Carter's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party - Project #1

We just recently celebrated our little Carter's 2nd birthday.  I'll be honest here and say that I haven't quite had my normal crafting "mojo" lately.  I normally go ALL OUT for every party, including lots of different DIY projects, so this is not normal for me.  Right after my miscarriage, I started getting really bad headaches, and have suffered since then almost every day.  I've been having some other pretty scary symptoms as well (numbness, dizziness) so I've pretty much worried myself sick.  I have been to several doctors, and will be getting an MRI done on Monday.  I'm honestly scared to death about this MRI, but I've been trying to distract myself as much as possible, and making things has always been therapeutic for me.  So, since my little man needed some special decor for his BIG day, I made a few little goodies that are very inexpensive and easy.  Just thought I'd share a few of my projects over the next couple of days, with a full party post coming soon!

My first project was this cute Mickey Mouse topiary.  I found the three styrofoam pieces at the Dollar Tree ($2 total for all three pieces), used a clay pot from Michael's ($1.67),  a dowel from WalMart ($ .37) and had red and black spray paint, black tissue paper, ribbons and paper shreds already on hand.  So, my total cost for this project was just under $5 including tax - can't beat that!

All I did was glue the styrofoam pieces together, spray them black (note - styrofoam doesn't take spray paint very well - it starts sort of eating away at it.  You should use a light coat if you are going to do this), hot glue the dowel into the bottom of the "Mickey" shape, and then stab it into the floral foam in the pot.  I then cut a bunch of pieces of black tissue, added some hot glue to the back of them, and stabbed them into the floral foam using a pencil eraser.  I added paper shreds to cover the floral foam in the pot, and then glued two white paper circles to the front to look like Mickey "pants."  For a finishing touch, I tied on some ribbons that matched my other party colors (red, black, aqua and yellow).  Easy, and very cute!

More projects to come, including an easy party wreath, some fun "subway" birthday art, and an amazing banner made by my mom!

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