Easy as 1-2-3

These next two teacher appreciation gifts were as easy as 1-2-3 thanks to some other great bloggers. The girls from Eighteen25 shared a free subway art printable HERE. (Note: The colors printed out much darker for me than the way they are pictured. I copied the printable into Photoshop to brighten the colors and change the size a bit.) All I had to do was grab a frame (I used an inexpensive 8x10 from Target), put it all together and wrap it up.

Kristy at The Diary of Dave’s Wife made it even easier. Again, Avery picked out a soda, I printed and cut the printable, and we tied the tag on with ribbon. It doesn’t get any easier than that!

And the best part is that they look so good when done. It didn’t cost a lot or take a lot of time to be thoughtful, but it makes a big difference to the person who receives it.

I’m off to make a strawberry pizza dessert for my middle school daughters’ teachers’ appreciation lunch. They didn’t want any part of taking gifts to their teachers – they are “too old for that,” according to them—so I am doing what I can get away with to let the teachers know we appreciate them.

What things are you doing for your children’s teachers this week?

Simple & Sweet Teacher Appreciation Gift w/ FREE Silhouette File & Tutorial

I found this adorable idea at Qbee’s Quest. Her directions are easy and clear, but I wanted to do less work. My daughter has 3 teachers in her classroom--that's 3 of everything--plus, I know I will make these again.

I’m all about keeping things quick and easy so I used this idea to make my own boxes and tags on my Silhouette. Love that the cutting work is done for me! These were super speedy to put together.

I've made a free file of the Candy Bar Box Set to share so you can quickly and easily make your own adorable teacher (or anyone else) gifts.

If you don’t have a Silhouette, don’t stress. You can get the easy-to-follow measurements and instructions from Brenda in her post HERE.

Candy Bar Box Set Silhouette File {free}

 Just click on the image to be taken to the download page. 

(There is no preview, but the file should download and then you can open it with your Silhouette software.)

Materials

free Silhouette file: Candy Bar Box Set

Hershey’s Bars

cardstock

ribbon

double-sided tape

Instructions

Cut everything out using the Silhouette and fold on the score lines.

Use double-sided tape to stick the background rectangle to the scalloped background.

Tape the message piece onto the background pieces

Center and tape the tag on the front.

Put double-sided tape along the edge of the cardstock (the flap), fold into a box shape and stick together.

Thread a 20 inch piece of ribbon through both holes.

Place the Hershey’s bar in between the ribbon pieces.

Slide the candy bar into the box.

(This is what it looks like with the ribbon wrapped around the candy bar--but tuck it into your box.)

Tie the ribbon into a knot at the top adjusting the length to keep the candy bar in place in the box.

All done!

The best part is that you can easily change the size of the box using your free Silhouette file – you aren’t just limited to Hershey’s bars!

I’ve got a few more things in the works for Teacher Appreciation Week and just might get them posted before the week is up! ;)

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Thank you to all of the wonderful teachers we know!

Hello Valentine’s Day!

It’s been a while…but I've been busy sewing and crafting lately. I've recently let Pinterest do the so-called research work for me and found some fun ideas for Valentine’s Day.

First, Avery’s Valentine cards this year:

One of the suggestions on the original site was to let your child color her own. Yeah, right. No way was that going to happen!  But, I knew she could cut them out. She asked me to help so I cut a few of the backs but she cut nearly all of them herself. Then, I sewed a front and back together on the sewing machine leaving an opening for the candy. My daughter had a ball stuffing Skittles into each heart. The opening wasn't quite big enough (or the paper was too stiff??) so the stitching broke on a few of them. No worries, though, we just stapled it closed and everything worked out just fine.

Avery is absolutely in love with these cards. She kept telling me “Shhh!” so I didn’t accidently tell anyone about them. She was so excited to give them to her classmates. This idea was found via Pinterest with the original link HERE. Dana provided a printable, but I wanted to make a few changes so I made my own.

And, I'll share those, too:

(click on picture to print—designed for an 8.5 x 11 inch paper)

I also made loving peg families for Avery’s teachers at school. And one for myself, of course.

This is my little family:

I got this idea HERE via Pinterest and knew I had to make these with a variety of pegs to represent different families. I found the best Etsy store to buy the dolls from—Clickety Clack. The pictures showing the different sizes were really helpful so I could get just what I want. I made big kids, little kids, toddlers and, of course, a bunch of mamas and papas for those families.

The original site didn't give many instructions – probably because it is self-explanatory once you see the picture. She did provide some good ideas about the peg dolls. I used larger dolls for the mama and papa so I didn't need to alter the girl dolls. I did cut the “foot” part off of one girl doll to make her smaller  because I didn't want to use the "tiny" size. You will have to adjust to make it work for your family.

 Here’s a list of the supplies I used:

Supplies:

Peg dolls – Clickety Clack
Small hearts – JoAnn’s
Bases - Hobby Lobby
Wood glue
Hot glue (for the heart)
Spray paint -  Heirloom White
Red paint – Napa
Cardstock (I totally forgot this part, but I wanted to put it on the bottom to make things look more finished.)

This project is speedy—for most people. I actually painted and glued twice :( After I glued and painted them the first time, I loaded them on a cardboard tray to bring into the house to dry since it is so cold in the garage.  I dropped them all and most of the peg dolls broke off of the bases. With a lot of sanding and patience, I got everything back in top shape.

This would make an adorable gift for all kinds of occasions.

Don’t get stuck on Valentine’s Day when you have love and hearts around!

What did you do for Valentine’s Day this year? I hope it’s been fun!

It’s OFFICIAL: The Christmas Season is ON!

I guess I should qualify that with, “at least for my little family,” since I won’t let anyone put up any Christmas decorations or play Christmas music or anything like that until after Thanksgiving. I know I am not alone in this. We have to hold firm to be able to enjoy each and every holiday!

The first thing on my Christmas to-do list is Christmas cards.

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I procrastinated just a bit too much last year and we decided we weren't going to send out cards because it was one thing we could let go and not feel completely guilty. This year, though, I have been on the ball! We had pictures taken in October so we are ready to purchase a photo greeting card this year.

I think this is my favorite photo, but my girls kinda get swallowed up by the whole picture.

So, I’m thinking this one – love that my girls are still the focus!

Luckily, I just had a great experience making a custom photo book with Shutterfly so I knew they wouldn’t disappoint when I saw all of the gorgeous choices for holiday photo cards from this company. The prices are reasonable and I know the quality will be excellent because the photo book I just made using Shutterfly is amazing. Here are a few of my favorites:

        

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How will I ever decide? 

I may just close my eyes and point—I really want to be on time this year! (It would be a first!)

Head over to the Shutterfly site and see what you can find!

True Confessions

It’s true. I have a lot (a LOT) of unfinished projects.

I’ve been working on my unfinished project piles and have made some great progress, but still…

Remember this?

I won’t lie…I haven’t even finished my whole set. Now, to be fair, I want about 24 of them so it will take me a while, but I actually only have 6 in my current set and only 4 are complete. Yep, it’s true.

 On the other hand, I received a sweet email from a reader named Kathy. Her friend wanted these placemats so she used my Turkey Placemat Tutorial to make a set for her friend. (What an amazing friend Kathy is!)

Just look at how beautiful her placemats turned out.

And she finished the whole set!

There’s still time. If you haven’t made your placemats for tomorrow, you can still get it done. I get some of my best work done late at night and up against the clock. Go for it!

I’m so grateful for creative projects (and plenty of them!) that keep me going. For my US readers,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Keeping it Simple!

This Valentine card

is the simple and quick(er) version of…

THIS Valentine card at TipJunkie.

To me, the original version has more pizzazz visually, but I had to work with the demands of my four-year-old! While I loved this card at first sight, after reading the tutorial, I wasn't so in love with actually doing the work. There is a beautiful printable if you want to use the Tip Junkie card, but it is not customizable and requires quite a bit of work. My version requires access to a Silhouette cutting machine which I know disappoints a bunch of you, but I can only do so much! So…this is for all of you serious procrastinators – or maybe for next year!

 Materials:
cardstock
glue
double-sided tape
“Smarties” candies
silhouette file (Includes graphic, pants, pants with tabs) HERE
(I think this link to a file will work – if you have Silhouette software installed on your computer. There is no preview available, so download it and then open from your Silhouette. Let me know if it works for you!)


Instructions:
1 - Print and cut your pants and pants with tabs on cardstock.

Print and cut the graphics part of the card changing fonts and colors as desired. I cut mine out of cardstock, but paper would be fine, too, since it will be backed in cardstock.

Cut cardstock for the background.
 


2 – Glue the pants to the graphics page so it looks like the hearts are holding the pants up like clothespins.

3 – Glue the graphics page to the cardstock background.


4 – Fold/unfold the tabs on the pants section with tabs to make them flexible.Use a small piece of double-sided tape on each tab being careful to only put tape on lower section of tab. Stick the pants with tabs to the pants on the card at the feet.



5 – Fold the tabbed pants over and continue sticking each tab under and onto the pants on the card. I found that it helped to stick something inside of the pants box to help push the tape down. I used a bone folder, but you can use anything that won’t stick to your tape.



6 – Your pants box should look like this:



7 – Put 2 “Smarties” in each pants box, sign the cards and you are good to go!

Happy Valentine’s Day all of you “Smarties” out there!