Birthday Money Balloons

Here's another gift idea when you don't know what to get (especially great for kids and teenagers) ... a box of money-filled balloons! This particular one was for my nephew who was turning 14 at the time. The box was filled with 14 balloons and each balloon had $1 in it. My oldest son helped me put this gift together... here's a quick, little tutorial:

1. Roll dollars up tight. Secure with washi tape (or some other tape that won't be difficult to take off... you don't want it to rip when the tape comes off).

2. Stick the money in a small balloon (I used water balloons). These balloons were small and this part got tricky. I don't have a picture, but it helped us to put the opening of the balloon onto a funnel and stick the rolled up dollar in through the funnel, kind of stretching the balloon as we did to make the dollar fit.

3. Inflate balloon and tie closed. We have an inexpensive little balloon pumper that we used. It made it a lot easier to blow the balloons up. The one we are using came from Bed, Bath and Beyond a few years ago.

4. Decorate or write on the balloons if you wish, stick them in a box, wrap it up and you're good to go!

Have a great week!

Cupid's Arrow Valentine + Free Printable

I know I'm too late in posting this for anybody to get any use out of it this year, but feel free to pin it or file it away to use some other time. These are the Valentines my daughter is giving her class. She LOVES gum and wanted to include gum with her valentine, and I got the idea from this pin. I adapted my version to work better for me. First of all, I can't find packs of gum like that... maybe they don't make them anymore? We ended up just using two sticks of gum for the middle (cheaper anyway!) and wrapped them with custom wrappers (download for free below). I also didn't want to put unwrapped candy on then end because I wasn't going to put each arrow in its own bag. I had this awesome glitter paper by American Crafts in my stash that has been waiting to see the light of day, so we pulled it out and used it for the main part of our arrows. Here's my process:

1. Gather supplies
• Glitter paper (or whatever stiff paper you have on hand, it doesn't have to be glitter... normal card stock will work great)
• Skewers (I took the picture first, but I actually cut the points off using my garden shears... figured it'd be safer that way for 2nd graders)
• Gum sticks
• 1/8" hole punch
• Baker's twine or other small string
• Printable gum wrapper (download below).





2. Cut rectangles/arrows and hearts out of paper.
• My rectangles were 1-1/8" x 2-1/4". I used scissors to notch the bottom (nothing too precise... just eyeball it), then use that triangle piece as a pattern to angle the top. This gives you the arrow shape.
• I used my Sizzix to punch out the hearts, but you could just trace a cookie cutter your own heart shape and cut them out that way.





3. Punch two holes in each shape.





4. Thread the shapes onto each end of the stick. Once the shapes are on, cut fringe in the arrow (make sure not to cut all the way to where the hole is punched).





5. Wrap the wrappers around the sticks of gum and secure with a piece of tape. One of the wrappers says "from", so you can write the giver's name on it.





6. Put two pieces of gum back to back on the middle of the stick and tie the ends together with Baker's twine (to make it a little easier, you can dab a little glue to keep the gum on the sticks before tying the string... I used a low-temp glue gun). There you go. A super cute Valentine to give away! 

Click here or on the image below to download these free, printable gum wrappers.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Free Valentine Heart Printable Update + Pencil Instructions

I made these Valentine pencils about four years ago for my kids to give their teachers and the office staff at their school. They were a big hit with the receivers, and ever since I blogged about them, they have garnered a lot of interest. They are my most pinned photo on Pinterest, and my most visited blog posts are about the pencils. I wish I could claim credit for the original idea, but this was just my take on a similar idea I'd seen from someone else, who had also gotten the idea from someone else, and so on. Once I posted them, I started getting a lot of e-mails, comments, etc. asking for more details. I was also lucky enough to have a back-to-school version of the pencils I made featured in the September 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes and through CK on a local TV show, Studio 5. These are the ones that were published:

Back-to-School Rolo Pencils originally published in September 2010 in Creating Keepsakes Magazine.

After my original blog post about the Valentine pencils, I had so many people ask for instructions that I created a follow-up post with the instructions. After I posted the follow-up, I had several people ask about the heart I attached. The actual heart I used is no longer available, so I created my own that people could download and use. Having the original post, instructions, and free download spread across three different posts is confusing, so I decided to consolidate and put everything in one place.

Valentine Rolo Pencil Instructions

1. Cut a 3.5”x4.5” piece of yellow cardstock. Make score lines every 1/4 inch (the score lines should be parallel with the long side of the cardstock). Using pinking shears or decorative pinking scissors, cut a small strip off the short side of the cardstock. Wrap this piece around the Rolo’s, and use adhesive to hold together.

2. Cut a 3.5”x3/8” piece of pink cardstock. Wrap this around the top of the Rolo’s for the edge of the pink eraser. Trace the top of the Rolo’s on pink cardstock and cut out to get the top of your eraser. Stick this on top with adhesive.

3. Cut a 3.5”x3/8” piece of aluminum foil and adhere this around the seam where the yellow and pink cardstock meet. Use Glue Dots to adhere a Hershey’s Kiss to the bottom of the Rolo’s. This is the pencil point.

4. Tie a cute ribbon around the top and add a tag (free heart printable below). Give to someone you love!

Valentine Heart Printable

Click here or on the image below to download this printable sheet.

Other posts about these pencils can be found here, here, and here.

Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment if you have any questions, and I'll try to answer them!

Rudolph Root Beer

I have one more fun, quick gift idea for you this week… Rudolph Root Beer!

This is another one where the kids can help! I printed the labels, and the kids helped me wrap and tape them (nothing fancy… we just used Scotch tape). Then hot glue googly eyes and a red pom nose (use a low-temp gun if kids are helping). Wrap pipe cleaner around the top and bend the ends back and forth to resemble antlers. To make the scarf, just cut a strip of felt, cut slits on both ends (for the scarf fringe), and tie it around your reindeer. A great, inexpensive, fun gift!

Snowman Dipped Oreos

I first came across these Snowman Pops at The Idea Room (probably via Pinterest? but I don't remember for sure). My kids and I made them for the first time a couple of years ago. My kids gave them to their friends, and we took a cute bucket full of them to our Neighborhood Cookie Exchange (what our neighborhood does instead of neighbor gifts… it's awesome).

These are pretty straight forward to make, but here are some tips that helped me:

• Use Double Stuff Oreos because it's easier to get the stick in. I don't think it would work with the regular, skinny Oreos.
• Microwave a few cookies at a time for 5-10 seconds to get the stick in without the cookie breaking (my sister shared this tip with me after I had broken several Oreos and was ready to call it quits).
• Popsicle sticks worked better for me than sucker sticks.
• After you dip the Oreos in melted chocolate, hold them upside down over the bowl to let some run off so it doesn't puddle as much when you put it on the pan.
• Make sure to use wax paper on the pan because they'll come right off when you're ready to package them up.
• I colored a small amount of the white chocolate orange for the noses. I put it in a sandwich baggie and cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag to pipe the noses on. (I use Wilton Candy Colors when I need to color chocolate.)
• If you can't find miniature chocolate chips (mine are Nestle brand), I think mini M&M's would be cute, too.
• Instead of ribbon, I decided to make little scarfs out of felt. Just cut a thin strip of felt, then cut slits at the end of each strip (for the scarf fringe), and tie it around your snowman!

We're going to make a batch of these this week for my kids to give to their friends. My son also wants to make some reindeer ones, so I'll let you know how that goes!

My Favorite Gift Wrap

I've started buying this brown mailing paper from Dollar Tree, and I love to use it as gift wrap. You can find the paper online here, but there's a Dollar Tree close to me, so I just buy it there.

Image from DollarTree.com.

The thing I love most about it is it's like having a blank canvas. I can leave it as is, or pretty it up a little like I did below with doilies and letter stickers. Baker's twine is my favorite thing to use to finish it off. I love Baker's twine and can't seem to get enough of it.

The brown paper is going to be fun for Christmas, too. I just ordered 3 new spools of Baker's twine in red, silver, and gold… can't wait!

New Release... Spooky

Spooky is new in the shop this week. It's a fun kit that's a little bit spooky but a lot of cute to accent those awesome photos you'll take this fall and Halloween. Buy Spooky by October 27, and save 20%!

Don't miss my featured product for October. My CD/DVD folder template is my most popular hybrid product in my shop, and if you buy it during the month of October, you save 25%!

Welcome Back, Teachers

Last year my kids and I decided we wanted to do something nice for their teachers on the first day of school. We decided to take them a fresh loaf of homemade bread with cinnamon honey butter. It was a small gesture to let the teachers know we appreciate them and were excited for school to start, and the teachers all seemed to enjoy and appreciate the bread.

We used a pretty ribbon to tie a plastic knife to the bag for the honey butter. 

Here are a few other food gifts I've given in the past that would also work well for teachers:

More bread, but this time wrapped in pretty paper and flowers.

This is a mini loaf of bread with a mini jar of jam. I decorated the top of the jar and put a ribbon around the lid.

You can't go wrong with cookies. I think they look especially yummy stacked in a cellophane bag. :)

Where did summer go?! I can't believe my kids are back in school. Have your kids started school yet?