DIY- Superhero Wooden Cutouts!

Way back in September we had a Super Why themed first birthday for the Grayson Boy.  Like, for real, the kid was obsessed with that show so it was the only reasonable option for his big my-parents-kept-me-alive-for-a-whole-year shindig.

 

I did alot of DIY projects for the party- a birthday banner, a high chair re-do, custom superhero capes, cupcake face toppers, and these wooden cut outs for the kids to pose with and have their picture taken as a Super Reader.  I created tutorials for alot of the projects, but recently Ive been contacted alot about how I made these guys- so I decided to post directions on how I made them.

 

 

First, I have to let you in on my dirty little secret. I can NOT draw. Seriously, stick figures are as good as it gets.  When I try to draw diagrams on the board in class my students are often like, please just stop. Its that bad.  So how did I manage to make these guys look so darn good?

 

With this guy.

 

 



 

Yep, the overhead projector the teacher used in school to put notes up on the board.

 

I found one at a yard sale for $15 dollars and brought that little guy home, because I knew it would come in handy one day.  It just so happened that I was right.

 

First I went onto Sprout and printed out some coloring book pages of the characters.  Then I took them to a local copy store and ran them off on transparencies (clear plastic paper).  If you have a laser printer you can probably print right onto the transfer paper, but I have an ink jet so it would just smear like crazy on the transparency.

 

Then I had to pick up my board.  I used 4 x 4 Luan- which is a is a thin layer of plywood veneer made from tropical wood. Plywood is a wood panel made of thin layers of wood veneer glued together, but Luan typically has a solid core of wood between two layers of veneer, though the solid core may have problems with voids and dry spots in the glue of the veneer. It tends to be softer and lighter than most plywood. It cost me around $6 per sheet and I knew I could get two characters on one board- so roughly $3 per piece.  You can always get thicker plywood, its just up to you. 

 

I primed the Luan and set up the projector in the front hallway and got to work.  I positioned the first character on the overhead projector and fiddled until it was taking up the left half of the board.  Then I got to work with my Sharpe marker tracing the projected image.  I knew I would go back and paint over the lines with black craft paint, so this was just a quick trace to get the picture transferred.

 

 

 

 

 

Once I got one traced, I flipped the second character over and positioned it on the other side and repeated the process. Then I went back with a small paint brush and black craft paint and filled in all of the lines.

 

 

Once the black lines were dry it was time to bust out the craft paint.  I actually printed the characters out in color, then took that paper to the paint aisle at JoAnn's to match colors.  It was also really helpful to have them in color while I was painting, so that I didnt make any mistakes like mixing up two colors. Then I started painting.  It took maybe an hour and a half to paint both characters fully, then I let them dry and went back over the black edges again to clean up any painting out of the lines.

 

 

I will tell you that when you do this on your own you will look at it and see all of these little imperfections, but when you take a picture of it you will not see them at all- so don't freak out.  Once its all dry you send the husband out to the garage with the jigsaw to cut the characters out and build a small three sided box to affix to the back with some glue.  Then all you have to do is drive a garden stake into the ground and they stand up perfectly!

 

 

Then you just stick the birthday boy behind the Super You and take as many pictures as he will let you- which if you have my child, is about two before he runs away.

 

 

All total the project took maybe five hours total, from tracing to cut out and the total cost was somewhere around $35.  Not too shabby, but if you didn't already own the transparencies or most of the craft paint it could cost a bit more.  Even still, people on Etsy charge upwards of $50 per character, so it was a smart DIY choice.

Super Hero Cape Tutorial

I can not sew, but for the sake of Grayson's birthday I learned.  Let me tell you that if I can make these capes, then so can you.

 

You need:  1 yard of fabric (I used flannel and got two capes per yard)

1 piece of white or black felt

1 5x5 square of coordinating color fabric

1.5 feet of ribbon

 

 

First, fold the yard of fabric in half length wise. Cut it, then refold it in half again length wise.

Using a piece of chalk measure out from the fold 7 inches.

Then two inches down.

Then three inches in.

Once you have the neck of the cape marked off, draw outward toward the edge of the cape to create the shape. How far down you go depends on how tall the kiddo is. This one was for a pretty tall 5 year old, so I went down 30 inches.

 

 

 

Then, cut it all out.

 

 

To make the circle I used a 9 inch pie plate and traced a circle and then cut it out.

 

 

To create the letter, I used word to make a template of the first letter of the kiddos name. Then I cut out the template and reversed it on the fabric. I traced and cut it out, so that the lines from my tracing would be on the back.

 

 

Please forgive that I have 15 different pictures of the steps- I made all of the capes in a big batch and didnt always take the picture on the same cape. Oops.

 

Anywho, pin your letter to your felt circle and sew it on using a zig zag stitch set on 3.

 

 

 

Once thats attached, its time to attach it to the cape itself and sew it on with the same zig zag stitch.

 

 

 

Take the 1.5-2 feet of ribbon and fold it in half. Place that in the 2 inches of fabric at the neck. Fold it over and pin it in place. Sew it in a straight line to secure the ribbon and voila. You're done!

 

Each cape takes around 15 minutes to make from start to finish, but the kiddos loved them so much it was well worth it!

 

 

 



A Super (Why) First Birthday Party!

This past weekend we celebrated Grayson's First Birthday. It was a cool day, but the weather cooperated and the rain held off until we got everything packed into the car to come home. I shared with you all my inspiration board a few months back (see it here) and I'm excited to say that my vision actually did come together nicely! Grayson is obsessed with the cartoon Super Why, so that was the overall theme. We rented a local park with an amazing playground and had wayyy too much food. It was an awesome celebration for our little guy, and we're so thankful to everyone who made it out!

 

Our Invite- made by the amazing Rachael over at La Petite Giraffe. She did an amazing job and was so easy to work with- I had the finished proof within 48 hours of placing my order, and thats even after I asked her to make changes and added a custom item. Check her out on Etsy and see what she has to offer!

 

I made this banner to hang over his high chair- I wanted a nice back drop for all of those smash cake pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My insanely talented friend Julie made Grayon's cake and his smash cake. How cute is it that she made him the book club as his smash cake and its all 100% edible. I made the cupcake toppers to put on some cupcakes we got from Sams Club. They were really easy and took almost no time at all to create.

 

 

I made these little capes for all of the kids to go in their treat bags, but I tied Graysons to his blue high chair to give it a little pizazz. Go here for the cape tutorial and here to see how I took a cheap high chair to this blue beauty!

 

 

My other crazy project was paining the cast of characters on Luan board and having hubs cut them out. We wanted the kids to be able to have their pictures taken with them, and they were a huge hit. All total they took about 5 hours to make, go HERE for the tutorial on how I made them.

 

The kids went nuts for them, so it was time well spent!

 

 

Settling our debate the old fashioned way- ps, I totally kicked hubs ass in this poll. Hes still bitter.

Singing Happy Birthday

 

Nom Nom Nom

The aftermath- he did pretty darn good!

 

Trying for a group picture

 

This is about as good as it was going to get. Trying to get 12 little ones to sit still after sugaring them up with cake wasnt happening.

 

Grayson and Aunt Ashley

Opening presents - this was when he was actually into it. After awhile the sugar wore off and he opened the rest like this.

Happy Birthday Grayson Boy- Daddy and I love you so much!!

 

One Year Pictures

A few weeks before Grayson hit the big 0-1 we met with Jackie of JDG Photography for a photo session in the park.  In the one hour we were toghether she took well over 450 images, and edited at least 100. The results were a CD chocked full of images that made this Momma cry.

 

Be prepared for cuteness overload.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are in the Pittsburgh Area, you definitely need to give Jackie a call. She took the time to play with Grayson in between shots, and even when he was having an epic meltdown she managed to get him to smile. Shes the sweetest ball of energy and is insanely creative and talented.  Im already planning our Christmas and Easter photo shoot...no more portrait places at the mall for this lady!

 

To see more of Jackie's work check her out on Facebook at JDG Photography!