Back To School Dinner

My Back To School Dinner was a huge success.  I love planning and executing these themed dinners for my family.  The smiles on their faces during dinner are priceless to me.  As an added bonus, I really enjoy making all the food and decorations to coordinate with my theme. 

When I first started planning my dinner, I went to Pintrest for inspiration.  It seemed like apples were everywhere so I used them as my main decorations and color scheme.  I then stared making everything - the fun part.  After the kids went to bed the night before, I decorated the table and got everything ready for the day.  The easiest part about this dinner was the dinner itself.  I made sack lunches with a hoggie sandwich, chips and strawberries.  I mean you can't get any easier when it comes to dinner. 

I hope that I can inspire you all to throw a themed dinner for your family. They may seem like a lot of time and effort for just a dinner, but the results are so satisfying to me and my family.   It has truly become a passion of mine. 

Smartie Pants Printable

I was searching the blogsphere for a cute and fun treat to put in my kids lunch bag on the first day of school.  When I found this idea HERE, my search ended.   I had to remake the tags to better suit my needs as I needed more than just Kindergarten tags. 

I printed, cut the circles out with a 2" circle cutter, taped some ribbon to the back and then glued the circles to some extra scrap book paper.  I like that I turned the tags into more a a treat topper to give my kids more Smarties.  After it was the first day of school and they had earned an extra treat. 

Click HERE to download your FREEBIE Smartie Pants Tags!

Here's to Another Awesome Year - PRINTABLE

I needed to make a gift for a large group of young girls to give as a back to school gift.  I got the inspiration for this gift HERE and adapted it for my needs.  I just printed, trimmed and attached the tag with a large grade twine.  They came together fast and I was under budget - even better. 

I think that I am going to double duty this gift and use it as my drink for my upcoming family Back to School dinner.

Click HERE to download your FREEBIE tags! 

FHE Conducting Chart - FREEBIE

I recently attended a class at my church that talked about spending more quality time with your family.  I came home reenergized and refocused my priorities in a few areas that needed some fine tuning.  One area that I have been working hard at is Family Home Evening.  "Family home evening is a special time set aside each week that brings family members together and strengthens their love for each other, helps them draw closer to Heavenly Father, and encourages them to live righteously."  (credit HERE)  My efforts in the past have been minimal to say the least.  So after attending my class, I came home a set a new goal about holding FHE regularly in my home.  To help me with planning, I made this chart.  I have found that I am more prepared and it helps me keep things moving smoothly - a huge must with little ones involved.  The chart has also become the kids conducting chart.  I let the kids conduct get them more involved.

I printed the chart on white card stock, trimmed the edges, mounted on black card stock and finally laminated.  Since I laminated my chart, it becomes reusable every week.  Just make sure you have a dry erase marker around.  I hang it on my fridge after FHE is over to give me a daily reminder of my new family goal.

Click HERE to download your FREEBIE!

I have a small favor to ask in return if you download the FHE chart {wink wink} - become a follower!   I told you the favor was small :) 

I used Just So Scrappy Happy Days kit to create this file!

INSPIRE - TEACHER APPRECIATION GIFT

Even though I am a digital girl, I still enjoy an occasional crafting day that does not involve my computer.  Today was that kind of crafting day.  I needed to make my daughter's gift for Teacher Appreciation Week.  I am grateful for our Kindergarten teacher this year and definitely wanted to thank her for all that she has done for my daughter.  I hope that this gift will keep her inspiration going in years to come as she continues to teach and inspire her little "Kinder Kids."

This gift was simple and fast to make, and cost me under $5.00 since all I had to buy was the glass block.  Yeah!!! 

Items Needed

• Rectangle Glass Block (got mine at Lowe's for $4.29)
• Cricut (or similar type cutting machine)
• Vinyl (cut letters at 1 1/2 inches high)
• Ribbon (pick 2 coordinating pieces, each with a different widths .)

To assemble, simply cut out the lettering and attach to the glass block.  Then tie the coordinating ribbons around the edge of the block.  That's it - Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey!!! 

Easter Game Bundle - NEW RELEASE

My thoughts have turned to Easter this week.  If you follow my blog regularly, then you know that Holidays are BIG in my family.  I am a little behind in my celebration planning, but I am not too concerned.  I like to keep my family celebrations simple. 

I just finished creating some fun family Easter themed games that would be a great addition to any Easter Egg hunt you may already have planned.  This game bundle includes 2 games and BONUS coloring page. 

The first game in this bundle is the Easter version of Don't Eat Pete.  This game is one of my family's favorite.  It is fun for any age.  If you have never played before, the rules are simple.  First you need to have a bowl of candy.  We usually use M&M's, but for Easter we will use Starburst Jelly Beans.  Place one candy in each square of the game board. Send the first child (or adult) away from the game board, then have the remaining children choose which candy will be "Pete" for the round. Have the first child come back and begin picking candy from the game board. As soon as the child tries to pick "Pete" everyone yells "Don't Eat Pete!"  The child keeps all the candy picked up before trying to get Pete. Refill the game board and play again.

This bundle also includes a Pin the Tail on Peter Cottontail.  I decided that I wanted to make my tails look fluffy so I glued some cotton balls on them.  I think the fluffy version of the tails is SO CUTE.  

This game is comes in an 8x10 for easy printing at home or a 16x20 for printing on a poster at Staples or Office Max. 

Here is how I made my fluffy tails.  First I printed, trimmed and laminated my tails.  Then it only took about 10 minutes to finish adding the fluff.   I took cotton balls and cut them into fourths.  Then I used the glue shown in the picture and covered the whole surface area.  Finally, I started placing the cotton ball quarters onto the glue.  I used about 7 per tail. 

TO PURCHASE THIS FILE - CLICK HERE

Passionately Artistic, Seven Thirty Three, Lil' Luna,  The Trendyhouse,  Somewhat Simple,  House of Hepworths,  Sisters Stuff, Paisley Passions,  It's Sew Stinkin Cute,  The Shabby Nest,  Chic on a Shoestring, Just A Girl,  A Little Knick Knack,  It's A Hodge Podge Life,  Creation Corner,  Sassy Sites, 
Tatertots and Jello

I Heart Digital Scrap Booking

I started scrapbooking when I was 12 years old.  Back in the day, I scraped 8.5 x 11 pages and and used bright neon paper.  I get a good laugh at myself when I looked through my first scrapbook.  I continued scraping until I graduated from high school, but fell a few months short of finishing my senior year scrapbook :(  The main reasons I stopped scraping was time, money and creative burn out.  As I got married and started having kids, I really wanted to get back into the habit of scrapbooking, but time and money were still an issue.

In 2008 a friend introduced me to Photoshop Elements (PSE).  I saw the layouts that she was creating and I knew I wanted to start using the program.  My hubby gave me the program for Mother's Day that year and I was so excited to get started.  I loaded the program, downloaded my first digital kit and was ready to create.  I sat down at my computer but had no idea where to start.  After many failed attempts, I gave up. 

After a few months, I was ready to try again.  I watched what seemed like hundreds of PSE YouTube tutorials and slowly I started to get the hang of it.  Then I recruited my friend to show me the ropes and watched her create a layout.  Finally, I knew just enough to start creating. 

Here is the very first layout I created.  I started out small with each page until I learned and more. 

Now, my pages look more like this.  Here is my most recent layout for my little guy to help celebrate his first year of life.

To make sure that I utilize my time and creative juices more effectively, I limit my scrapbooking.  I scrap one 2-page layout that highlights our year as a family and one 2-page layout for each of my 3 kids for their birthday.  By the time my kids grow up and leave for college, they will have have fun family and self history to take with them along their journeys.   Well, that's my goal anyways!!!

I want to be able to "pay it forward" what I have learned.  I can remember feeling lost and overwhelmed when I wanted to get started.  So you will start seeing more posts of my scrapbook layouts that include tips that I have learned over the years to help you all get started.