Money Bouquet

 

We needed another birthday idea for one of my daughter's friends. My daughter wanted to make another candy bouquet because it was such a huge hit. But you know me. You can't make something twice because where is a blog post in that?! Right?  And what do you give the little 8 year old girl who has everything?  Seriously, everything!  Why, cash, of course!

Seven Thirty Three had such a cute idea, we had to do it.  And I think it turned out so great!  And it was a giant hit!

You can make it as elaborate as you would like - using $5's and $10's, etc.  Or smaller and still equally unique.

Supplies needed:

* dollar bills (as many as you would like to use)

* sticks (I just used wooden skewers)

* tape or glue dots

* chocolate gold coins

* vase or mug

* floral foam

* tissue paper

Directions:

Fold each bill accordion style.

 

 

Fold the accordion in half and tape the 2 sides of the bill together.

 

 

Do the same to the other side.

 

 

Tape onto a stick.  Glue dots work great, or you can use tape.

 

 

Use a glue dot and glue a chocolate coin to the front of the dollar "flower".

 

 

My daughter was a great helper!

 

 

Wrap the floral foam in tissue paper and insert into the vase or mug.  Insert the sticks into the floral foam.  Add tissue paper between sticks and there you go - a Money Bouquet.

 

 

I don't know about you, but I'd take one for my birthday =o)

 

 

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Spring Time Candy Holders

 

I saw this idea years ago and thought it was pretty cute. Simple (which always catches my attention) and different. It's a candy holder. Cute, right?

 

I bought these little feeders at Wilco. Yep, you read that right. Feeders! They are chicken (or chick) feeders. At least I think that's what they are called. I'm not really a country, farm animal girl. Don't get me wrong.  I'll take a good looking cowboy anyday =o)  But knowing my way around a feed store is totally foreign to me.  So you should be proud of me for knowing what these bad boys even are.

 

Back to the candy holders...  You can buy them in plain metal (or is it aluminum?  Dang.  See?  I know nothing.)  And then you can spray paint them all sorts of fun colors.  Or you can buy these plastic ones in fun, Spring time colors.  We went for the plastic ones.   

 

 

They come with a plastic container thing.  (It's all so scientific in my house.)  But you can also use a canning jar if you want it smaller and/or clear. 

 

 

Take them home and clean them.  (You never know what strange farm animal nosed their way around them.  It's a feed store after all.  And then fill them with your favorite candy.  We went with Easter M&Ms because they were so pretty.  My daughter, of course, wanted hers to be filled with gum balls.

 

 

Mine is going on my desk at work.  The kids at my work will love it!

 

 

 

 

 

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Birthday Cake Postcard

How do you say happy birthday to a far away friend or relative? Do you call?  Send an email?  Maybe mail them a card or gift?  How about sending them them their very own piece of birthday cake?  In.  The.  Mail!  A mailable slice of birthday cake!  And we all know I love mail.

There are some ideas that are just GENIUS. This is one of them. My friend, Renee,told me about this idea on Pinterest.  She got together with some friends and made them and I loved them so much, my daughter and I went on a birthday cake postcard frenzy.

What a great card idea too!  We sent one to my brother and one to my niece.  I would have loved to have seen their faces when they opened their mailbox.  The text messages I got from them were great!  They loved them.

Supplies you'll need:

* Utility Sponge (yellow works the best) found in any hardware store

* Serrated knife

* spray paint

* Acrylic Latex Caulk (you can get about 3 slices from a tube of caulking)

* card stock paper or card board

* Spray Adhesive (although I just used craft glue)

Cut the sponge into a wedge shape.  I used a bread knife and it worked pretty good.  And electric knife would work better (but I don't have one of those.)  Each sponge makes 2 slices of cake.

Cut a center groove into the sponge.  Again, I just used my bread knife.  An x-acto knife would work great too. It doesn't have to be perfect.  This is for the center line of "frosting".

Paint the sponge with your spray paint.  Make sure you get a good, even layer.  Brown was my favorite.  My daughter loved pink.  But a fun deep red would be fun for red velvet.

When the sponge wedge are completely dry, trace the sponge onto your card stock and cut it out.  Again, it doesn't have to be exact.  This is the piece that you will write the address and your note on.  You can color coordinate your card stock to match your cake slice, or add a new, fun color.

Attach the postcard to the back of the sponge.  Make sure it's not the side with the wedge cut out of it.  I used a tacky craft glue but you could use a spray adhesive.  (It didn't work for me, though, for some reason.)

Now the fun part - the "frosting".  You can squirt your caulking into a piping bag.  I bypassed this step and just used the caulking gum to squirt the frosting out onto the sponge.  Put a line of caulking down the center of the sponge (in the groove).  Use a toothpick or a paint brush and help spread the caulking out to make it look more like cake frosting.

NOTE: Caulking comes in lots of colors.  So you don't have to just have white.  I found different shades of brown at the hardware store by my house.  Next time I'll look to see if I can find pink =o)

Squirt caulking on the top and side of each cake slice.  Again, using the toothpick or paintbrush, spread it/swirl it around a little to help make it look like frosting.

Make sure you overlap a little of the caulking onto the postcard to help it stay in place.

We balanced each cake slice onto cans or glasses so they could dry.  They will take awhile to dry - like several days if it's warm where you are.

What do you think?

Aren't they awesome?

It was a riot when I went and mailed them.  The lady at the counter just stared at me for a minute and then asked "do you want to put that in a box?"

Here was our conversation:

Her: Do you want to put that in a box?

Me: No thank you

Her: Really?  You want to mail it just like that?

Me: Yes, please.

Her: I don't think I've ever mailed anything like this before.  Okay.  Can I touch it?

Me: Of course.

Her: Ah!  It feels so weird!  What if someone tries to eat it?

Me: That wouldn't be very good.

Ha!

Then the ladies in the line behind me asked if they could touch it too.  =o)

It was a hit!  And they were less than $3 to mail!

And they looked great when they arrived.  Everything stayed together.  So no worries about them falling apart.

Here are some other great ways to send some love in the mail.

How about sending an Easter Egg filled with goodies?

Or a bottle filled with candy or other treats?  This was a fun Christmas package but you can do it for any occasion.

We mailed some of the Oregon Coast to friends that live far away and don't get to see the beach.

If you love to send fun things in the mail, this is the project for you.  If I had been thinking, I would have made more pink ones and used them as invitations for my daughters birthday party.  How fun would that be?!

Thanks for reading!

 

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Valentine's Day Food and Fun

I had a bunch of fun Valentine's Day ideas to do this year.  But then life happened and here I sit.  Valentine's Day is a little less than 3 weeks away and I have nothing.  Except the flu and two sick kids.  It's been a party around my house this past week (I say very sarcastically!)  On the bright side, I guess I have a couple of weeks to get better and kick it into gear.  Until then, I'll leave you with some fun (and delicious) Valentine's Day ideas we have done in the past.

You Da Bomb Valentine Candy Craft

Candy Robot Valentine's

Tell your Valentine they ROCK with these fun Candy iPods

This is a fun Valentine idea - a Chocolate Emergency kit.

Stained Glass Cookies

Valentine Heart Lollipops

Brasilian Fudge (done up Valentine style)

Puppy Love dinner

What are you doing this year with your kids?  I'd love to hear about them!

 

Greetings From the North Pole - via USPS

Who doesn't love getting mail? I know I do.  And I know my friends and family do.  And how about this fun idea to send in the mail?  Yes, in the mail!

We had so much fun sending our Easter Eggs through the mail.  Then we mailed off some Love From the Oregon Coast.  Well, we just couldn't stop at there.  And it is Christmas time, after all.  How about this idea?

And they were so simple to make. 
 

Supplies:

* empty 2 liter soda bottle (with lid)

* candy or anything to fill them

* scissors

* packing tape

Cut the top of the bottle off with a pair of scissors or a knife (parents do this part.)  I forgot to take a picture of this part (I was a little too excited to get these into the mail.)  Cut at the point where the bottle starts to curve.

Wash the bottle and dry thoroughly.

Fill with candy (or toys or any goodies.)

Tape the top part of the lid back on. 

Print out your label.  This one isn't fantastic but you are more than welcome to use it.  Just right click and save it and print it out.  Write in the address and cut to fit the soda bottle.

Use packing tape to tape the label onto the bottle.  If you position the label at the cut line and then tape the label there, the recipient won't be able to tell there's a cut line.  This is always fun when they get it and can't figure out how you got the candy inside the bottle.  

When you take these to the post office they may give you a funny look.  The woman that was helping me gave me this really weird look and said "really?  You're mailing them like that?"  I just smiled and said "you bet!"  She weighed them and then said "that's so cool."  Totally agreed!

What do you think?

They were around $7 to mail from Oregon to Chicago.  Not too bad.  The smiles will be well worth it!

 

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