Tis the season for gift giving! Whether you’re making a homemade treat or needing to put together a quick gift, these gift tags will help take your simple and delicious treats to the next level.
Our family, as many others, loves the tradition of making cookies and sharing them with friends and family. We have our go-to recipes, but my favorite thing to do is try a new Christmas cookie recipe each year. You will definitely see us whipping out our stretchy pants as we snack on sweet treats this holiday season! If you’re putting together a plate of cookies to share, make sure to grab some festive ribbon and add these cute cookie gift tags!
Or, if you want to pass out cookies individually, grab these 4″x6″ cellophane bags, and print out the cookie tags template on 3″ Avery Circle Labels. I love how the individual cookies look like they’re really from the North Pole!
My kids always want to give gifts to their friends, and while I love that they’re fully into the spirit of giving, it might break our bank if our 3 kids pass out a gift to all of their friends. What we’ve come up with is a simple and fun bag of treats. We usually stick a couple of hot chocolate packets, candy canes and small Christmas candy’s in a bag and tie it with a bow. Add this hot chocolate tag to your bag and you’ve got the perfect gift! Plus, hot chocolate and cookies pair perfectly together.
These make great gifts for teachers, friends, co-workers and neighbors! It’s easy and fun to put together and the person receiving these sweet treats will love the thought put into them. Hope you have an wonderful holiday season!
Our little girl turned 4 and she was so excited to have a unicorn birthday party with a small group of her friends. She has been waiting for this party since her brother’s birthday party in February, so this was a long wait for her (or any 4 year old).
Riley and I came up with a few different ideas on what crafts she wanted to do with her friends. We thought about making unicorn headbands, decorate unicorn sugar cookies or make a unicorn painting. Finally, we decided on 2 crafts, and they made unicorn bracelets, and unicorn wands. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, since 3-4 years have short attention spans.
I have been loving the look of the bubblegum necklaces, and we found a pack of mixed beads on sale at Hobby Lobby, and I also ordered some beads on Etsy to add a few more colors. To call it a “unicorn bracelet,” I bought some unicorn charms to complete the look. To help make things easy and organized, I bought some small organza gift bags and placed the beads and pre-cut stretch magic string and tied the ends. This also worked out perfectly to put their bracelet back in the bag after they were done.
Materials for Unicorn Bracelets:
16mm bubble gum beads
Stretch Magic 1mm jewelry cord
Unicorn Charms
Organza gift bags 3×4 – optional
For the unicorn wands, we used small wooden stars, wooden dowels, acrylic paint, and found some unicorn stickers. We played some games while we waited for the paint to dry, and my MIL helped glue the dowels to the stars and the ribbon. This project was definitely the quickest for them to complete, but was definitely longer due to having to wait for the paint to dry and then putting together the wand. But I love how they turned out!
Materials for the Unicorn Wands:
Wooden stars
1/8″ Wooden dowels
Acrylic Paint – assorted colors
Paint brushes
Assorted Ribbon
Stickers
For the games, we played the classic “Pin the Horn on the Unicorn,” and the Unicorn Ring Toss. I had my boys be the center of the game, and while they acted like they totally hated it, I think they had some fun doing it. There was no order to the ring toss game at this point, as we had 30 minutes left and we still had a pinata and cake to get to before the party was over! The girls just threw the rings at the boys, but my kids loved playing it before and after the party was over.
I wish I had taken a picture of the cake with my DSLR camera than with my phone, but I loved how it turned out! We did a small birthday party with family the week before on her actual birthday, and while I thought it looked pretty good, I just didn’t want to mess with the fondant for the ears and the horn again. I found this awesome unicorn horn and ears topper that worked great on a 6″ cake. I had 3 layers on my cake, and there was still half of it remaining. I don’t make cake very often, but this party has proven that with a small group, 6″ of cake is enough, especially if there are 3 layers!
I even went crazy and made some cupcakes in case the 6″ cake wasn’t enough for everyone. Nice to know that I probably won’t have to do that again unless I have a bigger group of friends over.
For the decorations, I like to try and keep things more on the “frugal” side. I used a lot of streamers and I thought they turned out pretty elegant! I like to hang banners in front of them to add a little more dimension. My favorite banner is this Unicorn Banner that I’ll link in a future post to come.
I cut out circles of colored card stock and glitter card stock and sewed them together to create the hanging decorations. Instead of having to cut the circles out by hand or waiting for my Cricut to print out hundreds of circles, I use this Craft Punch circle tool to get them cut in a short amount of time. I used my Cricut to cut out gold glitter unicorns to put at the end of some of the hanging decorations.
I found these amazing unicorn headbands at the Children’s place for such a great deal and used these as a party favors, but the girls were able to pick them up at the start of the party to get into the theme of the party.
We had a blast, and it seemed like the party went by in a blur, but I know Riley had such a great time and was happy to see her friends. It takes a lot of time and effort to throw a party, but knowing that she was happy with they way things looked and had fun, is all that matters! Happy birthday baby girl!
Here’s a fun little favor you’re guests are going to love having at your Easter Dinner. These Easter Bunny Favors are easy to put together, and look adorable as part of your place settings, at a kids table, or as a favor sitting next to the door as your guests leave.
Fold your Bunny printable in thirds along the gray lines. Insert the treat bags in the middle of the bunny and staple the top making sure to include the treat bag.
Glue the ears on the back of the stapled bunny like pictured above and that’s it!
With the cooler weather upon us and family in town the week of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to create a Hot Chocolate Bar during their visit. My kids and I love hot chocolate, so this was the perfect opportunity! My kids loved adding in their favorite mixes and toppings and having something to warm us up during the cooler week.
To go along with Hot Chocolate Bar, I also created these Hot Chocolate Bar printables to make it a little more festive.
I love how easy it is to put this all together, and you can use as many toppings and mix-ins as you like. I’ve included some of the basics on the printables!
Using disposable cups with lids was perfect for everyone, especially the kiddos. I didn’t have to worry about them breaking a mug and you can make them look cuter with these coffee sleeve printables.
I used a fancy cake stand to create some dimension to the look of the Hot Chocolate Bar.
Add some cookies or candy to the bar, and you’ve got yourself a perfect Hot Chocolate bar!
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Last weekend we celebrated out little girl’s 1st birthday! She is our 3rd kiddo and each time I am amazed at how quickly that first year goes by. She has definitely been my hardest since she is a lot more clingy to me, but for the most part she has generally been a pretty good baby.
My boys and I are all winter birthdays, so I was pretty excited that I was going to be able to celebrate a summer birthday! I kept racking my brain on what we should do, and I remembered making an invitation for my niece last year for an Ice Cream birthday party. I loved how it turned out and thought it would be awesome to use the same invitation and theme for her 1st birthday! Since we just got back from vacation, I kept it pretty mellow (for me that is) and kind of threw it all together. So, if you’re looking for a really simple and easy birthday party for your little one hopefully some of these ideas will help with your own party planning.
For Riley’s Ice Cream party, I created a simple Ice Cream Bar with different types of toppings and used “candy bowls” that I found from Michaels to hold the toppings in:
-Mini M&Ms
-Chocolate Chips
-Sprinkles
-Toffee Bits
-Crushed Oreos
-Gummy Bears
-Strawberries
-Cherries
-Hot Fudge
-Marshmallow Fluff
-Magic Shell Chocolate
-Whipped Cream
You may see that blueberries are pictured above. Nobody used them, but if you were looking for a healthier alternative, you could make a little fruit salad with the strawberries and blueberries and top it with some whipped cream.
I used waffle bowls that I found at Walmart for guests to use for their bowls, and found these super cute napkins in the party section at Walmart. They fit the color scheme so perfectly, and I loved the gold in the napkins! Here’s a closer look (because I loved them so much). 🙂
And for anyone that wasn’t feeling an ice cream sundae, you could make your own root beer float or in addition to your sundae.
Riley’s smash cake was the centerpiece of the Sundae Bar, and if you look closely you can see that the cake was starting to melt because it was so stinkin’ hot in our house (and sadly lots of homes in Washington do not have A/C… we are those unlikely individuals).
And to tie it all together, I made some cupcakes that looked like ice cream sundaes. I frosted them with a super delicious buttercream frosting, topped it off with chocolate sauce (I used the magic shell chocolate) added sprinkles, a chocolate Hershey’s kiss and stuck the cupcakes in the refrigerator after they were decorated so the shell would harden.
It was so much fun putting this party together, and we all had a great time! So happy to have this little girl in my life and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her.
We were happy to have Auntie Connie to celebrate the special occasion too!
We have a couple things to look forward to this summer. First and most importantly, school is almost out! The next big thing on our list is our family vacation to Hawaii, and let me tell ya, we are pretty excited about it. My 3 year old will do the hula dance and it is hilarious, I can’t wait for him to see the real thing! With Hawaii on our minds, I came up with this fun Pineapple Countdown. It’s the perfect way for all of us to see how many days we have left, and a great way to help our 3 year old learn to count (and get his numbers in the correct order).
Everything is easy to put together, the only party I had trouble with was the pineapple tops. I don’t know about your freehand cutting skills but my pineapple tops were garbage. So I made it easier on myself (and for you) with a printable that you can print on green construction paper and you can cut out as many as you need.
Get everything cut out and ready to go. I cut my strips about 1″-1.5″ thick, and cut it horizontally so I had more strips from one piece of paper.
Stick two pieces of tape onto the back of a pineapple top, as pictured above. This doesn’t have to be fancy, since you’ll be taking off the loops as you countdown your days.
Place the pineapple top onto the middle of a green strip of paper, and then form a circle and hold it together with a piece of tape.
Add another “chain” to the green strip by placing the yellow strip of paper through the green strip and holding it together with tape. Then add another yellow strip as pictured above. Your pineapple top may look like it’s going to move all over the place, but I promise once it’s hanging, you can adjust it the way you like and it will stay!
Then add a white strip of paper after the yellow loop and continue the pattern again. It should look like the picture above.
Keep on adding loops until you’ve reached the desired length of your countdown. These are also great for party decorations! I love how these turned out. My husband told me these cracked him up, but I think it got him pretty excited about our upcoming vacation!
What are you counting down for? Share yours on Instagram or Facebook!
If you’re having an Ice Cream Party, you’re going to want to have this Ice Cream Banner around! Pair the Ice Cream Banner with this Tissue Paper Tassel Garland! Super easy and I love how the two go so well together!
In order to create the look, I used a small piece of string and made a loop on the back of the ice cream cone and taped it down, making sure their was a small loop sticking above the printable. I put the tassels and ice cream cones on a large piece of string, sliding the ice cream on after the 3rd or 4th tassel, and repeated the process. Hang it over an ice cream bar, or serving area and you’ve got yourself one cute Ice Cream decoration!
I know that Easter is 2 days away, and this is a little last minute for Easter, but this project is also great for baby showers and nurseries! So pin this one for later.
I love how this bunny banner turned out, and it was so fun to put together. I will be honest, it is a little tedious with all of the paper flowers I made, but the end result looks whimsical and makes a great decoration for Easter, baby shower, or nursery! Here is what you’re going to need:
Optional: Tiny pearls for extra embellishment for your flowers found at your local craft store.
The very first thing I did was make all of my flowers. My flowers are smaller than many of the tutorials I found, and one way you can make the flowers smaller on some of the templates is to reduce the percentage on the Print Window that pops up before you print. Or, if you have a Cricut, you can adjust the size there with your file.
Print out your Bunny Printable on white cardstock. You will see on the printable there is an ear (it prints on every page) for you to trace on the back of the Gold Cardstock. After you’ve cut out the center of the ears from the gold cardstock, glue them in the middle of the ears as pictured above.
Then, hot glue the flowers and position them the at the top of the bunny’s head. Add additional embellishments in the middle of the flowers. String them together, hang it up and admire your work!
The past month and half has been crazy in our family. We celebrated JD’s 6th birthday, and two days later our daughter had surgery, and I have just been trying to play catch up with everything else. Thankfully, our daughter has recovered quickly and has done so well with everything. Trying to get back to a normal schedule has been tough, but we are slowly getting there!
JD has been into Legos lately, and it’s not hard to see why, especially with the new Batman Lego Movie out. I had other things going on, so I tried to keep this party pretty low key. Luckily I still had this backdrop I made for a Trunk or Treat last Halloween. I wanted to throw it away since I didn’t think we were going to use it again, but I’m glad my husband convinced me otherwise! Using a box cutter, I cut out different shapes from a tri-fold board (for science projects) then painted it black, and cut out yellow squares from construction paper. I used diaper boxes (on the sides) and taped them together, and painted them black and used the yellow construction paper again for the windows.
I learned how to make the colored circles from a friend, and they are so easy to do! I used a circle cutter like this oneand sewed the circles one after the other so that they’re still on the same thread. I also found this awesome Lego “Happy Birthday Banner” here. And since I couldn’t find any other Lego Avenger printables, I made some for the party which you can download thoseHERE.
To save some money with balloons, I bought a pack at the dollar store, blew them up at home and hung them upside down from the ceiling over the table. I had balloons left over and left them all over the floor. It was a huge hit with all the kids… I’m pretty sure that was their favorite part of the whole party. I also had some extra boxes laying around and wrapped those up in colored paper that I found at the $1 store and cut out little circles and used them as a centerpiece for the table so they looked like big Lego pieces.
I found a list of great of games over at Play.Party.Plan. JD had been asking to have a pinata for a while at his party, and we finally gave in. Five and six year olds are pretty dang strong, because that pinata did not last long. We probably should’ve blindfolded them or something to make it harder! Now we know for next year!
I made a Lego cake, but I am not a cake decorater, so I will spare you the hideousness of how it looked. Let’s just say it was a major Pinterest fail! Overall, these kids had a great time and I can’t wait to plan the next party!
I was up late trying to quickly finish cupcakes for my friend’s Mint, Pink & Gold Baby Shower earlier this week. I had just designed and printed out cupcake wrappers and started to cut out the first wrap. I taped the wrap onto the cupcake and thought that it was going to take way too much time for me to finish the rest of them. I looked over at my dining room table and saw that I still had some of the gold polka dotted tissue paper laying there. Whether or not this idea is completely original, I had to try it out. I cut down the tissue paper to fit the cupcake, stuck it into a plastic cup and it looked cute and most importantly, it was going to save me lots of time!
Here’s how I did it:
I cut down my tissue paper to a 5×5 square (sizes will vary by cupcake).
Gather the sides of the tissue paper and wrap it around the cupcake.
Stick your cupcake and tissue paper wrap into the cup.
Ice your cupcake, making sure the icing doesn’t touch the tissue paper.
Last, but not least, insert the cupcake into a candy bag and wrap it with ribbon or baker’s twine and it’s ready to be used at your next party! These were super easy and such a great time saver! Don’t be surprised if you see me using these more than once!
