Rice Crispy Valentines

 I saw this yummy and easy treat idea at Mel's Kitchen Cafe the other day (see post HERE) and decided to try it out and add my own spin to it. Can I just say that chocolate dipped rice crispy treats are heaven sent! Who knew something so simple could make such a difference? We ate about half of the treats I made, but the other half went to my kid's friends for Valentine's day. I put two hearts in each goodie bag (found at Wal-mart) and added the saying, "You make my heart go SNAP, CRACKLE, POP!" I came up with that saying right out of my own little head... :) Happy Valentine's everyone!

Save those Christmas Cards

And recycle them into a Christmas ABC book!

When we were expecting our first daughter, my husband's mom gave us an ABC book that she made out of Christmas cards. She had made one for each of her children when they were young and was passing down my husband's to us. I decided then I wanted to make one for my nephew. I started collecting our Christmas cards. And my parents'. And my husband's parents'.

Five years later, I had enough cards.  I'm telling you...it took forever because so many people send out family picture cards or Christmas emails.  So now it is no longer just my nephew in that family, but 2 nephews and a brand new niece.  I do have some left over cards, but you need a ton to be able to choose for each letter and then the number.

My husband's mom made hers in 1" binders with page protectors and red and green paper.  I made mine in an 8x8 scrapbook with page protectors (had to buy 2 refill packs to add to it) and Christmas scrapbook paper.  Both are super easy.  Hers has more room on a page and is cheaper by far.

The one I made for my nephews and niece

The one made for my husband

Here are some hints I used/realized:

• Group similar cards (i.e. angels, snowmen, etc.)
• Leave letters that have multiple words (S is for Shepards, Star, Snowman, Snow, Snowflake, etc) for last
• Use a business card template for the wording, I only had to cut a few smaller
• Wish I would have used less patterned paper for the backgrounds, some are too busy to read
• Let glue dry for a at least 45 minutes to ensure it doesn't make the page protectors go wavy.  (You can see it in mine on pages "X" & "Y")
• I had to go to the dollar store and pick up a few cards for letters I didn't have, like "Y" (yule log).

The kids loved these books and gazing at each picture.  It does take some effort in collecting and sorting out each letter, but it is pretty simple after that, just cutting and gluing.

Here is the Christmas ABC document I created to help me sort out cards.  It is just what I gathered from here and there so it is rough.  There are repeats, some very closely worded, and some without rhymes.  You can really do whatever you can come up with.  The ones in bold are the ones I ended up using with the cards I had.

Start collecting those Christmas cards now (ask family and neighbors for the fronts of theirs too), or your kids might be graduating from high school by the time you get enough.

Heads up: Also you may be able to score cheap some cards the day after Christmas at the store.  And  I saw a Christmas card at Wal-mart that had children holding hands around a world - perfect for letter "U".  Don't know how much it was though.  Some cards are way too expensive.

Baby shower gifts

I don't know if you've heard of Pinterest but when I heard about it my original thoughts were that it was another Facebook social network that I did not want to get involved in. (I currently face a Facebook addiction) However, I did take a look and was instantly hooked. A couple days into looking around on Pinterest I came across baby shower gift ideas. I love making baby shower gifts and this soon followed-

The first gift, Ice cream in a bowl is just little wash cloths. I tried to use a blanket but it gets too thick at the bottom. I wrapped them around one another and secured them in place with scotch tape.

The flower bouquet was made with baby socks and onesies. The bottom of the bouquet is wrapped with a baby washcloth.

Thanks to Pinterest I'll probably be posting more baby shower gifts in the future, I hope you enjoy making these!

Quick Mother's Day Gift Idea & FREE Printable

I needed a quick (and not too expensive) Mother's Day Gift Idea for the Young Women that I teach at church. As a presidency we came up with this idea of a personalized memo pad, after searching online and not being able to find exactly what we were looking for, I designed the following. Please feel free to use them for gifts for your own Mom or Grandmothers, please don't sell items you make, and if you blog about it please link back to this blog post, Enjoy!

What you need:

A magnetic photo sleeve (2 pack from Walmart $1.96)

Post-it Notes

4x6 Printable

Simply print the 4x6 either at home or at your favorite photo place, slip it into the magnetic sleeve, pull the back off your sticky notes and stick it on. We will be attaching a personal thank you from each of the girls. Now mom will be reminded how much she is loved everytime she makes a note.

Happy Mother's Day!
[So, I'm new to actually making printables to share (Hopefully, this is the beginning of something wonderful), just click on the image you would like, then right click and Save Image As to save it to your computer.]

I linked up HERE

Pay What You Want Prints....

Hey I came across this link from another blog this morning and thought I would pass it on. The artist, is having a Pay What You Want Sale on her prints, she has some beautiful prints that would be really great for Mother's Day. Check it out HERE.