What could make this classic apple a bit more attractive to your Preschooler?
Try turning his snack into a Mickey Mouse Apple. With the use of two small black cardstock circles and two small pieces of tape, you’ve got a Mickey Apple!
First wash your apple and dry it really well so the tape will stick. Make two circles on black cardstock. I traced a lid to a container that is the size of a typical spice container. Then cut them out and tape them face down. Bend back the “ears” so that they fit the apple. That’s it- you’re done!
It’s the simplest thing to do, but effective. As soon as my six-year-old and two-year-old saw the apples, they both wanted the Mickey one! Just make sure that your little Mouseketeer takes the ears and pieces of tape off the apple before they bite into it.
Which one do you think your Mouseketeer will pick?
I’m so excited to give one of you my FAVORITE craft punch! Of course, it’s a Mickey Mouse Icon Punch!
From the 4th of July flag garland, to the summer watermelon place mat, to yesterday’s post tutorial on how to make Mickey Mouse pocket-sized flash cards, I’m certain its obvious to all of you that this crafting tool gets a lot of use in my house.
This is a photo of what you will receive in the mail, if you’re the lucky winner! To enter this giveaway, please click on the link below that says “a Rafflecopter giveaway” . If you’re not familiar with Rafflecopter giveaways, don’t be scared, it’s relatively easy to enter. There are a series of ways to enter to win, such as liking Mouse Ears Mom’s Facebook page, following on Pinterest, commenting on a post and more. With each thing you do, you’ll be adding up your entries. The contest is open to all United States residents and you must be 18 years of age or older to enter. It will run for one week and I’ll email the winner within 48 hours of it’s completion. Good Luck!
The grocery store, a restaurant, the craft store, the pool where my son, Gavin has swim lessons, what do these all have in common? They are places where my daughter becomes a hand full of energy as she dramatically tries to escape her seat. Unless I have an entire bag of Goldfish crackers, it’s a battle. At one of Gavin’s recent swim lessons, I pulled out a stack of memory game cards that I keep in my purse for Gavin, and gave them my two-year-old daughter, Victoria. She loved them and it had her entertained, until I had to put them away. The paper weight was too thin, so she was bending them and the cards were too big for her to handle, so she was dropping them all over the wet floor.
This past weekend I was at Lowe’s with my family. Victoria and I explored the paint chip section. She thought that section was the best part of the store! So, I let her take some home and I decided to make her a set of five mini flash cards out of the paint chips. They are a perfect size for her little hands and for keeping in my purse. Of course I had to sprinkle a bit of Disney on them!
Here’s how I made them.
Gather supplies: white heavy weight card stock; 10 paint chips (2 of each color), glue stick, scissors or a paper-cutter, Mickey Mouse craft punch, hole puncher, and a piece of ribbon.
Trim one of each different color paint chips down to 3″ x 2.5″. This will take off the descriptive words on the paint chips. Also cut down the white card stock to 3″ x 2.5″. Use the remaining duplicate colored paint chips to make your Mickey Mouse craft punches for each flash card.
Glue the heavy weight white card stock to the back of the paint chip. This side will be your “counting” side of each card. Glue the Mickey craft punches to each card.
I used the rainbow to decide the order, one Mickey for red, two Mickeys for orange, three Mickeys for yellow, four Mickeys for green and five Mickeys for blue.
On the color side of the card use a Sharpie to write the corresponding number.
Last, hole punch the corner of each card and string ribbon to connect them all. Now they’re ready for your toddlers next adventure in the store!
There are Five Simple Steps to Make a Mickey Ribbon Topiary
On Monday, I shared with you my daughter and nephew’s Mickey and Minnie Mouse Flower and Garden Birthday Party. One of the décor items that I made for the party was the topiary that is pictured above. I didn’t invent the concept of a Mickey Mouse Topiary, nor did I make the World’s Greatest Version of a Mickey Mouse Topiary. However, I did make a lot of mistakes when making this craft and I’d like to share them with you, so your topiary will be simply perfect.
Before I share my “earned knowledge”, here are the basic five steps for making the Mickey Mouse Inspired Ribbon Topiary:
Purchase supplies: You will need three Styrofoam spheres (your choice in size, as long as there are two small spheres and one large sphere), ribbon of your choice, sewing pins, a wooden dowel for the topiary to attach to the base, white paint to use on the dowel, one cookie pop stick cut in half, a terra-cotta pot for the base and Styrofoam for the interior of the base where the dowel will anchor.
Cover the spheres with ribbon and attach the ears: Cut your ribbon into 2″ strips. Loop the ribbon and pin it into one of the smaller spheres. Continue to do this until you’ve filled almost all of the sphere, except for the bottom. This is where you will anchor it into the larger sphere by using half of your cookie pop stick. Continue to fill the second small sphere and then anchor it with the other half of the cookie pop stick. Now fill the large sphere the same way, except fill the entire sphere including the bottom.
Decide the height of your topiary and prepare the dowel: Keep in mind it will need to be inserted into the base of the pot and also through the largest sphere. Then cut the dowel and paint it accordingly.
Secure the dowel: Insert the painted wooden dowel into the base filled with a Styrofoam insert.
Secure the Mickey Mouse Head: Gently, push the completed Mickey Mouse shaped topiary down as far as you can onto the dowel without it coming out the top of the Mickey Mouse head.
Now for the bits of knowledge you should know before you start each step:
Supplies: When choosing your Styrofoam spheres and terra-cotta pot realize that once you put your ribbon and pins on the sphere two things happen. The spheres become significantly larger and heavier. Notice in the photo the differences between the two ears. The terra-cotta pot that you chose for the base should be heavy enough to support your topiary; otherwise your topiary is going to tip over.
Ribbon: When you’re choosing your topiary’s color scheme keep it simple if you’re planning on using printed ribbons. I found that five different ribbons made the topiary eye-catching, yet keeping the same color scheme of black, white and pink made the look uniform. I would suggest Grosgrain ribbon since it won’t fray as much when you’re pinning it. What’s really important is that you purchase enough ribbon. Half way through this project I ran out of the Minnie Mouse ribbon and had to go out of the area to purchase more. Also keep in mind that wider ribbon will cover more space than a narrow ribbon and plan accordingly.
Applying Ribbon: I found putting the three spheres together before starting the ribbon made it easier to keep his ears looking symmetrical. Once that was done, I took each ear off to apply the ribbon. Make sure you leave room for the ears to rest on the large Styrofoam sphere. See the photo above for my example of how the base of the finished ears looked before putting them on the larger sphere.
Height: Depending on the size of the base, wooden dowel and finished Mickey Mouse head, you might have to keep the topiary rather low. Several of my initial attempts to secure the topiary to the base failed because it would tip over.
Inserting the Dowel: Keep the amount of times you take the spheres off of the dowels to a minimum. The more times you take the topiary off of the dowel the less secure the finished product will be.
Environment: Most importantly, always plan for weather. Wind will knock this centerpiece over. If you’re having an outdoor event that is exposed to the wind, I would suggest a small topiary.
With these added pieces of knowledge you’re on your way to making a perfect Mickey Mouse Topiary that will wow your guests at your next Disney Party!
My nephew and my daughter’s birthdays are only two days apart. So when my sister-in-law, Karen Enke Wheeler suggested we throw a dual birthday party for my daughter’s 1st birthday and her son’s 2nd birthday, we instantly knew it had to be a Minnie and Mickey themed party. Mickey and Minnie birthday parties are super popular, so we thought we’d give it a twist. Both of our children love the outdoors and we knew from visiting Mickey’s home in Magic Kingdom that Mickey loves to garden and Minnie loves flowers. That’s how our idea of a Mickey and Minnie’s Flower and Garden Party was born. Today I’d love to share with you some of the unique items that we created for the party and some of the themed food that we served.
Since this was a party for both of our immediate and extended friends and families, we knew that we were going to have guests attending the party that didn’t know where to park. I created this Party Parking sign out of wood, spray painted it and then used vinyl lettering to complete it.
These two signs, featuring the birthday girl and boy’s names, were also made from wood. I wanted to make sure that even if it rained the signs would withstand the weather. The Minnie sign has a separate bow, which I glued on. To do the lettering, I found the font style on-line, printed out how Walt Disney might have written their names and used it as a guide to paint their names on the signs.
Here is a photo of our guests’ seating area. The day was a bit windy, so the balloons were a challenge. Unfortunately, all of the polka-dotted red and white balloons blew away during party set up. With my daughter walking through the area the tables looks like Minnie Mouse put on the finishing touches. Each pail, used to hold the balloons down, has a name of a little party guest painted on it. They were filled part way with dirt for the children to use later during the children’s flower-pot activity.
The kids table featured tons of polka dots. All the boys’ place settings were red and white for our pal, Mickey and pink and white for the little girls’ spots representing Miss Minnie Mouse. Karen and I purchased the terra-cotta pots at a local craft store and painted them. Inside of the pots we gave each child a Minnie or Mickey magic towel that they could use to clean up their hands after they were done planting their flower. The garden markers that they used to write their names on, I found in Target’s dollar section. The small gift, a Mickey Mouse vinylmation, was a surprise for them to take home.
When hosting a birthday party I like to have thank you favors for the adults who attend the party too. I made these “No Sew” Minnie Mouse Inspired Flowers which were from Victoria and given to her guests.
Karen made these adorable Mickey Mouse chocolate dipped Rice Krispie treats for my nephew to give his guests.
Here is a close up of the gift tags that I made for the Rice Krispie Treats. Once again I used my trusty Mickey Mouse punch. LOVE that thing!
The following photos will show you some of the food offerings that we had for the party guests. We kept it really simple, as most of our little guests preferred to play in the yard with the oversized balls, that polka dotted the lawn, than eat food. In addition to the items that are featured here, we had Pluto’s Hot Diggity Dogs, Pete’s Pizza and Daisy’s Drink Station, to name a few.
Minnie’s Flower Pot Surprise was yummy Dirt Cake!
Last But Not Least The Birthday Cakes and Cupcakes!
Thank you Fairy Godmother Kerri for such a beautiful birthday cake!
My nephew’s adorable Mickey Mouse birthday cake with Mickey inspired cupcakes made by Karen.
Karen and I had a wonderful time creating this party for our little Mouseketeers. I’d like to thank Tia Maiolatesi Welsh for taking the beautiful photos that I shared with you today!
What could make this classic apple a bit more attractive to your Preschooler?
Which one do you think your Mouseketeer will pick?
