Cube Decorating Contest - Lollypop Forest

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To make my lollipops, I used round cardboards from bake at home pizzas that I saved. I knew I would use them for something! I put so e gesso on them to seal the cardboard and then a coat of white acrylic paint. I then painted the pin wheel decoration.

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From a fourth pizza round, I cut some other shapes: stars, circles, and hearts. I painted these in solid colors to make the work go faster. After the paint was dry, I glued popcycle sticks to the smaller cut outs and dowels to the larger ones. Craft glue worked on the small lollies, but I ad to pull out the hot glue gun for the large ones. Then I wrapped all the lollies in cellophane I picked up at the $ store. 

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Cube Decorating Contest - Magazine Christmas Trees

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Up next are the trees for the Christmas Village. I did not want to buy a bunch of trees, so I am going to make some using old magazines. I am sure you have seen some variation of these trees as they have been around for a long time. 

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For the large tree, I selected three magazines of the same size. Two folds are needed for each page. Fold the top corner down to the seam (top photo). Then turn the bottom corner up to the bottom of the first fold. 

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For the small tree, I used a Reader's Digest. Three folds per page to make a flat bottom. Fold the top corner to the center seam. For the second fold, take the long edge and fold it to the center. A triangle will be left at the bottom of the page, fold that up to make a flat bottom. 

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For both trees, fan the pages and glue or staple the backs together. Now, all that's left is to paint and decorate them to match the Candyland. 

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Cube Decorating Contest - Making the Game Components

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I started with a simple outline of a gingerbread man. He is about 9" tall. I made a cutout using some spongy craft material I had hanging around the house since we went to Hawaii in 2005. I was going to make luggage tags for everyone, but I digress, and that is truly another story. 

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I wanted the playing pieces to stand upright so I also made a cutout from a cracker box and glued the two pieces together. The glue on the back of the spongy craft material was longer sticky. I wonder why?

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After the two gingerbread men halves were glued together I glued some Popsicle sticks to the back. These will be stuck into the 1" think round styrofoam circles I bought at the $ store. I painted them--one blue and one green. I cut the sticks to the proper height, babbed a bit glue to the bottom ans set then into the styrofoam. 

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I have two playing pieces and colored construction paper for the "game board". I created game cards from a stack of old business cards and colored pencils. We are now ready to play! I am hoping I can get my teammates to play a round. I think being interactive will score me some points with the judges. 

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Cube Decorating Contest Prep (1)

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I have decided to participate in our annual cube decorating contest this year. I have some tough competition from previous contenders. One I believe is a three-time winner. My theme is Candyland. The first thing I did was to map out my cube, keeping in mind that I still have to work. I checked out the game info on Wikipedia to decide which destinations can be created without having to spend too much money. I listed the items I would like to have and made a shopping list. Having said that, these decorations can also be used at home when the contest is over. 

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The Honolulu Weekly Snooper City Guides

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In 1958, my father was stationed in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks. He and my mother lived there for a a year or so and I was born there in December. Recently, while going thru a box of items my mom gave to me, I found this interesting little advertisement booklet. Advertisers include restaurants, tours, rental car companies, and retail shopping. As far as I can tell, the guides were published in the 50's, 60's and 70's and are for sale on E-bay.

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On the back page of this guide was an adversisement for Matson; serving Hawaii since 1882. As far as I can tell, Matson does not transport people anymore and if they did, they would most certainly charge more than $145. They appear to be in the [large container] shipping business these days.

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Additionally, a long distance phone call from Honolulu (capacity 1) to the mainland would cost roughly $75 for three minutes. I guess that is why you had to schedule calls.