3 Pipe Cleaner Crowns (+ a Birthday Party Sale!)

DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party

DIY Pipe Cleaner Crown

You know us, we take any opportunity to wear a crown. We have been watching the delicate gold crown trend with wide eyes, and even made our own version here when our team member Hailey got married! And we have an entire e-book full of printable crowns for every holiday! Today’s crown is kid-friendly and YOU-friendly, easy to make for any (every) occasion, and ready to be personalized.

Supplies:

Pipe cleaners

Pom poms

Gems

Glue

DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party

Instructions:

  1. Start by creating the base of your crown with 1 or multiple pipe cleaners. You can create a headband type form or a circle crown form.
  2. Carefully shape the pipe cleaners to your desired shape. Be carefully not to make any sharp unwanted bends.
  3. Create the pipe cleaner crown shape you want, using any of the photos above for reference.
  4. Embellish your crown with gems, pom poms, and anything else your heart desires to add some sparkle!
  5. Plan a birthday party to wear your crown to

DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party DIY pipe cleaner crown for a birthday party

Birthday party supplies on sale now

In honor of naming June Birthday Month, all of our birthday party printables are 15% off for the entire month of June! Stock up now for a year’s worth of family birthdays.

Shop more crowns, invitation suites, banners, and everything you need to make all your 2020 birthday parties special! And keep an eye out for even more birthday items joining our shop all throughout this month!

All of the items below are 15% off now

 

DIY Painted Blocks for Kids

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. 

DIY painted blocks for kids wooden toys

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. 

DIY painted blocks for kids wooden toys

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:

  1. 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.
  2. After that, let the blocks sit for the allotted time drying time.
  3. Finally, use child-friendly sealant if you’re worried about your children eating the blocks. 

DIY painted blocks for kids wooden toys

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!

 

Birthday Cake Topper with Brother

As you can probably tell by now, we can’t stop talking about how much we love National Craft Month. It’s the perfect time to celebrate your creativity and get to work crafting up all of the amazing things you’ve been thinking about. If you are feeling like you are in a bit of a craft funk we have teamed up with our friends at Brother to bring you a sweet yet impactful project to get you out of your slump and on your way to crafting town!

Using the Brother P-touch ELITE we created these colorful flag cake toppers inspired by our newest line from Abby Low found in the Lars Print Shop. You may know by now that we love celebrating and since we are already celebrating craft month we figured we may as well celebrate anyone and everyone out there with a March birthday with these adorable birthday flag cake toppers.

Birthdays are so very special and we tend to go bananas decorating and that’s part of the reason we love using the P-touch ELITE because of how easy it makes it to create personalized ribbon! Think up your birthday phrases and print them on ribbon (the P-touch Embellish ELITE prints on tape too!) so you can create the perfect phrases, specific for your birthday queen or king!  

Here’s how you do it! 

Directions: 

  1. Pick your color palette 
  2. Paint your skewers to the colors you have chosen. We painted three skewers of each color and used 21 skewers and six colors (the more the better in our opinion)
  3. Set aside to dry. 
  4. Paint the wood beads in the same palette, three of each color in all six colors. 
  5. Set aside to dry. 
  6. Download the Ptouch Design&Print app to your phone!
  7. Select “Create your own label”.
  8. Select “text” and add in whatever you want the ribbon to say or even a graphic!
  9. Once the text is in click “Done”.
  10.  Adjust the “Taper length” depending on how long your message is. 
  11. Scroll to the left to find “label alignment” and align your text to the right” 
  12. Once your text is in and the alignment is correct click “print” 
  13. Set your ribbon to the side and begin building your flag frame. 
  14. Attach a piece of wire around  the dried painted skewer by wrapping it around the top. 
  15. Once the wire is attached, measure the length of the wire against the length of the ribbon and cute wire accordingly. 
  16. Using the glue stick apply glue to the back of the ribbon. 
  17. At the mid point on the ribbon place the skewer there and fold the ribbon in half so the wire is in in between the two halves. 
  18. Attach a painted wood bead to the top using a hot glue gun. 
  19. Place completed flag in cake! 

We love using the Brother P-touch ELITE it is the perfect easy-to-use ribbon and tape printer that you can use to create any and all of the exciting crafts you have planned for this Craft Month! We can’t wait to see what you create!

The green polka-dot background is from our Lars Print Shop. Thank you @glweddingcakes for the lovely cake!

Birthday Printable Collection

Printable Birthday Suite

We love the colors, the sentiment and the craftiness. Here’s what we have!

Printable Birthday Invitations

You know what they say, first impressions are everything; so, let your guests know they are in for a great time with these invitations!

Printable Birthday Banner

Is a birthday party really a birthday party without a proper birthday banner?! We think not! Hang this up to set that party mood!

Birthday Crown

We heard you can only have a proper birthday if you are wearing a crown… so, we present you what might be the best birthday crown you have ever seen!

Cake Toppers

Lest the Birthday Queen or King forget how old they (yes, this has happened to me once or twice…) remind them with these cake toppers that are good for anyone ages 1-1,000!

Thank you to Dahlia Bakes for the scrumptious and beautiful cake. If you’re local in Utah Valley, we highly recommend her work!

Printable Birthday Decorations e-book

You can find all the individual components in the shop OR you can find them all in our Birthday e-book here. Here are a few must haves for your next birthday Party!

As always, we can’t wait to see how you make your birthday come to life with our printables. Tag us with #LarsMakes so we can see! 

Valentines Gift Box with Arlo Cookies

Printable Valentine cookie box

When Luna (creator of Arlos cookies) agreed to work with us we were ecstatic! We knew we wanted to create a box to put the cookies in but we needed them to be just as lovely as the cookies would inevitably be. With our task at hand we set out to make the most beautiful Valentine gift box worthy that would be carrying the elegant cookies.

To say we love the cookies and the box designed to carry them is an understatement! Wether you are putting Arlos Cookies in these boxes or any other Valentines treats they are bound to amplify your valentines gifting this season! Get your Valentine Cookie Box here!

Be sure to tag us with #larsloveslove so we can see how lovely your valentines gifts turn out!!!

Find Arlos Cookies

Website of Arlos Cookies
@arlocookies on Instagram

 

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

 

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

Happy Birthday Lyric BannerDIY 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

Happy Birthday Lyric Banner

Instructions:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Choose one color for each phrase or mix it up!
  4. Once you have all the letters cut out, spell out all your phrases to get everything in order
  5. On the backside of each letter, hot glue a continuous piece of twine along the top edge of the letter.
  6. 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.
  7. Leave excess twine on each end to allow for some wiggle room when hanging your garlands.
  8. Repeat for additional phrases.
  9. Hang up all the birthday phrases, varying the garlands so you can see all the phrases clearly.

It’s party time!Happy Birthday Lyric Banner

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

DIY Happy Birthday Banners

DIY Happy Birthday BannersHappy Birthday Lyric Banner

Photography by Jane Merritt | Crafting by Rebecca Hansen

DIY Cloud Balloons

DIY cloud balloons

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.DIY cloud balloons

DIY hair pinatas

Throw a hair party with some festive pinatas!

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.Throw a hair party with some festive pinatas!Throw a hair party with some festive pinatas!

See the full troop and instructions below! 

DIY Bunny Party Hats

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.DIY bunny hats

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 bunny part hats

MATERIALS1 EDITED

DIY Easter bunny party hats

Materials:

Instructions:

  1.  Make the party hats with this template. Any classic party hat template will do.
  2. Cut out eyes and noses for the bunny with simple circles and triangles and long thin pieces for the whiskers.
  3. Attach the eyes and nose with glue dots.
  4. Draw in a simple mouth with your permanent marker.
  5. Cut slits in the side of the hat with your craft knife.
  6. Cut out ears and fold at the bottom about ¼” up.
  7. Insert the ears and secure with tape inside.
  8. 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!

bunny part hat stepsDIY bunny part hatsDIY bunny part 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.

Birthday pancake cake

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 candle crown

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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.

DIY Birthday cake chandelier

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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.