DIY western themed party table sign

How to make a sign for your western themed party table

Teacher appreciation week is coming up for our elementary school and I was asked to help throw it all together. One of the things I was asked to help out with were signs for the food table to go with the wild west theme. Being a busy momma of 4 and a handmade small business owner I didn’t have a ton of time to devote to the signs. I thought about just printing something up and sticking them in inexpensive frames but I didn’t want to have to spend money on frames I wouldn’t use again. And I wanted them to look a little more rustic/handmade than what a picture frame would look like.

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So I looked around my craft room and thought ‘why couldn’t I just glue the paper to a chunk of wood?’. And that’s exactly what I did! Gotta love Mod Podge! And of course burlap too!

You can use the printable I used for my project, it’s in my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY click here to get the free printable

DIY wild west sign for your party table

These table signs are SO easy to make!

Here’s what you’ll need

• 2x6 piece of wood

• wild west printable

• burlap or fabric

• matte finish mod podge

• paint brush

Helpful tools

• printer

• Ryobi miter saw

• Ryobi sander

• scissors

• paper cutter

ONE-

I printed off my printables, CHOW DOWN PARTNER, SNACK STAMPEDE, HAPPY TRAILS, and WATERING HOLE. Then I trimmed them down using my paper cutter. Even though these are not expensive at all it took me years to finally bite the bullet and buy one and I’m SO glad I did! I know it sounds silly but not having to stress about the lines being straight on things, especially on my orders, is priceless!

TWO-

Cut down your 2x6 to fit your printable. I already had several sections of 2x6’s leftover from a loft bed project we made for the three oldest daughters. So I used my miter saw cut two of those pieces in half. That gave me 4 2x6 pieces.

THREE-

I wanted the background to have a little more to it than just the wood I added a piece of burlap to two of the signs and a piece of red duck cloth fabric to the other two western signs. I had all of these materials on hand, I didn’t need to go to the store and buy anything. That’s the great part of holding on to scrap pieces.

I used MATTE FINISH MOD PODGE to glue the burlap and fabric on to the wood chunks. Paint on a thick layer of the mod podge (if you’ve never used mod podge it’s basically just fancy glue that comes in lots of different finishes and purposes). Cut your fabric or burlap down to size and press it down on the mod podge covered front of your sign. Smooth out any air bubbles with your hand.

FOUR-

I wanted the edges to be frayed a little so I trimmed down the fabric/burlap what hung over the edge then pulled out some of the treads on each end to fray them.

FIVE-

Then I applied mod podge to top of the burlap/fabric and placed a printable down on it. On the first ones. the burlap ones, I applied mod podge all over where the printable would go, not even thinking that it was going to bubble the paper because that’s what glue does to paper. So the next two I just applied the mod podge to the ends of the paper and I like that look a lot better.

SIX-

Let them dry and you’re ready to put them on display on your western themed party table.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it helps you DIY your own easy and quick signs. As with all of my posts if you have any questions please feel free to ask away.

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DIY make a wood CUPCAKE base using your Cricut

Use your Cricut & scroll saw to make a wooden cupcake base in the shape of a mermaid tail

I love throwing birthday parties for my four daughters. I love the excitement in their eyes when they see all the work and thought that’s been put into THEIR big day! I love sitting with them and planning out the details. And when the oldest three were much younger I LOVED making their cakes. As the years have passed though, I found my self getting busier and busier and it was just easier for me to run to Sams club and grab a cake from there.

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But this year when the second oldest was planning her birthday she asked if I would make her cake. I felt so honored. Really? She didn’t want a store bought cake but one that momma made! Seriously bring on the happy tears!

She had been pinning on Pinterest for a couple of months and decided she wanted a MERMAID cake! As soon as she said those words I knew what I was going to do to make that happen… MERMAID PULL APART CUPCAKES! So much easier than an actual cake and less mess on the day of the party. Years and years ago I did a similar one for the oldest daughter when she turned 4. I made pull apart cupcakes in the shape of a 4 and it was ADORABLE and SOOOOOOO easy!

Thank goodness for tools like Cricut and Ryobi, if I didn’t have those then her cake might have turned out a little….less than edible looking lol!

If you want more little girl birthday party inspiration be sure to check out these ADORABLE UNICRON party centerpieces I made using my Cricut too!

Don’t feel like reading the full tutorial? Skip to the bottom to catch the video or go here ——-> MERMAID TAIL CUPCAKE BASE on my YouTube channel

How to make a wood base for pull apart mermaid cupcakes

Here’s what you’ll need

• CRICUT EXPLORE AIR

• CRICUT DESIGN SPACE

• RYOBI SCROLL SAW

• RYOBI SANDER

• 120 grit sandpaper

• CRICUT CUTTING MAT

• 1” thick pine board {or whatever wood you prefer}

• masking tape

• 12”x12” cardstock

• pencil

First select your design in CRICUT DESIGN SPACE. If you are like me and create a ton of projects each monthly I highly recommend signing up for CRICUT ACCESS. You will have access to thousands of images, fonts, and projects for a small monthly fee…and it’s SO worth it!

Here’s the mermaid tail I chose in Cricut Access. I just simply searched MERMAID TAIL and chose one that I liked.

I chose the pink one on the bottom row. I really like that this one had some movement in it. But I didn’t really like the white spaces on the mermaid tail. So after I added it to my canvas I used the CONTOUR function to hide those white spaces. I also adjusted the size of the mermaid tail so that it was 11.45” wide. I left the size lock on so that it would adjust the height for me so that everything would be proportionate.

Since I was using cardstock for my stencil and I didn’t have a piece big enough I butted two pieces together and taped the seam so that it would be like one big piece. Feed your mat through your Cricut machine and press GO when the button starts to flash.

I used a piece of scrap 1x12 to make my mermaid tail cupcake base out of. I had some plywood which probably would have worked just as good {and would have been cheaper to use} but I knew I most likely wouldn’t use this again and I wanted my daughter to be able to use it to hang in her room after her party.

Trace your mermaid tail cardstock stencil out on your piece of wood.

Then cut the mermaid tail out using your Ryobi scroll saw. You can use a band saw, and even a jig saw for this step if you don’t have a scroll saw.

Then you want to smooth it out using your Ryobi sander. I used 120 grit sand paper on mine. I also slightly rounded some of the edges so that it wasn’t so pokey.

Add your cupcakes and decorate. I just slapped a little bit of frosting on the bottom of each cupcake to stick them to the board.

. I used a combination of purple, teal, and white for the frosting colors and I didn’t even use any fancy piping tips {I was a little pressed for time lol}. For under $10 I was able to make the cake of her mermaid themed birthday dreams!

Watch the video tutorial below on how to make your own MERMAID TAIL CUPCAKE BASE

DIY Unicorn birthday party centerpiece

Our third daughter had her 8th birthday party recently and had her big heart set on a unicorn theme. I had $50 to make it happen {decorations, cake, games, and invites} and I wasn’t about to disappoint her so I set out on Pinterest to find all the things I could for a DIY unicorn party. Here’s the pin that inspired this centerpiece. Super adorable right?! But I wanted hers to look a little different, a little more whimsical and I wanted to spend the least amount possible. Which meant I needed to shop my craft stash before getting started.

Here’s what you’ll need to create you own at unicorn centerpiece

• small bucket

• dowel rod

• rocks

• felt

• glitter

• white balloon

• black vinyl cut outs of eyes

• white spray paint

• cardstock

• LOW TEMP GLUE GUN

First spay paint your buckets and dowel rods with white spray paint. Let dry completely.

Fill the bottom third of your bucket with crumpled up paper, leaving space in the very center to place the dowel rod. Place the dowel rod inside and fill the rest in with your rocks. I just used what we had on hand that was left over from previous crafts.

Next, blow your balloon up but not all the way. You want to try to get as round of a shape for it as possible. Then tie it around your dowel rod.

I free hand cut the ears, flowers, and horn. Not pictured, I cut the horn out of cardstock, glued glitter to the entire thing, and let it dry prior to this next step. Using your LOW TEMP glue gun glue them to your balloon. Place the glue on the felt first, wait a couple seconds, then place on your balloon. It’s important you use a low temp glue gun as a hot temp will likely pop your balloon.

If you’d rather use paper flowers this DIY PAPER FLOWER TUTORIAL might help you. They aren’t the exact same style of flower as the ones pictured in this tutorial but they are super adorable and you just might like them better.

I cut out the vinyl eyes using my Cricut but you can free hand these with a sharpie.

And that’s it! Our birthday girl was completely happy and loved all her unicorn decorations but these were her favorite! She so wished she could have kept them forever but sadly they deflated {and honestly I’m totally ok with that because the birthday girl would never toss anything if we didn’t make her}.

I hope this inspires you to make your own perfect unicorn decorations.

Check out the UNICORN TASSLE GARLAND I made to go along with her theme.

DIY Tassel Garland, make your own for just pennies each

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Raising kids is so hard sometimes. Nothing prepares you for having to console your child on days when they are feeling down about themselves. I think this is especially true for raising daughters. We have four little girls and life is a roller coaster of emotions with them some days. Recently we celebrated our third daughter’s birthday. We always celebrate before school lets out because she has a summer birthday.

We sent invites out two weeks in advance and this girl was SO excited to have all her school friends over for her unicorn themed birthday party. I’ll admit I’m a frugal person thru and thru. When I plan our girl’s parties my husband and I don’t spend an arm and a leg on the party. I try to keep it under $50 for the cake and decorations that way we still have room in our budget to gift them a decent gift that they’ve been wanting.

But this year I had to get super creative on my spending because I needed to throw her a fancy {as fancy as we get around here ;) } unicorn birthday party! It was just days before her party and she had only had one, yes ONE friend RSVP to her big day. Talk about tears falling and hearts breaking. I HAD to make up for the possibility that there be no one besides family at her party.

So I scoured all the pretty things on Pinterest and put together a few ideas of things to decorate her party with to make her feel extra special. Keeping it under $50 was a bit of a challenge but I was determined to make it work! Tassel Garland, among a few other DIY decorations, made the cut. These ended up costing than $4 to make two full strands of tassels PLUS extras to put around the unicorn centerpieces.

Thankfully two days before her party she had a couple more friends RSVP and she had a great party! They played some fun unicorn games, made tasty treats and loaded them down with EXTRA sprinkles, got to decorate their own cupcakes, and most of all the birthday girl felt so loved and special on her day!

After her party she got to hang the pretty garland in her room which made these tassel even better!

To make your own DIY tassel garland for your own special occasion…

Here’s what you’ll need

• RECTANGLE TABLE CLOTH

• SCISSORS

• ROTARY CUTTER

• LOW TEMP GLUE GUN

• SELF HEALING MAT WITH 1” SQUARES {mine measured up to 23”}

I was so surprised at how EASY these were to make! I was able to knock these out in no time. And our sweet girl LOVED them!

I’d love to hear your feedback below!