I spy Christmas ornaments

I may or may not have made these for all three of my little nieces and my children for Christmas this year. I'm also thinking about going out and getting more to make them for my older niece and nephew. :)

I started with large clear ornaments. Yes, they are plastic. When I showed my husband these after I was done the first thing he asked me was "those aren't glass are they?' Yes dear, I am planning on giving five children under the age of 6 a glass ball to play with. I'm that smart :)I found my ornaments at Michael's. Theirs are cheaper than Jo-ann's. The big ones I bought at Michaels are $1.99-a whole dollar cheaper than Jo-Ann's! And, if you use a coupon it's even cheaper!

Michaels is where I also bought all of the little trinkets to go inside of them. Some of my items are foam stickers (don't remove the backing), others are meant to go on tiny Christmas trees, some are charms I found near the christmas crafts and ribbon, the rest are actually buttons. Like sew on your shirt buttons! So incredibly cute! And, they all fit perfectly in the opening of the ornament. I  bought my epsom salts at the drug store. A hug milk carton of them on sale for $4. Anyone have any other recommendations for the rest of them??? I printed off a specific list of what to look for in each one and attached it like a gift tag. Add a pretty Christmas bow (not on my son's though!) and you have the cutest little gifts that are alos bunches of fun

I used my Cricut to add the names with cheap-o contact paper. I've never bought the real vinyl you're supposed to use for crafts. You know, the $9.99 stuff? I'd be afraid to make a mistake of it. I have 30 feet of contact paper in green and red for $2.99 each. Works for me! There's my free tip for the day :)

Well, I lied. I have some more free tips for this project:
Hot glue the tops onto the ornaments. They were kind of loose once I took them off and then put them back on. I didn't want to risk these spilling at someone else's house once I gifted them. Or spilling at my house knowing my children :)
Also, dab the tiniest bit of glue in the  holes in the top of the ornament topper. The holes where the hanger goes into the metal cap. Those two teeny, tiny holes CAN let some of the salts escape if shaken. I'm so glad I played with these for a while when I took my pictures!

 

What can you spy??

 

 

Now for your opinion: would you give these to a 13 year old and 10 year old? I have heard talk of how they used to love the "I spy" type books. Maybe? Maybe not?

 

 

 

A birthday gift with spirit :)

My BFF and I have now known each other for HALF of our lifetime. HALF.

Holy Cow. We met back in high school and you might remember me talking about her shower gift and her wedding card box. Wow. I make her a lot of homemade gifts.....

The latest installment of 'things I've made for my best friend' was in honor of her latest birthday. It was a milestone and to celebrate it her husband threw her a surprise party. I was so happy to be there with her! Although when my husband brought the gift in (WAY too heavy for me to lift!) her family all laughed and exclaimed "what a <my family name> gift!" uhhhh, thanks?? What kind of family do I come from? I like to think we're a family who likes to be fun :)

If you do this gift right it works out to around $1 a piece-some of mine ended up at $1.03/.04 ish but I didn't let that bother me. The big storage container was $7 so all in all it was just under $40 for this gift. And, my best friend is worth that and more :) (she may or may not be reading my blog.....)

Well, are you ready to see this GREAT gift??

 I cut the letters out with my cricut....that's contact paper so she can peel it off and use the container when she's done!

Yep, that's 30, count them THIRTY bottles of "cheer". I mixed it up and bought three different brands so she had a wide variety. I mean, if you have to turn 30 (which I do NOT plan on doing in February, pssh) why not have fun doing it?!

Happy Birthday, my dear best friend! <3

Cookie Monster themed Birthday Party

Our Little C-baby turned one recently. I credit her with my craft addiction coming back. I gave birth to her and whammo! I am visiting Joann's at least once a week to try something new.

I wanted her birthday party to be extraordinary but of course it couldn't break the bank. About six months (yes, I am a planner) before the party I chose the theme "C is for cookie C is for C-baby"...yes, we did use her real name. I began buying things and filing ideas away. It all paid off! The party was cuter than I ever imagined it could be.

First, I bought everything in blue. This is tough to do when all of the party supply companies are telling you that your daughter's 1st birthday MUST be in the color pink. I went to the Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart and got blue plates, napkins, cups, silverware and tablecovers. I did pick up some clear silverware and a pack of rainbow striped napkins to throw in some non-blue elements too.

All of the decorations and little bits I made myself. I made some blue pom-poms a la Martha's tutorial and hung them from the cieling.

I made cupcakes for the kiddies and displayed them on my cupcake stand that I decorated with blue tulle. I also made a whole bunch of different kinds of cookies for dessert and everyone got a goodie bag of cookies to take home. I loved following my theme. Oh, and cookie crisp cereal was what I used to decorate the cupcakes and smash cake. I had a blue feather boa that looked somewhat muppet-ish so I threw that on the table too.

The morning of her one year picture shoot I decided she needed name blocks. I had found a box of wooden 'counting blocks' at a montessori school closing sale a few months ago so I used those and some scrapbook paper that matched her outfit all cut out using my Cricut. I lef them out for the party too.  Don't you love the artwork above our mantel? This is in our basement , don't worry.

I also made that happy birthday banner using my Cricut Personal. I orginally was going to stick to the theme and use blue and brown paper but decided I could get more use out of it this way. I punched holes in each piece and strung some twine through them, taped it on the back and tied coordinating ribbon in between each letter.

I did something fun for the kids cups and they were a hit! I bought plain blue cups and googly eyes at the dollar store and glued them on with a black cardstock mouth and look who we have!

Below is my last piece of creativity I documented. I simply found pictures of cookie monster online, printed them and mounted them on cardstock-blue of course. I glued that to a large craft stick that I wrapped a pipe cleaner around. The Number 1 and the C are all made with my Cricut and I glued those on to craft sticks as well. I stuck the leftover tulle from the cupcake stand into a tall square vase and this was the centerpiece of our buffet table.