Monster High~ Birthday Party

Doesn't that sound so perfect?  A Birthday in a Box, is a great as it sounds.  Everything you need to decorate your birthday and it comes straight to your door step.  It takes the running around out of the equation and lets you focus on the more pressing matters.  I was kind of worried about it being too dark to celebrate a Summer birthday, but the bright pink, blue and purple really made it colorful.  I was so pleased with the outcome and my now 8 year old was in complete awe of the decorations.  She is stuck on Monster High and has been for around 2 years now.  Her favorite character is Draculaura{the pink one}, so she was so happy to get exactly what she wanted for her birthday.

This is everything that came in the package ready to decorate.

Kit Includes:
1 Monster High Centerpiece
1 Monster High Add An Age Banner
1 Monster High Swirl Cutouts
1 Monster High Confetti
10 Black Balloons
10 Hot Pink Balloons
1 Blue Curling Ribbon

This is what I did with the items in the box:

• I did have to separate the banner because it was so large and beautiful.  My doorway just called for it to be spaced together more. It worked perfectly and added to a perfect back drop.  The centerpiece for the banner comes fully customizable with each age with removable stickies.   {st, nd, rd, th included}
• I took the balloons to Party City and had 12 of them blown for the price of $12.99 and had extras left over.  The balloons were tied off with the royal blue streamer.
• The swirl streamer hung from the ceiling creating a lovely Monster High themed atmosphere.  They dangled at a nice length.
• The cardboard hearts that came in the centerpiece package found themselves attached to the Happy Birthday Banner backdrop.  
• The Monster High centerpiece was really lovely and served as a small cupcake stand.  I was surprised at how large it was.
• The confetti was used as the scatter for the push pops, as well as the pop toppers and the pop stands. I just used double sided tape to attach the Monster High icon to the front of the cake pop stand.  I positioned the little skull with a bow on the top of the frosting. 

Things I had previously picked up:

• Monster High table cloth for $2.75
• Monster High themed tumbler $.87
• Pink table cloth to wrap and tie to the birthday girl chair $1
• White table cloth to use as photo back drop and to attach banner to $1
• Devils food cake mix, pink/purple swirl frosting and coconut pecan frosting $8
• Cake Push Pop stands was on sale for $4 normally $6- no piping bag or tip
• Purple napkins, pink plates and black plastic ware $3
• Pink and teal zebra designed candles $2

 Cake Push Pops:

• Bake your cupcakes according to the box and let cool completely.
• Take 1 of your cake pop tubes and push through the center of the cupcake. 
• Slice a few layers into your cupcake and place one at the bottom of the tube. 
• Pipe your frosting in between each layer of cake.
• Swirl your frosting at the top and let your child take over the sprinkles for the top.
• Insert your Monster High confetti and your candles.  All done.

It was a little messy and calls for a larger amount of frosting than I anticipated.  Super sweet and enough to make any little girls day.  A great excuse to get those little sparkling white teeth of every child brushed. :)

Get a Zip-loc baggie and snip the end off and insert a decorating tip in and push into the hole until it is snug.  Be care if you squeeze too hard the frosting will come out around the tip.  It worked fairly well for me and I normally just put icing in the bag and snip off the end depending on the amount of icing I need piped out.  No fancy piping bags need apply.

Oh, yes we did.  They were up there on the divine factor scale.  I figured since we was going with the German chocolate type cake push pops per Kayleis request it would work.  Her favorite part about this float was there was pieces of cookie left at the bottom of the glass when she got done.  

Samoas Ice Cream Float:

Samoas Ice Cream

Coke

Pour your Coke in to the half point of the glass and top with a heaping tablespoon of Samoas ice cream and then top with Coke to get that float foam.  So simple and quick.

She is a lover of doing "Deuces," complements of her daddy. 

Oh, and I picked up a glittery Monster High skull sticker for $.99 for her cheek.

At our house we always do a favorite meal of the birthday person.  Kaylei loves Tater Tot Casserole.  

Tater Tot Casserole:

Chili- homemade and defrosted or you can make your own.

(canned chili mixed with hamburger meat and diced tomatoes works pretty well as a quick meat layer)

Heat your meat layer until nice and bubbly.....you want most of the liquid gone.

Top with tater tots and place in the oven until nice and brown.

Sprinkle your tots with cheese and turn your oven off.  Place your casserole back in the oven to complete the melting process and pull out when you are ready to eat. 

I hope you enjoyed this super lengthy "Birthday in a Box" post.  Birthday in a Box has pretty much every theme you can think of to host an entire party.  The shipping was really quick and came before the estimated date of arrival.  The prices are affordable and the themes are in abundance.   I can honestly say that it made this birthday party the easiest and non-stressful birthday EVER.   If you want to check them out for you next party, I promise you will not regret it. 

*"Birthday in a Box" sponsored this post.

Fairy Party Shadow Wall

How do you make the best party ever?   A shadow wall of course!  

We set up this double purple plastic table clothes we got for a buck each with clear duct tape to attach them to the cement porch beams.  We had all of our spot lights set up in the back and was ready to start doing some shadow pictures.  For some reason every time it rains the winds blow super hard and it was fixing to rain.  The wind blows so hard it blows every thing off the porch and across the yard.  Really crazy!  Anyhoo, our wall was a quick backdrop for family photos and not as a shadow wall because the wind made its way with our decorations.  It was still pretty and I have wanted to try the cupcake flowers for a long time.

*You have to be super careful when popping the light through the cupcake liner because if it tears too much it will just keep falling off.  The ones that I accidentally ripped a bit much, I just attached a mini white cupcake liner in front of it to hold it.  It is really pretty and if you have the time and patience I would say try  this out.

The plan was to have all of our little fairy girls put their wings and tutus on and stand behind the wall and give a cool pose so we could have a few photos of fairy silhouettes of all the girls. :)  I just know it would have been so pretty.  I plan on attempting the shadow wall again in the future though.

  This was for a party for the girls and in their gift bags my mom got all the kids the blow up bam bam things.   Fun times.

We are in the process of planning our next little get together.  My Kaylei-bug is turning 8 in just 3 days!

A Nerd and Twinkie Bicycle Cake

Yes, really a cake made from mostly chocolate stuffed Twinkies to look like a bicycle.  For our sons 4th birthday, he was obsessed with motorcycles and bicycles.  I looked all over the place for budget friendly motorcycle and bicycle cake stuff.  I searched all over the internet and looked through it seemed like 100's of pages with no such luck.  You just have to come through for you kids on their birthday.  I did what I do best, I turned to what I actually had in my kitchen and did my process of what might work.  This method may sound crazy, but 99% of my creations are a result of this madness. 

So, how was it done?

The frame is made from cut in half Twinkies laid with the icing side down{yes, super messy}.

Wheels are made from vanilla cake with the multi-colored nerd candies as the confetti. 

The cupcakes- Nerd confetti cupcakes.

The "dirt" on the cupcakes is crushed up chocolate chip ring cookies. (you know the ones when you are a kid you put on your fingers as rings and eat them off) Well, that is what we did as kids and my kids love eating cookies off their fingers.  They giggle the whole time.

Spokes and handlebar- twizzlers and a cut in half peach ring gummy.

Seat- Chocolate Twinkie + 1/4 of a Twinkie drizzled in chocolate. 

I made chocolate frosting from scratch for this cake. (later post)

The red is from the spray red food coloring.

I was a little worried about the Nerd flavored cupcakes, but it was his favorite candy at the time and I figured why not.  They actually tasted really good and once baked, the candy melted into the batter.

We always share the sweetness with our neighbors!  I love having neighbors that don't mind me always bringing them food.  My son loved his cake and the design came together in the end and it resembled the brand new shiny red bike we got him for his bday.

Do you have fun with your kids birthdays?? Do you buy their cake, make it or have someone make it?

Sherbet Ice Cream Float Punch

Do you have a favorite party punch recipe?  Well, this is one of ours and I am happy to share it with you today.  It is so easy and always a hit.  Not many kids will say no to soda and ice cream, especially when they are mixed together.  It is just like an ice cream float.  

Sherbet Ice Cream Float Punch:

* Quart of Orange, Yellow and Green Sherbet Ice Cream

* 2 Liter of Lemon-Lime Soda

Pour your chilled soda in a punch bowl and scoop your ice cream right on top and serve to your guest.

See, I told you it was nice and simple.  Have you ever tried this?  They sell each color separate or you can get it all mixed like this.  We poured some .79 Twist Up from the store in there and put a few scoops of Sherbet in and our birthday punch was ready.  Pretty short and sweet.  

Fabulous and Repurposed- Party Decorations!

I love decorating for little gatherings all the time.  Celebrating Americas Birthday is no different.  All that sparkling, red white and blue!  I was completely inspired for this month at Hobby Lobby.  We do not have a Hobby Lobby like this by us.  I think I like it as much as I like A.C. Moore.  I was really sad to see there was no A.C. Moore here, but was so happy my mom took me to experience the awesomeness at Hobby Lobby.  Okay, enough of my ramblings.

What did we come up with for our festivities?

Personalized and Crafty all the way!

Plastic ware set up:

Napkins- rolled and secured with a cupcake ring.

Coffee Filter- cut in 4's, red napkin square side up and blue napkin triangle side up.  Fold and Roll.

DIY Containers:  Scrapbooking paper wrapped around cleaned out spice containers and twine wrapped around 2 of the containers.

DIY Paper Pinwheels:  Depending on the side of the fan you would like fold your scrapbooking paper like you would fold a fan.  Once, you get to the end all you have to do is stretch to get your circle and glue the ends together with super thick tacky glue.  You push the center down and glue card stock on the back to hold in place and something like a bling on the front.   There is two ways to make fans.  I made the larger ones buy folding, tying and folding in half and then fanning out to glue.   I will do a more detailed post about this soon.   I used gold glitter for added sparkle and to jazz up the pinwheels a bit more.

Blinged out bottles:   Personalizing is such a great thing when you are going to a party or even a family gathering.  I know I am always losing my drink; my kids lose theirs and everyone else is asking..."Is this your drink?"   I wrote out the first initial of a guests name and applied the little bling beads for that personalized touch.  There were just a few kids, so that is why I only did a few bottles.  My son was the only boy and I made him a star on his.  Personalized water; you can do the first letter in bling and jot down the rest of the name.

Name/Food Tag holder:  Up to the left there is a little striped and starred jar holding the name tag/food tag stick.  All that jar is a empty dip jar with scrapbooking paper attached to it.  I did the star paper strip on top of the striped.  Really simple and super cost friendly.  I love repurposing.  You can do so many things with all of your old jars.  We do recycle, but some things are just cooler made over.   

*You can place your name tags or food tags on the outside of food or as a place marker if you have more guests.   

Personalized Gatorade Bottles:  Cut a strip of scrapbooking paper to fit around the bottle and attach with glue.  Tie metallic red tinsel around the bottle top or center and run your scissors blade down it to make it curl.  You can always put the persons name on it some where with a paint pen or permanent marker.   You can tie a label into the metallic tinsel or even place one of the toothpick labels behind the strip and write the name of the guest the drink belongs too.  

Personalized Name/Food Tags:  Rectangle shapes from scrapbooking paper and the white/cream strips for writing details is card stock.  Accessories include:  blings and squares from other scrapbooking paper.  Once assembled, I glued them to a popsicle stick. 

Toothpick Labels:  I cut 2 squares that was on side of each other on a really cute scrapbooking paper sheet and put hot glue on the center line and placed a toothpick in and pressed shut.  The ends was left open so I can attach a small piece of card stock sticking out for a label, cupcake topper, cake topper or other food labeling.  I cut a triangle off the end to make it look like a little ribbon. 

Scrapbooking paper was my best friend in almost every part of personalization.

Scrapbook paper sale: $.44 for small, .69 for standard 12x12 paper and .49 card stock....all 1/2 off!

Blings- different sized clear- normally $15.99- 50% off so 8 bucks.  What a steal right!

Aleene's- Super Thick Tacky was $3.77

You can get your plastic ware, colored napkins, straws, plates, table clothes and even the metallic tinsel at the Dollar Tree.

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Fourth of July with your family! 

Homemade Italian Creme Cake

Have you ever had the pleasure of tasting an Italian Creme Cake?  In this area they are only seasonally made at the local grocery store during the Fall.  This is my husbands number 2 favorite cake under pineapple upside down cake.  When your hubby says he loves something that much and is so disappointed when he couldn't find it in the store.  I got to work researching different recipes so I could make it for him.  I always look at the reviews for any recipes I am looking up to find out what worked and didn't.
  

     

Italian Cream Cake (old family recipe)

Sponsored by:

Bottom of FormServings:  14   Servings Size

Update

CAKE

• 1/4 lb butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 eggs, separated
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 lb butter, softened
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 box powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

*If too thin, you can add a little more powdered sugar and if too thick you can just add a little splash of milk or buttermilk the mix.  

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  For cake: Cream butter, shortening and sugar.  Add egg yolk one at a time, beating after each addition (this is an important step!) Stir in baking soda and buttermilk.   Add sifted flour into batter, alternating with the buttermilk mixture.  Add vanilla, coconut and chopped pecans.   Beat egg whites and fold into batter.

Pour into a greased and floured round cake pan.   I like the way round cakes look better, so I went with a round cake pan.  My go to cake pan is the little $1 cake pans so I can just throw them out when I am done.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until cake tests done.  Remove from oven, cool completely before frosting.

For frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter.  Add vanilla, powdered sugar, and pecans.  Continue to beat until you get a spreading consistency.

*This cake was the most delicious and moist cake I have ever made.  I did change a few simple little things like almonds; I added a little more vanilla than was called for and I added almond extract as well.  It was absolutely divine and arguably better than any store made cake.  Someone else's old family recipe has become our new old family recipe with a few changes of course.  I actually made this cake for his birthday hence the football themed napkins and plastic "TOUCHDOWN" table decor.  I was super happy with all of the results.   There is nothing like a delicious cake to celebrate with.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Snacks!

Did you watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when you were a kid?  I did, it has been so long though I could only remember a few of the catch phrases.  The new TMNT does not use the "COWABUNGA" phrase, but that is a TMNT word to me.  I mixed the old with the new and we celebrated my son's 5th Birthday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle style.  

How:

Mini brown cupcake wrappers- 1 TBL of Batter 

Confetti cake- prepare via box directions

Double cookies- one side is vanilla and other is chocolate

Saves $$

Pepperoni- Vanilla Cookies with chunks of red gummy for pepperoni.

Sewer Lid- Chocolate cookie with teal writing icing.

Extra Cheese- Vanilla cookie with other cookie extra frosting crumbled on top

Put pepperoni and extra cheese in oven under broiler to melt everything slightly- watch it closely.

I put the mini cupcake wrappers in a regular cupcake tin with 1 tbl of batter which makes it slightly non perfect cupcake shape...which I wanted.   Once cooled I squeezed a bit of cream cheese/butter cream blended frosting on the center of the cupcake and put the lids and pies on to complete!

Inspiration- Nice and simple....I wanted to incorporate the ninja turtle favorites in the cake.  I normally make the cakes so complicated each year and get stressed.  I had a little mouth to feed and he loves his cookies and cupcakes...so I decided to go with this theme.  He loved them.  I absolutely LOVE making themed desserts!

  

Creamy Garlic Laughing Cow- 3 wedges

Cream Cheese- 1 8oz pack

*Mix together the cream cheese and place in the freezer for few to firm up a bit.

2 cucumbers- Slice first and then peel with a peeler to get a whole strip. Gut the cucumbers center but leave a bit of a bottom.

Use a teaspoon to scoop up your cream cheese and press slightly into the cucumber.  Then flip it over so then it smooths over the surface of the cream cheese AND it is doesn't keep sticking to you.   Press you mini pepperonis on your turtle on a half shell.  

I wanted something that was veggie related so we did not have all junky snacks.  This is a  typical weave with the exception it is normally made out of bacon. Over and under....basic method.  It was super easy and I just lined the outside with the cucumbers...and the weave was a perfect set up for the snack card. 

Inspiration- I saw a appetizer of cream cheese and bacon stuffed cucumbers out there some where and really wanted to make them.  In my many marathons of TMNT with the kids I kept hearing "TURTLES ON THE HALF SHELL"....thus the turtles on a half shell was born.

1 Row of Butter Round Crackers

Shredded Colby Cheese- Grated

Shredded Cheddar- Grated

Mini Pepperoni

Place in the oven broiler for a few minutes.  Shut the oven but check super often.  I have charred way too many things with the broiler, way more than I would admit too.  To prevent ruined food, I will leave the oven closed for about 2 minutes and then I crack it so I can watch the food.  When I removed the crackers I took a spatula and ran it in between the crackers to make sure when the cheese firmed up a little more they could be picked up without pulling all the cheese off the others.   

Inspiration- When I was a teen, I would often get off the bus with my cousin and she would always make snacks for us.  One snack in particular was Ritz crackers with a regular sized pepperoni on each cracker and then topped with lots of shredded cheese; placed in the microwave for like 30 seconds or until melted.   

Box of $1 Gummi Lifesavers

Box of $1 Hot Tamales

Inspiration- I was searching bing images for turtle party snacks and ran across rice krispie sushi....rice krispy wrapped in fruit roll up and sliced.  It was super cute, but WAY to much work going on there.  Sorry, I was trying to be simple.  Anyhoo, I had a box of lifesavers in the snack drawer already and my son is in love with hot tamales.   I figured why not...it could resemble sushi!  I pushed the hot tamale through the middle and snipped the top off. 

He actually says "Hot Tamels" and can eat a whole box.  He fell in love with them last Summer when my mom gave them to him for the first time.   He hadn't eaten any in a while, so when he ate the first one....I happen to click the photo at the same time he was saying "Man!" "That was a hot tamel!"  He even had the woosh sound.....ROFL.

My awesome Rice Krispie Treat making husband made these.  They were super gooey and really yummy.  I have no luck with rice krispies, so he offered to make these.  

He says the secret is low and slow.....I trust him and he never disappoints. 

We picked up a Wilton Electric Melting Pot from Michaels.  Normally they are around 30 but I grabbed a 40% coupon and my hubby went and picked it up for 20.  I LOVE coupons for the craft store!  A.C. Moore always has great coupons...but they didn't have the Wilton pot I wanted.  

Anyway, he put them in the fridge for about an hour to firm up before dipping them.  We used cut in half wooden skewers for the dipping sticks.  Dip your turtle power balls and place on a sheet of parchment and place back in fridge to firm up. 

Inspiration- Gerry is in love with chocolate fountains so we wanted to give him something chocolate dipping related......plus I needed a snack to use with Turtle Power. 

Nose nuggets- Caramel Corn tossed in a few drops of food coloring.  Put them in a bag and drop in a few drops and swish them around and distribute as much as possible.  Add more of green food coloring drops if you would like more green!  

Inspiration- On one of the episodes of TMNT one of the turtles was talking about having nose nuggets. Yeah, pretty simple.

Vanilla Pudding- Prepared to pie filling instructions.

Chocolate Pudding- Chocolate pudding mixed with chocolate chip minis- prepared to pie filling instructions.

We used 2 packs of Sugar Free Fat Free pudding mix for each and placed in fridge until ready to assemble.

Gallon freezer bags or smaller if you like.  Vanilla pudding with 5 drops of food coloring and blended in bag.  Cut the tip off and pipe your pudding in your small mason jar.  Rotate your chocolate and green pudding and then place a chocolate cookie at the top to finish it up.

What you need:

2 packs of Sugar Free Fat Free Lime Jello- prepared to box instructions.

Berry Kool Aid prepared to box instructions.

1 pack of Hawaiian Punch pack--the individual ones for bottles of water.

Blend your jello(previously chilled and jelloized) with the drink mix well. I don't think jelloized is a word, but we will go with it.  Then, pour in your jars and the jello floats right to the top.

Inspiration- I ran across a website talking about all the vintage Ninja Turtle snacks throughout time and he had a recipe of jello and cornstarch to make it look like sludge.   I thought about this and seriously considered making some jello mixed with cornstarch, but then it just sounded too gross.  I wanted it to look gross not taste gross.  Great idea on the super ooze looks though.  I went ahead and tried to think of ooze factor and tasty factor.   I hope you love this ooze!   

Raphael and Leonardo are the turtles my son loves the best.   We found Double Sais like how Raphael uses at the $1 tree in a ninja pack.  Of course, he had to eat his pizza with his PIZZA FORKS! 

My hubby customized 2 swords into a double Katana back pack for Gerry so he could be like Leonardo.  Pretty neat and he loved it!  He is so grateful and happy to get whatever he gets and that brings a smile to our faces.  Now, that doesn't mean whatever it is will last, but that is a different story.

Thanks for sharing some of our special  moments with our birthday boy!   Stay tuned for a few of the TMNT decorations we went with.   We did not do a party party....normally it is just us and sometimes the little girl across the street comes down.  Birthdays are so special and I am so excited to celebrate them, but sad that my babies are getting bigger.  

Don't forget to scroll down and join the Like Me on Facebook blog hop below!

Carnival Themed Giant Popcorn Box

What do you need to make a giant popcorn box set up? 

Red and White Vinyl Table Clothes

Xacto Tool

Giant Cardboard Box

Tacky

Doublesided tape

Clothes Pins

Decide how wide you want your strips and draw them on a poster board and cut your template off of the poster board and trace with a pencil on your vinyl tablecloth.  Once you get all of your red strips traced, you can cut them out.  I traced the top half and then the bottom because the poster board was shorter than the length I needed.  

You want your box to actually look like a old school popcorn box.  Well, I did because I have this tendency to want things one particular way.  In order to get that cute little ruffle type design at the top, I used the same exact template I used for the red stripes for the outside of the popcorn box.  I traced the rounded design at the top of the box and then to get a smooth design, I cut along each design with my xacto tool.  It worked beautifully because it was new, so if you plan on taking on this project get a new blade.  I tried scissors and the cardboard was too thick.  

Wrap your box with 2 vinyl white tablecloths and staple in the inside of the box so everything stays put and is hidden at the same time.   After you attach your white tablecloth to your box line up all of your red strips and place the clothespin at the top to hold it in place.  I placed double sided tape under the strips, but they really only worked at the top and for some reason the rest kept coming undone.  I resorted to blue tacky and it actually came out looking like a part of the design.  Once you get them where you want them, adjust your bottoms and cut them.    

 There was a part of a tablecloth place on the inside that overlapped a table that was placed in the inside  to hold the popcorn and stabilize the box.  

It was hard to get it as perfect as I wanted it because all my boxes came in late.  I needed larger boxes, so I was waiting for my husbands job to donate boxes for the event.  I got them 2 days before the event....which did not provide very much time to get everything I needed done.  Everything got done and the giant popcorn box was a nice addition to the party.

Circus Clown Fun Face Photo Board

Just like the Circus Monkey Fun Face Photo Board, I did the same thing with getting my design.  I did the light tracing from the computer and drew on squares of computer paper and put them all together in the end. 

So cute right!  This one was my favorite.  I love all of the colors.  I added a little trick flower with the pump for more of a clown person.   I found it for $1 at The Dollar Tree.  I thought about putting water in it for extra fun, because I knew people would squeeze it, but I thought about the marker and it would ruin the artwork.   Other additions was a felt strip for the hat, felt for the vest and dots from the background for his clown tie.  Pretty cute and simple.  I am sure there is possibly a less time consuming but more costly way to do it.  I went harder route because it fit in my budget.  I was so happy with the end result and I just couldn't stop smiling.  Let me know if you ever try this out, I would love to see it.

Circus Monkey Fun Face Photo Board

This was a VERY large box.  It actually opened up it reached about 12 feet across and  was about 5'5" high.      Don't quote me on that exactly though, because it was over a year ago.  

I searched the internet and coloring books for a design that would fit the theme and I ran across this one. 

At the time my printer was out of ink, so I did the old fashioned light tracing.  I placed a piece of computer paper on the screen and traced as lightly as I possibly could.   That is why it is a bit messy.   However, it just goes to show you that you can have something cool and not have to spend a fortune or need special equipment to do it.

I am sure there are easier and more expensive options, but sometimes you just work with what you have.  In order to get the shape of a little hand, I traced my then 3 year old sons hands and they worked perfectly.  I did the eyeballing drawing per square in order for it to fit on the larger board.  

So that is the process of getting my forms set up for the board.  Lots of tracing, sizing, measuring and measuring and erasing again.  For decorating I used markers, glitter and felt. I added a bow and a hat to my little monkeys to make them even cuter with more of that jazz factor!  I hope you enjoyed this.