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Around Town : Party Monsters!

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This past Sunday, I got together all of my Professor Figgy gear and teamed up with The Martha Stewart Show's resident cookie expert, Dani Fiori of SweetDaniB, to help throw a monster-themed birthday party in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Dani delivered spectacularly as usual with an adorable cookie, as well as two fun and easy crafts - a monster hat and a monster paper bag puppet all easily made with materials available at your local crafts and/or party store. And I brought along my glow-slime kits, to make a fabulously huge and fun mess!

Check out the gallery below for a few pictures from the event and be sure to check out Dani's website and blog for more info and pictures on how you too can throw a fabulous, monster-themed party for your child's next birthday!

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Professor Figgy and Sweet Dani B!

1 Professor Figgy and Sweet Dani B!

Dani's adorable (and delicious!) monster cookies.

2 Dani's adorable (and delicious!) monster cookies.

We're ready to make monster hats! All you need are ready-made party hats, adhesive foam shapes, pipe cleaners, cut paper triangles and glue.

3 We're ready to make monster hats! All you need are ready-made party hats, adhesive foam shapes, pipe cleaners, cut paper triangles and glue.

Such a creative take on our hat craft - is that a bunny...monster?

4 Such a creative take on our hat craft - is that a bunny...monster?

My and Dani's hats keep an eye on the bouncy castle.

5 My and Dani's hats keep an eye on the bouncy castle.

Look at all of the hats we made!

6 Look at all of the hats we made!

The face-painter / balloon animal extraordinaire at the party could paint a mean pirate!

7 The face-painter / balloon animal extraordinaire at the party could paint a mean pirate!

Now on to monster puppets! We used orange paper lunch bags, pieces of colorful fur, googley eyes, various paper embellishments and fabri-tac.

8 Now on to monster puppets! We used orange paper lunch bags, pieces of colorful fur, googley eyes, various paper embellishments and fabri-tac.

Did I mention we also used adhesive foam shapes? This monster required lots of purple and pink ones.

9 Did I mention we also used adhesive foam shapes? This monster required lots of purple and pink ones.

Dani said I could only use 2 googley eyes per puppet, but I decided to use three. I also added paper teeth and a cute, red felt tongue!

10 Dani said I could only use 2 googley eyes per puppet, but I decided to use three. I also added paper teeth and a cute, red felt tongue!

Parade of monster puppets!

11 Parade of monster puppets!

Monster cake!

12 Monster cake!

Professor Figgy's setup in a convenient rolling suitcase.

13 Professor Figgy's setup in a convenient rolling suitcase.

2 gallons of glow water.

14 2 gallons of glow water.

All setup for glow slime making! The glow water is made with water and highlighter ink and then mixed with glue and borax for a fun, slimey experience!

15 All setup for glow slime making! The glow water is made with water and highlighter ink and then mixed with glue and borax for a fun, slimey experience!

Slime!! (It glows under blacklight...as well as in the sun!)

16 Slime!! (It glows under blacklight...as well as in the sun!)

Lots and lots of slime!!

17 Lots and lots of slime!!

Inspiration Board : Our Favorite Craft Room Bins

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Our Craft Room is chock-full of bins. Hundreds of bins: paint bins, yarn bins, bins for every supply and material you could imagine. (Or couldn't imagine even if you tried: Cookie cutters! Dremel bits! Pots and pans! Glow-sticks! to name a few...)

Today I thought we'd showcase a few of our favorite bins and why.

Silke's favorite bins are the "Embroidery Floss" bins:

"I love embroidery floss for for it's wide range of colors. They are great when I'm working with color palettes for stories. Aside from embroidering, I've used the floss to make tassels and even wrapped packages with them. Not to mention, they are really affordable and high-quality."

Blake's favorite bin is "Sequins!"

"I love sequins for their different shapes, sizes and colors. Seeing them all together in one place just makes me happy!"

Jodi's favorite bin is our "Paper Bag" bin:

"I collect paper bags so it's always fun to rifle through the different colors. I have really special bags from trips I've taken over the years, but I equally love the basic brown bag (which we have in so many fun sizes - I especially love the teeny ones!)"

My favorite bin is the "Pressed Flowers" bin - it's such a fun experience to peel back stacks of sheets revealing now flattened leaves and flowers someone else plucked from outside to save. We even found and used some pretty, delicate pressed leaves on our botanical eggs this past Easter.

How do you organize your supplies and materials? We'd love to hear!

Make It : Office Birthday Message

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Surprise your office mate with this easy Post-It Note birthday banner!

The letters are easy to cut in uniform size when you start with the little square notes.  Leave the sticky part at the top of your letter, and trim away.  Can you think of something fun to do with these scraps?  Birthday confetti?

If you're feeling ambitious, you might try a Post-It Note sculpture-

Yo Shimada's Post-It structure, image via designboom

Or a mural-

Photo via Buzzfeed

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