Valentine's Boxes Done & A "Manly" Gift

I finally finished the Valentine's boxes for the boys to take to school, I'm so grateful that Valentine's day is on Thursday this year it gave extra days to complete things!  These boxes I think turned out so cute!  I found the idea for the Monster and the Dog on Danielle's Place.  Her's are a bit more detailed then mine but I think the boys and I did a great job.

Monster - 

What you will need:

Tissue Box

Craft Foam or Colored Card Stock

Acrylic Patio Paint

Low Temp Mini Glue Gun

White Paper or Craft Foam for the Teeth

Multi-colored Feather Boa

White paper or craft foam for the teeth

Scissors

Googly Eyes
(Alexis Notes: I used loose multi colors feathers - cheaper. The dollar store had foam feet so I cut them down to make the monster feet.  I used a foam piece that I cut into the arms and the tongue.)

I'm sorry for instructions you will have to go to Danielle's Place she requested I take these down that it is stealing putting them up. She has also requested I take down the step by step pictures and direct you to her page.

Dog 

What you Need:

Tissue Box
Craft Foam or Colored Card Stock
Acrylic Patio Paint 
Low Temp Mini Glue Gun
White Paper or craft foam for the Teeth
Silver Chenille Stem
Brown Feather Boa
White paper
Scissors
Googly Eyes
(Alexis Notes - I skipped the Chenille Stem along with making a collar and used loose feathers instead of a Boa to save money)


I'm sorry for instructions you will have to go to Danielle's Place she requested I take these down that it is stealing putting them up. Pictures on how to do has also been taken down by her request.

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you all have a blessed day with wishes of love!

P.S. I had to add one more thing on.  Since I'm a such a good mom I almost missed doing a gift for Rick ... ugh.  So I found a "Manly" Valentine on The Crafty Blog Stalker's website.  I took this and made it to Rick's taste.  

You Need:

Jerky

Sugar Babies (Since he's my Sugar Daddy to my Sugar Babies)

glass vase (Dollar Tree)

Almond Joy (his favorite candy)

Sandies Cookies (his favorite cookie)

Trident (his favorite gum)

red ribbon

I tried to shove the sugar babies in their boxes in the glass vase but didn't fit so I took them out and put in the bottom of the vase.  I added the Jerk and used those as my anchors to hold in the other items.  I pushed the other items and done!  I added a balloon that say I love you :).

Ok now I'm done! LOL

You're the Bomb or Are you a Lady Bug?

On to our next Valentine Day gifts made!  Now most of you say why don't you just make two of the Pop-Pop Pop-ular Teacher Gift I made yesterday for Caden's teacher also.  Well on one of the first field trips I went on (where I made pumpkin patch cupcakes) I offered one to Caden's teacher who let me know her husband is a gluten free diet and she is going along to support him.   So I must find gifts that I can give her.  I found an idea to make bath bombs on Swift Crafy Monkey.  NOW the recipe is very easy but finding the Citric Acid for the recipe was my kryptonite.   I went to 3 Walmarts, Fred Meyers, Walgreens, Jo-Anne's, Michael's and Target!!  YUP I almost screamed at the last store the pharmacist at Target must have seen the tears or maybe the bright shade of red on my face and told me to go to Super Supplements.  This inexpensive gift I swear cost me $50 in gas ... lol.

Here is what you Need:

1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup citric acid
1 tsp oil of choice 
up to 2.5 ml fragrance oil

(Alexis Note: I used Olive Oil, because it's what I had and well I wasn't going to let this recipe make me do ONE more trip to the grocery store ... lol)

Mix the powdered parts together very well and make sure there aren't any big hunks of baking soda or citric acid in the mix. Add your oil and fragrance oil into the oils. Mix really well - it might fizz a bit. This is normal. Press into the molds very hard - pack a layer as hard as you can, then pack the next layer, until you've reached the top - and wait at least 45 minutes before removing (I found I had to let mine stay over night).   

I also made this shape

Next on the list to make is something special for Caden's class, I knew they would be getting a LOT of candy so why not make something that would be fun for the holiday but maybe a little on the healthier side.  Now I saw a pin on Pinterest saved it then went back to hit up the website to see how it was done!  So I click on it and guess what it's just linked to a picture (I tried searching again and ALL of them are linked to the same picture).  Don't you just HATE when you go for a pin and it's not pinned to the right website or even to a website.  Ok it's a pet peeve!)  So I ran with the picture and this is what I did, I added eyes (I thought it needed a little something) along with a personalized note on the bottom w/ labels that I cut out into a circle.

What you need:

Red Fruit Cup

Black Pipe Cleaner

Black Sharpie Pen

Glue

Wiggly Eyes (optional but I thought they were cute)

Take the fruit cup flip it over (leaving the plastic on of course so the gel stays inside), make a line down the middle, draw a black half circle for the face and dots on each side of the line.  Cut a pipe cleaner in half, glue onto the the fruit cup below the face.  Add a little curl at the end of each piper cleaner for the antenna's.  You're done!  You can add a little message onto the bottom if you want. (I searched for ladybug wording and found a cute saying on Skip to My Lou's website).

Aren't they cute?  I thought so!  Next on our mission to make is the valentine card boxes for each kid (Monster for Cole & Dog for Caden) and Popcorn Treat Bags for Cole's Class.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Super Hero's & Popcorn ... What More Could you Want?

Well I finished two more of more Valentine Day projects!  3 more to go but let's just hope I finish those tomorrow.  Today I show off Caden's class Valentine's and a gift for Cole's teacher.

First off we start with the Superhero Valentines I found on Little Bit Funky.  The super cute cape printable is found on Less Ordinary Designs, they are free make sure you say thank you.

What you Need:

Superhero Printable FREE from Less Ordinary Designs 
stiff felt (I used foam sheets from the Dollar Store)
hole punch
2in paper punch (or you can use scissors)
coordinating ribbon
lollipops (tootsie pops have nice superhero colors)
glue (hot or craft will work)
cape template

Cut or Punch out the superhero circles and emblems for the capes.  Cut the cape (I created one you can use it if you would like.  Just save the picture and print, I used it as a template to cut the capes out). Glue the superhero emblems onto the capes. Use a hole punch to punch hole in the top of the cape.  Slide the lollipop through the hole and tie a coordinating ribbon below. Punch a hole in the top and bottom of the word circles and slide onto the stick.  They were very cute and easy to make.

Last on the list to do is a teacher gift.   I found a picture on Marci Coombs website for The Pop-Pop Pop-ular Teacher! Valentine's Gift!  

What you Need:

Popcorn Container (found at the Dollar Store)

2 Bags of Microwave Popcorn

2 Boxes of Candy

Ribbon

Card Stock to add the personal message

Add the popcorn and candy into the container.  I typed up the message in word and attached with a ribbon.  Oh yeah it was that easy!

I hope you have a wonderful day and maybe try out one of these easy Valentine's Day Gifts.

May the Force Be with You Valentine's Card

This weekend I had big plans to get all the boys valentines cards, treats and card boxes done ... BUT.  Well let's say a certain science project for Cole's class to make a Lava Lamp and the lovely display board that had to be done also took up MOST of my weekend!  Who knew a kids science project for a third grader could be so freaking time consuming.  That project I'll show next week.  This week I need to get the valentines done and posted before the actual date!

So needless to say I only got one done and it was the easiest of all the things I am going to do!  Jeez somedays I think I really need to rein it in ... oh yeah who am I kidding :).

I of course saw these on Pinterest and had to make them!  The boys LOVE all things Star Wars (oh yes boys after my and my dads heart).  I saw these May the Force be with You Cards on Stitch Creations.  

She was so sweet to actually give you a free printable in color or non color (click either link above to see the printables and her son that she actually took a picture of to make him part of the card ... very cool)!  I picked the color version and printed on some cream colored card stock paper.  I took my creative memories cutter and cut them down and used the blade to cut the whole for the glow stick.  It can be done with a pair of scissors also if needed (or a razor blade).  This really is so simple but what kid would not love a freaking glow stick card!  NOW one thing I learned is when you shove the glow stick in it will break which kind of is uncool when you give the card with a dead stick.  SO you use a glow stick that is broke to put threw to make the hole wide enough then take it out and add the new one.  I found this was the easiest to do, I did it for all the cards and only ended up with the one dead one!

This is going to be such a hit with Cole's friends, plus it gave me an idea of what to do for Cole's birthday invites that of course is going to be Star Wars themed :). 

Hope you all had a great weekend and for you who are stuck in the storm my prayers are with you!

Let's Play Ball Gift Basket ... School Auction

Cole's class room theme was sports for the school Auction.  And yet of course I didn't want to buy just a bunch of random things and give it to the school.  I thought it would be fun to make a themed basket myself to add to their basket.  I was going to do football but I couldn't find what I wanted so I went with baseball.  I'm so not a sports girl so I thought I was pretty awesome when I found the basket in the colors of the Mariners (our Baseball team) ... only to have Rick tell me yes it's a Seattle color but that would be for the SeaHawks football ... lol.  Oh well I tried and I don't think any one is going to complain.

I hit Walmart and got all the items I needed:

What I used:

Fabric Basket $1/97

Baseballs $1.57 Each

Cracker Jack $.99

Vitamin Water $.99 Each

Sunflower Seeds $2.97

(I wanted to get some big league gum but couldn't find it for the life of me)

I took some scrapbook paper ($.59 Baseball & $.49 Grey & Brown) and cut it to fit the basket.  I then hit up my Cricut and cut out a fun saying of Let's Play Ball.  I took some spray adhesive (that I found in Rick's man cave) and sprayed the paper onto the basket.

It took me less then 5 minutes to put together but I think it would be a cool gift for your sports fan in your life!  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  We have a one party plus my women's group from church is having a dinner out!  Yes I'm so excited it's going to be a good weekend!

Homemade Play Dough ... School Auction Gift

Now on to the next item I made for the kids auction.  I have made play dough in the past but why not show it again!  This was one of the easiest recipes to make and I bet you have most of the items if not all of them in your pantry.  I love using Jell-o it has a great color to it and of course the smell is great!  Ok NOTE to self DON'T make a post late at night when you've been working since 5AM you will end up typing Kool-Aid instead of Jell-o!!!!

Homemade Play Dough

Ingredients

1	cup of water
1	cup of flour
2	teaspoon of cream of tartar
1	tablespoon of cooking oil
½	cup of salt
3	oz Sugar Free Jello

Directions

Mix all of the ingredients, except for the jello. Microwave it for about one minute and stir. Cook for about 30 more seconds. Keep repeating until the playdough is dough-ish. Knead the playdough and place the jello to color.

I picked up some containers at the dollar store that reminded me of the containers play dough comes in and put it in there.  I made a label that said what it was and we were ready to rock and roll!

This is a fun item that the kids can help you make and then they have fun playing with the play dough after.  I hope you give this a try it is so fun to do and you can find some many great colors with the jello.