Teacher Appreciation Gift

This week was teacher appreciation week at Izacc's school.  
It kind of snuck up on us, in fact, I had no clue until he brought the paper home with the details for the week...on Tuesday. 
No big deal.  To Pinterest I went, as I do in most crunch time situations...or party situations...or, well, let's be honest here, I really don't need an excuse to go there because I do on a daily basis.  But having an excuse to be wasting my time is always good.  Ahem.  Anyway I found a sweet blog called Kim's Kandy Kreations and it had the perfect last minute and cheap cost effective project.  And it was cute.  And it had a free printable!
And so we made this little bad boy.  And by we, of course, I mean ME.

So cute, am I right?  And oh so easy.

 Kim has got a pretty great tutorial and I stuck to it for the most part.  But I did line the can with fabric before gluing the crayons on.

And I made a few yo-yos and glued them on the front, you know, just to sissy-fy it up a touch.

 He was pretty excited to give it to her and I was pleased with how it turned out.  

Hooray for awesome fast projects!  And thanks to Kim for the inspiration!!

Valentine’s Day Wreath

I was browsing through one of my favorite blogs and saw this little beauty. 

{source}

And I decided it might be a fun little project.
Plus my door has been looking a little naked since I took down my autumn wreath.
I know, I need a Christmas wreath.
All in good time.
ANYWAY, so I went to the dollar store and found a floral form.
 
And went to Wal-mart and bought some $1 Valentine’s Day ribbon.  And I wrapped it around the form and hot glued the ends down.
 
Then I took some cupcake liners and went crazy!
FYI: IMPOSSIBLE to find cute cupcake liners in a small town.  I made due with what I could get my hands on.

I followed her directions pretty closely and worked in sections.  Instead of bunching them up, though, I sort of wrapped the liners around a chopstick (See that green stick in the background?) and then pressed it into a dab of hot glue.  I found it a lot less brutal on my poor burnt fingers.  Plus I could press the liner slightly into the form, which kind of gave it a more secure feel.
And I just worked my way around.  I also put them on the outside of the form, which makes it nice and puffy.
Then I sprayed some adhesive on the liners and poured a whole bunch of red glitter all over the thing.  It was magical.
I then made a sort of flower out of a couple liners and glued it on.  Then I tied a bow out of some thin ribbon and glued it in the center of the flower.
I glued some ribbon across the back and tied it in a bow and hung it on the door.
 
I think it turned out super cute, even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the liners I got.  Fun colors and a fast little project.

A huge thanks to Jen over at Tatertots and Jello for this super fun project!  She’s pretty awesome, just so ya know.

Party In The USA

I saw this last spring and really loved it.

(photo from Linda’s blog, Craftaholics Anonymous)

Um, hi, can you say so so stinkin adorable?!?!  I loved it.

I, however, had just finished making my spring wreath.

Boo.  So I decided to put it on the back burner...until I had the idea to make a festive 4th of July wreath instead.

I basically love it.  I followed Linda’s tutorial for the most part, which is fantastic by the way.

I did make a few changes.

Here’s what I did.

Linda used felt. Walmart basically sucks noodles and didn’t have ANY blue felt.

So I decided to improvise and use ribbon.

I gathered all the red, white, and blue ribbon and buttons I could find. And I bought a wreath.

Then I followed Linda’s instructions for making the flowers.

Just make loops and then fold the ribbon at an angle and put a little hot glue to hold it. The angle you fold makes all the difference, as you might see with some of my flowers. It took me a minute to figure out how to make them all the same.

I ran out of ribbon while making this flower

So I just glued the start of new ribbon where it left off and kept going.

I had fun figuring out how to make different shapes and loops and little ones and big ones.

I love this little guy.

And this one’s a star. Cute cute cute!!

Then I just glued them onto the wreath and fastened a ribbon on with more hot glue.

I think it turned out perfectly!

Festive and oh so cute!

And fairly simple. It took me an hour, start to finish.

It was a naptime masterpiece!!

There I am in the reflection. Nice.

Thank you, Linda! You rock!!!

New Beginnings 2010

Yeah, I know.  New Beginnings is supposed to happen at the beginning of the year.  But our stake had a giant reorganization so after things settled down a little, we had ours on April 6th.

The mutual theme for this year is  "Be Strong and of Good Courage" (Joshua 1:9) and I found an amazing program idea here.  She has it all planned out, lined up and ready to go.  I have to give her mad props because she helped us out so so much!  THANK YOU, MELANIE,  FOR SHARING YOUR AMAZING IDEAS!!!!

The theme was sort of Olympic centered.  We had the Olympic theme song playing and all the girls came in wearing each value color.  Our ward has very few Young Women, so we used each and every one who came and even a visitor!

I made a torch using a flashlight and can light gels, although I’m sure you could use anything.  On the blog, she suggests using tissue paper.  Then I took a piece of brownish 12x12 paper and rolled it to make a casing.  I dropped the flashlight into it and there we had a torch!  I didn’t get a really good picture of it, but here I am holding it… I think it turned out well.  I also think I am a giant dork.

For the metals, I wanted them to look nice but my resources here were very limited.  So I did what I could and it was a lot of work, but I am very happy with how they came out!

I went to the hardware store and bought some big washers.  Then I measured them and added a little extra around the edges so I could wrap the paper over the washer.  So I cut all the paper.

Then I wrinkled all the circles up so the paper was a little more manageable and pliable.

Then I centered the washer on the paper circle

And hot glued the paper down all the way around the washer.

Then I printed “Be strong and of a good courage” onto the same paper and cut out those circles.  I Mod Podged those babies on there and it gave them a little sheen.

 

Then I took my dollar store metals, took the ribbon off (they came with red, white, and blue ribbon) and glued them onto the back of the washers.  It gave them a little more weight and also a place for me to thread all the ribbons through.

  Then I took a ribbon from each value and threaded it through the hole, along with the original ribbon that came with the metals.  It worked out well that I didn’t have to buy red, white or blue ribbon because it was already on there!

They were a lot of work and I’m sure there is an easier way!  But I think they worked and looked quite nice.

I also made fruit pizza and it was so so so yummy!  I didn’t get a picture before it was devoured, but take my word for it!  It was beautiful!

Fruit Pizza Recipe

Crust: (I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, found here.)

Blend together until smooth:
1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup melted Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
Combined in separate bowl:
5 Cups Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until combined.  Make a ball out of the dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge 2-3 hours or until firm. I made mine the night before.  Roll it out to fit pan size, not too thick.  I was able to make 2 pizzas, one on a cookie sheet and one on a pizza pan.  Bake @ 375 for 15-20 min.  You want them just slightly golden brown to make sure the middle is done.  Let cool.

topping:

1 package cream cheese

1 12 oz package Cool Whip

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Blend until smooth.  Spread over pizzas when cool.  Then arrange fruit on top.  I used strawberries, mandarin oranges, bananas, pineapple, blueberries and apples.  Mmmm.

All in all, it was a successful evening!  Thanks again to Melanie over at her blog!  You are a lifesaver!

Loverly Spring Wreath

I am so stinking sick of this weather! Sheesh already isn’t it supposed to be spring?!

Well, to maybe push Mother Nature in the right direction, I made a happy spring wreath for our front door.

Is cute, no?

It was a snap to make. I just bought a wreath form from the dollar store and wrapped it with ribbon.

Then I glued a whole lotta daisies all around and tada! Cute spring inspiring happiness!

If that doesn’t get Mother Nature’s attention, nothing will. Those are some bright and happy flowers!

Well, here’s hoping spring will be here soon…