Teacher Gifts

Well Matthew has officially finished grade 1 and we headed out to see Disney Cars to celebrate!  I did enjoy it but it was definitely a lot more complicated than the first one and I'm not really sure how much the kids actually understood.  That being said, they did seem to like it and anything that can keep my kids entertained for 2 hours is all good in my books! :)

So the last day of school also means coming up with something to give the teacher.  My creative juices have been sucked a little dry lately so I did a little blog hopping to come up with some inspiration!  Seriously there are so many cute ideas out there!  Since I had made owl treat bags for the kids, I thought I would stick with the owl theme for Matthew's teacher as well.

I got the idea from Lisa Storms and added my own personal owl touch!  All you need is a paper bag, some scrapbook paper, and a few basic supplies and you are "owl" set.  {Sorry, I can't seem to get enough of these cheesy sayings!}

I love the color combos on this paper from My Mind's Eye.  I've kind of been hoarding it for a while but decided that it was time to take the plunge and cut it!  The eyes are made from a 3 inch scallop punch and 3 other circle punches.  I free handed the beak and feet and attached them with double sided tape.  I used some scalloped edged scissors on the paper for the tummy and rolled the ends up for more of a 3-D effect for the feathers {although it is hard to tell from the photos}

I loaded up the bag with some yummy bath products and a gift card for Starbucks and then folded the top down.  I trimmed the corners off the bag to form a triangle, punched a hole in the top of the bag and tied it closed with a ribbon.

For Matthew's teacher aide, I bought a re-usable plastic cup from Superstore, filled it with some lemonade packets and a Starbuck's gift card, and added some vinyl to the front {downloaded from the Silhouette site}. The tag was also downloaded from Lisa Storms {she really does have some really cute ideas!}

Okay Mr. Sun....school is now officially out and our patience is starting to wear thin.  Please, please give us some Fun in the Sun!

I linked up with Tip Junkie, Ask Anna, Embellishing Life, CRAFT, Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order, Somewhat Simple, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Confessions of a Stay at Home Mommy, Skip to My Lou, Lil Luna, Home Stories of A to Z, Design Dazzle, The Girl Creative, Craft-O-Maniac, The Shabby Nest, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Smile Monsters, Tidy Mom, At the Picket Fence, Paisley Passions, The Shabby Chic Cottage, House of Hepworths, Katie's Nesting Spot and Delightful Order.

Owl Treat Bags

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to pop in and let you know that I am still here!  Life has been very busy the last couple of weeks so blogging will be a little sporadic for the next little while.  Don't worry - things should be back to normal {whatever that is!} by mid July.

It seems like many of you have been enjoying summer vacation for a while now, but Matthew's last day of school is tomorrow.  I'm not sure who is more excited!  I created these little treat bags for Matthew to hand out to his classmates.

I got the idea from these treat bags that I found on Pinterest {big surprise I know!}.

Here's the How To:

• Fill treat bags with whatever treats you would like.  Gummy worms would be cute {owls eat worms right?} but I wanted to use wrapped candy since we were handing it out at school.  I used small clear bags (3x4) that I purchased from the dollar store but bigger baggies could always be used depending on what you were filling the bag with. 
• For the owl head, I downloaded the fancy frame from the Silhouette site and cut it out.  {If you don't have a Silhouette, many scrapbook stores also carry this die cut or you can just create your own template}.  Fold the frame in half.
• Staple the head to plastic treat bags.  DO NOT GLUE THE EYES ON FIRST!

• For the eyes, I used a 1 1/2 inch scallop punch, a 1 inch circle {which I cut out with my Coluzzle} and a hole punch for the small black circle.  I sanded the edges of the green circle and attached it with pop dots.

• Glue the eyes to the head covering up the staples.
• Cut out a beak from orange cardstock.  I folded the paper over and cut out a triangle to get a 3-D effect.

• Attach the beak with double sided tape.
• Add a little strip of paper to the back of the owl head to cover up the staple marks.  I love cheesy sayings!

Now repeat 22 times!

I think they turned out pretty cute! :)

Have a great week!

I linked up with Tip Junkie, Ask Anna, Embellishing Life, CRAFT, Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello, Somewhat Simple, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Confessions of a Stay At Home Mommy, Skip to My Lou, Lil Luna, Home Stories of A to Z, Design Dazzle, The Girl Creative, Craft-O-Maniac, The Shabby Nest, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Smile Monsters, Tidy Mom, At the Picket Fence, Paisley Passions, The Shabby Chic Cottage, House of Hepworth's, Katie's Nesting Spot and Delightful Order.

Pinned It!

For all of you Pinterest fans out there {and for those of you who have resisted the urge to join but would still like to see some fabulousness!}, I have decided to do a weekly posting with my Top 10 favorite pins.  So here we go!

I LOVE the quote on this sign and am planning on doing something similar to hang in our closet.  It would be a nice reminder to start the day!

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Check out these envelopes with a map of the sending and receiving addresses.  So cool!

Source: incrediblethings.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Now I think we could all do with a little more storage.  Check out these stairs - ingenious!  Not sure how I could actually do this on my stairs but fabulous nonetheless.

Source: google.dk via Jennifer on Pinterest

A gorgeous DIY end table.  Yes, it does require some patience but it is definitely worth the result!

Source: honeybearlane.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

How fun is this re-useable lunch bag?  Check it out for a DIY tutorial.

Source: designspongeonline.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

There are lots of repurposed window ideas floating around but I love the shelf added to this one.

Source: studiodalu.com.br via Jennifer on Pinterest

What a great idea for a bowl!  I am on the lookout for a cheap globe.

Source: junkgardengirl.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Cute planters made from pop bottles.  I would like to do this with the kids and hang them from their playhouse.

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Well, the chalkboard craze still seems to be going strong.  Think of all the things you could do with this chalkboard contact paper!

Source: amazon.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I love this easy to do wall art made from a canvas and wood letters.  This could easily be customized for any room in your house.

Source: notonthehighstreet.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

So which ones are your favs?  If you are on Pinterest, let me know.  You can find me here!

Organize Everything - Kids Closets

I wasn't really planning on doing the closets right now, but I ended up pulling everything out of Matthew's closet when I was working on the kids' Art Station so the project kind of created itself.  This happens way too often!

We are lucky to have walk-in style closets in all of our upstairs bedrooms.  The kids both have a crazy amount of toys so I wanted to pack as much storage into the closet as possible.  I had all of the storage units before and just moved the clear bins into the closet.  And since I cannot complete a project these days without my Silhouette, I made some vinyl labels for the drawers.

I used a laundry bin to store the kids' dress up clothes and hats.  The smaller dress up items are in the bin beside it.

I used the heat transfer material for the blue storage bins.  I was having a hard time getting the heat transfer to stick to the canvas so I decided to turn up the heat a little higher.

Um, not a good idea.

So I ended up buying new bins for Matthew's room and will use the remainder of the old bins when I do Connor's closet {I will only need 3 instead of 5}.  For more instructions on using the heat transfer, you can read my tutorial here.  MAKE SURE YOU ONLY USE YOUR IRON ON THE COTTON SETTING EVEN IF IT TAKES LONGER!!!

I had some burlap left over from the art station bulletin boards and bought some VERY cheap bulletin boards from the dollar store (they were 2 for a dollar).  Sometimes you do get what you pay for so the cork is very thin on these but they do hold lighter items.

I just wanted them to hold Matthew's awards and ribbons.  And a little reminder to work hard!

The shelf above the closet is reserved for games.  I really think games should be stored in standard sized boxes as they are a storage nightmare!  I then added some vinyl to fill up the empty space above the games {the design was downloaded from the Silhouette site}.

I also have a blue bin for some of the most used games that the kids play on their own so they can easily access them.

I hang all of the kids clothes except for pajamas and shorts so they can see them easier.  If they are in drawers they pull EVERYTHING out to find one shirt.

And there is our organized closet space!

Thanks for dropping by!  I hope you are all having a great week!

I linked up with Chic on a Shoestring, I Heart Organizing, The CSI Project, Thrifty Decor Chick, Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, At the Picket Fence, Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, Home Stories of A to Z, Skip to My Lou, Polly Want a Crafter, The Girl Creative, Craft-O-Maniac, Ask Anna, 30 Handmade Days, Org Junkie, Craft Goodies, Whipperberry, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Tidy Mom, Sun Scholars, Delightful Order, House of Hepworths, Paisley Passions, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Passionately Artistic and Blue Cricket Design.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of you fabulous Dad's out there!  The kids actually slept in a bit this morning so Daddy {and Mommy!} got to have a sleep-in.  I LOVE sleep-ins!

The kids were pretty excited to give Daddy all of their presents that they had made. {You can see our handprint tree here}.

I also bought a recordable book at Walmart called Me and my Dad.  There were about 15 questions throughout the book and the kids recorded their answers on each page.  I think it will be fun to look back and hear their sweet voices as they talk about how much they love their Daddy {especially when they are 16 and driving us NUTS!}

After presents, the boys and I made up some French Toast kabobs {or kablobs as Matthew calls them} and sausages for a nice Father's Day brunch.  YUM!

And later tonight, we will be having a family dinner with my fabulous Dad {and Grandpa!}.

On a completely different subject, I FINALLY headed over to check out Picnik today {in case you are wondering about the mix of pictures above!}.  If there is anyone left out there who hasn't heard of it, it is a fabulous picture editing site.  I didn't have very long to play around with it but I must share a picture of my favorite shark after his swimming lessons yesterday.

I can't wait to check it out some more!  As if I don't spend enough time on the computer! {darn you Pinterest!}

I hope you all enjoy your Father's Day with the special men in your lives!  

Burlap Bulletin Boards

Well here is my final project for the kids' craft space - burlap bulletin boards.

I saw these bulletin boards from Ballard and thought they would fit the space perfectly.

I already had the bulletin boards so it seemed like an easy enough project. Unfortunately, finding the supplies proved to be a little more challenging!  Someone around here is having a beachy wedding and bought up all of the burlap within 30 km of my house so I enjoyed a nice tour of the local fabric stores.  And really, how hard could it be to find some upholstery tacks??  I couldn't find any in the color I wanted and had to hit up a couple of stores just to find enough of them.  I ended up spray painting the tacks the same color as the letters from the ART wall.

 Once I finally had my supplies, the rest of the project was easy!

• Find a bulletin board.  I definitely think that it is worthwhile to spend a couple of extra dollars on some decent bulletin boards.  I also did a couple of bulletin boards that I bought at the dollar store for Matthew's closet and the quality of the cork is terrible.  Its okay for the closet but not for a well used bulletin board! 

• Cut your burlap slightly larger than your bulletin board {I left 1.5-2 inches on each side}.

• Fold the burlap around the edges and staple with a staple gun.  Try to pull with the same pressure as you staple around the board.

• I just folded the corners over and added a few more staples.  It's pretty forgiving - it doesn't have to be pretty!

• I added the tacks on the inside of the molding so I didn't have to worry about hammering them in and to help me keep them straight.  I placed mine a lot closer together than the original and used just over 50 tacks for each board.  For my board, the ruler was the perfect spacer to keep everything even.  When I did the cheap bulletin boards for the closet, I did end up hammering the nails into the wood molding since the cork was so thin.  Just cover the tacks with a towel before you hammer! :)  This will give you more of the look from the original Ballard design.

• I then spray painted two more of the foam letters from the ART wall for the kids' initials.

I was planning on labeling the drawers in the desk but I thought I would leave some things label free!  Let's see how long these stay organized!

 All of the pens sorted into different types {regular, smellies, over writers, and 3-D!}.

And I am DONE!

You can read about Part 1 of the Art Center here and about the ART wall here.

Have a great weekend!

I linked up with 30 Handmade Days, Org Junkie, Craft Goodies, Whipperberry, Tidy Mom, Delightful Order, House of Hepworths, Paisley Passions, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Passionately Artistic, Blue Cricket Design, Today's Creative Blog, Home Stories of A to Z, Skip To My Lou, Polly Want a Crafter, Ask Anna, Craft-O-Maniac, The DIY Showoff, CRAFT, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, Young and Crafty and Tatertots and Jello.