Edible Easter Baskets

I'm always looking for fun ideas of things to make for teacher gifts.  Nothing huge, but little "you are awesome" type gifts so they know how much we appreciate them.  This was perfect.  Easy (super easy) and fun and made of candy.  Is there anything better?

Edible Easter Baskets

Source: Mrs. Happy Homemaker

* glue gun

* card stock

* 4 boxes (or bags) of Easter type candy

* Easter "grass" or shredded paper

* Easter candy to fill baskets with

You can either tape the boxes together or use a hot glue gun.  I opted for the hot glue gun because it's so darn strong.  If I had used bags of candy, though, I might have used packing tape.

Glue the boxes together.  When the glue dries, flip over the box and tape a piece of card stock on the bottom.  You don't want everything falling out =o)

I cut a piece of card stock to use as a handle and glued that in place as well.

Now fill with whatever you would like.  You can make it as full and elaborate as you want.  We just wanted a little Happy Easter Basket (nothing huge) so we just did this.

What do you think?  If one of my students brought me something like this I think I would probably feint.  My students don't bring me treats =o(  The joys of being a school counselor.

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Candy Bouquet

My daughter was invited to a birthday party last weekend.  The little girl said she didn't want any gifts.  Instead, she wanted money to help out the local pet store that recently burned to the ground.  What a sweet thing!  So we put some money in an envelope and my daughter used one of our Birthday Cake Postcards as the card (which was a huge hit.)  But we wanted to give her something.  

After searching through Pinterest, we decided to make her a candy bouquet.  Perfect, right???  There are a ton of different ones out there but we thought the tutorial on Thrifty Fun looked fun (and easy.)

You will need:

* 4 large boxes of candy (all the same size)

* Styrofoam 

* tissue paper

* hot glue gun

* card stock

* skewers

* candy bars (assorted sizes)

To make the "vase", glue the 4 large boxes of candy together.  I used a hot glue gun to make sure they wouldn't fall apart.

I cut out a square piece of thick card stock to glue on the bottom.  I was a little worried it would all fall out the bottom when we picked it up.

Glue the skewers on the candy bars.  We bought the skewers that were flat on one end and then pointy on the other.  Perfect for this project.

They should look like this.

Put a piece of tissue paper around your Styrofoam piece and slide it into the "vase".

After the glue has cooled, insert the skewers into the Styrofoam.  I added a little more tissue paper in between the skewers to cover up the Styrofoam.

Voila!  A candy bouquet. 

My daughter's friend loved it!

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Fun & Simple Father's Day Idea

Every Father's Day I bake for my Dad. As you know, I love to bake. And my Dad loves when I bake. It's a win-win. =o) But my kids wanted to do something fun for their Grampa and as soon as I saw this idea - I knew it was the one we were going to do. How cute!

Jamie from The Letter 4 was the brilliance behind this idea.  She made 2 different printables.  

One for a Dad:

And one for a Grampa:

You can find the printable here.

Cute, right?  And soooooo easy (thanks to Jamie!)

  

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You're the Star of Our School {Teacher Appreciation}

We needed another fun Teacher Appreciation gift idea. We actually made this craft for the Secretaries at the school. Secretaries Day was April 25th. Did you remember? Secretaries need a little extra love too. They have to deal with all the yuck in a school. Don't believe me? When a staff person thinks a child might have lice - guess who has to check? When a child throws up in the hall - guess who has to go check? When a child is naughty and gets sent to the office - guess who has to deal with them until the Principal is available? Yep... the secretaries. So we needed to give them a pick me up to.

I'm kind of in love with the whole recycled frappuccino bottle thing.  We made some for Halloween and Valentine's Day.  So it was kind of calling to us.  The best part?  My co-worker gave me a ton of these bottles!  I don't drink the stuff.  Blech!  Coffee!  But I love the bottles.

I wrapped the outside with some card stock.  I just picked colors that would match the totally cool (and totally free) printables I printed off the internet.  (Thank you Nothing But Country for these!!!)

I spray painted the lids too.  To coordinated and all =o)

I cut out the tag with a circle cutter and then added a background color.  Mod Podge that one and there you go.  Easy as can be but so cute.  Oh yeah, and fill 'er full of Starbursts!

Are you looking for other Teacher Appreciation gift ideas?  Here are a few you might like:
Giant Teacher Pencils filled with goodies (recycled Pringles cans!)
Candy Gram for the Teacher
Great way to package a coffee card (to Espresso your thanks)
Fun pencil holder made with pencils =o)
Lots more great ideas for your teacher



 

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A Fun Birthday Gift When 30 Sucks

A friend at work turned 30 this year. 30! That feels like forever ago. But she was kind of stressing that she was getting so old. It just made me laugh =o)

This is what we made her for her birthday. Cute, right? I found this idea over on the Cricut website.  I just love that site for ideas.

I bought a simple container at the Dollar Store.  You can use anything.  I added floral foam to the container and them poked suckers in it.  30 to be exact =o) 

Easy peasy!



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{Kiss} Friendship Rings

How much fun are these?  I'm thinking these are going to be little party favors at my daughter's birthday party in March.  She loved them that much!  And who could blame her.  I'm sporting one on right now =o)

I first saw them on the Family Fun website.  (Have I mentioned how much I love that site?!?!)  Then I saw them again when I got my February issue of Family Fun Magazine.  Then this morning I was reminded how cute they were when I saw them on Mom on a Time Out.  I took that as a sign that we had to make them.  So... here they are.  Cute, right?

You will need:
*Pipe Cleaners
* Hershey Kisses

That's it!  My kind of craft =o)

Start by twisting two pipe cleaners together (forming as "X")

Place a Kiss in the center, point side up.

Wrap the 4 pipe cleaner ends around the top of the Kiss, then twist them together.  (We pulled off the little paper wrapper.)

Bend both pairs of cleaners into a ring shape.  I wrapped it around my finger to do this.  (Thanks Trish for the tip!)

Twist the ends together at the top of the ring.  Trim the ends.

There you have it.  Easiest craft ever and my daughter is wearing hers all over the house with pride.

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Giant Rice Krispy Kisses

We kind of have a thing for rice crispy treats. And cereal. We love cereal. It's kind of ridiculous. But did you ever watch Seinfeld? Remember Jerry's kitchen and the huge array of cereal boxes he always had? That's our house =o) I love choices and you never know what kind of cereal you may want at 6am.

Anywho... my kids saw this Cupcake Pebbles cereal and wanted to try it. They liked it. Didn't love it but liked it. But add it to marshmallows and oh yeah. Good turned into delicious!

My kids weren't quite sure what I was making. They knew "rice crispy" treats but when I took out the funnel, they were confused.

Make up a batch of rice crispy treats (with marshmallows and butter).

Pack into a funnel for the shape.

Now wrap with aluminum foil.  Don't forget to add a tag.  It can say whatever you want.  We went with the very original "Happy Valentine's Day".

Your kids will love them!

Thank you Do It Yourself Divas for the idea!

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Sweet Candy Bottles {Free Printable}

Sweet Anne Design made these absolutely adorable labels for frappuccino bottles.  I just love them!  How can I pass them up?  We made Halloween frappuccino bottles that I just loved.  A co-worker has been giving me her bottles so I have a ton of them.  So this was a no brainer for me.  Of course we're making some!

We made our "You Da Bomb" valentines for my kid's teachers.  But we forgot about the secretaries so we made these for them.

Supplies:
* Frappuccino bottles
* paint
* sandpaper
* Printables from here
* Candy conversation hearts or M&Ms

Remove the labels from the jars and wash.  Make sure they are completely dry!  Lightly sand the lids and paint any color you want.  We chose pink (of course.)

Print out the labels and glue them on.

Fill with candy and voila!  Adorable!

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