Leap Day Frog Treats

It's my daughter's turn to bring snack for school on Monday and because Monday is Leap Day we just HAD to do something extra special! This is what we came up with:

Oatmeal Creme Pie Frog Treats! They are so cute and so easy to make that I am SURE you want to make some yourself! Here's how we did it:

Supplies:

A 2" x 3" piece of green cardstock, folded in half

Two 1 3/4" green cardstock circles

Two 1" white cardstock circles

Two 3/4" black cardstock circles

Two 1" x 4" strips of green cardstock, accordion folded

Two 2" green cardstock ovals

1 Oatmeal Creme Pie (I used Little Debbie brand)

hot glue gun and glue sticks (not pictured)

*note* I used various sizes of paper punches to cut the circles and ovals

First, glue the 2" x 3" piece of cardstock to the oatmeal creme pie. 

*Hint* I glued it along the seam on the wrapper to help ensure the hot glue didn't melt through the plastic.

Next, glue the black, white and green circles together to form eyes and then attach them to the front of the green cardstock.

Finally, glue an oval to the bottom of each accordion folded strip and then attach the top of the strips to the bottom of the pie. 

*Hint* I put the glue on the cardstock first and let it cool for just a second before attaching it to the wrapper.

And that's it! An adorable frog treat!

Don't you just want to eat it up!?!

We made them in several different shades of green.

I also added a little tag that says:

Hip Hop Hooray!

Happy Leap Day!

My daughter is so excited to take these to school on Monday! How about you? Do you have any fun Leap Day treats or activities planned?

"Bee" My Love Bug Twinkie Valentine Tutorial

For an activity this week I put together these adorable Love Bug Twinkie Valentines. Here's a quick tutorial to show you how I did it!

Supplies:

A Twinkie

1 large red cardstock heart. I cut mine out with my Cricut.

1 large white cardstock heart (slightly smaller than the red one). I also cut this out with my Cricut and used some sparkly white cardstock.

2 small red cardstock hearts. I cut mine using a small heart paper punch.

2 googly eyes

Two 3" pieces of black pipe cleaner

Two 6" pieces of 3/8" width black ribbon

Two 6" pieces of 1/8" width red ribbon

Red ribbon and gift tag

Glue gun and glue sticks (not pictured)

Start by gluing one end of the black pieces of ribbon to the back of the Twinkie. Center a piece of red ribbon over the top of each black piece and glue in place.

Carefully wrap the ribbons around the Twinkie while keeping the red ribbon centered and glue in back.

Glue the pipe cleaners to the top of the Twinkie in a "V" shape. Glue the white heart to the back and add the red heart on top.

Turn the Twinkie over and add the googly eyes. Bend the tops of the pipe cleaners into little balls.

Glue the small red hearts to the top of the pipe cleaners.

And there you have it! A cute little Love Bug. I love how the Hostess logo has a heart that adds to the Valentine theme!

I added a little gift tag with some red ribbon. The tag reads:

Hope you'll "Bee" my Love Bug this Valentine's Day!

I love how these fun treats turned out. Almost too cute to eat. . . Almost!

Minion Twinkie Valentine Tutorial

My daughter and I made these cute little Minion Twinkie Valentines for her class party. They were so quick and easy I put together a tutorial so you can make some too!

You will need:

A Twinkie

A 2" x 4" rectangle of blue felt 

Two 3 1/2" pieces of blue ribbon

1-2 circles of gray cardstock. I cut mine using a 3/4" circle punch

1-2 plastic googly eyes

2 black buttons

A 6" piece of black ribbon

Black pipe cleaner

Small red cardstock heart. I cut mine using my Cricut

Small brown cardstock bear. I also cut this with my Cricut

Red ribbon and gift tag

Glue gun and glue sticks (not pictured)

First, wrap the blue felt around the bottom of the Twinkie and glue in place in the front and back.

Next, glue one of the blue ribbons to the front and back of the Twinkie to make an overall strap. Repeat on the other side.

Wrap the black ribbon around the top of the Twinkie and glue in place in back.

Glue the gray circles to the black ribbon and add the eyes on top. Cut a small piece of pipe cleaner and bend it into the shape of a smile then glue it in place. Add a black button to each overall strap. Glue the heart to the overalls. For Bob you can add the teddy bear.

Stewart only has one eye. Bend some small pieces of pipe cleaner and glue them to the top of the Twinkie for his hair.

You can make Kevin's hair by gluing a few pieces of straight pipe cleaner to the top of the Twinkie.

Add a gift tag with some red ribbon and you have a cute and tasty Valentine treat!

Minion Valentine Boxes

My daughter needed to bring a decorated box to school to hold her Valentines and she requested that we decorate her box like a Minion. I only have one kid in school at this point, but the other kids were so excited about the Minion boxes that we had to make one for each of them as well. I think they turned out pretty cute.

This is Stewart. We started out with an empty box and covered it in yellow, blue, and black cardstock. We added some yellow arms, black hands, and blue overall straps with some white buttons.

This is Bob. His eyes are made from cardstock cut with varying sizes of circle paper punches. His teddy bear was cut with my Cricut using the Doodlecharms cartridge. The teddy bear's eyes are made of buttons. His heart was also cut with my Cricut using the Plantin SchoolBook cartridge.

This is Kevin. His hair and smile are made out of black pipe cleaners. I attached everything together using a glue gun.

These boxes were easy to put together and are 100% kid-approved!

Halloween Pumpkin Bowling

For my daughter's class Halloween party I volunteered to bring a game. A quick little search on Pinterest and I got the idea for Pumpkin Bowling! Because my daughter's Kindergarten class loved it and because it was quick and easy to make, I thought I would share the details here!

Supplies Needed:

10 tin cans

Felt in a variety of Halloween colors

Scissors

Glue gun and glue sticks

Small pumpkin

Directions:

1. Wash out your empty cans

2. Cut a strip of felt to wrap around each can (I cut mine long enough to overlap the felt a little in the back)

3. Glue the felt in place around the can

4. Cut a circle of felt to fit the bottom of the can

5. Glue the felt to the bottom of the can

4.  Turn the cans over so the felt circle is now on top and decorate each can to look like your favorite Halloween character! Really, with just a few simple shapes anyone - whether you are "crafty" or not - can make a variety of spook-tacular Halloween friends!

Two black ovals and one black circle on a white background make a simple and perfect ghost.

Didn't this Frankenstein turn out adorable? He's my favorite!

Just some circles and triangles plus a couple wings make this cute little bat!

Here's a close-up of the happy Jack-o'-Lantern.

This cat was my daughter's favorite. Triangles, circles, and some simple strips of felt for the whiskers.

You can set the cans up like traditional bowling pins or, for a more simple game, you can stack them on top of each other. Roll a small pumpkin towards them and see how many cans you can knock down!

Happy Bowling!

P.S. If you haven't been saving your tin cans and you need 10 of them fast, you can try out my recipe for 12-can Slow Cooker Taco Soup found here.

Easy, No-Sew Mickey and Minnie T-shirts

When my Preschooler asked if I could make her a green Mickey and Minnie shirt to wear to Preschool for St. Patrick's Day, I thought it over for a second and then agreed. I knew that it would probably be pretty easy . . . and it was!

So easy, in fact, that I made a shirt for each of my six children!

This is all you do:

1. Get some No-Sew Ultrahold Heat n Bond. They sell it at craft stores and you can also get it at Walmart. I got mine at Hobby Lobby.

2. Pick out your fabric. I used black for the Mickey and Minnie silhouette and a fun shamrock pattern for the Minnie bow and the Mickey bow tie. 

3. {Optional} I also got some black and green puffy paint to outline the shapes. You don't have to do this, but because the shamrock fabric had a white background, I wanted to outline it in green so you could see it better.

4. Iron the Heat n Bond to the back of the fabric by following the instructions on the packaging.

5. Cut out your shape. I used my Cricut Mickey and Friends cartridge to cut out the Mickey and Minnie and the bows. (I used the same shape for Minnie's bow and Mickey's bow tie. It was a silhouette of Minnie's bow that I just turned upside down for the tie). If you don't have a machine that will cut the shapes for you, you can always print a shape from the Internet, cut it out, trace it onto your fabric, and then cut out your fabric by hand.

6. After the shapes are cut, place them on the shirt and secure them by ironing them. Just follow the Heat n Bond package directions.

7. Finally, outline the shapes with puffy paint if you would like, otherwise you are done!

Quick, easy, and cute!

Here are my models.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Did you remember to wear green today?