search for pumpkin juice and you will find many recipes.  I chose one that was juice-based and had some pumpkin puree in it.)  After cake, the witches got to raid the Honeydukes candy bar before going home.

Like I said, it took a lot of preplanning but it really was one of the coolest parties we have ever done!  I still hear about it from friends 9 months later.

I had on hand some small 3.5×6 white paper bags and I decided to print the graphic onto them.  However first I opened the graphic in Photoshop Elements and added names to the bottom.  I printed each bag one at a time.

For the teacher bags I decided to go in a different direction.  I picked up a great heart graphic from The Graphics Fairy, a really cool site full of free vintage graphics.  I opened it in Photoshop Elements and added the text.  Again I printed them one at a time.

After I filled the bags, I needed a way to seal them.  As I mentioned before I was doing this late at night and I needed something quick.  I knew I wanted something soft like fabric.  My first idea of die cutting a fabric heart and adhering it to felt quickly went out the window when I looked at the clock.  So I came up with ribbon; stapled ribbon at that.  I have an addiction to Hobby Lobby 2″ wide printed ribbons.  So I chose a few and cut pieces just a little longer than the bag’s 3.5″ width.  I folded it in half length-wise and stapled it.  Super fast!

Valentine’s Day was saved from disgrace and lack of goody bags at last!  All is well.

I decided to play with the photo tilt on this layout.  I chose a patterned paper with a right angle diamond pattern.  I physically turned my photo 45 degrees to line up with the diamond, therefore placing the photo subject vertical.  The effect was different from anything I have tried before and it is eye-catching.  Try it with your photos.  If you don’t have a photo like that, take your camera and tilt it 45 degrees and snap away!

This layout uses Therm O Web Sticky Strip Runner (general paper to paper adhering), Super Tape (1/4″ tape for ribbon, sheets cut into 2″ circle for flower), Super Stik glue stick (tiny pink photo border), and Zots (die cuts and chipboard alpha sticker reinforcement).

Supplies:  Heat N Bond Lite Adhesive, Heat N Bond Ultrahold Hem Tape, Heat N Bond Ultrahold Adhesive, Felt, Patterned Fabric, Ribbon

1. Cut out felt hearts.  Mine are about 4.5 x 4.5 inches and I have 10 of them..  I just hand cut mine from a template.

2. Cut a 2 – 8 x 11 rectangles of Heat N Bond Lite.  Iron onto 2 different patterned fabrics.  Trim fabric close to the edge of the Heat N Bond Lite.

3. This step is specific to those who have a digital craft cutter.  If you don’t have a digital craft cutter you can always create your smaller fabric hearts with a manual die cutter or even hand cutting.  These hearts are smaller than the felt hearts. They should layer with a nice felt border.  Peel off the backing on the Heat N Bond Lite/Fabric.  Place onto a cutting mat designed for thick mediums.  Run through the digital craft cutter as you would a thick paper.  I was able to cut 6 fabric hearts per sheet.  In a few places I had to trim some remaining threads that didn’t cut but overall this process works just like paper.  Tip: Use an old, used cutting mat.  If the cutting mat adhesive is new and strong it may pull off the Heat N Bond Lite from the fabric.

4. Iron on the fabric hearts onto the larger felt hearts.  Sew along the edge of the fabric hearts.

5. Next we make 6 flowers out of gathered ribbon.  The ribbons I used were about 1/2″ to 7/8″ wide, unwired, and about 6-8″ long.  The quickest way to gather the ribbon to make the flowers is to machine baste stitch along the edge of the ribbon.  Set your sewing machine to make about 6 stitches per inch.  Don’t back-stitch at either end and leave long thread tails on both ends.  Then pull on thread to gather up the ribbon.  It will naturally begin to form a circle shape.  Trim any extra ribbon and form into a flower shape.  Punch or cut a circle of Heat N Bond Ultrahold; it should be a circle slightly smaller than your flower shape.  My circles were 1 1/4″ diameter.  Flip your flower so the wrong side is up, create the final shape adjustments and iron the Ultrahold circle onto the back of the flower.

6. To make the little leaves, I ironed a circle of Ultrahold onto the felt and then hand cut a small leaf.

7. Arrange the flowers and leaves onto a felt heart.  Iron in place.

8. Measure the distance across the top of the hearts.  Mine were about 4.5″ wide.  Cut the Heat N Bond Ultrahold Hem Tape slightly narrower than your heart.  My hem tape pieces were 4″.  Cut one piece of  hem tape for every heart.

9. Arrange your hearts in the correct order and flip over.  Start with the heart that will be in the middle of the garland.  Place a piece of hem tape across the top of the felt heart backside, then place your ribbon string on top of the hem tape.  Iron all 3 pieces together at one time.  Space the next heart 1/2″ from the first one and iron onto the ribbon using the hem tape.  Repeat the process until all the hearts are attached to the garland.

I attached the hand-cut banners with randomized 3D Foam Squares to make it look like the banner was actually moving.  Some pennants are raised and some are flat to the paper.  The pennants that are flat to the paper were adhered with Small Zots.

I attached the ribbon with Super Tape, which is my absolute favorite way to attach ribbon.  The super sticky surface grabs the fibers of even the most stubborn ribbon and holds it in place.  I put down the Super Tape where I want the ribbon then attach the ribbon, folding it back a tiny bit every so often to get the waving effect.

All the photos and paper mats and strips are adhered with the Sticky Strip Runner.

Take the time this week to come up with some family goals and get them on a layout!  You won’t regret it.  Here’s to a great and prosperous 2012!

First I will take you through how to decorate a tin to hold all the dates (really, a decorated tin can be used for an infinite number of uses).  Then if you are interested, I will give you some of my date ideas.

Supplies:

• tin box
• Therm O Web Super Tape
• patterned paper
• embellishments
• ruler
• corner rounding punch

1. Grad a tin box and get crafty.  Mine in the photos is plain but because we are covering it with paper, you could use old outdated Christmas tins, cookie tins, or even search the clearance racks.  It doesn’t matter what the printed design is.  Measure the length and width of the box lid surface. Cut your patterned paper to fit and round the corners if necessary.

2. Measure the height of the box sides.  Measure the perimeter of the box as well.  Cut your patterned paper.  Most likely your perimeter will be longer than 12″, the width of most scrapbook patterned paper, so cut several 12″ strips to fit the height of the box.  Combining the strips will cover all the sides.

3. Apply Therm O Web Super Tape to the back of the cut patterned paper.  Get as close to the edges as you can.  If it is a large rectangle, you may want to add Super Tape to the middle as well.

4. Peel off the Super Tape red backing and adhere the paper to the tin.  When adding paper to the perimeter, overlap the strips of paper at the joints just slightly.

5. Embellish!  I added a 1/4″ ribbon around the perimeter of the lid using Super Tape as well.

You could alter these directions by using Therm O Web PeelnStick Adhesive sheets instead of Super Tape.  With PeelnStick Adhesive you would have the option to seal your patterned paper with gel medium or Mod Podge without the paper wrinkling.

Ok, so onto the dates.  Like I mentioned, I came up with 12 date ideas, one for each month of 2012.  I decided to do this for my husband because we have young kids and it is hard to get out and do something by ourselves.  With this we will be forced to make time for one another.  Most of the dates are just gift certificates at this point because it is hard to schedule an exact day and time so far in advance.  We will have to look at our calendar month by month to make the final arrangements.

Just for fun, here are my date ideas along with the teasers I put on the outside of the envelope.  A search through Pinterest.com will give you further ideas for this “A Year of Dates” concept.

• January – a gift certificate for a favorite sushi restaurant, “arigato for being my man” (arigato = thank you in Japanese)
• February – a gift certificate for our traditional Valentine’s dinner, “you get the calamari with the legs”
• March – a gift certificate for a cooking class at a local cooking school, “it’s getting hot in the kitchen”
• April – Cubs baseball tickets, “one, two, three strikes you’re out”
• May – a gift certificate for a wine room so we can take a tasting class, “wine makes me flirty”
• June – a gift certificate for a local restaurant with an excellent outdoor patio, “dining under the moonlight”
• July – gift certificates for a massage and then breakfast, “is my hair too oily to go out in public”
• August – a promise for Lollapalooza tickets, “dig out the CamelBak and sunscreen”
• September – gift certificate for a very fancy restaurant, “an anniversary dinner that is over the top”
• October – Cubs game again (my only repeat), “yes, again…  that’s what we get for living so close”
• November – gift certificates for a movie theater and the restaurant across the street, “barbecue and a flick”
• December – ice skating and a gift certificate for a nearby pizza, “chill out on the ice, warm up by the oven”

Use Therm O Web HeatNBond Ultrahold to apply patches so they actually stay on all year long and beyond!  HeatNBond provides extra strong adhesive to keep the patches stuck to the sash.  See the directions below for how to use – no sewing necessary!

1. Draw an outline of the patch onto the shiny side of the HeatNBond with a pen.

2. Cut the shapes out with scissors.  They don’t need to be perfect. 

3. Turn the patch upside down and place the HeatNBond on top of it shiny side down.  Iron with medium heat for 30 seconds or until set.

4. When cool, peel off the backing.

5. Arrange the patch on the sash. Cover with a press cloth or scrap cloth, iron with medium heat for 30 seconds or until set.

6. Turn sash over and iron the backside where the patch is for 30 seconds.  Let cool completely.