Quick Christmas Gift for a Teacher

Today I'm sharing a Simple and Pretty Gift Basket I made last Christmas for my youngest girls teachers.

 First I had the girls help make some treats.  I pinned the easiest and tastiest treats!

They love getting involved! We made Christmas Hugs, Peppermint Bark, Christmas Brownies (which are just brownies with Christmas M&Ms and sprinkles on top lol), and some awesome chocolate cookies.

 Then I assembled everything I needed for the gift baskets, most of which I had hoarded gathered over time from various dollar stores and aisles :) I used:
Tin basket
Cello bags
Shredded basket filler
Gift basket cello bags
Wired ribbon
Satin ribbon
Baked Yummies
Pretty candle (Yankee Candles, on sale at Walgreens on Thanksgiving B1G2Free!)

I filled the cello bags with the goodies, one with bark and hugs, one with cookies and brownies. Then tied them off with red and green satin ribbons.

 I filled the basket with the shredded paper filler and put the treats on either side of the candle.

Next I took the basket bag, placed the basket inside and wrapped it with a pretty bow :) DONE!  And it looks SO pretty!

DIY Christmas Card Holder

So I was PINspired again! After seeing and pinning THIS I finally made one of my own!

I started with a premade metal sign from Hobby Lobby (75% off since I wanted so long ;-), some scrapbook letter stickers, a few different sizes/colors of ribbon, and some clothes pins that I fancied up :)

To fancy up the clothes pins I painted them with gold glitter glue and then sprinkled with red and gold glitter!

I stuck the scrapbook letters on the metal sign to spell out "Merry Christmas Mail" :)

Then I hung up the sign to measure how long I wanted the ribbons to hang

I cut the ribbon and hot glued them in place

After it was dry, I hung it up and tried it out

I made a pretty little spot for it to wait for the pretty cards to arrive!

And had the pretty clothes pins waiting in a little spot below

I got a few more cards than I was expecting and my card holder FILLED UP FAST!! I LOVE how it came out :)

A Fun Twist on the Christmas Card Photo

This year I am ON TOP of the whole Christmas Card thing :) Again, my motivation came from the Snapfish B1G2F coupon which worked out REALLY well this year! I got my Thanksgiving photos AND my Christmas Photos out of the way, books and calendars ordered up, a WEEK before Thanksgiving :) YAY ME!

This year I wanted to do something fun.  I saw THIS and THIS on pinterest and LOVED them. I wanted to combine the two somehow so the kids and I came up with our own twist ;-)

 

 

HAHAHA!!! I JUST LOVE THEM! It was a collaboration between all of the kids and I. They wanted to use the reindeer horns/santa hat so we figured a way to incorporate them. They called it a mutiny of sorts, they're "MutanDEERS" LOL!

I had so many options for the last picture I couldn't decide! I just LOVED the eyes on my "Santa" in this one though!

Finding the right card template was harder than I expected with these photos because I wanted them to be big enough to really see the details.  This is the one we ended up going with and I'm happy with it :)

Ghosts of Decors Past - Fall 2011

 My Fall Decor - 2011

As I was decorating for Thanksgiving this year, I went back to pictures from last year for some inspiration.  I try to do things a little differently each year but sometimes when I unpack my FOUR BOXES of Fall decor I get a little overwhelmed and need some direction!

 My living room/dinning room area looking out from the kitchen.

 My {almost totally} Dollar store fall centerpiece.

 My living room.  I have a few different throw pillows and blankets stashed that only get to come out during the fall!

 My WALL O PICTURES ...

I love how this gallery wall came out :)

My downstairs looking down from the landing.

My Fall Mantel.

Last year I didn't do a different decor set up for Halloween and Thanksgiving, I just did a Fall set up with a few minor change outs.  I used my Thankful Garland and a super cute Happy Halloween printable I found HERE!

I took a vase and filled it with corn kernels and a big bouquet of fall colored flowers

I made a couple of mini hurricanes out of vases and candlesticks from the dollar store, and filled them with candy corn! A sweet little touch of Halloween ;-)  Then added a few of the glass pumpkins I found at the dollar store, I loved them so much I think I bought like 20! lol

The table behind the door.  A vase filled with pine cones, a pretty leafy garland and some candles fill up this space perfectly :)

The wall facing the door.  I love the arrangement of these frames and change the pictures out with each season/holiday!

Our dinning room.  I love when Fall comes and the colors of our poster really blend in with the decor.  It's my favorite poster so it stays no matter what colors surround it.  It's a replica of the poster that was hanging in the reception room of the hotel my husband and I got married in :)

Yes, Fall decorating is SO much fun!

PINspired, A Gallery Wall

I LOVE IT when I can actually take something I have "pinned" and replicate it in my own way.  I MAY or may not be a little obsessed with Pinterest.  Who's not though, amIright?!

THIS was one of my first pins and it took me a little while to make it happen, but I did it!!  And I LOVE IT!

It's actually a Martha Stewart idea (of course!) but it's just brilliant.  It's a great way to hang a bunch of different sized photo so that they look organized and put a big area to good use.  It's the wall on the landing midway on our stairs and it's the PERFECT place for a WHOLE LOT OF PICTURES!

It's not just a place for the flock to perch and keep watch all eerie and creepy like any more!

I wanted a little bit of difference between the top and the bottom but some symmetry too.  I started by drawing a line in the middle that I could like up the bottoms of the frames on the top to.  Then I drew another line a few inches lower to line up the tops of the bottom row of frames too.

It SOUNDS simple and I'm sure it could have BEEN simple but I am not one to "read directions" or "do things the right way" lol.  So that's why there are approximately 6ish holes behind each frame as I tried to line them up.  And that is why the frames do not move or come down when my husband is home :-)  SHHHH!!!!

I do LOVE it though!  I change out my photos with each season and this gives me a great way to showcase the amazing pictures I get of these kids every year and how much they have changed :)

Princess & Toy Story Valentines

This year my 6 wanted to do some super cute, slightly different, Valentines for her class party. Her teacher isn't big on candy or the after effects on the kids, so I spent A LOT OF TIME on Pinterest pinning Valentine ideas. I originally liked this one but found it oddly difficult to find wild animal toys! So I looked through all of the stuff I've hoarded while on sale and came up with a SUPER cute idea of using Princesses and Toy Story toys I found at the dollar store!

There are only 20 kids in her class (THANK GOODNESS) and I actually had almost ALL of the small toys needed (I'm a dollar store/aisle hoarder) so all I had to pick up were the Valentines!

She loved them and while I was organizing the supplies she went through and wrote her name on the backs of them.

The next day I put her to work opening up all of the dolls.

I put the doll in the bag and took one Valentine for the front of the bag and the Valentine she signed for the back. It worked out SO perfectly that they matched AND matched the princess in the bag!!

I matched them up with the top one facing front

and the back of the signed card facing out back.

She enjoyed playing with the dolls ;)

Then I stapled them together with the bag in the middle, twice on each side, and one in the middle so the doll didn't slip out. Next, I cut off the rest of bag along the top of the Valentine.

The final product :) SO super cute and easy!!

It turned out SOOOO super cute!!! She is so happy with them too!


And since the boys would probably be NONE TOO HAPPY to receive a Sleeping Beauty doll, we did the same with some Toy Story toys! There are 10 boys and 10 girls in her class.

I'm so happy with how they turned out and can't wait for her party on Tuesday to see the kids faces!

Linking up to these lovely parties!!