Giant Walk Through Key Hole

So since May I've been wanting to have an amazing entrance to my party where you have to go through a key hole. At first I wanted the actual Door Knob from the Original movie that you went through but that wouldn't have worked because of dimensions. I'd either need a REALLY tall board or you'd have to go through a 1 foot tall key hole. So my next idea was just a key hole. And this one stuck. I got an 8ft by 4ft particle board (plywood would work too) and drew out the scale. I knew a ket hole was made out of a circle and a triangle. I figured out sizes and such like my circles diameter would be 3 ft and my entire key hole would be 6 ft tall. After I worked with my dad to cut out the pieces I had drawn and got this:

Yay! I was so excited to see this fantasy come to life! Next up, paint! I went to Home Depot where some awesomely helpful employees helped me find a great shade of black. They asked if it was for interior or exterior (i just said the cheapest). They then asked if I was going to paint one side or 2. (I was only going to paint the one you see). Finally they asked me if I wanted it glossy or flat. I went with flat. I bought cheap supplies to paint it with. Right across the way, there's a lovely store called Michaels  I LOVE IT! (Small tip, go online and print out the 40% off any regular priced item coupon). I got a great gold color for $5.00 and I got ALOT for it. I decided after painting a base of black, to paint a 3in gold edging around the entrance. This is what I came up with!

Ta da! There's my beautiful key hole! I have a successful entrance to a wonderful party!

FONDANT!

I've found out why buying a cake like this:

Costs me $500 if I order it from a bakery. Fondant is a pain! But for artsy people like me it's fun after you make the fondant. The fondant recipe I used was for each color needed for the cake, I needed one bag of powdered sugar and one bag of mini marshmallows. (I used 5 colors, pink, purple, blue, green, and white).

Recipe:

In a big bowl, place a bag of marshmallows in. Microwave for 30 seconds then stir, then 30 seconds again. Next, you add in food coloring. Make sure the coloring you use are gel kinds. Wilton brand is the best. Mix in the color until you like what you've got then put in about 1 cup of powdered sugar. Mix with a Kitchen Maid mixer on low. When the powder has been mixed in, add more. Half the bag should be in the bowl. On a solid surface, place down some powdered sugar. Scoop up all of your fondant on top of your powder sugar mess and start kneading. Knead until the fondant is no longer sticky. (Mine took 10-20 minutes). When the fondant is done, make a ball and wrap it in saran or plastic wrap. Then place inside a ziplock bag and place inside the freezer. Keep in overnight. Fondant will last like this for a week before it goes bad.

When my fondant was done, the next day I made objects. I made 2 types. I decided one layer of my cake would be a cheshire cat. So I needed to make the face. I found an amazing tutorial on how to make 2D characters (and found doing this to be harder than she does it, so props!). For the video click here! This was my character before and after I outlined it:

I then made fondant roses following this tutorial here. I used my white fondant and mixed in some red gel food coloring to get a perfect red shade.

Mad Hatter's Hat Tutorial

Mad Hatter's Hat

I decided to make a wonderful Alice in Wonderland hat. This hat only cost me $2. 

Materials Needed:

Cardboard

Paper mache

Paint

Scarf/Fabric

I found this template for a mad hatter hat online here and I followed their instructions to make me cardboard base of my hat. The covered theirs in fabric. But I wanted my hat cheaper. So I covered it in paper mache. Where the holes of the cardboard were, I taped them with packaging tape and then covered the hat in paper mache. I did two layer to make it thicker and more sturdy on top. It already started to look like a mad hatter hat by this point. The next afternoon the hat was completely dry. I then painted it. I used a corse brush with black paint over the green. It created a worn and fabric almost look. I then at walmart found a salmon looking color silk fabric and purchased 2 yards of it. I cut it to size then wrapped the hat and did half of a square knot and it was finished. I am looking for little trinkets and such to stick in the scarf like the newer Alice in Wonderland mad hatter hat.

Giant Mushroom Tutorial

MUSHROOM TIME!

I found this website here that told me a rough out line of how to make the mushrooms. It took her 3 months to make 4. It's taken me 2 days to get to the end of the paper mache part so time varies. I've made 2 mushrooms. One that is 4ft tall and another that is 6 feet.

Materials Needed:

Chicken Wire

Walmart Jewelry Wire

Pliers

Wire Cutters

Something to mark the wire

I made a wire "stalk" or "stem" out of chicken wire to start with. I basically rolled out chicken wire (still curled) and measure out how thick I wanted my stem to be then cut . I tied the ends together with walmart jewelry wire (try to get the thickest wire). I then decided how tall I wanted my mushroom. I had purchased 2ft x 25ft of chicken wire and stacked two cylinders of chicken wire on top of each other to create a 4ft stem. I then worked on the cap. Which to me is by far the hardest part but it wasn't the part that cut me the most (Wear gloves to avoid cuts). I flattened out the chicken wire and marked a circle with little torn pieces of foam stickers(: You could probably use any type of thing to mark. I tried Sharpie at first and it didn't show up on the metal.

To make the curved part of the mushroom cap I had to cut it out special so when I combined the edges it would make a dome shape. I found this lovely image on another website which helped me AMAZINGLY!

I chose the bottom image. And marked out the shape in the middle. I then started to cut out my circle and the inside shape. It turned out looking cool! I then combined it with jewelry wire that I got at Walmart. It comes in a huge spool of it. (Purchase the thickest wire). I made the shape nad slightly overlapped the wires. And tied it together and tried to tie the ends sticking out to the wires around it. It did create a lovely mushroom shape.

To fix the pointed ends of the cap I duck taped each end then to make a solid line of the mushroom I connected them with strips of duct tape that I folded in half over the edge.

I then started to paper mache! The cap was the easiest to paper mache. The stem on the other hand wasn't so. The paper mache didn't like to stick to the metal so half way through the stem I put masking tape down the sides for the paper mache to sticks to. This worked tons better! The paper mache recipe I used was amazing too. It's very thick and easy to use. 

Paper Mache Recipe:

Boil 2 cups of water on the stove. In a separate bowl combine 1/2 cup of white flour and 2 cups water. When the water on the stove has come to a boil. Pour in the mixture. Mix until there are no lumps in it and then let the mixture come to a boil again. Take the mixture off heat when at a boil and put in 3 tablespoons sugar and mix. Let it cool and the mixture will thicken.

Here's the mushroom pieces after I paper mache'd them.

Alice in Wonderland Party Invites

Party Invites!

I designed my self up a snazzy little Alice in Wonderland invitation based off of this image:

I loved the key hole and the German text image inside. As well as the red text. So I mixed it up a little bit and created my own.

You can purchase this card online here on etsy for $6.99. The card is completely adjustable! More information at the link. 

I emailed my invitations because it was easier on short notice rather than run around trying to find peoples addresses. So invites are down and no I just have to wait for RSVPs!

About me

Hi, My name is Blake. I will be turning 16 on August 12th. I've been slightly obsessed with Alice in Wonderland since I've been a child. So when I sat down 6 months ago thinking about a theme for my birthday. I decided to have a sweet 16 Alice in Wonderland. Then there were the 5 Ws. What, When, Where, Why, Who? I decided to start looking on Pinterest to find ideas on food and decor. I'm 21 days out from my party and I am making my huge props. I also have a todo page infinity long. I actually started working on this project 2 weeks ago.