Personalizing the Thank You

We recently spent a week in rural Pennsylvania with my husband's side of the family. In addition to a lovely and relaxing stay away from the rat race of home - we celebrated our daughter's birthday and were blessed with gifts and love all around.

When I started to do thank you notes, I decided that doing something unique and handmade was the best way show our appreciation. I used a family photo that was taken of the four of us that week (as we sat by a camp fire using a timer on our camera but it turned out surprisingly decent). Using a googled imaged of PA, Picnik , and PowerPoint I created a snazzy little picture and then printed it on some off-white card stock. The finishing touch was a little red bandanna bow. The result was perfect for the occasion. I can't wait to have someone else to thank now! There are so many tools available for FREE and using your imagination you can make anything you dream up!

Compartmentalizing

Containers... my kids love containers. My son especially has a room filled with little bags, packs, boxes, whatever - places to put things. Are all kids like this?

This one I made for him before he was born, awww. I had a short-lived basket making hobby. Very short lived.









This extra-special one was given to him by his aunt (it contains more containers!)


This is a Red Sox cup he confiscated to keep Happy Meal toys in.


And here we have a treasure chest that he and Daddy made together, it holds... what else? Some treasures!


And is it just kids? I think not. Especially those of us who sew or craft - we're always needing new compartments and containers for our threads, beads, buttons, needles, and more. So - lately I'm trying to reuse instead of buying new containers every time the fancy strikes. Here is a wooden compartmentalized tray that originally had little horses in it - now used for sewing supplies. All I had to do was redecorate the top and it fits right in with my eclectic group of supplies.




And finally, here is plastic cookie container (not sure where all those cookies went...ahem) now divided (cut and used some plastic ribbon holders that I didn't need to make dividers) and holding my clothing tags!



Both of these reused items were decorated using just a glue gun and some on hand supplies. And a note on glue guns - KIDS love these. I know it is not something you can let your child play with on their own... but my five year old has his own and is allowed to get it out when I'm working on sewing and crafts and work along side me. His favorite thing is to glue buttons together to make cool little sculptures. We get bags of mixed buttons at craft stores and it has provided hours of entertainment and creativity!

And if you are in need of some fancy containers but don't have any left over cookie boxes- how about looking here? Etsy Container Search. ;) These are actually a bunch of decorative boxes for different uses - but they're great and I'm sure just the tip of the iceberg on Etsy!

Handmade Valentines... in the works

Obviously, we need to do a Valentine's Day activity around here. We're actually going out of town this weekend - so my kids will miss their parties at preschool. But, I don't want them to miss out of the fun of creating and sharing love with their classmates.

I'm all about saving some money and teaching my kids to use their imagination - so I'm trying to do some handmade Valentines with items we have on hand. I shall come back tomorrow and post pictures of what we come up with!

So far, I've got some red felt, Popsicle sticks, paper, markers, glue... and a talent for rhyming. ;) I figure this will only fly with my kids for a couple more years - so I'm doing it while I can! What are your little ones doing this year?