Saturday, May 24, 2014

Minecraft 3D Box Birthday Party Invitations - Custom Handmade Cards

Well my wonderful readers, it's that time of year again, my son's:

Birthday Party Time!!!

The theme this year is: MINECRAFT

Minecraft 3D Box Birthday Party Invitations (click to enlarge)

In a new state we were able to scale down the amount of invitations to only 20 this year! That is huge for this Mama, who is used to inviting upwards of 40 kids! Can you imagine? I think we even had our Harry Potter party where we allowed siblings to attend as well with almost 50 kids in attendance. YIKES!

After a very chilled out BFF only party last year my son is ready to host a bash again this year. So he choose his theme of Minecraft. If you have a child in you life who likes video games I am sure you know what this is. It reverts back to the old 16-bit graphics and is wildly popular with the gaming crowd. I don't mind him playing this game because of many reasons but my favorite thing about it is that it uses creativity. My son will sit here and build a home from the bottom up or a roller coaster or something crazy. Yup, the creativity in this game is what sold me on it.

Enough about that lets get on with the 3D Invitations! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Minecraft 3D Box Birthday Party Invitations (click to enlarge)
As seen in the image above we used clear 6.5" square envelopes to hand out these cards. They could be mailed also they fold up so thin! How cool is that? Both the back and front of the card is the TNT graphic.

Minecraft TNT Exterior, card flattens for mailing (click to enlarge)
How does it work? Check out this 2 min video where my son, the birthday boy shows you how it works, push play and watch it in action:


Since these are double sided you can always opt to "unfold" one side relieving the inside of the box a bit more while the card is inside the envelope. But we didn't do this... thought it would be more fun to have the 3D surprise in the box when they opened it.

Option 2 on flattening the card (click to enlarge)
Once you open the card it unfolds into a box and the side flaps come down revealing the party info and characters like these here: Steve, Enderdragon, Enderman, Slime and a Zombie Pigman.

Minecraft 3D Box Birthday Party Invitations (click to enlarge)
My son helped me fussy cut out all the characters, we averaged about 100 total. Here are some close ups of the characters inside the box card. The cool thing about this is each card was different. No card had the exact same characters, which left the kids chatting about it after they were handed out. Who got what inside their invitations!

Close up #1: Enderdragon, Villager, Creeper, Blaze and Steve
Minecraft 3D Box Birthday Party Invitations (click to enlarge)
Close up #2: Enderdragon, Steve, Pig, Cow, Creeper and Ghast

Minecraft 3D Box Birthday Party Invitations (click to enlarge)

I hope you found this an interesting post. We had tons of fun making these and handing them out. There will be more post to come about the party decor, games and food.

Minecraft 3D Box Birthday Party Invitations (click to enlarge)
 Here is a list of more of my Birthday Party Invitations:

Boy Birthday Invitations:
- Harry Potter Hogwarts Invites
- Lego Bionicle Mask of Light

Girl's Birthday Invitations:
- Angelina Ballerina Birthday Party Invitations

Thank you for viewing my post today. Please leave me a comment below if you like what you see.
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Coordinator for Party Time Tuesdays Challenge Blog

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

"Troisième Presenting" a Canvas Diptych - Peacock & Ballet Inspired

Good morning everyone!  Today I am very excited to show you a painting project.

My daughter is my biggest fan to say the least. She makes me smile, giggle, feel loved and I adore her like any mother would. I have been wanting to do an art piece for quite some time for her room that she could keep forever. We are military so painting her walls is something she can't keep with her.

"Troisième Presenting"

An Acrylic Painting with Pastels on Canvas

Troisième Presenting 2' x 4' (Click on image to see larger)
This painting was inspired by my daughter, her face, her body, her eyes and her passions. She loves to dance and for almost two years now she has loved peacocks and everything that has to do with peacocks. It started with a Peacock Princess Costume for Halloween in 2012. Then her love for the bird and colors moved into making Peacock Ornaments for her little Christmas tree she gets to keep in her room. I started to see a trend in her clothing choices from pink to peacock colors as well. In 2014 her birthday party was an international theme with the focus on India and the colors of a peacock. Now we have moved to a new home, in a new state and one thing we did for the kids was let them redecorate their rooms to help them get excited about our family's transition. Can you guess what she chose? She calls it...

 "Vintage Peacock" 

Troisième Presenting Diptych Piece #1
Troisième Presenting Diptych Piece #2

This painting was created to go in her room, solely inspired by her. It is called "Troisième Presenting" because her arms are in the third position for ballet (bringing in her love for dance) and the representation of a peacock plumage in all it's glory with the hair, peacock feather stencils from The Crafters Workshop, the colors chosen and the peacock feather in her hair.

Close Up of "Troisième Presenting"
My daughter had input through almost every step of the process this piece went though. She even made the suggestion to lightly color in the eyes to match hers, a beautiful light blue.
"Troisième Presenting" close up of half of face
The peacock thing has gotten out of control here, but out of control is how we have fun in our family. I too went as a peacock for Halloween the following year using her tail we extended with longer feathers. I have made a Peacock Tutu Halloween Costume with coordinating hair piece. I have made an adult sized peacock tail for a local art gallery owner. Her peacock costume inspired an entire altered dress, pair of wings and a peacock crown that was created for +Elena Lai Etcheverry at +Charity Wings for the Live Stream from CHAW (The Winter Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show). The Peacock Couture Outfit was again used during the CHA Gift Lounge at the 64th Emmy Awards. It is currently entered into a craft awards called "The Craftys". You can go vote for it there though the 26th of May.

http://thecraftys.com/peacock-couture-wings-tail-crown-altered-dress/

I created this piece while taking two online Bloom Girl classes from Jamie Dougherty. They were her Bloom Girl Workshop 2 class and her Bloom Girl Elements class. I highly recommend +Jamie Dougherty 's classes. She gives thorough instructions and support. She teaches how to use acrylic paints, PanPastels, India Ink and other products properly within her project.


http://www.jamiedoughertydesigns.com/#!bloom-girl-elements/c22xvhttp://www.jamiedoughertydesigns.com/#!blank/c1isx

Thank you all for your time. If you desire to learn how to make such a project then please check out these classes. I would love to know your thoughts about this project as well, please be so kind to leave me a comment below and follow me here on my blog or on Facebook on my artist page L. Grace Lauer Artist.
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Mixed Media Artist and Paper Crafter
Coordinator for Party Time Tuesdays Challenge Blog