Tin Can Bow Holder

These are so easy to make! And chances are, that if your a crafter, you have everything you need at home to make it.  I used an empty #10 can.  I have a nifty can opener, that takes the tops off, so there is no sharp edges.

Simply adhere cute scrapbook paper around the can with modge podge.  Use a hot glue gun to add ribbon running down the sides of the can.  I glued the ribbon just inside the lip of the can and under the bottom. Embellish the top of the can as desired and wala, you have this:

 A cute bow holder that can be kept anywhere.

Inside the can  you put headbands, ponytails, anything that doesn't have a clip.

Homemade Recipe Books

**This week I want to revisit some of our homemade Christmas gifts of the past.  I also have a few new ones to throw in.  It's not to late to make gifts!  Homemade gifts are the best!! This fun little projects was from 2008.**

Mandee and I made these fun recipe books as Christmas gifts for my sister-in-laws. They turned out so nice and were a lot of fun to make. They were also a ton of work. If you were interested in doing this as a gift, start now!!!! You will type and type. And then type some more. That was the most time consuming part of the whole project was typing the recipes. We figure that there was somewhere around 200 recipe's in each book!!

We made 6 of these. I only got pictures of the last three. To make them we got plain 1 inch binders from the dollar store. We used modge podge to make the covers. I love the way modge podge looks!

I messed up when I did the measurements for the inserts. Each insert was made with 8 x 10 dimensions. Now, being the ditsy person that I am, I didn't even think about a regular sheet of paper being 8 & 1/2 by 11. So each page had to be cut down to 8x10 size and so did each page protector. Hence, they took us oodles of time to make. Had I had the dimensions right it would have been much easier. We used 2-sided, coordinating paper for each insert. That way we could get 1 insert out of each page. On the back of each insert we made a pocket by attaching another sheet of card stock that was 8x5. I should have gotten a picture of that, so you could see how cute they were.

I think that they were well received and that everyone liked them. Homemade gifts are always the best gifts. I have already started on next years gift. It's another big one, but I can't share because too many eye's see this blog if you know what I mean!!!!

Who wants one?

ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!!!!!!  The silhouette is at the very top of my Christmas wish list!!!  Will I be getting it from Santa? Sadly no, other priorities have to come first right now, but that doesn't stop me from wishing!  Oh, the things I would do with a silhouette!!!  I can't even articulate it, because it gets me so excited!

I entered for a chance to win one over at Tatertots and Jello.  Go enter and let's cross our fingers that one of us wins!!!  It would be a Christmas miracle ;). 

As a side note, I am taking a little Thanksgiving day break!  My little boy has surgery on Wednesday and I will have family here all week.  So have a Happy Thanksgiving!!  Make lots of memories and eat lots of yummy food!  See you next week!

Paper Plate Turkey

I have to share this little guy before Thanksgiving is over.  We are making these at school next week.  Simply cut a paper plate in half.  Let the kiddo's use white glue to spread over the plate.  Sprinkle the plate with pieces of tissue paper.  I used a 3 inch punch to cut out the brown cirlce.  Attatch the beak and feet!  So cute and so easy!

H is for House

Somehow, I skipped our H is for House.  Super cute, got this idea from Totally Tots.  We also talked about ,hats, hippo's and horses. 

Alot of the curriculum that we have been using comes from scholastic and random websites on the web.  There is so many home school mom's who so graciously share their printables and curriculum.  We also do some of ours from past years. 

I'll have to share some of these amazing websites in my next post.  Look for it in the next few days.

Igloo's

These are so much fun to make! The kids had a blast.

(I know she's eating it, but she's cute! 

She's mine and she's the baby of the class this year.)

Basically, you take an apple and split it in half.  We used Marshmallow creme to spread over the top of the apple and then you put mini-marshmallows on top.  We've done this before but with peanut butter.  Which in all honesty, works much better.  The creme kinda melted, but the kids who were really meticulous and put marshmallows all over the igloo, didn't have any problems.

It's a sticky project, but well worth doing. 

Here are some great Igloo worksheets to use with this project.

Easy Puff Paint

This is a lot of fun.  Mix 3/4 cup shaving cream with 1/4 cup white glue.  Add some food coloring and you have a fun paint that puffs up when it dries.  It feels like foam.  It does take a while to dry.  We usually let our set overnight.  Do this on Halloween and use it to make a ghost on black construction paper.  For another puff paint recipe, check out this post from years past.  It's fun, but does require a microwave.

G is for.....

I thought this one was way cute!  Super easy compared to the flags and some of our other projects.  I don't have anything else for G week.  It fell during the week of Halloween and I just didn't get any other G projects done.  We were to busy doing Halloween crafts.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nothing says fall like pumpkin cookies!!  These have become a staple at our house the past few weeks.  It's good and bad.  Good as in they are my favorite cookie, bad on the diet!!!  I have posted this before, but it's been a few years, thought I would share it again.  This is my recipe I have used for years and it's by far the best that I have found!


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp milk
2 cups chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

1) Pre-heat oven to 375
2) Combine sugar and shortening. Add egg and beat well. Add pumpkin and vanilla.
3) Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and mix by hand until combine
4) Dissolve baking soda in milk and add to above.
5) Add chocolate chips. Mix well
6) Bake for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy!

F is for.....

We painted fall leaves.  This is a way fun project.  You mix corn syrup with a little bit of food coloring and let the kids paint.  It's ooey, gooey fun!  It takes a long time for these to dry.

5 Green and Speckled Frogs, sitting on a speckled log eating the most delicious bugs, yum, yum!

Flags!  This one was a bit intense.  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I can't remember where I saw this idea.  I wasn't fond of the Fox and fish letters I had seen and went looking for something different.  I wish I knew who to give credit to.  Making these letters is going to change a bit.  I am trying to think outside the box for them, because I am not necessarily fond of the one's I have seen.  We'll see what I can come up with.



Teepe's

 Another cute idea from Family Fun.  Frost sugar cones with white icing.  Stick some toothpicks in the top.  decorate with brown frosting for your door and any designs you may want.  Add some candy if you want to and wala!

If I let go of the notion that everything has to be perfect, I think the preschoolers can do this :).  In fact, I think we will do it for our Thanksgiving day party!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie

 You can make these yummy cookies like this, as a frosted cookie.  I used toffee sprinkles on top.

Or you can make them into whoopie pies!  They are so good.  The recipe came from Family Fun.

Pumpkin Cookies:

2 eggs
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
t tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Filling/Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tsps. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk ( I added this, it was way to thick the other way)
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat the eggs, brown sugar, oil and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth.  Add pumpkin.  In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  Add dry ingredients to the egg mixture a 1/2 cup at a time, blending each time until smooth.  (It will be a very sticky dough)

Drop heaping tbsps. of batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  bake the cookies for 12 minutes.  Cool completely.  Fill the middle with cream cheese frosting or frost the top of the cookies.

Emergency Car Care Kit Tutorial

These are stinkin' cute! 

I got one for Christmas last year and I love mine.

I decided to reproduce something similar.

I love the big chunky buttons and the cute potholders.

These cost me $3.50 a piece to make.

First thing will be to find some cute potholders.  The one that I got was a larger sized pot holder, but a standard size will work just as well.  These came Dollar Tree

Take 6 plastic, zipper seal Ziploc and place them inside the potholder.  You will want 3 going out each way.  I hope you can see what I mean in the picture.  Measure your potholder across to find the center.  I used a dry erase marker to draw a line down the center for a sewing guide.

You are going to stitch a zigzag stick right down the center of the bags.  This is kinda hard and I messed up the first one, because the bags are slippery to sew on. 

Go back and trim the excess off of the bottom of each bag.  Trim it as close to the stitching as possible.  Be careful not to cut into the stitching.

Sew a cute chunky button on the outside and now fill it with goodies!  I put in antibacterial wipes from Walgreen's,a couple of Tylenol packets, band aids, tissue, dental picks, safety pins, nail clippers and a file.  You can fill it with whatever you want.  Mine had all of these things plus an emergency sewing kit.  You can also save a slot to put in some cash.  Mine came with a $5.00 bill.

I whipped out 15 of these in 2 hours.  All of the filler came from the dollar store and Walgreen's.  This is an easy present to mass produce if you want to do them for Christmas.Happy sewing