creative love

How is this for a creative teachers gift...

I also think this would be adorable in a kids room or an art studio or even hanging in a family room with your family's initial.  Found at Delightful Distractions.

a personal thank you

Dear Brenda,

You are far too kind and thoughtful.  I can't begin to tell you how much I love the housewarming gift.  You could not have given me anything better.  I love, love, love it!

Thank you for thinking of me - you made my day!

I can't wait to get the walls painted so that I can find a place of honor for my fantastic "B"

Many, many thanks!

Denise

house warming gift

As if buying me a house wasn't enough my sweet husband just bought me this.  I have been eyeing it since December but was sure I would only enjoy it's beauty through the computer screen.

Thanks Derek - I absolutely love it.  Now if I could just decide on a paint color and get the house painted I might actually have a place to hang the gift when it gets here.

if my friends are reading this please stop now

Since we will soon be house poor (assuming we sell our house and buy another) I am loving this "recession proof" gift set.  I can get my friends a great gift without spending a bunch of cash.

Do you not love these coupons from Anvil Modern Paperie?  The graphics and colors bring a smile to my paper loving, type loving, graphic loving heart.

primary birthday gifts

I have shared this birthday idea with a few folks that I thought would be interested - others who might need an idea for primary, young womens, etc.  There has been a lot of great response so I thought I'd share a quick how to on what our primary presidency did.

The theme this year in primary is "My Eternal Family" we wanted a birthday gift for the kids that would be a reminder of the theme as well as inexpensive so we don't break the budget.  We decided on scripture tag pulls that were personalized saying...the Baker (each child's family name) is forever done in the primary colors...red, yellow and blue.

We made the tags using Shrinky Dinks.  We found them at Michael's - 6 sheets for $10.  We could fit 6 graphics on a sheet.  The graphic was a simple square (3x3 - I believe) done up on Adobe Illustrator.  You want to keep the design simple because when it shrinks you may lose some detail.

After the computer work was done we ran the shrinky dink sheets through the printer - there are different kinds of shrinky dinks so if you are doing this make sure to get the sheets that go through the printer.  Once printed we used a 2 1/2 in circle punch to cut out the circles and a regular hole punch for the top.  Then it's time to bake - follow the directions on the shrinky dink package.
3 - 5 minutes later you have small, round tags that have thickened into a pretty thick plastic that wont bend.  You may notice the difference in color...when the tags shrink the colors get more vibrant so you need to print your graphics a bit lighter then the color you are actually going for (this info is in the directions)

After they cooled we sprayed them with a gloss sealer (also found at Michael's) and then attached them to cell phone cords.  You can buy the cords at Michael's for $3 for 6 or buy online at a much better price.  We got ours at D&I Beads for $1.25 for 12.  Here is the link. Shipping was quick (even in December)
We are happy with how they turned out and we hope the kids will like them.  I have mine on my scriptures and love the visual reminder of the theme.

This was a mock up of the packaging - the final packaging looks better.  We just did another graphic on Adobe Illustrator but you could use any program.  It says Happy Birthday love your Primary leaders.  In the top left hand corner it says scripture pull.  We printed it on card stock and used a xyron machine to cover the back of the tag in adhesive.  They we simply folded over the top of little jewelry bags that a member of the presidency already had.
I think we ended up spending a little less then 40 cents a gift - which we think is pretty good for a personalized gift.

If you have any questions let me know - I'm happy to help!

we got noticed

I was checking out one of my favorite party blogs today and look what I came across... this post from At Home With Kim Vallee.

remember

I gave the visiting teaching message this month in my companionship. Since last month was conference there was no set message so I had decided to use the talk by Elder Oaks, which I believe was titled Good, Better, Best (one of my favorite talks from conference) A few days before our appointments I felt like I should change the message and instead I focused on Pres. Eyring's talk O Remember, Remember (another fav talk from conference) I felt that this was an especially good topic with Thanksgiving coming up.

As I was preparing the message I was thinking about my own family and what we could do this month as we prepare for Thanksgiving that would allow us to remember God's hand in our lives. It needed to be simple enough for the kids and out in the open so we wouldn't forget to do it. I decided to do a remembrance jar...each day we can write down a quick sentence or two about how we have seen God's hand. I was just going to use any old jar but then remembered a post I saw on Amy's blog about glass etching. I decided to try my hand at it to see if I could spruce up the plain glass jars that I had. My first attempts were not great (I needed to use more etching cream) but I still love the results. It turned out to be such an easy craft project that Kari (my visiting teaching companion) and I delivered them to our sisters as well so that they could use them with their families.

If you want to make these for your own family check out Amy's how to. I also ended up making a monogrammed one like Amy's for one of Megan's friends and am trying to think up other reasons to make more. I may try to incorporate the idea somewhere on our Thanksgiving table.



I used stickers from the scrapbook store to write remember. I mixed up the fonts because the word was so long and I was making 4 of them - I didn't want to buy so many stickers just to get all the letters in the same font. Each jar was a variation of the different fonts. I found the glass etching cream at Michael's but I am sure you could find it at any craft store. I had the jars but they also can be found anywhere. I buy a lot of glass stuff for parties at Big Lots - the prices are good.

trick or TREAT

Here is an easy idea for visiting teaching, school teachers or anyone else that might need a little treat. I realize that I should have posted this before Halloween but you can tuck the idea away and use it for another time.

I used this same concept for our Halloween party although with some slight variations (pictures to come)

The idea came from Jordon and I loved it so much I had to use it. The little cookie jars are from IKEA and the labels were made on the computer.

visiting teaching or just because

I thought I'd share this quick and easy Visiting Teaching idea.

I was at Smart and Final the other day and they had T. Marzetti's Carmel Apple Dip on sale for a dollar. I bought up a bunch not really sure what to do with them all but unable to pass up the deal. I mean a dollar for a tub of goodness - you would have bought it too.

The next day Derek and I were at Cost Plus one of my favorite stores and I found cute little jars for under $2.00. The ideas were rolling and I decided to put together these gifts for the girls I visit teach and a friend that was having a hard time.

I had the baskets so I threw in some apples and the cute little jars full of carmel dipping yumminess. The labels on the side read "an apple a day can't keep us away, we love being your visiting teachers." For my friend it said "an apple a day can't keep me away, I love being your friend"

The labels were all made on the computer using Honey Script and another font that is called June 15. I'm pretty sure that is not the name of the font but I probably put the date I downloaded it or did some equally lame I can't work the computer thing.
These could be done up with something besides carmel. How about a little jar of salsa with chips or some yummy dip with vegetables. These would work well as a teachers gift too.