How to Make DIY Treasure Stones

I remember watching PBS as a child, and being so excited when the husband and wife "Kid Concoctions" team were on sharing their recipes during PBS pledge weeks.  They made fun DIY crafts and projects like these fun treasure stones that I made for my son's jungle safari birthday party.  I am so excited to share these with you!

I think their recipe is just brilliant!  I'll show you how to make the regular version first, and then show you my unique twist on it that I made for the party.  I've gotten some emails asking for the recipe, so here you go!

This recipe is similar to making play dough, but you can bake different toys or coins inside of the dough balls, and when they come out of the oven they are hard and look like stones.  They can easily broken by kids, though, who love to find a surprise inside waiting for them!  

This craft is perfect for a dinosaur party (as the stones can be dinosaur eggs), a pirate party (as cannonballs), or can be adapted to fit any kind of party, really!  You can let the kids go on a hunt in the yard or house for the treasure stones (like I did for the jungle safari party), or just give them out at the end of the party as a party favor.  Either way, kids (and adults) of all ages will love breaking open their toys and seeing what's inside!  The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to make more for a party or for friends.

Treasure Stones Recipe:  (Makes 3-4 stones)

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup used coffee grounds (I get them for free from Starbucks since I'm not a coffee drinker)
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sand (I've used sand from the beach, the playground, and cornmeal when I didn't have any sand- they all worked great!)
• 3/4 cup water
• Small toys and prizes- marbles, plastic animals, fake or real coins, and play jewelry are great choices!

1.  Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.  Combine all of the dry ingredients, and then slowly add in the water and stir until the mixture becomes a dough.  I mixed up the dough in my Kitchen Aid, but you could also use a mixing bowl and a spoon.  Every time that I have made this recipe, the dough is a little bit too wet, so I just add extra flour or sand (or cornmeal) to get it to the right consistency.  You want the dough to be nice and firm, not too wet.

2.  Roll a piece of dough into a ball, add the toy to the middle, and then roll back out the dough with your hands so that it forms a nice smooth ball.  Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.  Be sure to let them cool before letting kids break them open.

Now would you like to see the unique twist I gave these for the jungle safari party?  I had my little guests all wearing jungle explorer tags, so I let them go on a hunt around the "jungle" looking for elephant dung "specimen" to do scientific experiments on, haha.  A few of the kids really thought they'd be handling poop and were very concerned, but after I promised them that is was just dough with a toy inside, they were game!  

I made the dough a bit more wet for this party so that it flattened out when it baked and looked more realistic.  I hid the "elephant dung" all over the yard- in the grass, under the plants, on the sidewalk, and the kids had to go on an expedition to find it.  

The adults all thought it was hilarious, thankfully, and the kids loved breaking it open and finding out what was inside!  

You can check out more of the jungle safari party here, where I share the decorations and food...

and here, where I share the activities, cake, and FREE printable safari passes download.

I hope you have as much fun with this recipe as I have!  I have more ideas on how to use this dough that I can't wait to try out and share with you!

Enjoy!

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

xo, Laura

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

Have you ever used freezer paper as a stencil?  If not, it is a VERY easy way to create a unique, one of a kind shirt, bag, or whatever else you would like to make!

The process is easy: create, cut, and paint.  I'll walk you through each step, and you'll be on your way to your own custom shirts in no time!  This method I am going to show you how I made the elephant t-shirt for my son's Jungle Safari Birthday Party, the shirt for my daughter's Under the Sea Party (coming soon to the blog!), and many more fun shirts.  

Freezer paper stencils shirts are a great way to have a custom look for birthday shirts, holidays, or just for fun!  Freezer paper looks almost like wax paper, but it is not the same thing.  You can't do this with wax paper!  You can find freezer paper at Walmart, and maybe Target?  It comes in a big roll in a blue box, like wax paper, but the box is a bit bigger.

Supplies:

• Freezer Paper 
• Craft knife
• T-shirt (or other fabric to paint on)
• Iron
• Piece of cardboard (from box, cereal box, etc.)
• All surface craft paint or fabric paint
• Paintbrush (I used a stencil brush)

Directions:

1.  Create the design that you would like on the shirt.  You can do this on the computer, or by drawing. I like to find free clip art online, and then add words to it on my computer.  Make sure the design is the size that you would like the final product to be, and then print directly onto the freezer paper.  You can do this by cutting a piece of freezer paper to 8 1/2 x 11", and inserting into your ink jet printer shiny side  up (you will be printing on the paper side).  Print as usual.

2.  Using a craft knife on a safe surface (I use a self healing mat), carefully cut out the design.  The printed part that you are cutting out is the part that will be painted.  If you have letters or any part of the design that isn't just a silhouette, save those pieces!  You will need them soon.

3.  Place the stencil where you would like it on your t-shirt shiny side DOWN, and iron on the highest setting on your iron with no steam.  Leave the iron on each area for about 10-15 seconds, moving slowly.  Make sure to iron on any small pieces that were left out from cutting- for example, the middle circle in the lower case "a," etc.  If you don't iron on the little pieces, the whole thing will be painted (like the whole inside of an "a."  Make sense?

4.  Once the design is all ironed on, make sure that all of the pieces are secured to the shirt.  Place the piece of cardboard inside the shirt, so that the paint doesn't bleed through to the other side.  Paint the shirt any colors that you like, and let dry.  

5.  Now for the fun part!  Once the paint is completely dry, peel up the freezer paper by lifting carefully on a corner.  Slowly peel up all of the freezer paper, and be amazed at your beautiful shirt!

Freezer paper stenciling is SO easy, and is a great way to get a custom look without the custom price!  Once you buy a roll of freezer paper, it will last you forever.  The roll is huge!

Have fun with this technique- the possibilities are endless!  You can see my son wearing this shirt and all the details of his Jungle Safari Birthday Party here and here.  

For a great way to make your mornings much smoother, you can check out these free printable daily outfit closet organizers.  They've helped me out a TON!

Happy crafting!

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

xo, Laura

Linking Up Here:  Whipperberry, Tidy Mom

Jungle Safari Birthday Party (Part 2)

Last month we celebrated my son's second birthday by putting together a Jungle Safari birthday party.  Yesterday I shared with you the decorations and the food of the jungle safari birthday party (which you can read about HERE), and today I'm going to show you some of the activities, the cake, and more!  I'm even giving you a free printable for you to use if you choose to use this theme!

The whole time the party was going on I had some awesome jungle animal sounds I found on iTunes playing on the outdoor speakers to make it seem like the kids were really in the jungle.  This party had a few different parts to it: eating, playing the game, cake, and then watching a movie outdoors on the big screen.

The first game I planned was pretty funny, if I do say so myself!  Have you ever heard of treasure stones?  Basically you make a dough out of used coffee grounds (thanks Starbucks!), flour, salt, and a few other ingredients, roll it in a ball shape, place a toy in the middle, and bake it.  It turns hard on the outside, but is still pretty easy to break open and find the prize.  I shared the recipe and directions here if you'd like to make your own!

I made a few batches of treasure stones, but instead of shaping them to be rocks, I turned them into "elephant dung." Hey, the kids were supposed to be jungle explorers after all!  Looks pretty realistic, don't you think?!  Okay, not as big as real elephant stuff, but...

It was hilarious watching their faces as I told them that they were going to do "scientific research" in the jungle, and they had to hunt around the yard for elephant poop! Priceless.

Once they got over the initial shock of it, they actually had fun searching through the grass and plants for it.  When they found their treasure stones (aka elephant poop) they could break them open, and keep the treasures hidden inside.  I baked bouncy balls, plastic lizards, frogs, and snakes, and sparkly rings for the girls inside.

One of the games I had planned (but we ran out of time) was an animal sounds identification game.  I downloaded a CD from iTunes that had specific animal sounds for each track.  I made a CD out of the tracks, made up a sheet with numbers printed out on it, and was going to have everyone guess what animal was making the sounds on each track.  The game was trickier than it sounds, because some of those animal sounds were hard to figure out!  Unfortunately, we weren't going to have enough time to show the outdoor movie, so I just skipped over the game.

I had intended on making a homemade cake, but since I put together this whole party in just ONE week, I ran out of time and bought a chocolate sheet cake from Costco.  I had them leave off the colored roses and balloons, and just leave the cake plain with the chocolate border piped on.  This gave me a blank slate to work with.

We have about a gazillion of those amazingly realistic Schleich animal toys, and so I pulled out some of the jungle animals that matched the theme and put them on the cake.  I also cut some small pieces off the bamboo that I showed you yesterday, and stuck them right in the cake.  So simple, and yet I love the way the cake looked.

My little guy loved it!

                 

We have tons of big stuffed animals that I put out in the yard for the kids to play with- a huge long crocodile, a big leopard, two gorillas, some monkeys, and plenty of snakes. Love the above picture- no shoes, dirt on his shirt and face, and looking like such a little boy!

I wanted my son's outfit to look safari-ish, so I found some kids safari pith hats for my kids.  He wore khaki pants and a shirt that I made with his name and an elephant on it.  I used freezer paper and created the design, and then stenciled the design on his shirt. Easy, but so cute!  I think I'll do a tutorial for this technique in the near future, too!

Remember the jungle safari party passes I created that I showed you yesterday?  I made some cute passes that they kids were given when they got to the party to go around their neck.

I'm giving them to you as a free printable!!  Just click on the link below to take you to Google docs, where you can download the free jungle safari passes for the little explorers to wear.  There are 6 passes to a sheet.  All you have to do is write in each child's name, cut them out, and add string!

FREE Printable Jungle Safari Passes

Here's a little tip for putting together the passes.  Instead of taking the time to punch holes, tie knots, etc., all I did to attach the string was a quick dab of hot glue on each top side of the pass.  I stuck the string right on the glue, it dried quickly, and it was nice and easy!  Also, I had them printed on a cream card stock, instead of white.

We had such a fun time celebrating my son's birthday with this party.  Thanks for letting me share with you!  If you have any questions of comments about the party, be sure to leave a comment below!

And if you missed my first post about the jungle safari party, where I go into detail about the food, decorations, and more!  Be sure to check it out HERE.

You can learn how to make easy party favors binoculars from toilet paper rolls and duck tape HERE.

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

xo, Laura

Linking Up Here: Tidy Mom, 30 Handmade Days, Whipperberry, Tatertots and Jello, A to Zebra Celebrations

Jungle Safari Birthday Party

Last month I put together a very fun jungle safari birthday party for my little guy who just turned two years old.  I LOVE the way that everything came together, and I wanted to share some of the details and photos of the party with you!

This is part one of the jungle safari party, which will mostly cover decoration and food. You can find part 2 here, where I share the games and activities, outfits, the cake, and more fun details about the party, including free printable safari passess for the kids!

The African jungle safari party was soooo much fun.  I tend to go overboard on my parties, and love to DIY everything, which worked out really well for this theme.  My son loves animals, so my inspiration for the party was the jungle cruise at Disneyland.  I wanted the look of an old vintage safari camp, complete with wood crates, old signs, lanterns, etc.

One of my favorite elements of the party was the Safari Expedition Base Camp, which was the first thing that guests saw as they came in through the back yard.  This is where the little explorers were able to spend their tickets that they were given on supplies for their safari expedition.

Does this structure look familiar?  You might recognize it as my DIY Lemonade Stand made from 3 wood pallets that I created.  I gave it a little makeover- a new coat of tan paint, a new burlap awning (instead of the pink and white striped one), and some jungle safari accessories (like lanterns, binoculars. signs, magnifying glass, butterflies, snakes, etc.) all helped add to the theme.  Fun, right?

Supplies included cute DIY binoculars (tutorial here) that I made out of toilet paper rolls and duck tape (you can check out other ways I decorate for parties with duck tape here), safari expedition passes to go around their necks that I created, and little frogs and lizards and snakes.

The mosquito bites were free (see on the sign above?), which some of the adventurers weren't excited about!  After a little reassurance from me that it was just a joke, they were ready to move on to the rest of the party ;)

To add to the whole jungle atmosphere, I stuck lots of tall bamboo plants right into the grass for the party, and it made areas of the lawn look nice and lush.  I painted some of the David Tutera butterflies I had left over from my DIY mason jar lanterns and DIY candles (made in toilet paper rolls).  They were originally white with little pearls on them, so I took off all of the pearls, and painted each butterfly with bright colors of paint.  The butterflies already had clips attached to them, so it was easy to clip them right onto the bamboo and other areas of the party.  I love the color that they added!

The food tables were a lot of fun to set up.  I used a lot of burlap, nets, crates, wood bowls, and woven Pottery Barn boxes (not sure what they are made out of)- all natural, and brown and green.  

I used some old distressed wood that I had and stenciled the "Tyler's Safari" sign, the "Base Camp" sign, and a "Beware of Tigers" sign.  I also stenciled the above crate with the word "Fragile" that the cake went on later in the party.

I served nachos, salad, a lot of fruit (regular and dried), and had a candy area with green candy all in apothecary jars.

We have a bird of paradise tree and a palm tree in our front yard, so I cut off tons of huge, green leaves, and laid those out over parts of the food tables.  I also wrapped some Pottery Barn wheat grass that I had (the little square of grass in the back) with some of the leftover David Tutera burlap from my DIY mason jar lanterns.  

I found this amazing elephant dish at World Market, and had to have it- the perfect dish to hold peanuts!  

I created these "Do not feed the animals" bags to hold peanuts or candy by printing directly on the paper bags... tutorials and template coming soon!

If you follow me on Instagram (@makelifelovely) you might have seen the amazing globe that I scored for only $5.99 at Goodwill!  I bought the crates at Michael's and Jo-Anns, and found the ball of jute rope (that is actually a doorstop) at World Market.

I was so busy with the party that I missed getting some pictures, so you're only getting a little peek of some of the candy and treats that I served in jars and wood bowls.... "worms" (gummy worms) "sticks" (pretzels), animal crackers, "alligator eyes" (sour apple rings), Eiffel Bon Bons (left over from my World Market Lemonade Stand), dried papaya, "fried ants" (raisins), etc...  The kids LOVED this area of the party the most!!  All of the amazing apothecary jars are from World Market as well.

I got some incredibly cute little kraft colored bags from Wholeport that have a sealable top, and put zebra and leopard (or is it cheetah?) duck tape around it for instant little candy bags.  The kids filled them up with their favorite treats, and carried them around with them throughout the party.

No jungle safari party would be complete without monkey food, right?!

My little birthday boy.... what a cutie :)

Thanks for letting me share my son's jungle safari party with you!

Be sure to check out part two of this jungle safari party that shows you the outfits, the games and activities, the cake I made, and free printable safari passes you can use if you plan a jungle safari party!  What's your favorite birthday party theme?

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

xo, Laura

Linking Up Here: Tidy Mom, 30 Handmade Days, Whipperberry, Tatertots and Jello, A to Zebra Celebrations