Life's a Barrel of Monkeys!

Another day, another barrel of monkeys!

The Baby Mama (Emily) came over to play today, and we decided to head on over to A.C. Moore to figure out what to do and how to make the centerpieces for the infamous, upcoming baby shower.

So check this out! We decided to make palm trees that the Baby Monkeys can climb on.

We started with a styrofoam cone base, 12" high ($4.99 ea x 6). Then we got two fern fronds for each ($1.99 ea x 12). Keeping the plastic wrapping on the cone so the styrofoam dust didn't get all over the place, I jabbed each of the fronds into the top of the cone and pushed the stem all the way down the cone. With a little bending, I think the ferns begin to look like palm fronds -- at least a little!

Then I unwrapped the plastic off the cones and covered each of the cones with chocolate brown crepe paper streamers. (It was $0.79/roll at Party City -- you only need one roll for all six centerpieces, with lots leftover.) We figured out if you apply the crepe paper from the thinner top to the wider base, the crepe paper adds a nice texture to the "tree" because it doesn't lay flat.

Next, we made our barrel of monkeys, using Cricut Create a Critter again, cut at 2.25" with brown layers #1 and #3, and tan in the center. Some of the monkeys have a black back (layer #1) -- but eventually we figured out that we liked the brown back, and eyes and nose that show through the layer two cut. The pink diaper was fussy-cut from half of a 3/4" paper punch.

Monkeys play well together, so we made chains of three. Some hold together tail to tail; others are linked by cloth flowers. Some are climbing up vines also cut from the Create a Critter cartridge, some are hot glued to grosgrain ribbon.

Emily came up with the adorable idea to embellish the monkeys with some of my Creative Charms' July kit brads and gems, as well as some stick-on pearls and rhinestones. I used Stickles in silver to trim out the "diaper pins".

To make it easier to decorate the palm trees on the day of the shower, I decided to make cute little monkey hangers for each trio. I used beading wire, some theme-matching crystals and stitched the 2-3" long bead piece on a silver earring wire I had in my craft stash.

So for under $50, Em and I made 6 centerpieces for the shower! Yup, it did take time -- we turned on the Phillies game right as we started and with a lot of help from Cricut, and a lot of chatting time between MomE and mom-to-be, we finished them before the end of the game ... and the Phillies won their fourth straight!

♥ I hope you're also having a Monkey Day! ♥