Happy Birthday!

No it's not anyone's birthday. Yet. we always buy or make a birthday card on the person's birthday. so you guessd it, it's always late. My husband's family always does birthday cards. My family never did unless we ere going to a party. I personally LOVE getting mail so I love the idea of sending cards. SO, this year I'm trying to get a head start. I wanted something that looks nice, yet made by my boys. I searched Pintrest for my inspiration. Here is my Card Inspiration Board

Follow Amanda Trapani's board Cards on Pinterest.

I did some pre cutting and the boys assembled them with little help. They love to glue things so this was perfect. 

 the candles were just scraps of printed papers. I cut out flames. Each card has a preprinted "Happy Birthday" block.

These worms were a 1 inch hole punch, a square of printed paper  with ribbon for the gift. I drew the details after the gluing was done. then added eyes

The butterflies were again 1 inch hole punches with heart wings. 

I love how different these trees are. I cut both out exactly the same. The boys just glued them differently. Then we added buttons.

Both the balloons and fish were freehanded cut out. we drew the strings and added a googlie eye. :-)

 I had the boys sign the backs so I would know who made which one.

Our cards will go in our nifty card book similar to this one. 

I hope you enjoyed the cards and are inspired to make your own. Or just send one to a loved one today. 

Christmas Overview

There were so many things we did for Christmas presents I wanted to share but didn't want to "let the cat out of the bag" so here they are...

1. 

Salt dough jewelry

We used extra small cookie cutters and stamps to imprint them. 

Then we painted them with metallic craft paint and strung them on leather string. 

The best part was being able to make something the boys could help with and feel a part of and it still look really nice. 

2.

Photo holder

This one was another Pinterest idea just a board, paint, clothes pins, glue and pictures. the grandparents loved it!

3.

Texas A&M and Dallas Cowboys shot glasses.

Etching Cream and glass shot glasses.

4. 

Flying Bookmarks

Bookmarks of flying boys. another grandparents' gift. We took pictures of the boys laying on the floor. then printed them, cut them out and laminated them with contact paper. Cut them out again, and added twine. 

5.

Miniature ornaments

This is a combination of ideas. Salt dough, bottle caps, and beer bottle caps. the caps have 1 inch circles glued in the middle or snowflake punches. Then I hot glued paperclips on the backs for hooks.

6. 

Wine bottle and Glass holder

Chris got into the gift making too. He made a couple of these to give as gifts. very cool! but don't ask me how. :-) here is the pintrest inspirations

7.

Gift box

 This was a great gift box I found at Target and all the new parents loved it. 

8.

Christmas trees for our gingerbread village

 Green Icing, sugar cones, candy.

 Add excited children

CANDY!

Tasting

Yummy Fun!

Here is their village. The children made house twice while with others, and this is all that was left of their trees. 

What do you do with your gingerbread house after Christmas? 

Thanks for looking at all our crazy ideas. I hope it inspires you to have fun with gifts too.

Cutting Practice

Learning to use scissors has not been fun. I seriously dislike the tiny paper scraps we end up with all over the house, and they don't seem to get it!
However I ran across a pintrest idea today ~ http://missmancy.com/wp-content/plugins/category-grid-view-gallery/includes/CatGridPost.php?ID=1085

It gave me a the idea to print circles for them to cut. We didnt' have stickers. They LOVE it and did amazing. Yes, I still had tiny papers all over the table & floor. oh well.

He cut each circle twice. 

Lots of practice. hopefully things will only get better.

Find a FREE PRINTABLE HERE and start practice cutting with your little ones. 

3D Christmas Ornament.

Here is a link for the coloring page you start with. 

1. Color the Ornaments 

2. Cut them out. 

3. Then fold each circle in half. 

4. Glue each half circle to the next one.

5. Be sure to add the string to hold it before gluing the final two sides together.

Download the Coloring Page here!