Kids' Valentine's Day Cards Round 2

Micah agreed that we could make Super Hero Lollypop Valentine's Day cards. I wish I could come up with my own ideas, but I am not that original yet.

Instructions/Printables

The instructions are here at the Little Bit Funky blog.
The printable graphics are here at Less Ordinary Designs.

Cape Template 

 

There is no cape template so my husband made mine for me which you can download by clicking this sentence or the above picture! When you print it, make sure your  page scaling is set to none, otherwise it won't print to the right scale. I put measurements on the cape so you can verify that yours printed correctly.

You need:

2 inch circle punch and scissors
1 hole punch (which I already had and did not include in cost)
Felt (the blog recommends stiff felt, but I just bought the regular flimsy kind.)
Ribbon
Lollypops
Glue
Cape Template
Printables
Sharpie (to trace cape template on felt)

You can either use a 2 inch punch or scissors to cut out the circle. I recommend this Fiskars Squeeze Punch, the X-Large size is the one that cuts 2 inch circles.I bought mine at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon, which reduced the costs from $16.99 to $10.19. What a deal!

Based on my cape template, I was able to fit 9 capes on each piece of 9x12 felt square. The total felt cost was $1.65. Because I printed the printables 4 times each, I needed 1 of blue, black, green, and 2 of red.

I bought 4 spools of cordinating ribbon for $3.49.

I used some Aleen's tacky glue to adhere my Super hero logos to the felt, and it worked fine. I gave it about 20-30 minutes to dry before assembling the super hero lollypops.  I used regular computer paper, when I printed my logos up, but I would highly recommend using some sort of cardstock. The glue won't appear as much, and the colors usually look nicer printed on cardstock.

Lastly I bought 3 bags of Tootsie pops. I could have just purchased two, but I wanted a variety of colors since which colors you get is random. The total cost was $6.72.

Total cost: $22.05
If you already have a punch, then it cost even less to do this project! Definitely more expensive than regular V-Day cards, but so worth it, since they are SO cute!

I am really pleased with how the Valentine's cards came out and I think the kids will be too.

Kids' Valentine's Day Cards

Last year I did handmade Valentine's Day cards for Micah's class for the first time! I got the idea from pinterest, and found the blog here. So cute!!!! Mine are a little different than the original blog post, but that site has the file for "Our class would knot be the same without you."

This year I will ask Micah about what kind of Valentine's cards he'd like to give out. I know he prefers cool character ones that you buy at the store, but if we do something handmade, I will post the end results!

Fall Centerpiece

I originally envisioned something different. I pictured a long but narrow basket with some sort of fall leaves on the bottom with pumpkin and candles on top. But I couldn't find a basket that I liked so I decided to do something different, and I am really glad and pleased with what I did!

My mom happened to help me run all my centerpiece errands, and she took me to a pumpkin patch so we could get the perfect pumpkins and gourds. 

We got this mini garland from Pier 1 with a 20% off coupon :) I also got the candles there (not picture separately) and the sales clerk used the 20% off coupon on the $10.00 unscented candle. It may have been cheaper elsewhere, but my excitement overruled my sense of financial judgment.

This charger was $1.99 from Michael's. The flash made it look worse than it is, but it doesn't really matter since you hardly see it anyway.

And the final product! So proud! 

Overhead view of my centerpiece! 

I am so happy with how it turned out. I've never attempted something like this before and a lot of googling and pinteresting took place to get the creative juices flowing. :)

Happy Fall!

Decorating for Fall!

I am finally posting fall decoration pictures! I had gotten all my items out, taken pictures, but was discouraged with my "loot." Seriously, I only had like five things. So with a coupon-in-hand, I went to Pier 1 and grabbed a few adorable items.

It still did not leave me with a ton of decorations but enough to make me proud and keep my wallet happy! I like to disperse my decorations in several key places in the house that are sure to draw some attention and be noticed. What good are decorations if they are hidden away, right?

First, we have the welcome sign. I have a welcome sign for quite a few seasons! :) This goes outside by my front door.

This is our entry table (note: cute Micah pictures). My scentsy is rocking the pumpkin roll scent right now, and it smells delicious.

I am not sure why I did not take a picture of the whole fireplace area, but the pumpkins are to the bottom right of our fireplace, and the witch's house and brew is on our mantle.

Watson checking out the pumpkins.

Here's my coffee table. The picture is super boring, but I had to include it. The pumpkin candle is from Bath and Body Works. The book holds our remotes and was from Michael's. We, unfortunately, had to throw it away though because it started leaking glue :( 

These next pieces are in the dining area. I love the owl! He houses a tea light and is very cute. I have my husband to thank for that one. Also, I could not leave Pier 1 without those salt and pepper shakers. They were the first things I knew  I was going to buy!

One of my other fall decor purchasing goals is to come up with a nice fall center piece. Ideally, I'd love to have something for Halloween and something more Thanksgiving appropriate, but at least I can start with a fall one that will work September through November. I looked online at a lot of different websites, and I think I've come up with a great plan....now just to buy the stuff and implement and show you all!

Potluck Palooza

The company I work for had a potluck today for memorial day. I brought a side dish and a dessert. Side dishes can be tricky for potlucks I've come to realize, because cold food is easier to keep at work when you only have a microwave at your disposal for heating things up. But I decided to crockpot my side dish, so we'd have something warm. I also brought pie. I tend to like to bring cookies to things because I just love baking cookies, but with all the lemons gracing our tree in the backyard, a lemon meringue pie was hard to resist. I like to use a Martha Stewart recipe from her food magazine for my pie. It always turns out delicious!

Her recipe calls to follow part of a lemon curd recipe so here are links to both: Martha's Lemon Meringue Pie and Martha's Lemon Curd. For pie crust, I cheat and buy Marie Calendars already made crusts, because after all, I am a busy woman, and they come in two packs, and it's great reason to make another pie!

So here it is before the meringue

 And, of course, the final product!

Back to the side dish! It was just a calico beans recipe. If you've never made them, and you like baked beans, this is a great dish. A lot of the recipes online call for ground beef also, but the recipe I used did not. The beans are a great easy side dish for this potluck, but also great for when you're making something on the grill, whether it's hot dogs and burgers, or just some chicken breasts, and it's really easy, and clean up is a breeze when you use a crockpot liner (best invention ever).

Calico Beans

We don't have any special Memorial Day plans, so it was nice to have a little work gathering to celebrate the three day weekend!