Crayon Photo Frame & Teacher Gift Basket

I made these frames for The Mess Maker's preschool teachers as part of their end-of-the-year gifts.  There are LOTS of crayon art projects out there on the web, but I followed the tutorial over at Mama Made It because it was the easiest to follow and I found the exact frames she used at Target.  I used 32 crayons on each one...to cut the crayons, I used a sharp butcher knife and then glued them on the frame with a hot glue gun.  When finished, I printed the sentiment and added it to the inside of the frame...  Easy-peasy!

Here is a photo of the finished gift baskets, with the crayon frames, the owl pillow boxes (that have giftcards inside) and the bookmarks with the students' favorite thing about each teacher printed on them:

(Tin buckets are from the Target dollar bins!)

Thanks for looking!

Owl Pillow Box

I saw these cutie-patootie pillow box owls at Card A La Carte and just HAD to make some of my own!  I used my Cricut, though, and will share what cartridges/shapes I used...

Wedding Solutions Cartridge:

*Pillow box was cut in "blackout" mode at 6"

George & Basic Shapes:

*Circles (for body and eyes) at 1 1/4"

*Hearts (for feet/beak) at 1 1/4"

*Circles (for black part of eyes) at 3/4"

A little bling was added to the eyes for sparkle, and a tag with the sentiment, "From Owl Of Us" was attached with ribbon and a glue dot. 

These little cuties hold giftcards for the Mess Maker's preschool teachers for end-of-the-year gifts.  They're part of a gift basket I'll be posting in bit...

Thanks for looking!  :)

Teacher Appreciation Bookmarks

I made these last year for the Mess Maker's preK teachers, and they really liked them.  So, why reinvent the wheel???  :)  These are the ones I just made for her teachers this year...same except for the kids' names and responses to the question, "I like Ms. _____ because...".

I used my Cricut A Child's Year cartridge to cut the kids at the bottom at 2 1/4" in blackout mode, trimming some of the bottom of the image off so it didn't cover any of the type.  The base of the bookmark is 3 1/4" x 7 1/2".  The patterned paper is 3" x 7 1/4" and the cream cardstock with the responses is cut to 2 3/4" x 7".  The font is Chocolate Box (one of my faves!) downloaded from dafont.com.  I added an eyelet and ribbon, along with some twine accented with wooden barrel beads.

I just love hearing the responses from preschoolers as to why they like their teachers!  Here is a sampling of what the students said:

"She writes notes and hugs me"

"She opens things"

"She plays silly songs"

"I like to talk to her"

"She listens to my stories"

"She gives me snacks"

Awwwwww....pretty stinkin' cute, right?  :)

These will be given along with a gift card to the teachers' favorite restaurants, from the whole class.  Can't wait to see what they say!

Teacher Appreciation: Thank You For Helping Us Bloom!

It's National Teacher Appreciation Week, and although the Mess Maker's preschool doesn't really "celebrate" the occasion (which I think is a travesty!), I wanted to do something for the teachers to let them know how appreciated they are!

The idea for this plant stake came from an original design by "Dimple Prints" HERE.  I designed a similar sentiment in Word, and then punched it out with a circle punch.  I added a green and white circle mat (Cricut: George cartridge), and then a yellow scalloped circle (Cricut: Storybook cartridge) for the flower. 

I attached the flower to a wooden skewer.  But I wanted to make sure the teachers knew it was from the entire class, so I decided to add each child's name to a leaf (Cricut: Doodlecharms cartridge).  The leaves were cut at 3/4", and then I ran them through my printer to print the names on them.  I have a tutorial HERE on how to do this if you're interested!

I hot glued the leaves to the skewer and added a narrow green ribbon.  Mrs. S gets a green Hydrangea plant because green is her favorite color, and Mrs. T gets a Gardenia plant because that's her favorite flower.  :)

To all of the wonderful teachers out there who educate, nuture, entertain, shape and encourage our children...

THANK YOU!!!

Lollipop Card...How "Sweet"!

Isn't this is sweetest card you've ever seen???  My sweet friend Robin over at Robin's Creative Cottage sent this to me and I just LOVE it...THANK YOU Robin!  If you want details on how Robin make this adorable card, you can check out the info and video tutorial on her blog HERE.

Robin is the creator of Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog (FCCB)...if you haven't already, please stop by and take a look at the amazing talent and inspiration over there!  From weekly challenges, tips and tutorials to cartridge highlights and scrapbooking articles, you're sure to find something new and exciting to fuel your creative juices!

THANK YOU Robin...you're the "sweetest"!!!!  :)

"Thanks A Latte!" Coffee Cup Slider Card / Gift Card Holder

I wanted to give some giftcards to Starbucks to the volunteers that helped with the Book Theater play I coordinated at the Mess Maker's school...and I wanted cute packaging!  So I searched the web and found this coffee cup slider card idea HERE.

I changed up the sentiment to read "Thanks a latte!" instead of Happy Birthday, and changed up the color scheme a bit, but the base of the card is the same.  And it has a Starbucks card inside!

I won't repeat the instructions here, because I think "Creative Cucina" did a great job with her photos and instructions.  But I will show a few photos of the part where you add the sticky strip or Terrically Tacky Tape, because I had to play around with it before I could figure it out!  :)

Here is how you apply the TTT:

Then fold in the right side:

And the fold in the left:

And this is how you trim the "cup"/sleeve to the correct size:

The rest of the information and instructions are at Creative Cucina. 

Here is a photo of all of the cards I made:

Thanks for looking!  :)

Valentine Lollipop Flower Pots

I made little lollipop flower pots for the Mess Maker's preschool teachers last year for Valentine's Day, and decided to do them again this year for her new teachers.  I couldn't find Tootsie Pops (?????) so I had to use Blow Pops, which have the wrappers twisted at the top.  So I just used glue dots to hold the wrappers down over the lollipop.  Problem solved!  My original directions and lollipop flowers can be found here.  I used flowers cut with my George cartridge and dot embossed cardstock in light and dark pink.  Sooooo easy and fun!

Things may be crazy at our house right now, but I can't completely stop crafting!  Yes, I have to keep my craft room looking "pretty" for showings.  No, I can't leave my Cricut, cartridges and paper all over because it wouldn't be attractive to prospective home buyers.  But I CAN do a quick little craft to show the Mess Maker's preschool teachers they are appreciated for Valentine's Day!  And yes, I cleaned up every last tiny piece of paper in my scraproom when I was done...

Custom Christmas Gift Tags!

My friend Tommie, "The Seriously Sweet Party Expert" at OhMyGluestick! designs adorable party circles for any occasion or holiday you can think of...including Christmas.  I would normally use these as cupcake toppers attached to candy sticks, but since I'm not making cupcakes for the holidays, I decided to make gift tags out of them.

Now I don't know about you, but I think some of the stick-on type labels are kind-of tacky (not all, but most!).  Unless I shell out the bucks for them, they're usually cheapo and have somewhat of a glossy surface, which then makes my ink smear and look awful!  Unfortunately, they are absolutely necessary to keep the gifts going to right recipients!  :)

So here's the perfect solution:  use printed party circles and attach them to bows to make your own custom, perfectly-coordinating gift tags!  The set I used for these projects are from the Red & Green Holiday Set:

Aren't these super-cute?  There are several other holiday options available at the OhMyGluestick Etsy shop as well.

I used a 1 3/4" circle punch to punch out the circles, leaving a bit of the printed border surrounding the circles.  Then I used my Cricut (Storybook cartridge) to cut 2" scallop circles to mat the printed circles.  I used a cardstock from my scrap stash and made these little cuties for nearly nothing!  And the best part is that my writing (on the back of each tag) didn't smear a bit because I was able to write on mat cardstock!  :)

I also added tags to these little gift bags (20 for $1.00 in the $1 bins at Target) which hold The Mess Maker's handmade Christmas ornaments to give to family this Christmas:

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!

Sock Cupcake: FCCB Challenge #39 "Gifts Galore"!

I first made sock cupcakes almost a year ago...and I posted some of my first sock cupcakes in an earlier post back in February.  Well, I've been at it again!  This time I made them for Fantabulous Cricut's Challenge this week: "Gifts Galore": Create a handmade gift or gift package!  This has to be one of my most favorite gifts to give...and I made this one in Chrismas colors, just in time for the holiday!!!

For the cupcake wrapper, I have a Design Studio file graciously shared by Rach1Fun from the Cricut Messageboard.  You can find her blog HERE.  It uses the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and cuts this lovely scallop-edge wrapper!  The socks are from the Michael's Dollar Spot and the cherries (which look almost black in the photo, but are really a dark red) are from Target.

To turn this cutie into a gift, I placed it in a cello bag, tied a red ribbon around it, and stamped a sentiment (CTMH) on a circle cut with George and attached to a circle tag to embellish.

Hope you'll hop over to FCCB and enter your own handmade gift/gift package for your chance to win this week's prize!

Happy Crafting!!!  :)

Using Party Circles On Cricut & Scrapbooking Projects

My friend Tommie, The Seriously Sweet Party Expert from OhMyGluestick!, gave me early access to her new Harvest Party Circles to prepare some projects and a tutorial over at Fantabulous Cricut!  How stinkin' cute are these:

Adorable!!!

My tutorial shows how to use your Cricut to assemble these cuties into everything from cupcake and treat toppers (which they are designed for) to magnets to cards and more.  Click HERE to go to FCCB and see the tutorial. 

Here are some of the projects I made with the Harvest Party Circles by OMG!:

1.  Cupcake/Treat Toppers (tutorial at FCCB)

2.  Glass Marble Refrigerator Magnets

3.  Custom Brads

4.  Greeting Card (Owl is from Storybook cartridge)

5.  Gift Tag (acorn is from Create a Critter cartridge)

Head over to FCCB for more information!  And be sure to check out OhMyGluestick! for adorable graphics for your next party or Cricut project!

Have a creative day!  :)

Little Monster Treat Bag: FCCB Challenge #33--Halloween!

I FINALLY got the Cricut Mini Monsters cartridge, just in time for this week's Fantabulous Cricut Challenge...Halloween!  The assignment was to make anything having to do with Halloween. 

This cartridge has all the pieces needed to create this "Little Monster", except for the googly eyes I added.  Super-simple to make and I think it turned out pretty cute.  What little goblin wouldn't like to receive this little treat bag with a Halloween surprise?

Be sure to head over to FCCB and enter your own Halloween project for your chance to win this week's prize!

Happy Crafting!!!  :)

Fall Wine Glass Charms: FCCB Challenge #32 Leaf Theme

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is to create a project using a leaf for Fall!

I haven't made wine glass charms in a while, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to make some new ones to celebrate this gorgeous season!  They're soooooo easy and really turned out pretty cute!  To make the leaves, I used the Storybook cartridge and cut the leaf (shift "B") out of clear shrink plastic at 2 1/2" three times.  I inked each leaf using a different color of Adirondack (Tim Holtz) alcohol ink with a sponge dauber.  Then I punched a hole at the top of each with a standard size hole punch.

To shrink the plastic, I used my heat gun.  The two sides of the leaves wanted to overlap a little while shrinking and not lay completely flat, which actually made them look a little more "realistic" and less one-dimensional.  One shrunk, I added them to a silver ring and added some coordinating glass beads and the ring of leaves to a metal charm loop.

That's it!  Hope you check out Fantabulous Cricut's FANTABULOUS prize for this week and enter your own Fall leaf project for your chance to win!

Have a creative day!  :)

Halloween Treat Bags For Teachers!

With Halloween coming up, I wanted to give the Mess Maker's preschool teachers something sweet.  I came up with little treat bag covers to dress-up a plain little cello bag with their favorite candies!

For each bag cover, I cut a piece of 12x12 black carstock in half (2- 6"x12" pieces).  I trimmed one of the pieces to 10", then scored one end of each piece at 2 1/2".  I scored the other end of the 12" piece at 2".  Then I adhered the two 2 1/2" sections together to form one long strip.  I folded along the score lines and folded the 2" flap over the end of the shorter piece and had my cover.  Then I placed the cello bag with candy inside the cover, punched holes at the top and threaded ribbon through to secure it.  Here is a side view:

To embellish, I covered the front with cute little pumpkin paper by the Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby).  I added a die-cut pumpkin (Create a Critter) and printed "No Tricks...Only Treats!" onto it.  I tied green leaf ribbon to the stem and adhered it on the front.  Then I cut two candies from the Mini Monsters cartridge and adhered them on the flap.

Hope the teachers will get a kick out of these "sweet treats"!  :)

Have a creative day!

"Royal Cupcakes": FCCB Challenge #30 Natl. Bake & Decorate Month!

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is called "National Bake & Decorate Month": create a project that has something to do with baking...and if we have the Cricut Cake, we can use that to create something tasty as well.  Well, I don't have the Cricut Cake.  :(  But that didn't stop me from whipping up something tasty!!!

I made some chocolate chip cupcakes and decided to dress them up a bit in honor of this week's challenge.  I have to brag a little on the super-cute graphics...because I didn't make them!!!  My friend Tommie, from OhMyGluestick! designs graphics that you can use for party decorations, including these little "party circles" which I used as cupcake toppers.  This set of four designs is from the "Alice In Wonderland" set (which was one of the featured free sets a while back!) and features the ace, spade, heart and club.  How fun would these be for a card game get-together or royal-themed party???  OMG! has an Etsy shop with TONS of graphics for party decor, and she does custom designs as well.  Go check her out!

Okay, to complete my cupcake toppers, I punched each image using a 1 1/2" circle punch.  Then I used my Cricut to cut a 1 3/4" circle (George & Basic Shapes) to mat the image and a 2" scallop circle (Storybook) to mat the circle.  I added stickles to the dot borders on each image to give them some sparkle and added a rhinestone in the center of each.  To finish, I attached them to lollipop sticks and tied coordinating ribbon around the sticks.  Super-easy and super-quick, and I think they're pretty stinkin' cute!

Hope you'll visit both OMG! (for fabulous party decor ideas) and Fantabulous Cricut to enter your own "Bake & Decorate" project. 

Have a creative (and yummy) day!!!  :)

House Warming Card

I've been wanting to use this house card from the Cricut "Wild Card" cartridge since I bought it.  And I decided that making a house warming card for my friend Michelle that just moved was the perfect opportunity!

I used light brown cardstock for the house base and ran it through my Cuttlebug using the Mini Mosaic folder to give it the appearance of "stone".  Then I inked the raised area to give it some depth.  I cut out all the layers offered (door, window, roof and topiaries) and inked each of those as well.

On the door, I wanted to make a curtain, so I accordian folded a small piece of striped paper and adhered it to the inside of the door window.  Then I added a "welcome" banner and attached the brads slightly closer than the length of the banner so that it would stand out a bit.  Here's a close-up:

To make the card sturdier and to make the window look like a light was on inside, a cut the house in blackout mode 1/4" smaller than the card base and used those as mats on both sides of the inside of the house.

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!  :)

Teacher Appreciation: Rolo Pencils!

Wish I could take credit for this idea.  Oh well.  It's actually an idea featured in the September 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  I fell in love with these the second I saw them, and decided they'd be a perfect little gift for my daughter's AWESOME pre-k teachers!

The body of the pencil (inside) is a package of Rolos and the tip of the pencil is a Hersheys Kiss attached to the Rolos with a glue dot!

To make the outside of the pencil, you cut a piece of yellow cardstock to 3 1/2" x 4 1/2", trim one short end with scallop edge or zigzag edge scissors, and score every 1/4" lengthwise...wrap around the Rolos and adhere.  Then wrap a 3 1/2" x 3/8 " piece of pink cardstock at the opposite end.  Add a small pink circle to cover the exposed end of the Rolos.  Cover the seam between the yellow and pink pieces with a length of silver foil tape.  Then just wrap the ends with a ribbon and tag.  I used Create a Critter to make the apples on these, and printed my sentiment from my computer right onto the tags.

To finish, I put them each in a clear bag and made a bag topper with each teacher's initial and some embellishments on them.  Super-easy and super-fun!

Thanks for looking and have a creative day!  :)