Mad Science Party - Part 1

The Scientist of the day had started a terrible cold that was going around, the morning of the party. But boy, he was excited.

He then dressed up in his very own Lab Coat, all 100% cotton sateen of it. He does look like a scientist, doesn't he?



How did I do it: This is an extended tunic pattern with added collar stand, collar and button front (It was my first time with collar stand and collar, so I had to use a few, ahem, adjustments).

There were balloons, all silver themed.


How did I do it?
Party Land, asked for Silver themed :-)

The entry door of condominium community club house AKA the Lab was stamped with some lab signs, here is an example.


How did I do it? No rocket science. I got the image from about.com and added my own text, Then I cut yellow construction paper into standard letter size sheets, used my home printer to print the picture. I used shelf liner sheets to stick them to the glass doors.
About.com, free science images link

There were molecules everywhere, of Water.


Look at this hanging from the ceiling, like a drop of water. Who doesnt love Chemistry?  

How did I do it? I used Construction Paper of different colors and traced circles using a cup and cut using regular scissors. Exacto knife would have given smoother edges though. I used glue to stick pieces of it together and cut out strips to connect the atoms. Hung up using the wrapping ribbons.

Hanging from the wall above the fireplace was the blackboard, with everything you need to know about science, OK, well not everything, the bare minimum you need to know. The Einstein equation.


How did I do it? I used black construction paper sheet, Chalk, Cut out shapes, and Shelf liner to finish the edges.  



Here is the Birthday banner.
How did I do it?
Because of strange shortage of science themed party stuff, everything had to be handmade including the blackboard. So what do I do for the birthday banner, well, I've got it covered. Get a generic banner with balloons in the middle and cut more circles out of construction paper and glue them, they are atoms, silly!
 

Now, all scientists had to sign up and receive their Lab coats and funny glasses.


I couldn't believe how successful this was. Everybody LOVED receiving their lab coats. It even came with name tags.

How did I do it? I ordered the lab coats from Mr. Disposable Inc in Brooklyn, NYC. SN picked up the coats in person, and told me the staff was very nice to him. He did call in advance and ordered the lab coats in the right sizes for all the kids according to our guest list. It was a hit, I am patting myself for deciding to go with the lab coats.

Next up! The Mad Science experiments, Food and Cake.

Custom Address Labels and stickers - MAD SCIENCE party - Tutorial

See when you get creativity rush, nobody and nothing can stop you, except time, lack there of to be precise. When I finished THE CARD I wanted to do stickers. When I was done with stickers I wanted to do address labels. I had to stop there because we needed to give families at least 15 days to RSVP.

Alright, enough chit chat. 

Gather your supplies


You will need:

1. Creativity and a good mood
2. 30 per sheet address label sheets, color of your choice
3. Address Label Template to use with Microsoft Word software(Click here to get this from Avery website. if you know how to get the templates in Microsoft Word, you don't  need to go to Avery website)
4. PAINT.NET software or any other picture editing software
5. A color Printer

Oh, a note: If you use this tutorial to make stickers, make sure you use clear (transparent) address labels, like this one from Staples.

Got what you need? Let's go!


Step 1: Get the image ready
To do this you will need to open the photo editing software. Create a new project with 203 pixels width and 62 pixels high (This will translate to: 2.11 inches width and .65 inches height). Now get the picture of your choice from your computer, clip art. I used a clip art image. WARNING: You may need to re-size the images as necessary. It should fit into  2.11 inches by .65 inches.


These are the images I came up with.




   Address label








             Sticker

Step 2: Set up the template


Open the template by clicking the link in item 3 above. What you will see is this.

Next up, you have to select each of the 30 little rectangles one by one and change the border format of the boxes to something you like.

Now you need to right click on each box and click "Add Text"


Now, you need to copy the images you created from your photo editing software and paste it to each of the boxes. Paste it as per your needs. For example you may want 15 labels and 15 stickers.

(After you are done doing step 2 you may save the file for future use)

Step 3: Print
Now, Print your work to the label sheets. Peel off and stick to envelopes. Viola!

Enjoy! Have a great weekend.

Custom made MAD SCIENCE PARTY Invitations - Tutorial

Good Morning!

This morning AN started inviting his friends for his birthday party. Here is the super cool hand made (with the help of a home printer and CVS Pharmacy) invitations.  

 Oh, come on! Of course this is an edited version of the original card. I certainly did not give out something that read "Your child's 7th birthday!

Not bad for 11 cents each! Would you like to hear the story behind this?

SN & I decided to throw a Mad Science party and that brought us to the whole dilemma of whether to create invitations or buy them? If buying where do I buy those from, Internet sites (like etsy) or just buy from Mad science itself? We needed around 25 invitations. In the spirit of my making things myself this year, I decided to give it a try. I have to say it turned out pretty good.

If you start making, you will never ever buy birthday invitations. And Mad science invitations are so hard to find, the ones you find are super expensive. If you have around 1-2 hours (with an additional 1 hour for pharmacy printing), you can do it! And that "Mom, you are awesome! You can make invitations!" from your son is worth all the effort :-)

And better yet, you can involve your children, They will love clip arts. Trust me. I've seen my son jumping up and down when he could drag a rocket picture into a word doc.

 

Ready?

 

Grab your supplies. You will need:

 

1. A Windows computer with Microsoft Word 2003 or later (tech jargon for release after 2003) (Note: I am not marketing)
2. Paint.NET photo editing tool. You can get it for free here. If you have another photo editing tool that you are comfortable with, go on with that, if it can clip a picture it will work!.  http://www.getpaint.net/
3. Box of envelopes that can hold 4 X 6 Pictures ( I bought (1) 50 count box from Staples for $5.00)
4. Pencil and a sheet of blank paper to sketch your design
5. Birthday kid and siblings if available

Got everything? Let's start.

Step 1: Decide the card size you want and open PAINT.NET and set up a new picture project

Open PAINT.NET and Click on New icon to create a new picture. Choose the print size you want. I chose to do a 4 x 6 print.

Now, the most important part. Click on Image (menu on top) -> Canvas size. Change the width to 1200 pixels keeping the aspect ratio ON. This is to ensure your picture won't be distorted when you print the invitation.

Step 2: Sketch your design

On the blank sheet of paper, layout a draft of how you want your invitation to look like. Skip this part if you are comfortable with your photo editing tool, you can design as you go!.

Step 3: Decide on the pictures you want on your card

You want to make invitations? Clip Art is your friend! The pictures are free to use, no copyright issues, as long as you download it from your word document tool. Let's go find the pictures we need!

Open a new word document and click on the menu Insert->Pictures->Clip Art. Type in lab and click the Go button to get the pictures with the tag: "lab". Drag a picture to the document. Use other keywords like "scientist", "beaker", "test tube" etc to find the related pictures.

I decided to use the above pictures in my card. Go crazy and find the pictures you love most. Choose images that are not too small in size. You want a high resolution image so when printed it won't look grainy. In layman's terms, if you can enlarge a picture without distorting it then it is a high resolution image.

Step 4: Resize your clip art and transfer to PAINT.NET

I resize the  pictures right in Word to fit the design I had in my mind. Make sure you use the diagonal re-size arrow to keep the picture intact without distortion. Now right click and copy and paste to PAINT.NET

Step 5: Type in matter using the Text tool in PAINT.NET, Add Borders etc

Try different fonts, rearrange the pictures, play around, do it until you get something you love! I just love the free style font. It's a mad science party and scientists love scribbling! Perfect.

Step 6: Upload and pick up

Upload to your favorite photo printing place. Remember

to use coupons. Also use the print size as the one that you selected in inches in step 1 (4 x 6 in my case). It cost me $0.71 after coupons.

Step 7: Get the envelopes

I used these from Staples (it was on sale for $5.00)

Step 8: You are done! Look at the envelopes, and cards and be proud of yourself. It cost me around 11 cents each! Awsome, huh?

In the next post, I will tell you how to create these custom stickers and address labels!