DIY Bunny Party Hats

Brittany

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March 30, 2015

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Tic Tac® brand. I received compensation to write this post through the Tic Tac Pack Program; however, all opinions expressed are my own.

As you know, it’s my personal belief that all holidays deserve a party, and Easter is no exception. That’s why I came up with this DIY bunny party hat to celebrate in true bunny style. They’re perfect for an Easter hunt or sporting at the dinner table. No big pink bunny costumes (a la a certain Christmas movie) needed! See below for the full tutorial.

I used the new Bunny Burst Tic Tac® mints to inspire my color palette for the bunny hats. They are a blend of artificially flavored green apple and grape mints and, of course, I ate a few along the way, to really get into the spirit. These little mints were the perfect confetti accessory for the table scene. Wouldn’t they be cute left out as a surprise for your guests mixed with the party hats?!

DIY Easter bunny party hats

Materials:

cardstock in various pastel shades
scissors
permanent marker
glue dots
craft knife
twine
Easter Bunny Party Hat Template

Instructions:

Make the party hats with this template. Any classic party hat template will do.
Cut out eyes and noses for the bunny with simple circles and triangles and long thin pieces for the whiskers.
Attach the eyes and nose with glue dots.
Draw in a simple mouth with your permanent marker.
Cut slits in the side of the hat with your craft knife.
Cut out ears and fold at the bottom about ¼” up.
Insert the ears and secure with tape inside.
Attach twine to the sides of the inside of the hat to tie around the head. Secure with tape.

Voila!

Enjoy the Easter party with your new bunny hats!

Photography by Trisha Zemp

This post was sponsored by the Tic Tac® brand. All content and opinions are my own! Thank you for supporting the sponsors that keep The House That Lars Built running!

For more Easter craft ideas and inspiration, take a look at the Lars Easter Pinterest board.

DIY Cloud Balloons

Brittany

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November 8, 2016

2

These cloud balloons make me want to sing Frank Sinatra’s “Fly me to the Moon” all day long! This is a super simple DIY but one with big impact. We first created them for our Galentine’s Hearts, Hands, Eyes, party, but thought you might like to learn how to make them too. All you need is white balloons and a glue gun and you’ll be feeling like you’re on cloud nine! You can secure these to a backdrop as we’ve done here on blue paper, or you could hang them from the ceiling. Cloud balloons would be perfect for a baby shower, a birthday party backdrop, or any occasion that you want to give a little lift.

Continue

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

Brittany

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January 4, 2018

0

Download the letter templates to make your own DIY Happy Birthday Banners!

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

Materials:

12×12-inch card stock in 3 colors, about 15-20 pages of each color depending on how long you want your garland to be
Natural Twine
Hot Glue gun
Die-cut machine (This will make this project a breeze!) or scissors (this one is our favorite!)
Ribbon
Glitter
Hole punch

Instructions:

If you have a Cricut machine, use font “Cricut Sans” at size 450. Each letter should be 6.25 inches tall. We used the phrases: “Happy Birthday To You,” “Make A Wish,” and “Hooray” in all caps. Cut out all letters with Cricut.
If you don’t have a Cricut Machine, you can use a similar font in Adobe Illustrator or Word and size them so they’re 6.25 inches tall for a similar look. Hand cut out all letters.
Choose one color for each phrase or mix it up!
Once you have all the letters cut out, spell out all your phrases to get everything in order
On the backside of each letter, hot glue a continuous piece of twine along the top edge of the letter.
Glue each letter quite close to each other for each word, and leave a bigger space in between words. Then repeat the phrase until you have the desired length you want.
Leave excess twine on each end to allow for some wiggle room when hanging your garlands.
Repeat for additional phrases.
Hang up all the birthday phrases, varying the garlands so you can see all the phrases clearly.

It’s party time!

Photography by Jane Merritt | Crafting by Rebecca Hansen

DIY hair pinatas

Brittany

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January 21, 2016

1

On Tuesday evening we were pleased as punch to host the release of Rubi Jones‘ book, The Art of Hair, with a braiding workshop and book signing here at the studio. We knew we needed something punchy and celebratory for the event so we decided to go all out with a brigade of hair-inspired piñatas. Along for the ride are a metallic comb, hair brush, blow dryer, shears (I was corrected that they are not scissors), and hairspray. “But, Brittany, what do I need a brigade of hair-inspired pinatas for?” Friends, the possibilities are endless (and I’m sure you can add to it):

braiding party (a la the intro of Full House)
treat yo’ self night
your salon, your friend’s salon, your wanna be salon (a la, your living room)
girl’s night out
weekend retreat
your bathroom/party room
surprise at a friend’s door for a birthday
and last but not least, Galentine’s Day party as shown by Kelly Of Studio DIY

You catch the drift.

Well, I’ve combined with Kelly of Studio DIY to complete the hair product brigade with an adorable hair spray complete with an air pouf along with a detailed step by step tutorial. Scroll down to see how hers completes the puzzle or check the full post here.

See the full troop and instructions below!

Continue

Bird gift topper

Brittany

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January 10, 2022

9

Gift topper idea

One of my favorite ways to jazz up a gift is to keep some bright wrapping papers in my arsenal and then add on a cute gift topper. That could be a pretty ribbon or gift tag. Here, I took a more artistic approach and cut out a bird out of black paper and added in some cute details with paint. It’s simple yet striking, no?! It’s a fun little project for feeling like you’re reaching your creative quota for one day.

Solid colored wrapping papers

It all starts with some awesome solid colored wrapping papers in great colors. Here are some great options that you can find in a bundle if you’re looking to add to your gift wrap station. Here’s another brand in really great color options.

Bird gift topper

Hopefully you already have everything you’ll need for this one since it’s so simple, but if not, here’s what you’ll need!

Materials:

black cardstock paper
thin paint brush
white gouche, acrylic or paint marker
peach acrylic paint or peach paper
black pen
bird template SVG and PDF
craft cutter or scissors
paper adhesive mounts (we love this brand) or mini brads

Instructions

Start by cutting out the shape of the bird with scissors or on your craft machine*
Paint decorations on the bird with white paint or marker (marker is easier to control if you don’t have much experience with painting)
Affix a paper adhesive mount to the back of the wing for the frontal wing and to the front of the bottom of the wing for the back wing.
Cut out the flag for the bird and if you’ve cut it out on black paper (like we did) paint it peach.
Write in your gift tags on the flag part.
Gift it away!

Of course, you can get into the spirit of decoration and go wild painting and I say have fun with it! This project is one that is meant for getting out your creativity.

Here are some more gift topper ideas:

Prize ribbon Gift topper
3D paper flower gift topper
Tissue paper flower gift topper

Show us your projects on Instagram by using the hashtag #LarsMakes

Photography and crafting by Ashley Isenhour

Paper Flower Gift Topper

Brittany

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September 23, 2022

6

Gift Wrapping with Flowers

You know me. I love gift wrap! Probably more so than the present itself. And even though my birthday is in June, it turns out plenty of people have fall birthdays, which means this paper flower gift topper will definitely come in handy. The best part is, since these flowers are paper, you can save them for plenty of birthdays and occasions for presents to come! I came up with this tissue paper flower gift topper as a fun way to add a dash of whimsy to a gift and it’s super easy. It’s based on paper poms, so if you know how to make those, you’re good to go!

Instructions

First, cut a piece of tissue paper 6″ wide and about 18″ long (depends on how large you’d like it)
Next, cut another piece of tissue paper about 2″ wide and 18″ long. This will be the center of your flower.
Now do an accordion fold up the tissue paper, about 3/4″ wide.
After the accordion folds are done, fold the accordion-folded paper in half.
Now staple the center of the fold.
Once the paper is stapled, cut a point at each end of the paper.
Next, glue the two ends of the paper together and fan out the blossom so that it spreads evenly around.
Using the template, cut out leaves from the green paper and fold down the center. Use whatever size you prefer for your flowers!
Glue the topper to the gift and glue the paper leaves underneath.

Voila! All done!

Photography by Trisha Zemp

More Inspiration

Loved this tutorial on our paper flower gift topper and need more ideas? We have plenty of gift toppers to choose from! See our popular bird gift topper here. Also check out these 3D paper flower gift toppers. Another classic is this prize ribbon gift topper. And call me premature, but prep early for the holidays with these classic paper holiday greenery gift toppers.

DIY Doily Honeycomb Decorations

Brittany

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January 20, 2021

4

DIY Paper Doily Honeycomb Decorations

You might recall that we made these custom Honeycomb Christmas decorations from templates that we designed, but we wanted it to be a bit easier. Turns out, doilies are great because the shape is created for you and all you have to do is cut them down the middle and assemble. Plus, the doilies create that beautiful lace effect.

The More You Know

I had to do a bit of digging to find out more about what a doily is and why we have them. Turns out, the term doily came from the last name “Doily”, a London firm of linen merchants who made fringed napkins in the 1700’s. Then, from 1711, a doily was a small ornamental napkin used at dessert. THEN, they were placed on the backs of chairs to protect them from the oil that men used on their hair. Nowadays, some people use them to protect surfaces of tables from decorative objects.

Ok, so now that we know the history of doilies, let’s get to learning how to make these honeycomb decorations. I’m thinking they would be lovely to give as a Valentine or adorn a branch tree (you know we love a decorative tree!) or taking the place of a wreath.

Here’s how to make it!

DIY Honeycomb Valentine ornament

Materials:

See above for where to get the doilies
Glue gun
Scissors or paper cutter

Instructions:

Measure a line down the middle of the doily to create an axis of symmetry
Cut doilies in half. If your doilies are heart-shaped and have different colors on each side (ours are white on the back) keep the right-sided halves separated from the left-sided ones. You will alternate gluing left and right sides of the heart.
Glue a line down the middle of one half-doily (starting at the axis and moving to the edge.
Place another doily on top. For heart-shaped doilies or ones with different colors on each side, glue the same colors together. The contrasting color/blank side will now be facing up.
Glue two lines down the sides of the doily on the top of the stack.
Place another doily on top, again gluing the same colors together.
Carefully separate the layers where glue may have escaped to lower layers through the holes in the doily.
Repeat steps 4-8 until the stack is tall enough to open up and wrap back around so that the first and last layers meet. This will be about 50 layers or 25 whole doilies.
While pressing down the layers of doilies, glue a line down the spine of the stack and even it out with the warm tip of the glue gun. Make sure that all the layers are adhered together with this glue.
Glue a loop of ribbon to the top of the spine.
Fan open the ornament, carefully separating any layers that may still be stuck together, and glue the first and last layers together. You’re finished!

How to make a circle doily honeycomb decoration

And the tutorial is a bit different if you’re doing a heart. Here’s how to make it:

Would love to see how you put them to use. What will you do with them? Tag us when you make yours with #LarsLovesLove #LarsMakes.

Like these? You’ll also love these:

Honeycomb Ornaments
Lunch sack honeycomb decorations
Printable honeycomb cards

DIY Painted Blocks for Kids

Brittany

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May 18, 2020

1

Did you catch the #toddlertemptation I did with Jasper this weekend on Instastories? (You can see it saved in highlights) I set out a plate for his dinner and left the room for a bit (2 minutes max?) and asked him not to eat anything until I got back. Of course, I recorded the whole thing. Well, that little sneak totally snuck soooo many bites! He was very stealthy about it so I don’t know whether to be impressed or worried!

While I am a little heartbroken about leaving the baby stage, watching him grow is the most amazing thing ever. And truthfully, he gets more fun to play with every day!

You might remember this old post about his nursery. It’s crazy to think that was more than two years ago!! It’s pretty clear that I love to decorate and craft and change things all the time, so it should come as no surprise to you that I add and remove things from his room constantly.

One thing that I am introducing to his menagerie of toys are hand-painted blocks! This is a project that I’ve been wanting to do for awhile and I finally scheduled it to make it happen (one of the perks of crafting for a living!). In fact, for my sister’s baby shower, we left out a ton of blank wooden blocks and guests could add their own pattern to it so you get a variety of handpainted blocks from your dear friends. I’ve been wanting a set for myself ever since.

There are tons of cute and trendy wood blocks for sale right now, but I wanted ones that were more specific and personal for him. If you read my piece from March, Why I Feel Called to Craft, you’ll get why I wanted to paint my own blocks.

All of my life, I’ve watched my great grandma, grandma, and mom crafting. You’ll recall my family’s famous fridge quote that “a creative mess is better than tidy idleness.” Right now, I find myself pulled by those two opposites – do I want my home to be tidy or do I want to play and craft? Sure, painting Jasper’s blocks myself might have made a mess, but I made memories while doing it.

When I initially set about decorating his room, I stuck with moody-but-airy colors like muted blues, greens, and greys, with red providing the pop of color and energy. Remember, whimsical color schemes always need some neutral hue to ground everything! For the blocks, I decided to deviate a bit from my original color scheme and go with ~summery~ colors. Pinks and aquas and yellows were too hard to resist!

How to make your own painted blocks

I found this great blank set of blocks that wasn’t too expensive. In addition, it’s even nicely sanded and comes with a box to put them away in.

Materials:

Set of wood blocks from here
Acrylic or house paints in a variety of colors
Paintbrushes
If you’re worried about your children eating the blocks, add a child proof sealant onto the paint
Blue tape

Instructions:

Start painting some wood blocks a solid color. Or stripes, or whatever you’d like. If you want super straight lines (I wanted mine to feel more handpainted) use blue tape (and follow the instructions on the tape!) to block off your colors.
After that, let the blocks sit for the allotted time drying time.
Finally, use child-friendly sealant if you’re worried about your children eating the blocks.

Color scheme ideas for your painted blocks

Here are some ideas of color schemes we love!

Jasper’s colors

Circus colors

Spring colors

Bold colors

Quirky colors

Hopefully, Jasper will have as much fun with these blocks as I did! I want him to look back on his childhood the way I do mine; it was full of life and color and creativity and inspiration from the people I love.

That’s it! Would love to see if you make some! To be featured, tag us on instagram with #LarsMakes or #LarsKids so we can see them!

Other wood blocks we love

If you would rather purchase some beautiful wood blocks instead of painting your own, here are some of our favorites!

DIY Birthday cake chandelier

Brittany

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September 18, 2014

1

It was this time 6 years ago that I started The House that Lars Built for a residential design class for graduate school. I used my new blog as a place to put my homework assignments and my ode to Trader Joes* and other frivolous yet totally important stuff. It continued that way for a couple of years until our wedding was released online and people started to ask how we made the decor from it, like the big paper flowers. Soon I was getting asked to contribute DIYs to different websites and all of a sudden, without realizing it, Lars became a DIY site. Though it’s only been a couple of years that I found the DIY focus on Lars, it’s been SIX years since I started it for class and that deserves a celebration, non?

To kick off the birthday festivities Ashley made a birthday cake chandelier that would be perfect to create as an heirloom piece and bring it out for each holiday. She took the traditional tiered chandelier, flipped it upside down, added some birthday candles, and voila! Let’s get to it shall we?

photography by Trisha Zemp
craft by Ashley Isenhour
styling by Brittany Jepsen

Click below to see the step by step tutorial!

Materials:

scissors, x-acto knife, cardboard, posterboard or cardstock, 3/4 yard of fabric for cake (optional), pencil, ruler, glue gun, pipe cleaner, 1/6 yard of contrasting fabric for trim, pipe cleaners, paper straws, tissue paper, paint (optional), embroidery thread

Step 1: Use your x-acto knife to cut two circles (one about 3″ smaller in diameter than the other) out of cardboard. Cut two circles of the same sizes out of colored cardstock. Mine were 12″ and 9″ in diameter. Nesting mixing bowls make great templates 🙂 Glue the cardstock circles to the corresponding cardboard circles. These circles will be the tops of your cake layers.

Step 2: Cut 6″ strips out of posterboard or colored cardstock.

Step 3: Cut 8″ strips of your fabric. Place your posterboard strip on top of your fabric strip. Fold the extra inch of fabric over the bottom of your strip and secure with hot glue. Pull the extra inch of fabric at the top taut, fold it over the top of the posterboard strip, and secure with hot glue. Repeat steps for the wall of your top cake layer. (Note: the easier way is obviously to use a colored posterboard or cardstock to begin with… I just go I little crazy sometimes 😉 )

Step 4: Squirt a 3″ strip of hot glue 1″ down from the top of your posterboard strip. Place the edge of your cardboard circle on the strip of glue. Squirt another 3″ strip of glue and roll the cardboard circle along the glue strip. Continue this process until the entire wall of your cake layer is wrapped around the cardboard circle. Secure the overlapping end with hot glue. Repeat process for the other cake layer.

Step 5: Squirt hot glue along the bottom rim of your top cake layer. Attach top cake layer to the bottom tape layer. You may need to squirt more hot glue along the seam once the top layer is placed on the bottom layer.

Step 6: Twist the ends of a few pipe cleaners together to make one long pipe cleaner (long enough to wrap around your bottom cake layer). Hot glue one end of a fabric strip to the pipe cleaner and wrap the pipe cleaner so that it is completely covered. Hot glue wrapped pipe cleaner around the bottom rim of your bottom cake layer. Repeat at the top rim of your bottom cake layer and top rim of your top cakelayer.

Step 7: Cut paper straws in half to make candles. You can paint them or leave them as they are. Cut 1″ squares of tissue paper. Pinch each square in the middle and twist. Squirt a bit of hot glue in the end of each straw and stick the twisted end of your tissue in there. (This genius idea is from Icing Design Online).

Step 8: Hot glue the base of each candle on the inside rim of your top layer.

Step 9: Cut 6 strands of embroidery thread to the same length. Bundle threads together and tie tight double knots along the length of the bundle. Cut to the sides of each knot. Hot glue these “faux french knots” onto your cake layers as decoration.

Step 10: Cut 2 long strands of embroidery thread to the same length. Holding the strands together, fold them in half and tie a knot at the mid point, leaving a loop. Hot glue the four loose ends to the inside rim of your top cake layer. Space the four ends as evenly as you can. Once glue is dry and secure use loop to hang cake chandelier.

*Are you just as puzzled why there isn’t one in Provo? Let’s get it here! Join the Facebook group! I’m serious! I do love me my TJs and I made the Facebook group to prove it.

Birthday pancake cake

Brittany

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September 23, 2014

6

A pancake cake. I know, I know “but the calories, the sugar…”, SNOOZE FEST! It’s a PAN and it’s a CAKE! A pancake cake! And it’s delicious, which these days is my hashtag 1 requirement. Can you imagine anything more scrumptious to arrive to than a pancake cake surprise awaiting the birthday boy/girl?

Photography by Laura Sumrak
baking by ME Hammond

Check out more birthday projects here
And more delicious recipes here

See the full recipe below

Birthday Cake Pancake Batter:

1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. funfetti cake mix (yellow cake mix also works great)
1 t. baking powder
1 T. sugar
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla extract
3/4 c. milk
pinch of salt
Sprinkles

1. Mix together dry ingredients
2. Add eggs, vanilla, and milk to dry ingredients (whisk well, try to avoid clumps)
3. Fry pancakes in a medium high griddle
4. Top with syrup and sprinkles
5. Eat up!

DIY Birthday Felt Pennants

Brittany

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July 8, 2020

0

Why decorate?

Birthday decor is just too fun. And since birthdays are so rare, celebrate longer by crafting in advance! You can print off felt pennant patterns and phrases from our shop, then iron them onto felt. These make for perfect props in photo shoots, mini-celebrations, and they’re cute enough to leave up long past the birthday.

How to make DIY Birthday Pennants

Materials

Felt (8×12″. We used the beautiful colors here at Purl Soho)
Iron-on Vinyl (we used these from Cricut)
Scissors or Craft Cutting Machine (we love our Cricut Maker!)
Iron or Easy Press from Cricut
wooden dowels
Handwritten birthday phrases (you can find the ones we made here)
Pennant shape (you can find the SVG and PDF templates here)
Glue gun

Instructions

1. Connect the Cricut machine to your computer & open Design Space. Upload the pennant document and cut the triangle & rectangular shape on a piece of card-stock. (You will use these as a template to trace on the felt) OR the Cricut Machine can cut it out for you.

2. Upload the desired phrase document to your Cricut machine and MIRROR it! (Select the “Mirror” toggle while editing). **If you go to cut and the letters separate & aren’t in order as the phrase layout shows, go back to edit & highlight all the letters, right click & select “Attach,” and then they should stay in the correct layout.

3. Place the iron-on material shiny side down on your Cricut adhesive cutting mat. Cut out the phrase, checking again that it’s mirrored so it will be read the right way when it’s ironed on!

4. Pull the iron-on phrase off of the cutting mat. Then separate the two layers of the iron-on material, leaving the phrase stuck to the clear layer. (Be sure to remove the small pieces in the holes of the letters!)

5. Trace the triangle & rectangle shape from the template onto a piece of felt & cut them out.

6. Lay the iron-on phrase onto the triangle piece of the felt pennant, with the clear layer on top and the phrase touching the felt so the phrase isn’t mirrored, but is read from left to right.

7. Hold an iron set to 280 degrees F. on the pennant for 30 seconds. Wait for the iron-on to cool completely before removing the clear layer. (Check the Cricut website for information on heat & time to hold the iron or Cricut Easy Press on your fabric, depending on fabric type and iron-on type.)

8. Cut four strips of extra felt for your ties – the length will depend on how long you want the ties to be & whether you want to tie them in a bow or knot them.

9. Layer two felt tie strips, lined up on top of each other, and hot glue the very ends together. Do this to all 4 strips, creating 2 ties total.

10. Glue the two ties an inch away from the corners on the vertical edge of the triangle pennant.

11. Glue the rectangle piece of fabric on the vertical edge of the triangle pennant, covering the ties.

12. Wait for the glue to dry & tie your pennants on a dowel. Enjoy your festive birthday decor!

Go celebrate!

I’m sure I’m like you right now– you probably miss spending time with certain people right now. While I am glad to be safe, I miss people. So! I’ve decided to start birthday researching and planning for different people in my life ~in advance.~ It’s something to keep me busy, and it’s a way I can feel and share love. One easy place to start is to make a DIY felt pennant! This piece of decor is cute, classic, and personal. And you can send it to a friend in the mail if you can’t celebrate together.

DIY birthday candle crown

Brittany

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September 22, 2014

0

You guys loved the birthday cake chandelier. Hooray! Well, continuing on the Lars birthday celebration, here’s another for you, a birthday candle crown. Your birthday is no longer complete without it, right? Ashley nailed it again with this fun crown that your special birthday friend will love.

photography by Trisha Zemp
crafting by Ashley Isenhour
styling by Brittany Jepsen

Get the full tutorial below!

Materials:

scissors
cardstock
1/6 yard of fabric
gold thread for embellishment
safety pin
glue gun
paper straws
tissue paper
paint (optional)
crepe paper or fabric strip

Step 1: Cut a strip of posterboard 1.5″ wide and long enough to fit a little loosely around the guest of honor’s head (the candles will take up some space and make the crown fit more snugly). Glue ends together.

Step 2: Cut 3 1″ strips of fabric and 3 strands of gold thread at the same length. Hot glue the end of a gold thread to one end of each of the fabric strips. Secure the ends of the strips together with a safety pin and pin into your carpet / old upholstered chair / the pajama bottoms you’re wearing. Braid strands together. Braid enough to go around your crown twice.

Step 3: Hot glue fabric braids around posterboard base. Tuck end to the inside of the base and secure with hot glue.

Step 4: Cut paper straws in half to make candles. You can paint them or leave them as they are. Cut 1″ squares of tissue paper. Pinch each square in the middle and twist. Squirt a bit of hot glue in the end of each straw and stick the twisted end of your tissue in there. (This great idea is from Icing Design).

Step 5: Hot glue the base of each candle along the inside of your posterboard base. Try to space candles as evenly as possible.
Step 6: Cut a fabric or crepe paper strip and glue over the candles along the inside of the crown. This just makes the crown more comfortable to wear.