teachers gifts

Our kids come from a long line of teachers. On both sides. Their Dad, their Grandpa's, Aunt's, Uncles, and Great Grandpa's. We know that the job of a teacher is very much under appreciated and under paid! This past week was teacher appreciation week and I always try to get something made for each of my kids teachers because we love them so much.

This year we made these super fun giant pencils filled with yummy treats and candy for each teacher.  (It wasn't until after Macie gave this one to her teacher that I realized I left an N off of the end of her name. Oops!)

They were so fun to make and deliver, all the kids in the classes thought they were so cool.

The kids have had such a great year and learned so much. WE LOVE OUR TEACHERS!

Another one of my Pinterest finds!!

Travel Pillows

I made a travel pillow for my daughters friend a few months ago and loved it so much that I will probably be making them for any party they go to for the next little while.

Who doesn't want a personalized pillow with a handle and a pocket for books and toys.

I would!

P.S. AWESOME  Giveaway over on my other blog this week! Come check it out.

pinterest overload

WOW, it's been a while!

I find less and less time to blog now-a-days. That and I have been swamped with orders. My guess is that it's because of the new LDS primary theme being CTR this year.

Anyway, let me run through the long list of projects that Pinterest basically handed to me and said "Here. Make this."

I made these night owls for a girl party for my daughter. They are filled with rice and you pop them in the microwave and heat them up to keep you warm at night, or keep them in the fridge to put on an owie!

These candy cane mice were for all the kids in my son and daughters classes at school this year. Adorable and no sewing required!

My oldest is in 3rd grade and for school they had to make a valentine box with their parents. This was our end result.

The next few pictures are the kids valentines this year. Macie had a Valentine gun and holster with gum.

Connor's are Army guy Valentines that I LOVE!!

.

And I helped Ellie make friendship bracelets for her class. I love all the options out there now for sugar free Valentines.

There we go.

All caught up with the Pinterest projects. Next, I may have to do a post on all the recipes I have made thanks to the all mighty Pinterest!

little gnome

For Sawyers first time trick or treating I decided he needed a new costume!

It needed to be simple and comfy, so I made this gnome costume that I have to say I kinda adore on him!

.

Those curls coming out from under his hat kill me.

I knew he wouldn't keep a strap-on beard on his face at all and I found a infant gnome costume online a few months ago that had the beard sewn onto the onzie and I loved that idea.

He loved the attention we gave him when he put the hat on so he actually wore it all night to a school carnival and at our ward party last night.

My little gnomeo!

Crap to Craft~nick name T-shirt

I didn't have a ton of time to put together a birthday present for one of my sons best friends so it was a little last minute. But I actually think is is one of my favorite gifts that I have ever made.

We went to the store and got him a fun little Nerf gun and I bought a plain white T-shirt.

I love thinking up projects for my Silhouette and I was determined to think of a gift idea for this little boy.

His name is Ryan, but in his family he is called by a bunch of cute nick names. His mom even wrote up a post about them all on her family blog so that's were I headed to find them.

Once I had them all saved I entered them into my program for my Silhouette and organized them all cute with different fonts.

Then all I had to do after they were cut out was set them where I wanted them and ironed them on.

Easy peasy and the birthday boy ended up LOVING it!

Crap to Craft- fun summer sandals

It's cold here. I had a swimsuit sent to me to review about a month ago (review and giveaway on that soon to come to Leelou) but it has been so windy and overcast here I haven't been able to get some sun on my pasty skin to take pictures in it.

I'M READY FOR THE SUN!!!

And to get me in the mood, I had to make some fun summer sandals for my girls. My mom made some of these the other day for them and I had to make more. I'll have to take pictures of the ones she made they are multicolored and fun for all the birthdays I have next month.

You start with a simple pair of flip flops.

Buy a pack of small water balloons and tie them on. You need 100 balloons for each shoe. I tied them twice to make sure they held.

They end up something like this:

You can pull and poke them to shape the way you want them. Adorable and the whole project cost $3.00!!!

baptism towel

My daughter is turning 8 this year along with about 5 of her best girlfriends. One of them had a birthday last week and so I thought a baptism towel would be fitting.

I have had these towels in my "things to make" folder for so long I was actually really excited to get to start making some.

The poem that goes with it is so perfect and sweet. I have been gathering tonz of ideas for baptisms and can't wait till it's Ellie's turn.

Idea found here.

monster tooth pillow

.

I don't know what it is about monsters but boy do I LOVE them.I made this monster tooth pillow for my sons friend for his birthday. Every little boy needs a "boyish" tooth fairy pillow.Or just a super cool pillow that holds stuff in his mouth.

Shoe shapes

I thought I would through this in here even though I already posted it on Leelou.

*************************************************

Here is just one of the projects I have used my Silhouette for. My 3 year old daughter is in a totally independent phase and wants to put on her shoes all by herself. Because of this, she often puts her shoes on the wrong feet and her toes hurt after 3 minutes. So I thought I would use my new fancy schmancy Silhouette to cut out an image onto vinyl.

I then cut the image in half and stuck half in the left shoe and half in the right shoe. Now she just has to line up the picture of the butterfly correctly to put her shoes on the right feet.

She loves them and has been bringing me every pair of shoes in the house to put an image in. I'm sure my hubby would love to one day find a caterpillar in his shoes right?

fun with the silhouette

I have been playing with the silhouette non stop. I keep thinking of fun new things I can do with this thing. Here are some of my first attempts at heat transfer paper on T shirts.

I made this one for my daughter for Valentines Day.

.

And this one for my son, this may be my favorite.

.

.

kids valentines of 2011

3 different Valentines for 3 different kids= pain in the neck!!

I used my Silhouette and made these cute little candy envelopes for my 3 year old's friends in her music class. I used paper I already had and spent 2 dollars on candy to fill it. Easy to make and I saved some $$

.

I was crazy and thought I would make my son some easy chocolate suckers for his Kindergarten class. When I found my sucker molds, the only Valentines one I had was one with HUGE hearts and again I only had ONE mold pan (six at a time). It takes more chocolate than you think to fill those things. It took all night.

.

And finally my 7 year old is I guess "to cool" for regular valentines and wanted to make these super cute iPod Valentines. I loved these and they are put together rather quick. I got the idea online but they don't let you print out a ton at a time so my sweet mom made her own version in memory mixer and I think they are even cuter with the heart and Ellie's name.

*Note to self...Fred Meyer Valentines next year*

Magnetic Tin Advent Calendar

.

Christmas is in sight and coming at us fast.

I have seen tonz of fun advent calendars out there and wanted to try my hand at a new kind this year. Actually I am giving this one as a gift so I wanted to package it all cute too.

I started with 25 little tins that have see through windows on the lid and come in a clear little bucket.

Next ,I had planned on finding cute vintage Christmas pictures to put in the little windows but ended up just printing off some pretty numbers because I didn't have my number stamps at home. I made them a bit smaller than the lid so I could sandwich them between the window and clear contact paper...making them all sealed up and protected. (also you get a sneak peek of the next days goodies)

.

I used the paper inside the bucket they came in as a template and quickly cut out some Christmas paper to make the gift self storing and cuter.

Then I stuck a STRONG magnet in the center of each tin before I filled them all with some of my favorite Holiday treats.

I could have stopped right there but thought it would be fun to include a strip of paper inside each one that lists one activity or idea for you (or someone your giving it to) to do that day.

Some of the things I thought of were:

- Build a giant fort & have a tasty snack!
- Make a Christmas craft for your teachers at school.
- Christmas dance party! Listen to Christmas music & dance away...
- Curl up under a warm blanket & read a Christmas book.
- Hot cocoa & games night!
- Nail painting party! Paint your nails Christmas colors or paint someone else’s for them.
- Go for a drive to see our neighbors Christmas lights
-Christmas coloring & craft night!

-Etc...

All done! I packed them all in and they are ready to go.

I figure you can stick them on any magnetic surface, like a fridge, in any shape you want. But here is a tree:

and in rows: