Valentine Gifts, by Ryann

It's so easy to have gifts for the Grandparents when you have a 2 year old with sweet little hands and one who likes to do crafts! We had our first adventure with finger painting, which went very well. She was ok with getting her hands dirty but did prefer to use a foam paint brush, as she could get more paint on there at once. She did a great job, had lots of patience and completed 4 masterpieces (one for Granny & Poppy, One for Daddy and one for Momma, which will ultimately end up in her scrapbook). The card was an idea that I got from?! Pinterest. You guessed it! (http://www.allfreekidscrafts.com/Kids-Valentines-Day-Crafts/Hand-Print-on-My-Heart-Card#). Inside the heart, it says "You've left a handprint on my heart". I used a K&Co. blank card (4x6), traced her hand onto the outside of the card, used a paint brush to apply the glue (even though the instructions say to put the kids hand into the glue - I figured that would be a crazy mess), sprinkled it with red glitter and then used super glue (was hard to get anything else to stick!) to attach the cute accordion piece to the palm of the hand. To mail these cards, I paper clipped the accordion together so that it didn't tear as it was coming out of the envelope. The final gift is another print out like the one I used one of our tea party crafts. This one is an adorable owl, my personal fave. We used purple finger paint, per Ryann's request and used her hand prints for the wings. Added the words "Owl love you forever" and viola! Super easy, Ryann had fun and because they were made my our adorable princess, they will gifts that all of the grandparents will treasure!

Two super simple cards

I have tons of stamps, that, until recently, I didn't use very much. What I've come to realize is that they make it super easy to put together a hand made card! These 2 are super easy - a couple of stamps and one has a piece of ribbon. No big deal though I think they are cute, especially for cards that didn't take any time at all to make!

"Special Dates"

I saw this idea on Pinterest and the link on there took me to an etsy store. On etsy, the lady was charging $14.95! I couldn't believe it! I used her idea, printed it out on some cardstock and put it in a $5 frame from Wal-Mart. I feel that mine is just as fancy and it didn't cost a fortune to make! Only problem is, I have no idea where I'm going to hang this, as my walls are FULL plus they are plaster walls, which makes it next to impossible to put a nail in. I'll figure it out. "

Kids' Valentine/Tea Party

Valentine party invitations: Of course, they are way cuter than what the camera can capture! Red card stock base, red & pink heart paper, edges cut with scalloped scissors, red heart punched out on glitter card stock, small epoxy heart sticker in middle, "you're invited" on a small piece of pink card stock. The heart & "you're invited" are raised with pop dots for effect.  I found this cute idea for glow stick Valentine's (http://spoonful.com/crafts/hearts-aglow).  SUPER easy (and cheap!) to make!  I printed the bigger hearts from a Word document, using the AutoShape function and the 'Jellyka - Love and Passion font that I got for free.(http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/freescrapbookfonts/) The heart says "Your Friendship makes my heart glow" on the front and "Happy Valentine's Day, Love Ryann" on the back. I used a Stampin' Up heart punch for the "arrow" pieces.  I have only used Tombow adhesive to keep them attached to the glow stick, which isn't working out as well as I'd hoped, but I figure the kids won't keep them on for long anyway. I also made gift bags for each girl - I used a Sizzix die for the hearts, on plain pink bags and wrote the girls' names with glitter glue. Nothing fancy.

The menu?! Pink hot chocolate,(http://barbarabeerykidscooking.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/kids-valentine-recipe-pink-hot-chocolate/), popcorn chicken, BBQ wienies, jalapeno roll-ups, Mexican dip, pink (yello) cupcakes, heart-shaped cut out cookies. The hot chocolate wasn't as great as I wanted it to be! The girls did drink some, but it is not something I will be making again in the future. Live & learn, right?! The best part of it was that we had little espresso cups for them to drink out of, which was great for photos!

The party was a great success! All of the girls had so much fun! We made one easy craft - a pre-cut foam owl and a print out of an elephant that we used Washable Crayola finger paint to make a hand print for the elephant's ear. Fun and so easy to do!

Valentine Tea Party 2/9/2013 - slideshow maker

Baby Girl card

One of my very good friends was just blessed to adopt a baby girl!! I am so excited for their family! I have a small box of things to send to them and made this card to go along with it. I used the Sizzix Baby Bottle die, Versamark Glue stamp pad with green and pink glitter and a "Princess" stamp with crown and metallic chalk for the shading. The glitter isn't as thick as I'd hoped, but I thought it was cute, in spite of that

Some scrap book pages

I am trying REALLY hard not to be more than a year behind in my scrap booking, though that is hard to do. I am also trying not beat myself up about it. Today, I FINALLY finished scrapping Ryann's first year of life - I got her 1st birthday pages done (Two 2-page layouts)! YAY! As you recall, I made a Shutterfly book of her first birthday, so I didn't feel compelled to scrap every photo that was taken, which helped. In the second layout, the page on the right is a 12x12 print from Costco. I was very pleased with how well it turned out and what an easy way to get a page completed! =) I was also able to finally put in a page that has been done for a LONG time - a page with a photo from each month of her first year. I was so excited to do that page that once I got her 12 month photo printed, I got that page finished and it has just been waiting for a home in her scrap book. Here are some pics of the pages I did today:

So, it's not a craft, but it IS a project....

Ryann was big enough last year to explore and be amazed with all that is outside - the grass, bugs, sticks, trees, leaves...and flowers! She got to the point where she would sniff anything that remotely resembled a flower. There's a small piece of "land" at the back corner of our property. To be honest, we don't know if it belongs to us or to our neighbors, but they are nice enough people that we can agree to share it. =) It was just a dirt patch, not even any grass growing in it. I did my best to shape the little area and then, as we'd find seeds, etc, Ryann and I would take them out back to plant them. We didn't get any much rain and we had to water it a LOT but nothing really came up.  We transplanted some brown-eyed susans from another flower bed and my MIL brought over some daisies, so we'll see what happens this year.  The "project" I'm referring to in this post is a little seedling patch Ryann and I started January 24, 2013 .  We got the Jiffy "greeenhouse" and 3 packets of seeds at the grocery store.  We bought a wildflower mix, Butterfly bush and Gallardia. The Gallardia & the wildflowers are both sprouting.  The ones that are going crazy, though I shouldn't be shocked by this, are the wildflowers!  You know the saying "Growing like a bad weed".  Well, I suppose that wildflowers are technically weeds, right?!  AND, might I add, my favorite kinds of flowers!  I love the ones that are just here and there as you drive along the back roads.  I have high hopes for "Ryann and Momma's flower garden" this year.  I don't even pretend to have a green thumb, but you just never know....

Snowman Pumpkin & Baby shower gift

This year, Ryann was old enough to really get into Fall - the leaves changing colors & falling off the trees and, most importantly, she became absolutely infatuated with pumpkins "Gumpins" and Jack-O-Lanterns"Jack-o-Wackins!!! Daddy carved a Jack-O-Lantern and she thought that was so exciting! At James' work, they had a pumpkin decorating contest. He LOVES doing this stuff and decided that his team was going to do a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pumpkin (they actually had a WHITE pumpkin!). Ryann was so in love with that pumpkin that she got upset when I mentioned throwing it away. Taking the Stay Puft hat off of it, concocting a "top hat" and a button nose, it easily became a snowman gumpin! The pumpkin finally made it's way into the trash this past Friday. I also had a baby shower to go to in November! This shower was for James' dad's cousin's daughter-in-law. (did you get that???). Megan was expecting baby Archer at the end of December. We haven't had many boys around us lately - just about everyone we know has had baby girls in the past several years! My mother in law had this shadow box that she wasn't going to use for anything and offered it up to. I found an idea on Pinterest (though I could have totally come up with it on my own) and altered it a bit. I was very pleased with how it turned out! I glued a piece of scrap paper to the back of the shadow box, added a journaling block, painted a wooden letter "A" (for Archer) in red and added a small photo frame that she can change photos/put a newborn pic in, etc. I was very pleased with this gift!

Owl Jack-O-Lantern. James is a beast @ carving pumpkins!

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pumpkin

Snowman pumpkin

Baby Shower shadow box

Eight Year Anniversary scrap book page

Thanks to the suggestion of my mother in law in 2005 (around the time of our 1st wedding anniversary), I have made it a point to take a picture of us on October 30th (ish) and make a scrap book page just for that event! I have a whole album devoted only to our anniversary pages. It is one of my favorite books - and I have SEVERAL! I don't know that I've ever posted one of these pages before but thought I'd share the one that I made for this year. We actually didn't get any pics of us ON our anniversary but there were some around that time that I felt were appropriate. Ryann was sick, so we didn't go out, but it all worked out just fine! (OH - and I finally took the time to figure out how to use my Cricut and made all of the embellishments. I'm pretty proud of myself) :)

Baby Shower scrap book pages

I have been trying to work on my own scrap book (ok,RYANN's scrap book) but took some time out to make these pages for one of my best friends who was having her 2nd little girl! I did this to help her get started on her scrapbook for baby #2, as *I* know how hard it is to get scrap booking done for ONE child! These pages turned out pretty well, I think. I especially like the Christmas pages!!

Shovel & Pail

My mom was recently in town and brought Ryann a wheelbarrow that had some sand box tools in it, 2 of the items were a shovel and a pail.  No biggie, right?!  WELL - Ryann just so happens to be enamored with Blues Clues these days and it's hard to find Blues Clues stuff anywhere.  Daddy painted faces on the shovel and pail to make them look like the characters in the show and Ryann squealed with delight when she saw these!  Way to go, Daddy!

Bookmark for Granny

I apologize for the poor photo quality on this one.  It's a bookmark that we made for Granny's birthday.  Yes, another Pinterest idea!  =)  The hardest part was getting the photo of Ryann with her hands in the air "just right".  Once I printed the 13 cent print and let Ryann "sign" the back of the photo, I cut it out and laminated it, punched a small hole in the top and used green embroidery floss for the tassle.  So easy and super cute!

Another Pinterest idea (Framed handprints)

I found this idea on Pinterest (http://go.tipjunkie.com/fd/259/tresfrenchhens.blogspot.com/2010/11/framed-hand-prints.html) and fell in love with it!  It has taken me a while to get around to it but I wanted to be sure to do it while Ryann's hands are still tiny!  Kinda funny but James and I have hands that are almost the same size (his is the brown, mine is the blue one) so I had to change it up a bit to make it look right.  Personally, I like that it's "crooked".  This is done on an 8x10 piece of cardstock.  I like how it turned out and have it framed and hanging in our living room.

Mother's Day & Graduation

I got the idea for this butterfly out of Disney's Family Fun magazine. I have misplaced the instructions and can't find them online, so I apologize for that. It is small enough that it fits on an 8x8 sheet of scrapbook paper. Ryann colored her artwork on colorwonder paper (LOVE that stuff!). These were a hit with the Grandmas and I made one for myself, too! =) This is mine and it's hanging in my kitchen so that I can see it every day! My cousin, Hannah, graduated from high school this year. I found this card idea on Pinterest (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1314870?cat=500&ppuser=104028) and thought that it was so cute! I didn't use it as a gift card holder, just cut that extra flap of paper off and did my own thing. I was told that this was a hit at her party!

Poppy's Father's Day gift

When asking Ryann to say 'Grandpa', she says 'Poppy'. Who knows if this will stick but for now, this is what she calls him. I think it's adorable!! It's so hard to come up with gifts for Poppy. This year, we got creative - I wanted to do something with Ryann's "artwork". James and I collectively came up with the idea of making a computer - for those of you who don't know, James's dad, Alex, is all about computers - works on them, builds them, eats & breathes them. This gift seems so perfect! We used Ryann's artwork as the screen on the monitor and then James drew the computer around it. We finished it up by putting "I love my Poppy" as the keys on the keyboard. I'm so excited with how it turned out!! I'm even more excited that we have a gift for him! =)

Father's Day, 2012 (Star Wars theme)

Thanks to Pinterest, (if you haven't joined yet, you HAVE to!) I was able to find an awesome idea for a Father's Day gift for James, from Ryann. The idea came from here: http://sandytoesandpopsicles.blogspot.com/2011/06/fathers-day-star-wars-kit.html. SO CUTE! She has great ideas and even had templates to print out to make this all super easy and so fantastic! I didn't use all of her ideas and only printed the templates of things that I wanted to use for this gift. I used a brown grocery bag to put everything in, instead of making the cute messenger bag. The items I chose were: Pringles, sour patch kids, Rolos, Gatorade, a can of soda and a package of Pepperidge Farms cookies. It just so happened that when I set out to get these items ALL of them were on sale and I had Qpons for a couple of them, making this gift fairly inexpensive! I came up with the card idea on my own, basically, with a little input from a few of my friends. I found a website where you can translate anything into "Yoda Speak" (http://www.yodaspeak.co.uk/index.php) and translated a sweet phrase for the inside of the card but then printed the original version of that and added it to the back of the card. The phrase I used is: "Walk with me, Daddy" by Helen Bush Walk alongside me, Daddy, And hold my little hand. I have so many things to learn that I don't yet understand. Teach me things to keep me safe from dangers every day. Show me how to do my best at home, at school, at play. Every child needs a gentle hand to guide them as they grow, So walk alongside me, Daddy, we have a long way to go. I'm so excited for this gift and can't wait for Father's Day to get here!!

The "gift bag"

Peppridge Farm cookies, Gatorade, Soda & Pringles

Sour Patch kids & Rolos

Outside of card

Inside of card, complete with finger paint handprint "signature"

Ryann's Birthday "Scrapbook"

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive photobook layouts so you can make your book just the way you want.

Valentine project for the grandparents

I decided to do another Valentine photo shoot with Ryann again this year for Valentine's Day but for a project for her grandparents. We took photos of her with hearts that I cut out, on a white background. Let me just tell you that it was MUCH easier taking pics of a 1 month old than of a 13 month old! =) She has her own ideas and didn't want to leave any of the props alone. We managed to get enough pics that I was content and then I made photo books via Shutterfly for James's parents and my mom. Here are a few of the pics from the photo shoot:

Valentine's Day, 2012

After almost a year of posting anything on my blog, I have a project to share! I have been spending most of my time working on Ryann's scrapbooks (3 books so far and I'm not even up to month 8 of her life). We might have to add a wing onto the house for all of her books! =) I'm currently working on a book for her first birthday on Shutterfly. It's a kind of digital scrap booking. It takes a lot of time but maybe a bit less time than picking pics and paper, etc. We'll see if I finish it or not. Might run out of patience!

So, I feel that I outdid myself with Valentine's Day for James last year - the pics of Ryann, half naked and teeny tiny - how do you even compete with that??? I came up with an idea, however and with the help of my fantastic MIL, I think that I have something pretty good for this year, too. James is huge into everything fantasy: dragons, knights, etc. My MIL drew a picture of a winged dragon and then incorporated Ryann's hands, fingers and feet prints to complete the picture. The dragon is holding a book, as James is an unpublished author. However, the title on the book is "The Belly Button Book" by Sandra Boynton. This is Ryann's favorite book - the one that she pulls out to read all the time. I can't take much credit on this project, aside from having the idea, but I LOVE it, all the same! =)

Her hand print is the "wings", her finger tips were used to create the spikes down his spine and her foot/toes were used to create his foot


Ryann "signed" the back of her gift - I didn't realize it until we had drawn her hand that her fingers were in the form of "I love you" in sign language! So cute!