I Need More... No.2 Pencils [Back to School]

Who's ready to head back to school?  I'm going to guess that the majority of hands that shot up are from the mothers who are busy packing lunches into shiny new lunch boxes, settling into carpool routines, and delirious with excitement about the possibility of new-found moments of free time.  The collective groan must have come from the under-18 set.  Stop it.  What are you groaning about?

I loved the first day of school as a kid.  Remember how your clothes were new and starchy and way too warm for the summer heat that clearly didn't get the memo that autumn had arrived?  Remember seating charts that sat you right next to the cutest boy in school who - when he was in a good mood - asked you, yes, you to help him fill in the holes on his unfinished homework?  Remember the little notes of encouragement from your parents tucked into your book bag that made riding the school bus bearable?  Yeah.  Me, too.

Parents!  Don't miss the chance to make your little scholar's day!  Tuck a love note into a lunch, a book, or inside a sneaker.  Who knows... they might even forget to roll their eyes at you as you shout, "I love you, sweetheart!" in front of their friends.

Download the FREE "Hey Smartie Pants!" printable here.

Instructions:
I made my custom Back to School seals by printing the pdf document on full sheet label paper (available at any office supply retailer) and then cut to size.  (I started with a scalloped circle paper punch that was just shy of 2-inches, but decided that I liked the look of a square better.  It made the label look more like a miniature piece of binder paper.  You can see both in the photo above.)  Stick them on a teeny paper bag full of Smarties candies and enjoy!

I Need More... Reasons to Celebrate [National Donut Day!]

I am not ashamed that I LOVE DONUTS (or doughnuts, whatever).  And that makes today a day to celebrate!  Did you know that way back in 1938, the Salvation Army set aside the first Friday of June to honor the women who served donuts to soldiers during World War I?  Lucky for us, historians record noteworthy events like this so that we, in 2012, can forget our silly diets for a day and cram our faces with deep-fried glazed goodness.  I may have gotten a little overexcited with that last sentence there...  No matter.  How will you celebrate National Donut Day?

In honor of this momentous day, I give you a darling (April Fool's Day) craft idea - Donut Seeds.

I Need More... Peeps [Peeps, peeps, everywhere!]

Halloween may seem to have the lock on candy, but not in my world.  It's Easter.  Come on.  Chocolate bunnies, robin's egg malt balls, super stale marshmallow Peeps, and the tooth-achingly perfect Cadbury Egg?  Really, Halloween?  Really?  You've got nuthin' on Easter confections!

PEEPS GARLAND
So, to celebrate my love of Easter sweets, my home dec centered around the all-mighty Peep this year.  I made about a billion felt Peeps to string into garlands.  (A lucky few even received them tied to the real thing as gifts.)  The garland came from the Dana Made It blog.  See it here.  FYI:  I used a 15 ft. spool of gingham ribbon per 13 felt bunny Peeps, leaving plenty of extra ribbon on the ends for hanging.




WREATH

I then grabbed the glue gun for a session with a styrofoam wreath and several boxes of Peeps.  Here is the basic tutorial.  Although, it was so simple, that a tutorial seems admittedly silly.

Supplies:

Styrofoam wreath, about 12-inch

Ribbon

Straight pins

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Peeps, just shy of three boxes

How to:

1. Behind the wreath, pin down one end of your ribbon.  Wrap the wreath in ribbon, overlapping edges slightly to hide any signs of styrofoam.  Pin the ribbon now and again with straight pins to keep the ribbon from slipping.

2. Glue your Peeps, side by side, into place.  Just squish them close together, until you've completed your circle.

3.  Pin a loop of ribbon to the back of the wreath and hang it proudly.

4. Resist the urge to eat these uber-stale Peeps when the holiday is over.  Stale may be good, but that's just gross.

I Need More... Holiday Handouts [Happy Valentine's Day 2010]

I know that when you're a kid all you want is the store-bought Halloween costume or cartoon Valentine cards.  I did.  But now that I'm all grown up, I appreciate all the hard work my mother did back in the day to make my holidays one-of-a-kind and memorable.  So I am continuing the lovingly cruel cycle with no apologies!  Below are Amelia's Valentine's Day cards which, for the record, beat the pants off every other card in her Valentine mailbox from school.  [Mother smiles slyly.]  Idea originally came from here.

Supplies:


Camera
White butcher paper
Photoshop or other photo-manipulating software
Colored cardstock
Hole punch
Cello bags & ribbon
Goodies for inside the cello bag or a lollipop


How to:


1. Create a blank backdrop for your photo.  Here's how I did it:  I pushed a storage tub flush against the refrigerator (to be used as a bench), unrolled several yards of white butcher paper from the local teacher supply store over the tub (held in place by fridge magnets), and have your subject gently sit on your "bench".


2. As the photographer I would suggest standing on a chair to get higher than your subject.  Then as they reach for the camera with their fist, you get a good angle.  And flood the room with light!


3. Using Photoshop or the like, crop or adjust your photo as desired.  I cropped to 4x4-inches.  Layer text onto photo.  I used colors for the text pulled from the colors in the photo.  Save as a jpg.

4. Print your photos.  I sent mine to Walgreens (because they always seem to have a special on prints).  Call the photo center and give them the final dimensions of the photo that you want.  Many of their machines will stretch your image to fit their 4x6-inch photo size, for example, if you do not instruct them otherwise.  My photos came back to me as 3.75x3.75-inches, so pretty close to the original size.


5. Trim off excess photo and mount on cardstock.  Punch holes near the subject's hand (where you will attach the sweet treat).


6. Attach your treat with twine or ribbon.


7. Sit back and enjoy your accomplishment!  And quietly snicker at those who bought their Valentines.  Hee hee.

I Need More... Disney [Hot Dog! Mickey Mouse Invitations]

After tossing around birthday themes for quite some time, my 2 year old daughter finally settled on Mickey Mouse. Let the party planning begin! And by begin, I mean I'd better get some invitations made and out or this is going to be one lame party...
MICKEY INVITATION POCKET:

1) Basic Mickey Mouse silhouette designed in Adobe Illustrator and saved as an SVG. (This SVG can be cut by the Sure Cuts A Lot program that allows you to cut your own designs and fonts with the Cricut.)

2) Mickey shape cut in both black and red cardstock. The red Mickey is cut in half to create the front of the pocket to hold the actual invitation. A simple stitch on the sewing machine holds the two pieces together.

3) A couple of glue dots hold the buttons in place.

INVITATION:

1) Again, designed in Adobe Illustrator using the Walt Disney handwriting font for titles. Printed on white cardstock.

2) Stapled a short length of ribbon to the invitation for a little color.

3) Folded in thirds and inserted into the Mickey pocket. The whole thing measures about 4x5-inches to fit nicely into an A-6 envelope.

I Need More... Holiday Handouts [Easter Candy Tube ]

I wish I could take credit for this idea; it's so fabulous.  But alas, I cannot.  It came from a blog called Paper, Scissors, Superheroes and I instantly fell in love with it!   (Click on the link for a simple tutorial.)

Note: Invest in and use for all gluing in the project Terrifically Tacky Tape.  (This stuff is my favorite and holds like nothing else.)  Originally, I tried using my Xyron for the paper bands around the edges of the tube and they kept popping off.  So I switched back to the TTT.

I did design and print the Easter chick tags, print them on white cardstock, and cut them out with a scalloped punch.  That was my creative contribution to the idea aside from the manpower.  All credit goes to Paper, Scissors, Superheroes certainly.
Filling anything with candy is always the fun part.  Layer 1) a little paper shred, 2) sour gummy eggs, 3) a Peep, and 4) more gummy eggs.
I'm only sorry that the polka dot paper that I used to create the tube ends isn't more visible in the final product.  I might have swapped out the lime green bands for the polka dot paper.  But, I love this project so much that it's sure to make many more appearances as other holidays roll around.