Wednesday 13 June 2012

Gracie's Flip Flop Invitations


    Gracie turned 11 on June 3, five days after my major nose reconstruction.  I apologized profusely, but the fact was her birthday would stink this year, or so we thought.  I was really proud of her, she didn't put up much fuss.  I told her that she could invite her best friend for a sleep over on Saturday night.  Her best friend is a no maintenance kid, and I felt like I could be on bed rest if necessary.  It turns out that Gracie's birthday was pretty good after all.  She invited Abby over, they giggled most of the night and looked at Tiger Beat magazine, while eating profuse amounts of junk.  Sunday I felt well enough for us to go to the Great Canadian Cheese Festival, and we had a great time.  Her birthday turned out to be quiet, but good.
    Because of my surgery we had to delay her birthday party.  She was not really thrilled with this, but what choice was there.  We have rented the local pool for later this month, and are going to have a barbecue afterwards.  Because the pool is pretty large, we told her that she could invite as many kids as she would like... turns out she wants to invite... wait for it... wait for it 48 kids.  She also decided that she would like her birthday invitations (all 48 of them) to look like flip flops.  Now I really had to put my creative cap on.
    Most times I have a great idea, it does not translate beyond the idea.  I am pretty creative, just not always beyond my thinking.  This time, I have really surprised myself.  My idea actually turned out pretty cute.  I went to the dollar store yesterday and purchased 4 packs of foam sheets (they came 12 per package).  I also purchased two bunches of the silk flowers, and some bristol board.


    The first thing I did to begin was to trace out one of Elly's size 7 toddler shoes onto bristol board.  This became my template.  I then used that template to trace out 48 more shoes onto bristol board.
When that tedious task was complete, I then cut out 48 shoes using the foam.  I cut a strip of foam for each flip flop that measured almost a centimeter wide, and 20 centimeters long (the length of the foam sheet, pretty handy).  This strip would become the strap.


    After all of that tedious cutting was complete, I used my smallest hole punch and punched one hole in the top of the foam, and two half way down on both sides.


I then folded my strip in half and tapered the centre and the ends so that they would 
easily fit into the holes I had just punched into the foam.



I  then gently pulled the strip through the holes.


After the strip is in place, I used a glue stick to fasten a piece of bristol board onto the bottom of the foam (covering up the bottom).  I then put the printed information on the bottom (Grace's birthday, time, place, RSVP by...) on the bristol board.  The last step was to cut a single flower off of the bunch, and then to hot glue it onto the flip flop.


Gracie was delighted with the invitations (o.k. I've made 9 out of the 48, I've got a long night ahead of me).  I'm looking forward to hearing about her friend's reactions.

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