Category: Create

Teachers, You Are Top Tier.

What a crazy school year it has been!

It’s been such an emotional rollercoaster this whole year. With all this craziness, I have to give it up to all the teachers who thugged it out and extended their patience peak for not only the students, but for the parents as well.

They kept it calm and cool, as best as they possibly could. They were going through their own life stuff with their own families and dealing with their own anxieties during a pandemic and they still tried to make it as easy and seamless as possible for our children. No doubt they were the real MVPs this year.

As much as I was so hesitant in letting Kole and Monroe go back to in person learning, I’m glad I decided to let them continue the year that way. Monroe was able to get a little experience in class as a kindergartner and Kole was able to spend some time with half the class before bidding farewell to 5th grade. Now that we are ending the year, we still feel like we want more time with their teachers! They really are hella amazing. Hella.

Last year, I couldn’t get Monroe interested in reading or writing at all. His teachers not only got him to read AND read well, but also got him to LOVE school. Big ups to them, for real for real.

With Kole, it’s no surprise that he loves school but his teacher kept him excited to learn each day even if it was from a distance and with half the time.

Now it’s the end of the year and time to say goodbye to zoom classes, asynchronous/ synchronous learning, and our wonderful teachers. So I do as I always do and show our appreciation with end of the year teacher gifts.

I dusted off my cricut and got busy in design space. I used black heavy cardstock to line an 8×10 display case and decided to use school supplies to decorate the inside. I didn’t really feel like taking out my glue gun so I just used a mix of adhesive dots and Crafter’s Tape. Both did the job well! We thought this would be a great piece to put in their office at home or use as part of their decor in their classroom next year!

They deserve way more than these DIYs, but hopefully they felt all our love and appreciation.

Leave Meeting. Have a great summer!

Crayola Crayons | Cat In the Hat Bookmarks | #2 Pencils | Index Cards

On A Wednesday In February. 2018.

Valentine’s Day is coming up and it’s time to get crafty for Kole’s class. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you know candy is not my go to. Last year I knitted puffed hearts for the entire class and teacher and this year I wanted to make something for the boys and something for the girls.

For the boys:

Minecraft is a huge thing in our home so I decided to knit up Minecraft creeper baggies and got some bouncy balls to fill.

For the girls:

I knitted up some cute strawberry pouches and got heart bracelets to fill.

For the teacher:

Since Kole has a different teacher than he had last year, I decided to knit up a mini version of the Puffed Hearts and place them in a repurposed candle jar in hopes she will cherish the crafts and find use for the jar in her home.

These were thought up and made with a huge amount of love and care. I wanted Kole’s classmates to know their friendship is appreciated and his teacher to know that her kindness and patience means the world.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2018! Let this day be a reminder to give and show love, not just for that one day in February, but for everyday of the year.

“Do small things with great love.” -Mother Teresa

1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me.

To the teachers, big ups to all of you. Thank you for showing up everyday to make sure these kids walk out more knowledgeable than when they walked in. Thank you for having the patience to never give up on them. Thank you for giving all you’ve got to keep them interested in learning. Thank you for it all.

Teacher appreciation week is approaching and one of the themed days is flower day. Flowers are beautiful but they don’t last forever. So my crafty mind started thinking up others ways to be able to represent the theme. I wanted to give Kole’s teacher something that she would be able to keep. To be able to look at in the future and just remember how much we, especially Kole, enjoyed and appreciated having her as a 1st grade teacher. So I decided to make her a small paper bouquet. I was inspired by money leis and used that technique to make the flowers then bunched them together to make the “bouquet”.


The set up:

I have so many craft items at home that I wanted to make sure I made do with what I had. (It’s like I have my own Michael’s store in my house. Yeesh!) And I was happy to realize I never had to step foot out of my house because I had everything I needed.FullSizeRender 5.jpg

I’ve never made a money lei myself but was always in admiration of all my friends who make them for graduations and weddings. So I followed this video tutorial.

In replacement of dollar bills I cut up scrapbook paper to size and made the petals. I held them together using left over twist ties that come with cellophane bags instead of floral wire or ribbon like the video recommended. For the stem I cut up another piece of scrapbook paper (1.5×6 inches) and rolled it up. Then twist tied the flower to the stem.

After I made enough flowers, I folded another piece of scrapbook to resemble the paper wrapped around a real bouquet of flowers and taped the flowers on the inside to hold.
There you have a simple craft project you can put together with your little one for Mr. or Mrs. Teacher! If you think your kids are hard to handle at home, imagine having 20 of them all day. Oh Lawd! Bless their heart.

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Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

You Make Me Feel Brand New (Candle repurpose project.)

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I LOOOOOVE CANDLES. Like, so much. I always end up with more than I can ever use in a year but I can’t help it!  Those four candles are not even half of what I have in my closet.   And if you are anything like me, you have fallen victim to those fabulous (yet dangerous) 2 for $20 Bath & Body Works candle sales. I mean, what’s not to love about them? You save money since regular price for ONE candle is $22.50 and your house can smell like a pumpkin patch, a winter wonderland, or a Hawaiian beach all year round. But the one downfall is that I end up with all these glass jars with unusable wax and wick and it drives me crazy throwing something away that just feels like they have so much life left.

As I was brainstorming on what to do with them I looked around my house and realized I kept buying little glass jars for things that are basically the same as the candle jars just without the candle! Duh. What a waste of freaking money! Gah! Especially when I’m a stay at home mom trying to figure out how I’m going to earn money to buy these damn candles. Vicious. Fucking. Cycle.

So this is how I gave them new life.
• I filled a pot with enough water to surpass the left over wax in the candle jar and let boil (without the candle in the pot).

• Once the water reaches boiling point I removed the pot from the heated stove and placed the candle in it to warm up the wax (without the candle jar lid). ****Please use an oven mitt when necessary! Ain’t nobody got time for no burns or broken glass to pick up  after you drop the jar because it’s too hot. Safey first, people!

• When the wax is soft enough, remove the jar and you can just scoop the wax out and the wick bases should come right off as well. A plastic utensil would work just fine. (I only waited until I was able to just stick a fork into the softened wax and removed. That way you would only have to deal with very little liquid wax.) Be mindful that during this process the wax can start to harden and get stuck on the jar where it’s not warm if all the wax isn’t removed right away. But have no fear! We’ll get that sucker off! If any wax is left behind, fill the jar with hot water and let soak for a bit then you can wipe off with a towel or go straight to washing it with soap and a sponge. The label on the front and at the bottom should also come right off and if not, become friends with Goo Gone!


You are good to go. Easy peasy! There you have a new empty glass jar that you can use however your heart desires.

Note: I’m sure there are so many other ways to do this project but this is how I went about cleaning out my candle jars. Good luck and have fun with however you choose to create!

Enjoy!

Cheers to Seven

I can’t believe we celebrated Kole turning 7. SEVEN!! Where the hell did time go?

We threw a party for him at his favorite place to celebrate, The Little Gym.  He loves the simple, yet fun, activities the instructors put together for the kids.  Whenever we have small birthday parties for him, my favorite part is all the DIYs.  I. Am. The. Most. *insert eye roll emoji here* This year’s theme was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and that was was a fun one to brainstorm for.

The Setup:

  1. Pizza Garland: TMNT and pizza must go hand in hand.  I cut up cardstock paper into triangles and used a circle punch I got from Michael’s to make the little pepperoni and glued them on each triangle alternating three pep’s on one and four on the next. 3+4=7 I’M ANNOYING. Ha!
  2. TMNT & NYC Centerpieces: At the Little Gym, after the kid activities are done, the children get to sit and eat on a long table set up just for them so I decided to make centerpieces to add a little life to the table cloth set up.  I used dry foam bricks, cut them up to resemble city buildings, then wrapped them up in black tissue paper.  Then I cut up pieces of yellow card stock paper to resemble the windows and glued them on the “buildings”. For the TMNT heads I traced the inner part of a mason jar lid, cut them up, and glued them on woody skinny sticks, and stuck them right through the top of the wrapped foam brick.
  3. The Favor: Like I’ve said before, TMNT and pizza just goes hand in hand, so I ordered some pizza boxes on amazon and bought a printable on Etsy that was perfect for my boxes. On the inside: I DIY’d nunchucks since my son’s favorite turtle is Mikey. I crocheted masks and put together some TMNT nicknacks. Phew!
  4. Cake & Other Sweet Stuff: We are so lucky to know so many talented bakers! We contacted our close resources to help make Kole’s party the most AWESOME!       *The cake was made by a friend who has made Kole a birthday cake for every single one of his birthdays and his baptism. He loves how she brings his visions to life. (Yes, Kole takes part in planning his birthday cake!) *The Cupcakes were made by another friend who is our go to. Her cupcakes are simple but delicious as hell.  Kole loves her version of the S’more cupcakes so they were a must for the party. *The TMNT cookies were made by my cousin’s close friend who is an extremely talented pastry chef.  She surprised me with the pizza cookies and custom labels for the boxes to say “Kole’s Cowabunga Pizza”. How freaking cool is that!!!??! *The TMNT M&M packs were hand made and put together by one of my best friends who is not only busy being an amazing mom but also busy building her own business. Those were one of the favorites of the kiddie guests because who doesn’t love M&Ms!!

This party was so fun to put together because everything was pretty simple to DIY. Crocheting the masks took the most time so I started with that in January only because I knew that life can get in the way and I wanted to make sure that those definitely got into the favor boxes. Kole loved every detail we added to his party and he had a hell of a time. BOOYAKASHA!