DIY: Embellish a Plastic Storage Container

Make and Takes blog has a great embellishing tutorial for those $1 containers you can find at most stores.  We love the idea of using all of our various ribbon pieces to make these pretty!!

Supplies for Ribbon Container:

• Ribbon: 3 – 3ft long pieces or 1 long 9ft piece, any color
• plastic basket with holes – mine was from the good ol’ Dollar store

Take your cut ribbon and start at the top, weaving through each hole. Make sure to leave at least 4-5 inches at the outer end to tie into a bow when it’s done. I chose to do three colors of ribbon, one for each level of holes on the container. But you can easily use one long piece of ribbon for the whole thing.

Weave the ribbon all throughout the container. Once the ribbon has gone through each hole, tie the two ends together in a bow. My son made one for his room to hold his CDs. He liked threading his green (always the color green) ribbon through the holes, making sure not to miss one.

These are easy to create and would make great gifts for anyone needing a container. I’m thinking teacher gifts!

DIY: Snowman Cups

Well hello there November!  We would like to welcome you into 2012 by featuring a snowman tutorial.  These festive favor cups are wonderful and CUTE!  Take these into work filled with hot cocoa packets and you'll be the hit of the office - or take them into school filled with candy treats for your children's friends and you'll be the hit of the class (maybe bring them at the end of the day so the teacher doesn't hate you for it).  ;)

Check out Blue Cricket Design's blog for even more fun DIY!!

Ever seen such an adorable little face! Well if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may have remembered my “Chinese take out Snowman gift box” and these I guess you can call their little offspring!
I thought I could come up with a smaller version perfect for sending little treats to my girls school class rooms! These darling little Snowman fit the bill and were a breeze to create!
6 oz Styrofoam cups and lids found at Orson Gygi were just what I needed and you can’t beat the cost of this project. 25 pack of cups: $1, 100 pack of lids: $1.55,  stiff felt: $1. And we all seem to have paint on hand! Even if you make 100 little gift cups it would cost you about $7 before you fill them with goodies!
 
First things first! Fill all your cups with goodies and close them with the lids! This makes them easier to hold when you paint them giving the super light Styrofoam a little more weight and with the lids on you can stack them!
 
Using pink paint and a small round sponge, you’ll  add your rosie cheeks! Next you’ll use the end of a paintbrush and black paint to add your coal smile and eyes! Lastly you’ll hot glue on your felt nose cut from a sheet of stiff felt. I painted all my cheeks then all my mouths and eyes and then glued on my noses. By the time I moved onto the next step, the step I just finished was dry!

I loved this little army of smiling snowman!

It took me about an hour to create 75 Snowman cups! These are perfect for Holiday classroom party favor or little treats for your kids to pass out to their friends!

DIY: Chalkboard Necklace

Henry Happened blog is great for easy, quick, and inexpensive DIY tutorials!  We particularly like this one that shows how to make a chalkboard necklace.  This is a great accessory because you can change the way it looks based on your mood!

Check out their blog for more quick jewelry DIY!

What you’ll need:

• Rust-oleum specialty Chalk Board spray
• a bezel pendant (you could find one at your local bead store or even purchase one through Etsy…this or this would do nicely)
• finished chain
• a scrap of satin ribbon
• glue (I highly recommend a tube of E6000, it is inexpensive, amazingly strong and long lasting!)
• painter’s tape
• newspaper
• basic white chalk

STEP 1:  Using the painter’s tape, tape your pendant down onto your newspaper being careful to cover any areas you don’t want “chalk boarded” with the tape.
STEP 2:  In a well ventilated area (i.e. outside) apply 2-3 light coats of “Chalk Board” spray to the exposed surface of the pendant (wait approximately 3-4 minuets between coats).  Let dry.

STEP 3:  Once the “Chalk Board” finish has had time to thoroughly dry (a couple of hours or so should be suffice), carefully remove the protective painter’s tape from the pendant.

STEP 4:  Tie a bow with your ribbon.  Trim ends to desired length.

STEP 5:  Using your glue, secure bow to top of pendant.

STEP 6:  Attached pendant to chain.

STEP 7:  Using your chalk write the message of your choice onto the pendant (using the edge of a brand new piece of chalk will help you write small and clearly).

STEP 8:  If you are giving as a gift, place pendant and a piece of chalk into a gift bag (I chose an organza gift bag with a bit of a shimmer in a fun, bright color).

Voila, a sweet chalkboard necklace!

DIY: School Supply Bouquets

Oleander and Palm's blog has a great "back to school" tutorial, that we think would be great anytime for teacher or for your own home!  You could easily whip this up for a teacher on their birthday, or use it as a decoration on your own craft table.  So many things you can do with these, so much fun to be had!

Well, the kids are definitely back in school.  We are starting to get into a bit of a routine.  I like to start the year off with a gift for my kid's teachers.  It's simple Math - Happy Teacher = Happy Students!  Last year I made fresh Apple Scones for the teachers and the year before, I made reuseable coffee cup sleeves.  

This year I thought a flower bouquet would brighten their day.  These we easy to make and really didn't cost too much.  

Supplies:

Pencils (about 32)

Crayons (about 25)

An empty baby food jar

An empty Starbucks Frappacino Bottle

2 rubber bands

Ribbon

Flowers

For the pencil vase, I wrapped an empty frappacino bottle with an elastic band and the inserted the pencils all the same direction.  And for the crayon vase I just used an empty baby food jar.  Then I simply tied a cute ribbon around the rubber band to hide it and then filled them with flowers.

Are your back into a routine with the start of school?  Is that routine welcomed or are you longing for more summer?

DIY: Crayon Wreath

A Bushel and a Peck has given us the perfect idea of what we are going to make for my sister this year for her classroom!  We love this crayon wreath idea, and the instructions spell it all out despite the lack of pictures.

I love wreaths and love all the creative ways to create wreaths for any occasion. I saw this idea out there in blog world and thought what a great Christmas gift for preschool and kindergarten teachers. So, this year Ella's teachers will be getting this cute crayon wreaths for Christmas.

They are super easy to make. All you need is embroidery hoops (one size 12 inches and one 8 or 9 inches). Put the smaller one inside the larger hoop and start places crayons around the hoops to form a circle. I used a few more crayons than the 64 count box. Then I hot glue gunned the crayons to the hoops and tied a ribbon on top to hang the wreath.

I love how they turned out. To present them to the teachers, I bought some large Christmas circle platters and will use those as part of the gift and a way to transport the wreaths carefully.

DIY: Pencil Starburst Mirror - Dollar Store Crafts

We love both color variations of this wonderful dollar store craft - we would be hard pressed to pick just one to make...so maybe we'll make both??  This would be a great Christmas / holiday gift for a teacher!

Check out Tatertots and Jello's blog for more cheap and easy DIY!

Tutorial: Penciled Starburst Mirror

You’ll use about 54 pencils, depending on your spacing

Hot glue, stick ‘em on, repeat:)

(The ribbon part is optional)

If your silhouette is behaving, (mine wasn’t), you can use transfer paper to make the placement of the vinyl much easier

Personalize your gift with a cute lil tag…