Angry Birds party prep, part 2 - the banner

Okay, so now here's my favorite project (at least so far): The Pin-The-Monobrow-On-Red-Bird game!  There are tons of Angry Birds images online, but none of them were anywhere near the resolution I'd need if I wanted to print something large enough to use for a game.  So I found an image I liked, printed it as large as I could, and got started duplicating it on a much larger scale.

First, I drew a grid of 1" squares over the picture, using a ruler and pen to just draw them right on the printout:

Next, I laid out my banner paper on the floor and taped it down to make a stable drawing surface.  Since my paper was only 12" wide, I needed 3 strips taped on top of one another to get the size I wanted for the project.  I cast another grid on the banner paper, this time with squares 6" on each side.  Then I spent the better part of 90 minutes copying each square from the printout onto the corresponding square on the banner.  Some of the squares had a lot going on, so I cut those squares into quarters and copied each quarter over.  It was actually much easier to do than it is to describe.

Then LazyHusband and I went insane.

But sometime before 10:30 last night, the drawing was done!

All I had left to do was erase all of the gridlines on the banner and paint the whole thing ... with watercolors ... which required a tiny paintbrush and two coats to get a decent-looking color.  Oh, well, it was done shortly after lunch today, and I couldn't be happier with the result:

Seriously, how awesome is that?  All I have left to do is make some fake eyebrows for the game and tape the strips together on the back, and it's done and wicked cool.  I mean, come on, look at the comparison:

Angry Birds party prep

LazyKid turns six years old tomorrow, and party preparations have been underway for weeks.  We're big Angry Birds fans around here, and when we saw this cake, we knew we had to do an Angry Birds party (albeit with no fancy moving-parts cake!).  Since you can't go out and buy many Angry Birds-themed items right now, it's going to be a crafty, crafty party, I thought I'd share some of our projects here.

One of the first things we decided was that there was no way that Lazy Mama was making that cake, and the edible toppers I found on etsy, while outrageously cute, were way out of our budget.  Cupcake picks to the rescue!

These were so simple, and turned out so cute!  First, I bought the 1" digital images of the pigs and birds from an etsy shop, then used a scrapbooking punch to cut them out.  Found some cardstock in colors that matched the artwork and used another punch to cut out 2 1/2" circles and 2" flowers.  I used a gluestick to attach the art to the centers of the flowers, then taped a lollipop stick to the back.  Then I used the gluestick again on the back of the flowers, which I stuck to the circles.  I found this was a little awkward with the stick in there, but it worked well if I gently bent the circle in half to make a sort of shallow trough for the stick to sit inside.

LazyKid loves balloons, so I knew we needed to have plenty of these Angry Birds balloon characters:

I blew up a bunch of balloons one day, cut out the faces the next, and we'll be sticking the things on until the party starts on Sunday, I suspect.  The balloons are hanging from a quicky swag I made using several very long strands of yarn held together and twisted together to form a loose cord.  The tails of the balloons can be slipped in between the strands to hold the balloons in place, at least temporarily ... I'd use something more secure if I was going to have this as an outdoor decoration.

Party invitations were easy - I ordered them from DigiSweets, too, then printed them at home on photo paper.  We used this design:

While all this was going on, in my spare time I was working on pieces for the Angry Birds carnival game we're going to play at the party - basically throwing stuffed birds at a tower of blocks to see if we can knock off the pigs.  There are a ton of designs for Angry Birds amigurumi on etsy and Ravelry, but I'm pretty good at winging these things, so I made up my own.  I'll have better pictures later, but I have to show off the Mustache Pig now, at least, because he's so stinking cute!

Reminds me of my old trombone teacher ... but I digress.  Anyway, in addition to the pigs and birds, we needed a tower that was larger than the wooden blocks we had on hand.  Luckily, I had been volunteering at LazyKid's school pizza day and saving the Capri Sun cartons to use as giant building blocks.  A few minutes on each one to break it down, flip it inside out so the brown cardboard was out, tape it together, and use a marker to apply a white-trash version of faux bois, and voila!  Wood blocks!

The only officially licensed Angry Birds item we've purchased for the party so far is a poster, which we found on Amazon.com.  We're using it to make a photo op where the kids can look through the hole in the poster and look like the red bird.  I used spray adhesive to stick the poster down to a piece of cardboard, then trimmed neatly around the edges to get rid of the sticky overspray.  And then I did the unthinkable:

This would have been a lot less stressful if I had remembered to do it when there was still time to have a replacement shipped if I screwed it up.  Luckily, it all worked fine:

Realizing that having somebody's hand in the picture looks dorky, I used some extra cardboard and duct tape to make handles for the back so the kids can hold them invisibly.

Well, this post is getting way too long, and I'm nowhere near done, so I'd better just arbitrarily end now.  Check back soon for more Angry Birds posts!