For the Love of Pallets

i love a good piece of sentimental art.  toss in little handprints or footprints and i love it even more.  my littles are 4 and 6 so those handprints are going to be small for much longer.   

i came across this precious pin on pinterest that i loved, but wasn't sure i'd get to until a recent trip to archiver's.  they had these great wood pallet boards and i had a gift card...it was meant to be :) 

a little white paint, one 6 year-old hand, and two four year-old feet later, and our piece of art was finished.  

 

♥ created with love ♥

Linking up here: Free Pretty Things for You ~ Whatever You Want Wednesday Sew Much Ado ~ We Did it Wednesday

a gift for a "bright" graduate

I was so inspired when I found light bulb jars at Hobby Lobby.  I've seen so many clever things done with old light bulbs, but I had no idea there were actual light bulb jars!  I got a little excited.  I just thought it was pretty cool.

So I got a few and made little treats for graduates.  (These jars are filled with lemon heads.)  You could make some cute printable tags, but I had these yellow Martha Stewart tags in my stash just waiting to be used.

Ideas for messages:

"Your future looks bright"

"You're one bright kid"

...you get the idea here :)

You could even pretty 'em up a little more with ribbons in the school colors and such.

These were for a couple of older boys, so I didn't think they'd care so much for 

all that ribbon and frilly stuff :)

I found my light bulb jars here.






Linking up here:
http://todayscreativeblog.net/diy-craft-ideas/
http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/
http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/
http://www.tipjunkie.com/homemade-projects-6-5/
http://adiamondinthestuff.blogspot.com/
http://debbiedoescreations.com/

Mini Album Wallet (gift idea)

This mini makes a great gift for a grandparent.

This idea came from Paper Vine.  She's a wiz with paper crafts!

To make a mini album wallet like this you only need a 12x12 paper, your pictures, and whatever embellishments you choose to use.  

Each section, aside from the top flap, measure about 3.5 x 4 inches.  

To hold it closed I used a brad and baker's twine.  

Linking to THESE parties

Mini Book Gift

We just celebrated a 60th birthday in our family. 

The four of us all contributed to this mini book gift.  

This idea was totally inspired by the 52 Reasons book.  

It's "60 Things That Make You Pretty Great."

I used my Cinch binding machine to put this book together.  

 

 

I used mostly THIS awesome set of 7 gypsies stamps to number each page. 

We all contributed to filling out the book.  The hubs did great filling in a lot of the pages.  

The ladybug and little guy drew pictures. 

I added in some pictures throughout the book.

I really liked how it turned out.  I especially love that we ALL had a part in making it.  

We may be whipping up some of these for Christmas gifts!

{Insert panicking husband here}

;-)

Linking up HERE so check these parties out!

Gift ideas inspired by Father's Day

  I didn't post any of the gifts we made in case the hubs happened to check in on the blog. 

Since Father's Day has come and gone, I thought I'd share some of the things we did. 

Especially because these would make good gifts for birthdays, too.  

These ideas all came from other inspiring bloggers!

 Last summer I saw pictures like this floating all around the blogosphere. 

If you did a picture collage like this go ahead and link to it in the comments.

 I loved this Father's Day questionnaire from Yesterday on Tuesday.  

I liked it so much that I posted about it on Facebook.  I think this is something we'll do each year.  

Loving her response to his weight and height.  

According to the ladybug her daddy is 2 feet tall and 34 pounds.  

So precious.  

This would make a sweet grandparent gift also!  

*Think Christmas!*

Paper Vine linked this sweet gift idea up at the Craft Catwalk a few months ago.  

I knew I'd be making one of these eventually!  

It's a deck of cards turned into a mini album that holds 52 reasons I love the hubs.   

These little feet are shrinky dinks!  I had no idea they even still made Shrinky Dinks!  I found them on Amazon, but when I was in Michael's the other day I saw them there, too. (Grab a 40% off coupon and pick a pack up for only a couple dollars!)  

This idea and the poem came from one of my favorite teaching tots blogs, No Time for Flashcards.  

Just trace those little feet on the shrinky dinks and bake!  

Any of these gifts can be altered and used for other occasions.  

{And keep on linking...the Craft Catwalk is open until Wednesday morning!}

A Preschool Graduation and a Teacher Gift

The ladybug "graduated" from preschool last night.  

We made a chalkboard flower pot for her teacher.

That cute little pick in the plant was a free printable from Skip To My Lou

I really wanted to make THESE adorable little treats, but I didn't have time to find the supplies.  They are bookmarked for when the little guy graduates preschool!

Instead I baked some cupcakes and topped them with these "you did it!" toppers.  I made the toppers with my cricut. 

The ladybug enjoyed her night.  And of course, we took tons of pictures.

Wooden Spool Hidden Message

Here's another little Mother's Day idea...

Wooden spool messages!

My mom has always been crafty, usually with a sewing machine.  So I thought she'd appreciate this little handmade message.

The letters are stamped onto the fabric. 

I couldn't resist making a tiny one also.

I loved this idea when I first saw it on Greenbean's Crafterole.

Then I did alittle looking around for other wooden spool crafts.

Here is some of what I found:

@Papernstitch

@Just Something I Made

The Idea Room

Linking here:

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Sassy Sites

Tatertots and Jello