This Year's White Elephant Gifts!

My husband is a welder, with a great sense of humor!  He builds some of the most amazing spiral staircases, fences, gates, you name it.  Every year the company he works for hosts a big Christmas bash.  One major highlight is the white elephant gift exchange.  I had my doubts that he could top last years gift, but this one raised the bar. 

Happy Holidays Y'all!!!!!  =}

Minecraft Blind Box Series 4 Obsidian Codes

On the bottom of the box, there is a stamped code.  The 2nd to last character is the letter we are looking for.

Really hope this helps someone out.  My oldest daughter is downright in love with this game and we buy these all the time, but it's disappointing to get a duplicate so hopefully this helps you find the exact one you're after!

Have an amazing day!!!

  Hi Guys n' Gals!

Thought we'd share the codes to the new Minecraft Mystery Box Ice Series 5 with ya so you don't have to buy any dups when trying to get your lil' crafter the character they want SO SUPER DUPER BAD!!! 

My oldest daughter is downright obsessed with this game and we lucked out on our last shopping trip and were the 1st to get to scour one of these giant boxes of little mystery boxes.  They've been putting them up front now in the "impulse shopping" area so as your trying to check out your child can dream and beg and wish until you've got them all, hahah. 

I didn't know until a couple of years ago (she started out loving the KNEX Mario Kart blind bags) but it took me a long time and a lot of duplicate buys with disappointing results to learn that all mystery bag/box toys have codes on them somewhere!  These are stamped on the bottom of the box and pictured above you can see they all have very long codes but its the 2nd to last letter that counts.  This series the letters are from A-L.  Hopefully that little bit of knowledge helps you when shopping for other mystery toys, even if you cant find a blog or video showing which is which at least you can be certain not to buy the same letter more than once.

Apologies on D and G, my littlest one was eager and opened and mixed about those 2 when I wasn't paying attention.... but I do know they are 1 of those 2.

Please if you haven't checked out my YouTube channel, drop on by if you get bored.  Same name, PinkCosmoCrafts

I also have an Etsy shop that's pretty fun, you'll find more Minecraft fan goodies in my store and on my channel.  PinkCosmo.Etsy.com

Happy shopping & Thanks for visiting my blog!  Please remember to do something nice for yourself each and everyday and as always, Best Wishes!!!!

Minecraft Party Favors "Adopt a Monster" Party Favors!

Last year my oldest daughter turned 8 and we sent out upwards of 30 invitations.  Throwing a party with the possibility of that many kids showing up can get expensive when it comes to favors.  My sister threw a puppy dog party for my nephew a few years back and it was so cute, she had an "Adopt a Puppy" basket set up where kids got to pick their own stuffed dog and name it and everything- how fun is that!?!?  So I copied her idea and put my strange spin on it ;}  Now I'm rather spoiled, my husband is a welder - in a woodshop.  If I can dream it, he can build it, but I thought I'd tackle this one on my own.  The shop he works at takes loads of scrap wood, nice stuff like Alder even to the dump almost every day or some of the guys take it to burn as firewood.  My husband brought one of those trailer loads home for me to craft up all I want!  Now if you're not as lucky, wood blocks aren't too much at the craft store or buy and cut down a 2"x2"x10" plank from a home improvement store.

My husband is the essential "man".  He likes dirt and tools and he comes home everyday from work covered in black grinding dust - argh!  He'll tolerate shopping with me at girly stores and all but if I mention something like, "I was thinking we could run to Harbor Freight tomorrow for a sander maybe?" he'll answer back with something like, "Sure, and then we could check Sears, and Lowes, and Home Depot, and . . . "  so who says shopping with your husband is like hunting with the game warden?  You just gotta get him in the right store!  We came home with the sander I wanted AND a brand new Miter Saw!  New toys are awesome!

So I cut up some of those planks, making roughly 40 2"x2" blocks.

Then sat down and did some serious sanding to them.

Sorry there's no photos of the blocks individually painted but I did more silly style faces, the Creepers have circles for eyes and chunky upside down U's for mouths, the Endermen have eyes slanting and some have tiny hearts on the cheek.  Which is way easier than trying to paint all those perfect straight lines, unless you stop to make a stencil, then it'd be real easy!  The edges were sanded again after paint and a final clear coat sprayed on.  I did the "Adopt a Monster" page out of cardstock using the Cricut to cut the letters and the rest was done with my paper trimmer since Minecraft is all squares or straight lines.

Kids love wooden blocks, doesn't matter the age, they played and chased each other around with them at the party and then took them home as room décor at the end!  Now I was crunched for time when made these, but if I did it again there would be a ton of different characters and different colored Creeper's for sure!  Hope this idea helps and inspires other mom's whose kids are obsessed with that game too.  Good luck y'all!