Lunch Box Love

Want to give a little surprise gift? How about a lunch box love note? Click here to get the free printables to make somebody's day. Simple little surprises can mean the most!

DIY Light Saber

I absolutely love the idea of a homemade light saber! Maybe because Star Wars is all my preschool-aged son talks about (and my husband!). I think this is at the top of our list for my son's birthday this year. I am pretty sure I could make all of his dreams come true with this one.

You only need a swim noodle, pvc, pipe, a 1/2 inch pvc end cap, electrical tape, and a saw or knife to cut the noodle and pipe. The complete details for making this can be found here.

Baby on the Brain...

Nope I am not pregnant! Just loving lots of little baby things lately. Maybe it's because it's SPRING! I love this little framed fabric hand print display, don't you? Trace those little hands so that you can keep them forever. This would be great to give grandparents too! Especially if they are too far away to enjoy those little hands before they grow up.

Use scraps of fabric and a thrift store frame to make this project easy on the budget.

Sack Lunch

Inspired by this I decided to make my own version of a felt lunch sack set for a little girl's birthday party last weekend. I made a bologna sandwich with tomatoes, cheese, and lettuce along with a bag of ruffle chips and a chocolate chip cookie. This was my first "on my own" sewing project ever. I borrowed my friend's sewing machine (after she showed me how to thread it and wind the bobbin - sad, but true), crossed my fingers and went to work making templates and putting it all together. And it turned out to being a lot of fun. Felt food is a great way to begin sewing I think. So if you are looking for a fun little sewing project there are tons of tutorials out there for all kinds of food.

Shower Notes

Crayola Bathtub Markers sound fun for a children's birthday gift. But I would never think to give this to a spouse for Valentine's Day so that you can leave love notes in the shower. Kind of a fun idea don't you think? You can check it out here or order them here. Apparently they are hard to find in stores. But I haven't checked myself.

This would also be a very cute gift for a wedding shower.

Valentine Pillow Notes

Cute little Valentine pillows. Made from dish towels (simple sewing so even I could handle this one). With little pockets for "Why I love you" notes to your kids (or anyone special to you) for the 14 days leading up to Valentine's Day. I'll be starting this tradition next year for sure.

So click here for the details and the tutorial. And watch for the after holiday sales for those Valentine dish towels (these were 50 cents each). Aren't they cute?

A "Snappy" Valentine

You can print this cute little alligator out and put him together in a 'snap'! Then you can fill him with a fun Valentine treat. Just go here for the free download. And to think I grew up handing out boxed valentine cards. What was I thinking? These are so cool.

Felt Fortune Cookies

I like this idea for packaging a little treat found here. You can make fortune cookies out of felt and put little treats and notes inside.

Here are the easy peasy instructions (slightly modified from website)...

1. Cut a 4 1/2" diameter circle out of felt

2. Cut a piece of matching ribbon slightly shorter than 4 1/2" and cut a piece of wire slightly shorter than 4 1/2" with wire cutters

3. With a hot glue gun, glue the wire across the diameter of the circle and then glue the ribbon over the top of the wire (as pictured in the second picture above).

note: you can also use matching pipe cleaner in place of the ribbon and wire and glue it down with hot glue

4. Fold the circle in half with the wire/ribbon going along the inside of the fold.

5. Take the two ends of the fold and pull them back towards eachother (but not touching), bending the wire in half, to form a fortune cookie shape

6. Carefully fold up the top flap of the fortune cookie and insert small treats and fortunes.

Variations: For Valentine's Day include a scripture reference about love or a quote about love instead of a fortune. But, this isn't just a Valentine idea. You could make the fortune cookies any color for any holiday or theme. Even a Christmas neighbor gift idea: "We are 'fortunate' to have you as a neighbor!" could be inserted into red and green fortune cookies.

For Kids: A Unique and Personal Candy Valentine

If you are looking for a unique valentine candy and card combo for your children's school classmates look no further! This idea was found here. A picture was taken of her child holding her fist out. A "Happy Valentine's Day" was added to the picture in Photoshop. Then once the picture was printed out (4x6") she cut a slit just above and below the child's fist and inserted the sucker. She added a little glue to the back of the picture where the stick came through to keep it from falling out.

This is a fast and easy Valentine idea, but still so cool! I absolutely love it.

Don't have Photoshop? Download Gimp for free here.

Free Disneyland Tickets?

Free Disneyland Tickets for Service:

If you like Disneyland and you might be planning a trip in 2010 take a look at this cool service promotion Disneyland is sponsoring. Ages 6 and older can spend a day of local service and earn a free day pass to a Disney theme park. You must preregister so click on the link below. Type in your zip code and find out what you can do. What a great gift idea!

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/WhatWillYouCelebrate/index?name=Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day

52 Week Books

This gift idea is great for the new year, but any time is a good time to start. These are called 52 week books. Each book has a theme (such as Gratitude, Service, or Friendship) and has a page for each week of the year (52 weeks). Every week each family member shares an experience that happened that week that is related to the theme. Then the family picks one to record in the book (or you can record all if you want). It is a great tradition to begin and creates an easy and fun way to look back on your memories and teach children valuable lessons.

There's even more good news. These books are really easy to make. All you need is a notebook from the dollar store and some scrapbooking paper. Each purchased notebook makes two 52 week books by taking off the binding and cutting the pages in half horizontally. Then decorate the cover however you want. Then, cut the binding in half and re-bind each book. If you want, you can also put a number on each page (1-52). Each year your family can pick a different theme to focus on. This would also be a great journaling idea for an individual, a child, teacher, or a couple too!

Thanks for sharing this great idea Gwen!

Candy Bouquets

These cute candy bouquets were found here. Make sure you have a heavy base that won't tip, something to put the sticks into (like Styrofoam or floral foam), shredded paper or moss to cover the foam, bamboo sticks or skewers, and something sturdy to attach the candy to the sticks (like heavy duty tape or hot glue). This is a great gift for anyone who loves candy.

Grass Baskets

All you need is potting soil, a container, and some wheat grass seeds to give the gift of SpRinG. Just fill your container 3/4 full with potting soil, then sprinkle a thin layer of seeds, and add a thin layer (1/4"-1/2") of soil. Then water it! The picture above came from here.

I have done this for my Visiting Teaching ladies before for Easter. I grew the grass in a spring basket a few weeks before Easter and then delivered their basket with some Easter eggs filled with treats set in the grass.

This would be a fun way to deliver any Spring/Easter treat or gift. Kids would love it too!

Customized Coloring Book

This is a doodle book. A coloring book where you get to complete the pictures.

Check it out here to find out how to get your own. OR make your own coloring book. Make your own simple doodles and leave a little room for a child's imagination to finish it.

Homemade Puzzle

There is a great tutorial here for how to make a puzzle out of a photo or your own art. The picture was sized and printed in a Word document and mod podged to a piece of cereal box cardboard. Then add a layer of mod podge on top of the picture. A piece of patterned paper was mod podged to the back of the cardboard. After it is dry, trace puzzle pieces with a fine tip sharpie marker and then cut them out with an x-acto knife.

You could personalize this for any child, any age. It would be great to give a set of personalized puzzles as a classroom set for a teacher too (maybe with scenes of the city or state).

Also, consider putting another picture on the back of the puzzle instead of scrapbook paper. Then you have 2 puzzles in one!

Painted Letters

Wood and cardboard letters can be painted or mod podged for a simple gift.

Here are some wood letters that were painted. Wood letters can be found in various sizes and styles.

Here is a cardboard letter that was painted on the sides and back and mod podged with patterned paper on the front.

These wood letters were mod podged.

Try doing just an initial (or all of their initials) instead of a full name to slim down the price. Letters are so versatile. They can be used for anything.

Nursery Canvas Pictures

Martina made these nursery pictures out of canvas and paper. She painted the canvases and then layered patterned paper to make the animal shapes. The layers of paper are glued together with a glue stick and then the entire paper animal were glued on the canvas with a hot glue gun. Hot glue a ribbon to the top back edge of the canvas for hanging.

Mini I-Spy Quilts

Take on a mini project and try this out. Here are some fun mini i-spy quilts I found here. If you have your own scraps from other projects this could be very easy on the wallet.

File Folder Games

I love this preschool printables website. They have pages you can print out (for free!) to make file folder activities. And you can print them out in black and white and color them yourself or print them in color. Once you have the pieces cut out and the page glued on the folder you can take it to a copy store to get it laminated. I think I paid $7 to laminate 6 different folders. I also opted to laminate the folder in a soft laminate and the individual pieces were done with the hard laminate. The hard laminate is slightly more expensive but it makes the pieces a little more sturdy. After I laminated them I used sticky-backed velcro discs for the individual pieces to stick on to the page and not get lost.