DIY - Office Decorations/Gingerbread House

This is a fun idea, for either DIY - Office or Home Decorations or a in my case a Holiday Office Prank!! I made a large (almost life size) Gingerbread house in their office. I just used cardboard from our Office Depot orders (you know the "packaging" that comes when you order a large calendar or poster paper?), tan and brown duck tape and some images I printed off the computer! Oh yeah, and a strand of lights - it's hard to tell in the photo but it has working lights on the roof. Also, the joke is - he has a building permit on his gingerbread door. This was placed in the office of Building Licenses and Permits...wish I could have done more, like a pool or an "addition" because that is what they deal with alot.

Actually, people asked me if this took me a long time.

Nope, some tan duck tape, cardboard and I can go to town!! Wish I could of done Special Effects and model building for movies or the theater...always a passion of mine - so I can throw something together rather fast. You can't really tell but the "house" has lights too!!

No matter what, your office deserves a laugh - so have fun and enjoy!!

DIY: LEGO Decorations - Birthday Party for a Girl

This is how to decorate for a Lego Party. A couple of ideas using DUPLO Legos, Legos and paper!! Mine was for a little girl and we called it a "Block Party".

My 3 1/2 year old just LOVES Legos - all shapes and sizes, and she plays with her, mostly all male cousins for hours. So I wanted to have a simple low cost birthday party (i.e. No bouncy thingys or clowns or petting zoos) with a great theme and enough entertainment that could keep 10 kids of various ages entertained. Legos and Duplo Legos and Mega Blocks would be my answer. She mostly has pink sets, but she has sets of animals, and brightly colored prime colors too. So, even boys would feel welcome building with them. Anyway, when I googled "Lego Party", or "homemade Lego decorations"...I found they were almost ALL primary colors and geared more towards the boy parties. So instead of making it all PINK - how did I incorporate pastels and primary colors and look good. Here how. But since pictures are louder than words, take a look!

First I made a LEGO Frame: So here is the illustration on how to make your own picture frame out of LEGO's. I used various sizes of flat legos to make the back. Then I used skinny flat pieces to make the inner frame and secure the flat pieces (back of frame) together. Then I added "brick" legos around the outside to make a frame for the photo to go in.

As you can see I left an opening at the top of the frame - by NOT filling in with skinny flat legos, so it would work like a real frame.

I then had to really "hunt" for some pieces that worked like "hinges" or would allow me to connect legos to the back of a frame and position it so it would stand up. Luckily I found these hinges and another flat pieces to use. However, my back up was going to be placing 3 - 4 block legos, one or two rows up so it would stand in an "L" shape.

This is what it looked like without the photo, you can see that it looks like a quilt and I was able to incorporate "pastels" with a couple primary colors. My suggestion for a girls party anyway, is getting at least one PINK Tub of legos (ie. Lego.com or Target). I got the "Large Pink Box" and it came with these wonderful colors; pink, maroon, yellow, orange, light blue, light green (lime), and some of the primary colors making it a great mix and buy for the money! But Lego's are cheap I have decided.

Here is what I did for the LEGO Invitations:

First I made out of regular LEGOs that were various 1 row sizes and colors a block invitation. They eventually equalled 10 X 1 maximum and 7 blocks high - seemed to be the easiest and most workable size and would fit in the bubble envelope with the paper invitation.

Then I used the computer, a LEGO looking font and clear labels to create the words on the invitation.

Then I put them in with the paper invitation that had more information!

Here is a photo of all 8 invitations before I put the words on them. I wanted them to have equal colors and pieces of 1 X 2, 1 X 4 etc.

Here is a look at the inside of the invitation. I used a computer to create the BLOCK looking letters and fonts that I liked that complimented the look of LEGOs.

I made a LEGO Heart Centerpiece!!

I also made a couple of blocks for the buffet table. You can see it's made out of little boxes and tops from prescription bottles and construction paper.

Then I got really creative and made a chandelier out of DUPLO Legos to hang in the front doorway.

Another view of the DUPLO Lego chandelier, with a tea light in the top. I used hot glue and clear Scotch tape to keep the pieces together, so it would fall once we hung it.

Another view of the DUPLO Lego chandelier.

A closer look at the tea light. These DUPLO Lego's were from three of the sets of Princess sets. Cinderella, Belle, and Snow White. Enjoy!