My Adventure Book Journal for an Up Party

It seems like there are so many elements that should appear at an Up party that it should almost be a no brainer party.  You definitely need the Up house.  You need Kevin the bird to trot by.  And Ellie and Carl's Adventure book should be around to peruse through.

Since my party is for the young women in our church and I'm trying to get them to go Up with their Personal Progress, an Adventure book as a journal and take home favor is a great choice to give the girls.

To make my Adventure book journals, I started with a composition book, the Adventure book front and back printables (found at the bottom of this post), and some home made modge podge.

I painted the front of the composition book with the modge podge and then placed the Adventure book printable on the front by lining up the right and top edges.  I wasn't worried about the left side since there was a black strip that wouldn't show the blue mottled background on the composition book.

I'll be honest, I'm considering getting some cute duct tape and reinforcing the seem by placing it over the black strip on the front and back.  But I need to find something that won't clash and will look super cute on the book.  I haven't done that yet.

When the front is dry, do the same to the back.  I did find the edges of the composition book curled up a little after using the modge podge.  I solved that by placing a few heavy books on the Adventure book for a few days, but if you don't like that, I definitely would recommend using a xyron to turn the Adventure book printables into stickers and then putting them over the composition book.  (Yes, I use my Xyron for almost everything! LOVE IT!!)

 To finish off the book, I used a glue stick to glue the first page to the outside of the composition book cover, so it would open right to a double sided page.  I like to use two pages to chronicle my adventures so  I like that better instead of turning the page to finish out the adventure.

Then I started filling the pages with the things that I've done lately.  This weekend Mini Me and I went to a local popcorn store that I just discovered in the small town next to ours.  I wrote about the adventure on my other blog Finding the Joy Around Us, but chronicled it in my Adventure Book smash book.  I love how it turned out with the fun foam popcorn, the colorful pictures, and the flyer that I got from the store.

I'm pretty excited about My Adventure Books and hope the girls will be too.  I think we can spend some time filling them out for our family history classes or our personal progress nights.  Plus, they will have a fun smash book to look back on when they are old and grown like me.

My Adventure Book Front Printable

Here are the Adventure Book printables if you want to make your own!  If you do, I'd love to see it.

My Adventure Book Back Printable

Kevin the Bird Candy Cover Printable

Kevin is the illusive, mystical bird in the movie Up.  Since we all have illusive dreams and this Up party is about the girls following their dreams and moving Up towards them,  I knew Kevin had to make an unexpected appearance at our dessert table.

Yet, I couldn't decide how to make Kevin join the party. When my son and I were at the grocery store the other day, he asked for a mini M and M tube.  As soon as I saw the tall thin tube, I knew it would be perfect for a graphic of Kevin.

Now we have Kevin the bird candy cover printable to share with you!

Right click and save the jpg graphic of the candy cover printable.  Use your computer's print program to print out the candy covers onto regular card stock.

Cut out the rectangles, leaving a little bit of white tab on the right side of the graphic to allow the printable to be easily wrapped around the candy tube.

Glue along the white tab and wrap the graphic over top.

Enjoy!

Adventure Awaits Printable and Dare to Share

I can't believe it's been another week. My oldest graduates from high school one month from today. (knock on wood!). Time is just flying.

I'm really not an emotional person, but the closer we get, the more I find myself tearing up about so many things. I can only imagine the basket case I'm going to be on Graduation day.

I am trying to think of it as just a new adventure for both her and me.  I'll try to be like Carl in the movie "Up" and open my self to new experiences.

If you haven't noticed, I've been working on a few Up themed party projects this week as I prepare for a party for the young women in my church's youth group.

My favorite so far has been the Personal Progress badges with the Balloon Oreo Cookies a close second. I've been sewing away trying to finish my Up House by party time and am really hoping I'll get it finished in time. It's been hard trying to design it from scratch. It's definitely been the biggest plAstic canvas project I've been brave enough to try.

But here's to new adventures!

What have you been up to this week? I can't wait to see as we host another Dare to Share with Pams Party and Practical Tips.

So let's Party!

An InLinkz Link-up

Ellie Badge Brownies

The highest honor one can bestow upon someone in the Up themed universe is the Ellie Badge.  This badge symbolizes a friendship that blossomed into a love of unparallelled devotion.  Love can come in all forms and so the Ellie Badge needed to make an appearance at our Up party.

And what better way than to make it edible?  So the Ellie Badge Brownies were born.

I started by making a regular mix of brownies.  It's best to have a cake type texture so the badges are fluffy and full.

When the brownie batter was ready, I scooped out a little into each of these Silicone Daisy Pan Mold indentions.  You want it to be about half full so it doesn't over flow when cooking.  Bake the brownies for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  Keep an eye on them while baking as your oven may be different than mine.

Once they are done, allow them to cool for a few minutes and then pop them out of the mold.

For this part, you can use either melted white chocolate or melted frosting.  I've used both and they both look and taste pretty good.  I really like the added cream cheese flavor of the frosting I used, but that's just me.

Melt the topping in a small bowl being very careful not to burn.

Dip the top of the badge brownies into the topping until well coated.  I found it was easiest to dip them straight down and then pull it back straight up.  That way you didn't end up with drips down the side of the badge brownie.

Place the brownies on a cooling rack with a piece of wax paper below it.  Allow the frosting or chocolate to harden.

Now go ahead and write the words GRAPE SODA onto the Ellie badge brownie using a Wilton Food Writer Edible Color Markers.  Allow the chocolate to harden and serve to those who deserve the highest honor at your Up party.

Up Cupcake Wrappers and Free Printable

I thought this would be the easy part.  I hadn't even really thought about how I was going to "theme up" the cupcakes.  When I sat down to think about how to make the Up Cupcake wrappers, a ton of ideas came to mind.

I finally settled on three choices, and now I need some help deciding which one to use.  Can you help me?

I started out with polka dots.  I love polka dots and would put them on just about anything.  They just seem so happy and colorful.  Kind of like little pieces of confetti brightening up the world.

They also look a little bit like balloons, so I thought they would go super well as Up cupcake wrappers.

The wrappers come with a tab and slot closure system, so it makes it easy to wrap the cupcakes whenever I decide.

I then tried a map cupcake wrapper.  I thought the travel theme would go really well with this type of design, but I'm not sure it's colorful enough for my party.

Lastly, I tried an Up house design.

I put Ellie's saying about "Thanks for the adventure. Now go have a new one" on the sides of the house on the cupcake wrapper.

It turned out kind of cute, but I'm not sure if the balloons coming out of the cupcake wrapper is too overwhelming.

I like each one of them for different reasons, but I'm not sure which one to go with.  What do you think?

And as a thank you for helping me decide, here's the Up House Cupcake Wrapper free printable.  Hopefully you can find a use for it.  I think these would be great for birthday parties, graduation, retirement, or so many party ideas.

Young Woman Personal Progress Badges for Up Party

Russell, the young Wilderness Explorer in Pixar's Up movie, was the inspiration for this project for our Up themed party.  Since the young women in our church work on Personal progress value goals instead of badges like the Boy Scouts or the fictional Wilderness Explorers, I decided to come up with badges and sashes for each of the girls to wear so we could all be exlorers too.

Within the Personal Progress are 8 values--faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, and virtue.  The girls must complete 6 activities within each value and then a final project for the value.

I used each value experience to come up with a badge.  Each has a graphic using clip art from graphics factory, pc crafter clipart, and lds....

The badges are designed to coordinate with each of the projects in the personal progress booklet.  Faith value experience one is in the first position and the faith project is in the last.  This helps keep the badges easy to find and punch out.  I found it was easiest to cut the badges into values and then only punch out the badges that I needed.  The rest went into an envelope with the girl's progress report.

To make the sash for the badges, I used some 2 1/2 inch ribbon that was left over from Christmas.  I draped it over one of the girl's shoulder and had it meet at her hip.  I joined the sash ribbon with a glue dot in a Miss America type way.

Using each girls' progress reports, I punched out the coordinating badge using a 1 1/2 inch hole punch for the value experiences that she had completed.  I then used a little bit of hot glue to attach the badge to the sash.  If you have a very proficient girl, you can use the back of the sash to display more badges.

I'm super excited with how fun these Personal Progress badges and sashes turned out.  I think the girls will love wearing them during our Up party.  Now we can all pretend to be explorers like little Russell and also celebrate our progress Up in the Young Woman personal progress program.

If you would like to use these badges for your up part or your personal progress program, you can find the jpg file for the Young Woman Personal Progress Badges free here.

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Balloon Chocolate Oreo Cookies for an Up Birthday Party

When Carl launched his house into the air using a bunch of helium balloons in the movie Up, I think he brought imagination and dreams of doing the same thing to many children.  So it's almost a necessity to have LOTS of balloons at my Up party.

What tastier way to add them than to make Balloon Chocolate Oreos for the party?

And they are REALLY easy to make!

Start with a package of Double Stuff Oreos, melted white chocolate, and the Balloon Sandwich Cookie Mold.  You can use whatever colored white chocolate that you like.  I plan to use red, yellow, and blue for my Balloon Oreos.

Melt your chocolate very carefully in the microwave.  I've found it's best to melt it at 50% power for 1 1/2 minutes at a time, until it melts.  White chocolate burns very easy, so be careful.

Take a spoonful of the chocolate and add it to each of the mold cavities.

Tap your mold onto the counter until the chocolate spreads out and looks pretty evenly distributed.

Add a single oreo to the center of each cavity.

Place a little spoonful of chocolate on top of the oreo and tap it until the chocolate becomes smooth.  Keep tapping to get all of the air bubbles out of the chocolate.

Refrigerate the oreos for about 20 minutes or until set.

If you want to add a little extra something special, I designed up these Up Balloon tags to add to the oreos.

Simply right click and save the jpg file below.  Print and cut out each of the tags.  Punch a hole in the corner and use some cute ribbon to tie to the Balloon Chocolate Oreo.  I used some cute HAPPY BIRTHDAY Curling Ribbon for mine and it adds a little color and greeting to the treat.

These balloons may not take our house very far, but they will definitely increase our dreams with their yumminess and sweetness.

5 Adventure Filled UP Inspired Balloon Birthday Parties

I have recently been put in charge of the young girls aged 12 and 13 in our church's youth group.  I always thought I would hate serving in this area, but it has turned out to be a lot of fun.  The girls are full of adventure, spirit, and fun.

At the end of this month, we are gaining one new girl and losing one girl as she ages out of our group.  To welcome the new and say goodbye to our friend, I decided to have a Pixar themed UP party for the girls.


I thought this would be the perfect theme since both girls are moving up and will be having new adventures.  So for the next two weeks, I'm bring you a bunch of Up party ideas.

I wanted to start with five adventure filled Up inspired balloon birthday
parties that I have been drooling over lately while looking for new inspiration.

1. Up Birthday Party by LilSugar

2. Up Themed Birthday Party by Wendy Updegraff Photography

3. Up Themed Birthday Party by Stories from a Screensaver

4. Up Birthday Party at Birds Party.

5. Up Birthday Party at Karas Party ideas.


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