DIY Monster Birthday Party Decorations

I already showed you how I made monster cake pops for Connor's 1st Birthday party which after months of planning, was a HUGE success! 

Since I wanted to do a "Monster" theme I had to make all of the decorations myself. I wanted cute monsters, not scary ones. I couldn't wait to make the things I found on Pinterest, with my own twist of course!

First I made Monsters out of tissue boxes and filled them with Hershey Kisses. It was super easy and really fun! 

What You Need:

Tissue Box (buy the lightest color one you can with the least amount of designs)
Paint & Paint Brushes
Paper Plate
Pipe Cleaners
White Paper
Hershey Kisses
Craft Glue
Scissors

First paint the inside and outside of your tissue box. Then paint dots or any other design you like. 

To make the eyes; cut 2 circles per eye out of a paper plate. Paint one of the circles the color of your monster. On the other circle paint and eyelid and pupil. Once dry, glue a pipe cleaner in between both circles. Once completely dry, bend the pip cleaner and stick it in the cardboard crease in the back of your tissue box. (I tried sticking it in a small hole in the top of the box but the pipe cleaner would not stand up. It works best to wedge it in the crease)

Fill with candy! We did Hershey Kisses so that it would be Monster Kisses! :) 

The next thing I made were little crocheted Monsters! They are so cute! 

I found them on Pinterest which linked back to this blog, which explains exactly how to make them. I have to say though, unless you already know how to crochet, these will probably be too hard to make. I LOVE how they turned out! I just put them around the party as decoration. The kids loved playing with them!

What You Need:  

Yarn 
Crochet hook (your favorite size)
Stuffing
Embroidery Floss
White Felt
Googly Eyes
Craft Glue
Scissors
Yarn Needle
Embroidery Needle 

Steps/Pattern:

1. Make a magic circle. 

2. Single crochet 6 into your magic circle.Then close the magic circle. 

3. Single crochet twice into each stitch. (12 stitches) Place stitch marker. (I just use a small piece of yarn in another color.)

4. Now single crochet in the first stitch and single crochet twice in the 2nd stitch. (this is how you will increase the size of the circle...1,2,1,2 etc.) Continue doing so until you reach the stitch marker. (18 stitches)

5. Move stitch marker to this row. Single crochet once into the first two stitches. Then single crochet twice into the third stitch. Continue this pattern (1,1,2,1,1,2, etc) until you reach the stitch marker. (24 stitches) 

You can make your monsters as big as you want my continuing to increase your circle. Each row increases by 6 stitches. So if you wanted to increase the next row to 30 the pattern would be 1,1,1,2,1,1,1,2, etc. My larger monsters are 24 and my smaller ones are 18. Once you decide how big you want the monster, you stop increasing. 

6. Then single crochet into each stitch. So if your circle is 24 stitches, you will single crochet into each stitch only once. Never increasing.

7. Keep creating rows by single crocheting into each stitch until your monster is the height you want it. Some of mine I did 12 rows and the smaller only have 9. Make sure to use your stitch marker at the end of each row so you know when one row ends and another begins. 

8. Finish with a slip knot. Make sure when you cut your yarn you leave a long piece, you will use this to sew the monster to it's bottom piece.

9. Create the bottom of your monster by creating another circle with steps 1-6. 

10. Cut circle or whatever shape you prefer out of white felt for the eyes. Using your embroidery floss and embroidery needle sew the felt onto your monster where you want the eyes to be. Imagine how you would sew on a button, this is how you would sew on the felt, in a X shape. 

11. Glue the googly eyes onto the felt, covering the embroidery floss. 

12. Using either embroidery floss or yarn of another color, sew on a mouth. 

13. Using the long piece of yarn you left at the bottom of your monster, sew the two pieces together with your yarn needles. Make sure to leave a hole big enough to stuff your monster with stuffing before you close it!

As I mentioned, I'm not sure I would attempt these unless you have a little crochet experience. I am not an expert at crochet but I have been making blankets and scarves since I was 12, so I'm very comfortable with your basic single crochet but had never done anything like this. My first attempt was HORRIBLE and I threw it away. But when I was confused I turned to YouTube. You can look up anything! There are a bunch of crochet tutorials. So if you are confused about anything I mentioned in the patten, YouTube it. That's what I did. :)

Good luck!