Our Diosaur has been obsessed with dinosaurs and sharks so for his 2nd birthday we went for a dinosaur and shark theme, but really more shark. We found a pretty rad shark fabric so I sewed little baggies to hold the candies and little toys together. The bags actually doubled as a bandana since I added little snaps on them to secure them together. I also made sea creatures plaques for each kid. We tried our best to match the sea creatures with the kids personalities to make them really special.
Here's a simple DIY of the sea creature plaques:
I bought these wood plaques at Michaels and they range from $0.59-$1.99.
Stain the wood plaques. Make sure to wear gloves and do it in a well ventilated area. I only used a little bit because I still wanted some of the wood grain to come through.
With primer, paint rocks/ corals/ stones or other accessories you want to add to the plaque. Ours came in bright colors so I painted them gray and speckles of white to add some texture and make them look natural. Then, I used acrylic paint to add more bright colors to the rocks and corals.
Cut felt to act as the "water" base of the plaque. This is optional if you want to glue the items directly to the plaque. I used spray adhesive to attach the felt to the wood plaque to have a smooth surface.
Arrange the creatures with their accessories. Use glue gun to secure them on the felt and make sure to add a lots of it. Since the sea creatures were smooth plastic, they often came off so just make sure to keep adding glue or hold them in place until they feel secure. I ended up adding glue on top of the creatures to make it look like it was water and to also add more security to the plaque.
I printed out the kids names and used double sided foam to attach it to the plaque.
Ta-da! Pretty simple and they look pretty awesome. I'm sure using any kind of plastic toy and different materials would look pretty cool too. The kids loved them and I had lots of fun making them.
Stay rad!
-Nika B.
