Taking a Break

Hello everyone! As you can see it has been some time since I have written a post. Not for lack of ideas, that's for sure-They are swirling around in my head! I am working on a new product line for my Etsy shop, which is taking a significant amount of my time. I promise to be back shortly, new and improved!

Thank you for your patience,

Faux Chalk Board Christmas Gift Tags {FREE PRINTABLE!}

*This post was supposed to go up on Friday. In light of the events of that day, I couldn't bring myself to finish writing it. I just want to say that as the mother of a second grader, my heart and prayers are with each and every family affected. It is indeed a tragedy, and words can not express the sadness that so many are feeling.*

Each year I love coming up with my wrapping theme. This year I am going for a vintage look. I wanted something original for  gift tags, and chalk drawings kept popping into my head. I guess its going to be a chalk drawing sort of Christmas!

5 Creative Ways to Give a Gift Card

So, I have been trying to figure out exactly what I want to give Carson's teacher this year for Christmas. The last two years the class has collected money for one big gift, but this year our class isn't doing that. I kicked around a few ideas, but in the end I decided on a gift card.

Why, you ask? Well, I took to Facebook to ask all of my teacher friends what the best gift they ever got from a student was. Overwhelmingly the answer was gift cards. There were a few cute sentimental gifts, and ornaments seemed to also be a good idea, but gift cards seem to majorly be appreciated. 

I can't just give a gift card, so after some googling and pinteresting I came up with 5 creative ways to present a gift card!

 1. This one came from Better Homes and Gardens and an idea from my friend Erica. One year each of her students bought a gift card, and decorated a small Christmas Tree with them. The gift cards would be adorable in these ornaments, then placed on the tree. She still uses the tree every year and thinks of those kids!

2. How adorable is this? I love it! I saw it on Pinterest last year and wanted to do it then! It came from The Creative Mama.

3. I love this wreath. It is pictured with Christmas Cards, but would be just as cute with gift cards. The teacher can use it after for cards she receives throughout the holidays. It would be an excellent to display a gift card from each kid.  Of course, Martha came up with this!

4. There are a ton of ideas and tutorials on how to make little cards to put your gift card in. Again, Better Homes and Gardens came up with some great ideas!

5. This one is my FAVORITE! If you collect from all the kids, then bind them together, your teacher would have a great gift that will fit in her purse and not clog her wallet! Check the link for the mini stack.

I hope this helps!

Time Lapse Video+ Chalkboard Drawing= A Christmas Card

I don't know about you, but at my house we have had the plague. It seems like it has done a pretty good job getting based on what I see on Facebook. Seriously, Every. Single. Person. in my house got it. I spent like a week and a half taking care of sick people. But, I guess I should be thankful that it was only a week and a half, and that everyone is (mostly) healthy now.

Now that it is officially December I can start sharing Christmas projects with you! The first thing I want to share is our Christmas Card. I am so stinking excited about it! I turned my unfinished basement into a set to shoot our picture in!

Yo Gabba Gabba! Birthday Party

Hey everyone! This past weekend we celebrated Noah's second birthday with some close family and friends at a local park. The weather was EXCELLENT, which was really a gamble. I had so much fun decorating for this party. There is just so much you can do with a Yo Gabba Gabba! theme.

Pom Pom Tutorial

Hey hey everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the week before Thanksgiving! For me that means coming up with stuff to do with Carson while he is out of school, and keeping Noah happy in the process.

Instead of coming up with something super creative and fun for them, I sat them in front of the T.V. and worked on some things for Noah's upcoming birthday party.

I'm gonna add this to the Pinterest Bucket List. Every since I pinned this from Honestly WTF,

 I wanted to make one. Bad. How totally awesome is that? The way they suggested making the pom-poms was to buy a Clover Pom Pom maker, which looks fabulous. However, I am cheap frugal, and couldn't swallow buying one when I could figure out how to do it without it.

I did some googling and pinteresting and found to wrap them around your fingers. I tried that once and it hurt my fingers and wasn't a big enough pom pom.  So here is what I did to make mine.

$50 Blurb Book Giveaway! My first ever giveaway!

Oh my goodness y’all! I am so excited for today’s post! I get to giveaway a $50 giftcard to Blurb, just in time for Christmas!

  I am so in love with this product that I can’t even stand it. I made a book on Blurb from the fundraiser I hosted a few months ago. It was the easiest thing. 

 The coolest feature about the book that I made is it came directly from the album of pictures I had on Facebook. 

I picked the album I wanted to import, then presto it was all there! Comments and all. Which to me makes the book really special.

  I love that I can see what everyone wrote about their own pictures too! You can also import your pictures from Instagram.  

There are so many options! I will definitely do this again. I mean, I already upload pictures from every event, this just makes it a million times easier to put them into a book! 

 Noah loved looking at the book with me too! Wouldnt this make a great gift for someone? Or an adorable book for a child with pictures of all of their loved ones? 

My good friend Cindi With An Eye shot the event! Thanks so much Cindi, you were a wonderful sponsor for my fundraiser! 

So now, on to the giveaway (which is my first ever on this blog, btw). Enter via Raffelcopter widget below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  Blurb is a creative publishing platform that allows anyone to create, share and sell a professional quality book. Make a portfolio of your client work, an archive of your blog, a cook book of your favorite recipes, a photo book of your family pictures or a quick book of your instagram photos – the possibilities are limitless. It’s easy and quick to do – with a variety of software options you could complete your dream book in next to no time.

    This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Blurb. The opinions and text are all mine.