Valentine - U Rock

When we were making my kiddos' homemade Valentines this year, my son, Hayden loved the idea of using Pop Rocks and the "U Rock" idea.

I needed to buy a lot of Pop Rocks, though, so I got on Amazon to see what they had.

(Amazon seriously has EVERYTHING!!)

When I saw these bubble gum ones, we were sold!!

I placed an order and in a couple of days, they were on my porch!

I took a picture of Hayden dressed in his red skinny jeans and sup cool hoodie, holding my oldest daughter's electric guitar.

In picmonkey, my photo editing site I use, I chose the daguerreotype frame setting to make the picture look funky-rock ish...

chose some cool fonts and sent it off to be printed at Walgreens.

An hour later, we were sticking Pop Rocks to the back of each picture with double sided tape.

Valentine's Made!! 

Here are some of the other Valentine's we have made in the past:

Homemade Valentine's Steal my Heart

Won't CHEW be my Valentine?

We LOVE Valentine's Day around here!!

Well, let's be honest, I kind of cram it down their throats, so they have succumbed to my LOVE of the day!

I love it... what's not to love?

Chocolates and flowers and MAIL!! 

I love getting "fun" mail.

The last three years, I have had fun with my two youngest making homemade Valentines.

This is Josie's Valentine she handed out to her friends.

I took a photo of her, standing in her room by a piece of her art work, palm up, blowing a bubble.

In picmonkey, a photo editing site, I turned it black and white then brought the color back in a few spaces.

I used double sided tape to stick a piece of double bubble in her hand.

Valentine's made!

Here is a link to other Valentine's we have done in the past:

Homemade Valentine's Steal my Heart

How to Make: Homemade Modge Podge

I love doing crafts with my kids.  

Sometimes a craft calls for an item that you have to run to the hobby store to buy, 

and you don't even need to!!

I made labels for my Homemade Sugar Scrubs that I made in jelly jars, and instead of spending more money, I just made my own Modge Podge!

Some jars had modge podge over circle labels placed on scrapbook paper, others had them on the jar itself.

Homemade Modge Podge

white glue

water

 jar with lid

Mix equal parts of glue and water and place in jar with lid, give it a good shake!

It's nice because you can make as little or as much as you want!

Brighten Someone's Day with a Box Full of Sunshine!!

Box Full of Sunshine

I made these last year for the twin's teacher's gifts at the end of the school year.  By the time I got around to posting them, it was summer....so I figured I would save it for this year.

Of course, I forgot about it until I was cleaning out my camera roll on my iphone! ;)

Good thing it's only January, so you have time to make these!!

labels made with scrapbook paper

I knew I wanted to make these, so for about a month I started collecting

things that were yellow!

packaged in a cake box I got at Hobby Lobby

my inspiration came from a Pinterest post, the picture was from happymoneysaver.com

I filled the bottom of the box with yellow tissue paper, added things like lemonade, Juicy Fruit gum, a sunshine cookie cutter, a yellow gingham dish towel and dish cloth,  yellow tube of bubbles and flower seeds...in what? yes, yellow.

I packaged it up in a cake box and tied it with yellow tulle.

Added the tag I made on the printer and mounted on scrapbook paper, added a few glittery foam flowers....

and Volia!

Teacher gift for SUM...SUM... SUMMERTIME!!

homemade Valentine's steal my heart

It's no secret that Valentine's Day is HANDS DOWN my MOST FAVORITE holiday.

It always has been, even when I was little.

I know many cynics say it's just a "Hallmark Holiday" but it's so much more to that, at least to me!

I loved making homemade Valentine's and creating the Valentine box to tote all of the Valentine's I received from my friends and classmates at the Valentine party at school.

I think homemade Valentines are the BEST!!

So, I am sharing with you today, how to add some fun to your kids Valentines this year!!

Simply snap a picture of them, and come up with a caption.

This was my daughter's Valentine last year.  They were a huge hit!!

So this year, she and her twin wanted to do something along the same lines....

We saw the sucker idea all over Pinterest and he really liked it.  We came up with the caption together.

It suits him....

This is what we decided for my daughter this year.

We walked up and down the candy aisle for inspiration.

She punched the lenses out of some 3D glasses, added a little tape...

instant NERD!

They turned out cute because the NERDS are almost 3D!!

Get your creative juices flowing and help your kiddos have an original Valentine of their own!!

HAPPY HEART DAY!!

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Dry Erase Board made from a Photo and Frame

Happy Valentine's Day to my Hubby!!

For Christmas we gave our kids a trip to see their Grandparents in San Diego.

Our flight left on Valentine's Day.

My husband knows how much I love Valentine's Day, and he always makes it special.  

But we agreed that a plane trip to sunshine was gift enough!

(but I am a little bit of a rule breaker, ya know?)

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while back and figured I would give it a try.

We always leave notes to one another on  the bathroom counter.

I just re-did our room and bath in the last year, in browns and kind of a Caribbean blue.

We love our trips to the beach to escape the winter weather!!

I have so many photos from our trips over the years, and shells an"beachy" trinkets, I decided to decorate with all of them.

When I saw this idea to turn a picture into a dry erase board, I knew I wanted to try it.

I found the photo on Google Images.  I just thought it was so darn cute!!

I printed it in a 12x12 size and found a frame at Hobby Lobby.

Before I framed it, I used some scrapbook stickers and stuck 

"I Love You" in the upper left corner.

When honey woke up on Valentine's Day, it was hanging on the wall right behind him and his mirror.

I wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" on it to greet him.

I even found a brown dry erase marker that was cute enough to leave on top of the frame.

Now when he is getting ready in the morning, those two starfish are in the reflection behind him, and even if there isn't a note on it, it always says

 "I love you."

Doesn't everyone need a reminder every now and then??

xoxo

Homemade Play-Doh, but we call it "Josie-Doh"

This week, my twins that are in 2nd grade had to come up with something to "sell" to the 1st grade class at school in their 2nd Grade School Store.  My daughter, Josie, wanted to make homemade play-doh.  I got online and searched and searched for recipes.  Can you believe that there is a WHOLE website dedicated to homemade playdoh??  Well there is!! If you don't believe me, check it out!

http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/

There were SO many to choose from, and what I noticed, was that most of them had to be refrigerated.  That just wasn't going to work. So, I decided to ask help using social networking... facebook!! I have lots of friends that are teachers, and knew someone would have a tried and true recipe.  The one that I was given was then given the thumbs up by another friend, so I knew we had a winner. 

When we were talking about packaging, I told Josie we needed to come up with something cute and catchy.  Be honest, how many times do you buy something just because of the packaging?? My husband is constantly coming up with nicknames and rhymes with Josie's name.  Lots of times saying "do-se-do" to her.  It just popped in my head... Let's call it Josie-doh!! She loved it...and the rest they say is history.

We made 4 colors, it is the softest play-doh, your kids will love it! Thank you to Teresa and Lisa for the recipe and for those of you who wanted me to share it...well, here ya go!!

Josie-Doh

‎2 1/2 Cups Flour

1/2 Cup Salt

 2 pkg unsweetened Koolaid

 3 tablespoons cooking oil

 2 Cups Boiling Water

Boil water, remove from heat. Add oil. Add dry ingredients and mix with a spoon. Let cool a bit. Knead. Store in airtight container.