Teacher Valentines

I have been buying and hoarding collecting these cute little tin mailboxes from Target's $1 section for the past few years. Ever since Robyn aka My Pink Stamper posted a tutorial to alter the mailboxes, I have been meaning to make something with them. Finally, this year I crafted with them (and I still have at least 5 more in the craft room...shhh, no one tell my husband...then again, they are only $1, after all!)

I decided to go with a teacher theme instead of Valentine's Day, so that the teachers could use them throughout the year. I cut the 12x12 paper (from a DCWV stack) into strips that were just shy of 4" wide, wrapped them around to mark where the mailbox flag would be, punched a hole for the flag (and cut a small slit from the edge of the paper to the hole...see Robyn's video tutorial for better directions/a visual), wrapped the paper around again, using my ATG gun to adhere the edges on the bottom of the mailbox. I did use some scotch glue to make sure the small edges around the hole for the flag were stuck down well. The first time I tried this, I put ATG adhesive on the whole strip of paper (instead of just a on each end...it ended up crooked and when I tried to pull it off it ripped. So, don't make the same mistake as I did in that department!

The apple on the door of the mailbox is cut from Plantin Schoolbook cartridge - I cut a red and a green at 3" real dial size. Then I cut the stem off the red one and glue them together so the green stem would show behind the red apple. The teachers' names were printed from Microsoft Word, and I cut and glued them on after they were printed.



Inside each mailbox, I placed their valentine's day treats - gummi bears with a cute saying stapled to the top. Hopefully, the teachers will find something to use the mailboxes for during the year.

Nathan's Super Valentines

Are you getting tired of me saying Pinterest yet?!?! Oh, and if you are sitting there wondering "what is Pinterest?" leave my blog now and head over there...NOW! (not that I think more than 5 people have ever read this, but whatevs)

Anyway, back to the craft at hand... I found two different tutorials on Pinterest for super hero Valentines. I took ideas from this one and this one, mixed 'em up, changed, tweaked, created, etc. and ended up with the end product.







I used the template from the Zakka Life tutorial to cut out the capes from cardstock that I had. I probably could have used my Cricut to cut out a cape, but I opted to just trace and cut. I had initially intended to use the printables from Little Bit Funky's blog, but then my plan changed. I only wanted to use Superman...and I didn't want to print all the super heroes out just to get the Superman logos. So, I searched for Superman logo online instead. I took the idea for the circles with the saying on them, but I made my own in Word and used my Creative Memories circle cutting set to cut them out.

I have NO idea how long these took to make, because I made them in several sittings, all the while being interrupted by someone or something...usually Aaron trying to steal all my crafty gadgets and supplies...off to go see if my circle cutting template is still in his play mailbox...

A Very Crafty Mommy vs. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I still can't believe that my littlest man turned one! We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, January 28 (his actual birthday was Monday the 31st). After scouring the internet (including Pinterest, of course) for ideas for 1st birthday parties, knowing that I wanted something simple due to my chronic lack of time, I found lots of cute ideas for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. With two difficult and stressful attempts at cakes for Nathan's first and second birthdays under my belt, I knew I wanted to do cupcakes this time. I also had plans for a banner and a balloon caterpillar (we didn't get pictures of this, sadly), but I did have to nix some ideas that I found and cut corners on the things I did. I will spare the details, but we were very busy the few days leading up to the party. I was lucky that the cupcakes got iced, the fruits and veggies got chopped (thanks to my mom and sister for their help!), and we were hanging the banners (pictured below) as the first guests were walking in...phew!

The banner caterpillars were supposed to have feet, and I even had the cute little feet cut and ready to go... but we just ran out of time to attach them. By the end of all of it, I decided it wasn't THAT important. Also, the cute caterpillar made of out balloons that was taped up on the curtain rod did not get a face...and, as I said, was never photographed. Thanks again to my sister for helping blow up the balloons.

The one thing that we didn't have to cut corners on or omit was the cupcakes. I mixed two different shades of green and piped it on using my icing gun. The feet were made out of pretzel sticks (thanks Mom), the eyes are M&Ms (thanks Jason for picking those up last minute), and the nose and antennae are various sprinkles we had on hand. I made 2 cake mixes: 1 1/2 were used to make 36 cupcakes and the other 1/2 was used to make a 9" round cake, which I carved into a leaf for Aaron's smash cake. As you can see from the picture above, he enjoyed his cake.


So, even though we were busy and exhausted and our little house was bursting at the seams, everyone had a great time. It was great to be surrounded by loving friends and family for a wonderful celebration for Aaron. Thanks to all who helped, came to celebrate, and brought or sent gifts, cards, etc.

Color your own card

So this is another idea I found on Pinterest that I put my own twist on. This is a birthday card for my niece who turned 3 in December. The card is made from kraft paper with light turquoise mat. I stamped the flowers image on white cardstock and matted on pink. I don't remember precise sizes, but I made sure that I had enough room at the bottom for 3 crayons. I punched two small holes in the center of where the crayons would go using my Crop-a-dile, then threaded thin ribbon through, arranged the crayons and tied them on.



The inside also has a stamped image for her to color in:

This was an quick and easy project that didn't require any fancy embellishments, products, etc. The only thing I had to put some extra time into was stopping on the way to her party to pick up a new box of crayons. We didn't have any that were new in colors that worked for the card, and I thought it would be pretty tacky to give her a card with partially used crayons tied onto the front, haha. I plan on doing this type of card again for other kids...quick and easy for me to do and a fun card for the kiddos...win, win!