DIY: Lovely Little Gift Tags

I love it when I get a beautifully gift wrapped gift.  Some times so much that I don't want to open it, all I want to do is admire the wrapping.  Yes, I can be sentimental like that.  But who am I kidding at the end what's inside wins!  Ha!

But I have to say that I love giving beautifully wrapped gifts as much as I love receiving them.  And with every gift I think it is a nice touch to add a personalized gift tag.   They are so easy to make.  Most, I admit, I make out of scraps of paper I have laying around, maybe I'll add a cute sticker or stamp, what ever creative mood I am in (like the ones I made using tissue paper boxes.)  In this case, I had some left over book page flower cut outs from the Mother's Day Card I made for my mami and ended up with these:

Super easy to make.  Want to learn?

Here's how:

You will need:
♥ A cardboard box, cut into various size circles.
♥ Book pages, cut flowers.  You can draw one and use as a stencil, or if you have a dye cut machine you can use that to make multiple flowers quicker.
♥ Glue
♥ Hole punch
♥ Twine

To make all you need to do is glue your flower onto the cardboard circle.  Play around with it until you find the right spot.  Then hole punch a hole near the top edge of your circle.  Finally add the twine.  Tada!  You are done!  Easy peasy, just like I promised.

Now you have a lovely little tag to spruce up any gift.

Happy Crafting!

Teacher Gift Ideas

Teacher appreciation week came and went and since I had been in a bit of a haze, as I mentioned before here, I was not prepared for it.  No not at all.  And truth be told, I love my little guy's teacher and two aids, so I felt bad not having planned out an elaborate gift.  Thank goodness for friends and Pinterest. 

One day during my little guy's soccer practice my friend Molly mentioned she was picking up a couple of gift cards for her daughter's teachers.  Great idea!  I'll just pick some up too!  So I did, for my son's teacher and two aids.  When I got to the oh-so-famous coffee place the guy at the window informed me they were out of gift card sleeves.  Really? (I guess many were getting the same gift.)  He then suggested to use their small chocolate cup containers as the sleeve.  Sure, why not, "give them to me." I would figure out what to do with them later.

 Later that night I decided to use the cups after all by simply decorating the outside with a piece of scrapbook paper, a ribbon and tag which I then stamped the word  "Thank You."  I then filled it with paper grass and  inserted the gift card.  Nice and easy.  All done...

Or so I thought, until I realized that I had not made (or purchased) anything for all his resource teachers!!! Oh, no!  What was I to do the night before? And with what I had on hand?  Search through Pinterest of course.  I searched and searched (this is late very late at night, mind you, way past my bed time) until I found an notepad idea I liked.  Problem was I didn't have the time to go to any office supply store to get them made.  Darn it!

I had almost given up, when searching through my craft room high and low, I found a stack of new  notepads I had previously purchased for some these Christmas gifts.   And walla!  I made these...

For the female teachers I stamped a pretty flower with the word "Thanks!"  For the men a cute little dog and the words "Thank You." Then,  I hand wrote on each, "Thank you for being such a great teacher!"  I then signed my son's name (it was late he was in bed, or else I would have had him sign each one individually.)  Finally, I tied a pretty ribbon around it and added a brand new pen to each. 

And this time, I was really done!  Phew!

BTW- these are also perfect as end of the year gifts!  (Wink. Wink.)

What did you gift your kids teachers?  Do share please!

create gift tags using tissue boxes: featured post for inspired by family magazine

Hello there!  Been MIA for quite a while, haven't I?

Well, there are lots goodies on the works which have kept me away from this space I love so much, some which I'll be able to talk to you about soon.  For now I wanted to make a quick little stop to tell you I miss you so, and that I have a great tutorial to share with you, one I wrote for Inspired by Family Magazine.  Have you been there yet?  A great site full of ideas, comforting words, all inspired by God's love.

So pass on by and check out how to make some super easy gift tags using the tops of tissue boxes.  They are as easy to make as 1,2,3!!!

Happy crafting!

valentine's day lunchbox surprise (a tutorial)

As you know this is my little guy's first year in school.  For Valentine's day I want to surprise him by putting a little something in his lunch box.  I didn't want candy, nor the usual valentine card.  I wanted something special, something that represents us as a family.  So I made him this:

A tri-fold mini card tucked in a pillow box full of heart confetti!  Fun! Fun! Fun! (Sorry cafeteria staff.) 

This is so amazingly easy to make, that you can get it all done the night before and have it ready in the lunch box by love day.  Yes that easy.

Here is the how to.

Materials needed:
♥  one empty toilet paper roll.
♥  a piece of paper to decorate the pillow box.  (about 2 x 6 inches long)
♥  another larger piece of paper to make the tri-fold card.
♥  coordinating scraps of paper to decorate your card. (I ♥ U)
♥  heart hole punch
♥  raffia to tie around the pillow box
♥  craft glue

Tutotial:

Begin by folding your larger (but not larger than the pillow box) piece of paper in three.  Like an accordion.

Draw a heart on the opposite side of your folded paper.   To cut the heart (without cutting the connecting parts) make sure to leave a blank space in your heart drawing right where the paper folds.  This helps me a lot, because I often forget I am cutting a tri-fold (or get distracted) and end up with three hearts vs a card!  Ha!

Open up your tri-fold card.  Then round up the edges of the first and last heart.

Now cut your words.  I chose a simple I ♥ U. Easy for him to read (and for me to make.)

Glue them in place and let dry.

While it is drying you can either hole punch a lot of little hearts (circles if you don't have a heart hole punch.) Or you can start working on that pillow box.

I totally love this part! Because you get to turn a simple every day item into something useful and pretty.

Here is a step-by-step:

What once was a toilet paper roll, is now a pillow box!

Okay. Let's decorate!

Take your 2 x 6 inc. long strip and glue it around the outside/center of the pillow box.

Then tie a pretty piece of raffia around the paper.  Knot, and trim the ends. 

Fill it with confetti and place the card inside.  Then place it in your little loved one's lunch box and wait 'till he/she comes home and tells you all about it!  (I can't wait!)

I also made one for my sweet nena so she doesn't feel left out.  I just have to figure out how I'm going to give it to her...maybe on her lunch plate.  We'll see.  

FYI.  I will be adding this tutorial to the Creative Valentine Week section.  You can just click on the button on the left bar which will be up until the end of the week.  After that, you can find it in the tutorial section (click on tab below the blog banner.)

On a different note.  We got some snow yesterday!  But it didn't stick around :(.  The kids were bummed, and honestly I kind of was too.  Now that the kids are older I look forward to playing with them in the snow, even if it is for a little while and the rest of the time I enjoy looking out the window holding a warm cup of tea or coffee.  Ha!  

Hope your having better luck than us.

Happy crafting!

creative valentine week: tender heart ornament (a tutorial)

Technically, last week was over yesterday and today is almost over.  I know.  I know.  Even though,  I still had two more projects I wanted to share with you, but the last couple of days I've not been feeling to good (migraines) which impedes me to be on the computer for too long.    So here you have me, two days before Valentines Day sharing with you mentioned projects.  Two days is enough, right?  

So you get two tutorials in one day!  Yippe ya yey!

Remember the lovely heart ornaments my friend Carrie was making out of book pages?  As promised, here is that tutorial.

I 

This is a bit different than her's.  I added words to mine, but the process is just about the same. 

Materials:
♥  old book pages
♥  white crayon
♥  watercolor paints
♥  paint brush
♥  black sharpie
♥  Aileen's clear tacky glue or a glue gun
♥  twine

Begin by drawing spirals onto the book pages.  Like this:

As soon as you draw one spiral paint over with  a brush and red watercolor.   Repeat.  I highly recommend you follow these steps, because the crayon is hard to see.

Once you've completed painting all your roses.  Add the leaves.  Also using a brush and watercolors.

Let them dry.

 Using a stencil (I made my own by folding a piece of paper drawing a heart and then cutting it), begin to trace your hearts onto the painted pages.

Write your words.  One one side (heart) I wrote Love and on the other (heart) Amor.

Before you begin to glue your hearts back to back, make your hanging loops and set them aside.

Glue your hearts back to back (the unpainted sides facing each other), leaving a gap with no glue on top.  This is where you will insert your stuffing and loop.

Insert your loop and glue together.  Hold tight until it is nicely sealed. 

Finish!  Finito!  Listo!  Now go decorate your home...

Now if you don't happen to have any watercolors around, but still would love to make some of these lovely hearts.  Just go for it! It also looks very pretty, see...

What did I tell ya.  So vintage like. 

And what to do with all those lovely painted scraps you have left over?  I know I didn't have the heart (no pun intended) to toss them away.  So I made these:

Book Markers!  Some to give and some to keep!

I'll be adding the second tutorial post tonight!  So don't forget to come back either really late tonight or sometime tomorrow morning.  I'll also be posting a round up of all the tutorials, which you can also access by clicking the Creative Valentine Week button on the left column.  Or by clicking on the tutorials tab above.

Happy Crafting!