Make It: Just for You card with Stampin' Up!

I have been using Stampin' Up! products to make cards for a few years now.  Here is a card I made at a Stamp-A-Stack workshop help by my Stampin' Up! rep, Pollyanna.

Make It: Teacher Appreciation Week - Candy Gift Basket

Candy Gift Basket 

This gift was very easy to put together and thank Goodness!  I was feeling quite cruddy due to sinuses and just really wanted to head off to bed.  No, shocker, I didn't have this one already made.

Some of us are slackers and procrastinators.  It's true.

To be honest, we had all of the ingredients  for it but had not taken the time to put everything together.  Anyhoo...

Craft Recipe:

Basket - this one we found at Goodwill for .93 (Why .93?  That's a weird random amount.)

Candy - $1.00 a box from Kroger

Ribbon - ribbon stash

Thank You printable - Free Printable from The Suburban Mom

Hot Glue - Ellie Mae, my glue gun, reporting for duty!

I did think about spray painting the basket since it has a slight bit of paint on it.  As you can see, that thought did not hang around long.

I love, love, love this printable that The Suburban Mom shared.  Bean filled it out in no time and her answers were really cute but her slacker mom forgot to take a picture of it.  

Yay Mom!

It has questions about the favorite things about your teacher.  It's really cute.

The candy was problematic.  We bought it well over a week ago and I can't tell you how many times I had to say "stay away from that candy", and that was just to myself!

I thought since I was such a sorry crafter by not spray painting the basket, it needed some sprucing up so I added the ribbon and a matching almost-hairbow I made a while back and never used.  If I had been paying attention I could have added it to the other side that did not have any paint on it but I think that's over achieving and there's no reason to show off like that.

What are we doing for tomorrow?  I have no idea!  

Make It: Teacher Appreciation Week - Fabric Mason Jar with Free Printable

Today's gift is a Fabric Lined Mason Jar filled with colorful flowers!

I found this lovely tutorial from Dwelling in Happiness for fabric lined mason jars and thought Bingo!  Bean looked through the fabric I had - I don't sew, why do I have fabric??? - and said her teacher would love this pattern.

Craft Recipe:
Mason jar - had on hand.  (I would suggest one of the wide mouth jars.)
Fabric - had on hand
Mod Podge and/or Elmer's glue - had on hand
smaller Mason jar - had on hand
Colorful flowers - $6.99 from the grocery store
Bloom tag - free printable HERE
curling ribbon - had on hand

We cut the fabric into strips which showed I cannot cut in a straight line to save my life.

Don't judge my doo-dads!

Stopped to make some garlic bread for dinner.  (This step is totally not needed but it sure was good.)

Yes, I craft in my kitchen sometimes.

Then you take your strips of fabric, dunk them into the Mod Podge or glue/water mixture, remove excess glue, and place the fabric on the inside of the jar.  This is where I started thinking "why didn't I just buy a gift card??"  It was a little tight to get the fabric where you wanted it and to get the air bubbles out and all that jazz.

We placed a few strips in and let it dry.  We also ran out of Mod Podge but please don't tell the Crafting Society branch of the Junior League.  They would revoke my imaginary membership.

Once this section of fabric had dried, we made up a mixture of Elmer's glue and water in lieu of Mod Podge.  I thought this worked really well but when dry it is not as clear as the Mod Podge.

When everything was dry, we trimmed up the top.

Bean added the Bloom tag to the front of the jar with a glue dot and we added some curling ribbon. These flowers really set off the color of the fabric.

Stay tuned for more Teacher Appreciation gifts.

Added this post to these wonderful linky parties:  Places I Party

Make It: Teacher Appreciation Week - Tea-Riffic Teacher

It is time again for Teacher Appreciation Week and this is our first gift for Bean's teacher.

Our teacher is Tea-riffic!

We found out our teacher loves Starbucks so we picked out the sparkliest water bottle we could find and added some Starbucks Via packets.

Cost:  Water bottle $4 at our local Five Below
           Starbucks Via packets $5.95 for a package of 10

I used picmonkey.com to make the Tea-riffic tag.  You can use this free download to print these tags.

Tea-riffic Tag

Very simple and easy to throw together.  We hope she likes it!

Read It: Brave Girls: Better than Perfect

We received a copy of Brave Girls: Better than Perfect, a 90-day devotional for girls ages 7 through pre-teen to review.  This book came at a great time for Bean.  She has a lot of friends at school but it seems as though the girls already have their own set of issues.  Each day there is a new story about someone not sitting with someone else, someone not being friends with someone else, or someone picking on someone else.  Ugh.  Hard to believe it starts this early.

I love the plain language of the book but I will say it might still be a little bit over Bean's head. After we read the daily devotional, I ask her if she has any questions and she seems a little lost.  But it can open up dialogue for other issues on her mind.  The other night we read a devotional page about not always having to be right. That led to a discussion on how Bean thought I liked her little cousin more than her.  So even if this book's daily topic doesn't strike a cord with your child, it can help to start wonderful discussions.  That's the beauty of devotionals.  I would recommend this book to any young girl wondering where she fits in.

Brave Girls:  Better than Perfect
A 90 Day Devotional
Published by Thomas Nelson

Book Description:

Better than perfect-that's what every girl is in God's eyes.

A young girl's doubt in her own self-worth starts from an early age. Am I pretty enough? Am I smart enough? Will I fit in? Do people like me? Am I worthy enough? These aren't questions asked by teens, but from precious girls in grade school! Brave Girls Faith and Honor will help girls navigate these questions and learn just how wonderful they are!

In this Brave Girls devotional, 90 engaging devotions will help young girls find their place in the world and learn that the beauty of their imperfections is what makes them unique, loved, precious, and "better than perfect" in God's eyes. Each devotion will include:

• A relevant opening scripture from the Bible
• A thought-provoking devotion to build a young girl's spirit
• An engaging closing prayer to help the reader navigate her day!

*We received a free copy of the book for purposes of this review.  If you have a blog and would like to receive free books to review, check out the BookLook program.  

How much should you support them?

Bean loves to paint and do crafts.  Her teacher just raved about one of her paintings last week, posting it on her Instagram.  Bean just knows when she grows up she will be an artist - as much as anyone knows what they will do when they are 7.  

She got an idea from her older cousins about starting her own business.  They've started making painted t-shirts and jewelry.  She thought this was wonderful and of course wanted to be like her cousins so she has now decided to start her own business selling her paintings.  She has enlisted her friends at school to make drawings, too.  She came up with a website name and wants me to take her to arts and crafts fairs to set up a booth.  She thinks this is something akin to Girl Scout cookie booths and believes all you have to do is grab a folding table and set it up outside the local BBQ joint for a couple of hours and people will flock to you with money waving.  Minty chocolate wafers are one thing - elementary school art is another.

But she has really put a lot of time into this whole concept.  

The downside is while I think everything is beautiful and rivals Picasso, I know these are paintings, drawings and artwork put together by a 7 year old.  And not a 7 year old prodigy.  Just MY prodigy.  

I know, aside from family, it will be hard to find customers for this business.  I would be reluctant to believe people are going to spend money on these items.  

Am I being too - I don't know - too something?  How do I explain to her that people probably won't buy?  

How do I let her down easy?  Or should I?  I guess I don't want her to get her feelings hurt or get disappointed in her talent.  I do think she is talented but I know I'm Mom, everything she does is great by me.  

BUT AM I NOT BEING SUPPORTIVE?  

How much should I support this right now?  I've told her she needs to keep practicing and I've bought her books, we've watched videos, I signed her up for classes.  All that.  But should I allow her to find some place to sell?  I think that might be too much.  And Lord help anyone that says anything to hurt her feelings if she ever did set up somewhere.  Mama Bear will come out on anyone that makes any disparaging comment.  

I am afraid my hesitations are just that - mine - and not something that should hold her back from what she believes in.  Sometimes though, it's okay to be hesitant, right?  What if I sign her up for some booth and no one buys anything and she gets discouraged.  I think she is the type of personality that if she does not succeed the first time, she will flounder and give it all up.  It would break my heart if that happened.  

How far do you go to help your child and support their dreams?

Pinterest Projects - Lorax T-Shirt and Matching Hairbow!

This week most schools around the country will celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.  Each day this week, Bean's class will be doing something Seuss-related.  One day, they get to dress up as their favorite Seuss character.

I thought for sure she would pick The Cat in the Hat or maybe a Truffula tree.

Thought wrong once again.  Just add it to the list.

She picked The Lorax.

Now, I honestly never remember reading The Lorax when I was a kid, and only knew about it from the movie, which I have only seen bits and pieces.

Maybe it was due to orange being her new favorite color.  (Ugh.)  Maybe she heard another child say they wanted to be The Lorax.  I don't know.

I first suggested we figure out a way to make her an orange wig.

She immediately used her un-elected but often over-used First (and only) Kid veto power and said "No way, Mommy.  I'm not wearing a wig."

You're 7.  Chill out.

No.  No wigs.

Okay, fine!

I immediately looked at The Husband and said "Hey, you got any ideas?"

I recently turned him onto Pinterest.  Yes, I brought another one over to the dark side.  Well done, me!

He said "Why don't you look on that pinning place?"

"Pinning Place".  What an amateur.

So of course, out came the phone and Pinterest got fired up.

We all searched and scrolled.  Then this lovely, super cute pin came onto the screen and Bean said "I like that!".

When you click on it, you just get a picture, no instructions.  Since I do not have permission to post another person's child on my blog, I will just direct you to the pin itself.

But basically, it's The Lorax's features cut out of felt and attached to a t-shirt.  Easy enough.

I found this pumpkin carving template of The Lorax and used it as the pattern for my felt.

Property of Today's Creative Blog

I cut out the eyebrows and mustache.

Then I broke out my Christmas present!  LOOK!  AIN'T SHE PURDY!!!!

That's professional right there!

I love her.  Like LOVE.  REAL LOVE.

Jiggly eyes and a fuzzy ball nose.

Big schnoz or little schnoz????

We went BIG.

Hot glued everything on.  You will need to put a piece of cardboard in the middle of the t-shirt or you might hot glue the front and back of the shirt together.

Not that that happened or anything.  (It totally happened.)

And of course, when you are wearing that much orange and you AREN'T a Tennessee fan, you really should live on the edge and spice it all up with a matching hairbow, right??

So there you have it.  A Lorax t-shirt and coordinating hairbow.

Seuss has never been so stylish!