For the Hubby…

While looking for an idea for my hubby for Valentines day I stumbled upon this. It is SUPER easy, and the best part is if you hop over to http://www.mommybydaycrafterbynight.com/ you can snag a FREE download to print out your own!

Handmade Valentine for the girls…

This is an easy valentine for a girl.

Basic instructions are:

1.) Take a tootsie roll pop and attach googly eyes with a dot of glue.
2.) Make the wings from cardstock (construction paper will work but won’t be as firm).
3.) With scissors, cut two slits with scissors to be able to slide in the tootsie pop.
4.) Around the edges of the wings write desired message.
5.) Slide in the tootsie pop to create the head and body.
6.) Embelish with stickers, if desired.

🙂 Enjoy!

Cute Handmade Valentines Gift

This SUPER CUTE Idea I found at a GREAT blog I discovered! As a mama of 5 I LOVE finding cute ways to give gifts that doesn’t break my budget.

Go check it out at http://nicholeheady.typepad.com

These would be great for teachers gifts also, and could be changed to make them for ANY holiday, or the end of school year gifts, kids birthdays, the sky is the limit. I posted the instructions below.

Cupcake Take Along
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If you are anything like me, I always enjoy giving thoughtful gifts to people rather than just picking up something from a big box store. Especially when it comes to gifts for children. Really, how many Barbies can a girl have? So I thought I would show you a fun alternative that I designed for a birthday party we are going to next weekend. I call it the Cupcake Take Along. I gathered a few inexpensive items from the store to create my kit.

To begin, I wrapped my cake mix box with red cardstock. This required two sheets cut to measure 5-5/8″ wide and 11 inches long. I scored the top and bottom of these two pieces at 1.5″, creating top and bottom flaps. I then just adhered the two pieces together lengthwise to create a large wrap.

Next, I cut out the two main pieces for the body of the tote template using red cardstock. I wanted to create a special area for all of the different sprinkles to be kept. So I cut a 1 x 11″ strip of white cardstock and scored it @ 1.25″ from either end, followed by 3/4″ increments in the remaining center portion. Use my photo here as a visual to create your mountain and valley folds. A little piece of scor-tape at the base of each section will help to make the piece secure.

When you peel away the tape backing and adhere the strip to the interior of your tote, you are left with something that looks like this.

Now that the tube strip is adhered to the inside, the tote can be adhered to the front of the cake mix wrap with scor-tape.

I wanted ribbon handles to go all the way around both the cake mix box and cardstock tote that I adhered together, so I laid the entire piece on its side and ran two pieces of scor-tape down, around the bottom and back up the other side.

I then started applying my ribbon at the bottom and went up a side over the top creating the handle, and back down the other side. I repeated these steps on the opposite end.

Now that the handles are done, all that’s left for the inside of this cute little cupcake tote is a few of our Trendy Tubes filled with the various sprinkles that I picked up at the store. The easy tube strip I created from white cardstock holds the tubes in place securely.

For the outside, I printed the Take Along Tote Pocket template onto Raspberry Fizz cardstock and assembled it. I adhered it to the front of my tote.

I created the catchy “Hey, cupcake” sentiment with Fresh Alphabet & Simple Alphabet. The felt flower is from American Crafts and the epoxy brad is from Making Memories.

Notice the little birthday tag made with Heather’s new Around & about Sentiments. It is clipped in place with a bright pink mini clothespin that I have been hoarding for quite some time now. I love it when things like that work out!

This tote pocket holds a glassine bag which I filled with the decorative heart candies. The top of the bag is folded over and tied shut with raspberry fizz satin ribbon.

Here is a side view of the tote. Notice how the tubes are a perfect fit for the width of the Take Along Tote template.

And as one last final detail, I used a Basic Grey magnetic closure along with a patterned paper flap to help keep the tote closed.

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