Kraft Paper Banner

Preparations are underway here at `a casarella for a holiday soiree.

All shall be revealed next week, but in the meantime, here's a quick craft to help spiffy up the holiday decor.

I used my favorite Dollar Store Kraft Paper to make this festive banner.

Adhesive gift tags attached to triangles of Kraft paper give the banner a fancy touch.  The triangles are taped to the twine with plain old Scotch tape.  The whole project took about ten minutes.  (Which is about all the time I have to spare these days...  ;)

DIY Elastic Ribbon Hair Ties

Every year, on the day before school lets out for winter break, my daughters like to give out gifts to a handful of their best buddies.  Some years those gifts have been store bought, but last year they were home made.... well, they were home assembled...

A few weeks before Christmas I found a bunch of tiny jars from Pier One at the thrift store. They were sealed in their original packaging, came in sets of four, and cost 99 cents a box.  At less that 25 cents per jar, I bought them all.  After giving them a good cleaning, the girls and I filled them with assorted red and green candies, covered them with red and white striped fabric, and tied them shut with baker's twine.  They were a huge hit and left my girls wanting to do another DIY present this year.  

Inspiration for the 2012 gift hit during a trip to Michael's where I found a roll of elasticized ribbon.   One look and I realized it was the exact same ribbon used in these pricey hair ties.  Now is the moment where I cop to owning said pricey hair ties.  In fact, that's one of mine pictured below.

And I own them because they're great: they're soft, they hold your hair without damaging it, and they come in tons of cute colors.  I just never stopped to think about what a rip-off they are.

But that doesn't matter because now that I know you can get the elasticized fabric at Michael's, I never have to buy one again.  Even better than that, it gave me and the girls a perfect idea for this year's Christmas gift:  DIY elastic hair ties!  

In an effort to personalize ours, we added initial beads.  (We specifically looked for beads with a hole that could accommodate the elastic.)

Then it was just a matter of cutting the elastic into strips (ours were roughly 8" long), threading the bead(s) through, and tying them off.

Kind of hard to tell the difference between the handmade one below and the pricey one above, isn't it?

We made three bands per girl and put them in these cute tulle favor bags.  

After that we added personalized gift cards and the project was complete!  

And here are my daughters modeling the hair ties.  (I have since trimmed the ends on the pink one.)

Update:

I recently discovered that there is a named for this type of "ribbon."  

It's called "fold over elastic."  You can buy some by clicking here.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

And the present wrapping has officially commenced...

My go-to paper this holiday season is from The Dollar Store.  (Yes, you read that right.)

I was so excited to find rolls of Kraft paper at the Dollar store that I swooped in and picked up a dozen.

I love that, with the addition of a few office supplies (and maybe a sparkly embellishment or two)...

A roll of brown paper becomes something special.

And if you get really lucky (like I did when I found this velvet ribbon at Marshall's)...

You can really gussy things up.

So, I've got to ask:  what's your favorite paper this holiday season?

Linking:

http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com/2012/07/threading-your-way-gift-wrapping-link.html
http://www.foxhollowcottage.com/2012/11/dollar-tree-christmas-party-plus-50-gc.html

DIY Jellyfish Costume

Shortly after I joined Pinterest, I began a costume board.  It's kind of funny because I've never been much of a homemade costume girl.  I mean, I love them, but I was always too afraid to make one of my own.  

I especially love the ones that make you slap your head and ask, "why didn't I think of that??"  

That's exactly what happened with this pin*.  It's so cute and so simple that for months it's been the cover for my Pinterest costume board in the hope that one of my daughters would want to be a jellyfish for Halloween.  

(* I take great pride in crediting the original source for the pins that I mention on the blog.  For the life of me I have not been able to find the source for this one.  If you know whose it is, please let me know.)

After about a month of indecisiveness and more flip-flopping than a political candidate, my little one  finally came around to the whole jellyfish idea.  (I promise I didn't force the issue... much..  ;)

Today we put the costume together using:

• a clear, child-sized umbrella
• wired ribbon
• curling ribbon
• Black and white construction paper
• iridescent jewel stickers
• Bling on a [string]
• 22" glow sticks

We made the eyes from the construction paper, covered the whole thing with jewel stickers & bling, and taped the ribbons to the bottom.  This will be the costume's "day look," for her school party, etc.

(In case you're wondering, in this picture the umbrella is sitting in a vase which is perched on a stool.)  

At night I will be taping pink & purple glow sticks to the metal frame to create the look of a glowing jellyfish...

Here we have my daughter modeling the costume along with the white tutu and jellyfish shirt that she will be rocking on the 31st.  

I'll have one more costume to share with you this week, but in the meantime,

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Alligator Jars

Just a few months from now a dear friend will be having her first baby, a boy.   She's registered at Pottery Barn Kids and now that my girls have outgrown that store, I was looking forward to having an excuse to go in and look around.  

But then she threw me a curve ball: "I want you to make my gift," she told me.  

This is understandable given all the the blogging and crafting that goes on over here.  But I really liked the Alligator Madras Nursery Bedding bedding she picked out at PBK, so I decided to incorporate it into my gift.  

Now I have exactly one pregnant friend at this point in my life and she knows who she is.  

Young lady, if you are reading this, STOP NOW!  (xoxo)

Some of you might remember the animal jars that are displayed in my laundry room.  After contemplating several projects I finally decided to do something similar for my friend's baby (using alligators, of course!)  

I started with these plastic jars from Michael's.  I found them on clearance a long time ago and knew I would one day use them.  I thought they'd be perfect for a baby's room as they are unbreakable.  

Then I picked up some inexpensive plastic alligators to mimic the ones on the bedding.  You can see that the one in the middle has a little ring on his nose.  I ended up cutting those off and filing them down to remove any sharp edges.  

A little hot glue secured them to the lids.  

Then I got to spray painting.  That's right, I'm a spray painting fool these days.  I still kind of stink at it but practice makes perfect.  I began by spraying the tops within the confines of this cardboard box.  

In order to spray the sides I put the lids on an old jar so my fingers wouldn't get in the way.

As usual, my spray painting is full of imperfections but I'm still pretty happy with the result.

 I decided to fill the jars with baby items like the washcloths pictured below.

I think they'll look cute sitting on a shelf in the nursery.  I also think they can grow with him, eventually holding crayons or something similar.

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Linking:

Pumpkins that are Blingy (Not Stringy)

Sometimes it's the simplest ideas that are the most mind-blowing.  

Like the fact that you can decorate a pumpkin without actually having to carve it.  

This was quite the revelation for me.  H-U-G-E.  

You see, I have a serious aversion to pumpkin guts.  Just the thought of those stringy innards sets off my gag reflex.  

(Shudder.)

So last year, when I started seeing uncarved pumpkins on Pinterest--pumpkins that had been painted, bejeweled, Sharpied and more--I filed those ideas away for this fall.

Then, last week, as I walked into my local grocery store, I saw these little cuties just waiting to be bought.  I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted to do with them so I threw them in an old vase until I was ready to make my move.

And frankly, they looked quite pretty just the way they were, but I wanted to do more.

A day later I found myself at Michael's where the "Recollections" line of embellishments were 50% off so I picked up  few packs of "Bling on a Roll." 

Which I really want to rename "Bling on a String."  

Because it rhymes.  

And because I've got a string theme going on here.

Working with this stuff was so much easier than working with individual sticker-gems...

...at least it was easier for my purposes:

I just wrapped them around my pumpkins for a little fall pizazz...

...no pumpkin guts required!

Decorating Paper Bag Book Covers

On Wednesday my older daughter started middle school.  And if I didn't think that I'd bore you to death, I would probably write a wistful, ten page post detailing my thoughts and feelings on the subject.

But given that her week was okay (and I'm emotionally spent from thinking about it) I'd like to focus on an aspect of middle school that we've both enjoyed (and possibly the most random topic ever): covering her textbooks.

(Look, it involves cutting up brown paper bags.  As a craft blogger (sorta, kinda), I'm obligated to get excited over this stuff.)

Anyway, when I found out that she would be needing to cover her books, I thought back fondly to those days of yore when my mother and I would sit down on a September evening, a stack of paper bags in front of us, and cover my textbooks.

But then I remembered something!  These days you can buy book covers.  (Spoiled 21st century children!)  And those covers come in all kinds of cool colors and patterns.  Surely my new sixth grader would want those over brown paper bags.  (Wouldn't she?)

Well, it turns out that my kid is ten-kinds-of-awesome because, no, she didn't want those pre-fab covers.  In fact, when I told her that she could have those or the ones that my mom and I used to make, she chose to go old school.  (And I'm pretty sure she didn't do it just to humor her poor, nostalgic mother, either.)

Now if you've never covered a textbook with a brown paper bag, I'm going to direct you to Youtube where there are numerous how-to videos that you can watch at your leisure.

Because what my daughter and I really enjoyed was the decorating.  (I might have begged to help.)

We used all kinds of fun items including Washi Tape, Sharpies, Stamps, jewel stickers--anything we had lying around, really.

Here are some books that she decorated:

And here is the back of one that I did.  (I obviously have a thing for Washi Tape Buntings these days):

Thanks for indulging this mama at the end of a difficult week.  I'll be back to share some more first-world problems real soon!  ;)

Making a Washi Tape Bunting Tutorial on SnapGuide

Back in April my brother sent me a link to a free iphone app called SnapGuide.  I blogged about it here and then promptly forgot about it.  Then last week I was playing around with Washi Tape trying to make a little bunting to adorn a birthday present.  My iphone was sitting next to me so I thought, what the heck, maybe I'll post a tutorial to SnapGuide.

To say that this was not my finest crafting moment would be an understatement.  I did the job hastily and imperfectly (the present was for an eight-year-old who was very likely not even going to notice the bunting before tearing into her gift).

The same could be said for my tutorial which, though easy to make, was quite basic as it was really just an experiment.

So imagine my surprise when I began getting emails from SnapGuide telling me that people were "liking" my tutorial.  I also got several comments including one from a young lady in England who was inspired to make her own.  I have to admit, I'm really enjoying this "social media" aspect of SnapGuide.  And even if you're not interested in doing your own tutorial, there are plenty of interesting tutorials to browse through.

You can find my tutorial here.

(And no, they didn't pay me to write this.  Something about not buying the cow when the milk was free...)

Punch Box Revisited

One of my most popular posts to date (okay, it was actually THE most popular post I've ever written) was called "A Party Favor."  In it, I explained how I found this blog via Pinterest and how it inspired me to make a Punch Box for my neighbor's fourth birthday.  

When I wrote it I had no idea what an amazing response it would garner.  Seriously, people went nuts for this thing.  And the absolute best part about it?  Well, that's been the people who have written me to say that they wanted to make one (or that they already had).  

One of those people was Diane, the director of my daughter's preschool.  My daughter is long out of preschool but Diane and I remain friends on Facebook.  (Thank you, Facebook.)

Upon seeing the punch box she sent me an email asking if I'd help her make one for her granddaughter Chloee.  She wanted to use it in lieu of an Easter basket as a fun way for Chloee to collect some Easter loot.  It was a great excuse for us to get together and chit-chat while getting our craft on.  

Below is the finished product.  We used a Uhaul box and she decorated it with paper flowers.  (And get a load of her craft room in the background.  I seriously want to live in there...) 

But Diane wasn't the only one who was inspired.  About a week ago I received the following email from reader Sabrina Fitzgerald-Ruiz:

Thank you for the creative tutorial in the "Punch Box". I'm always looking for new ideas to spice up my daughter's birthday parties. This year she's turning the big "1-0" and I wanted to do something unique. My daughter just loved the idea when I showed it to her on Pinterest.

I wish I would have had the circle scoring tool, as I'm sure it would've been a lot faster. I ended up using a coaster to outline circles and used an Exacto-knife to cut out circles. I wanted to step it up a little bit, so I used zebra wrapping paper. I also found letters that were much like post notes that were a fun.


I was quite surprised at how much candy and toy prizes we were able to get in the lunch bags. My daughter and I enjoyed doing this together. I really hope the girls at her slumber party love it.

A Punch Box makes a great alternative to a Pinata!

Check out those pictures!  Didn't she do a great job?!  (Sabrina, I'd love to hear about the girls' reaction.)

(And for the record, you can order one of the "circle scoring tools" by following this link or clicking on the Products tab above.)

Finally, another punch box spin-off comes from the lovely and talented Amy from the blog, While Wearing Heels.   While on vacation last week I was delighted to open my ipad and find this post on her blog.  (Yes, I keep up with my favorite blogs on vacation, even if I'm not updating my own ;)

Please click on the link above to read her post.  And not just because it says all kinds of nice things about me.  (Unless that motivates you.  Come to think of it, that might be why I read it three times... ;)  Seriously, though, go for the punch box and stay for everything else.  You can also follow her through Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin'.  She's a frequent poster and her blog is full of the MOST adorable crafts.  (I guarantee you'll recognize many of them from Pinterest.)

I'd like to finish up by inviting you to send in pictures of your punch box.  If you do I'll be happy to feature them on `a casarella's Facebook page.  

Happy Punching!

Facilitating the Appreciation

Teacher Appreciation week is something I don't remember from my childhood. Heck, I don't even remember it from my teaching days.  Nowadays, though, it's a big deal.  If you log into Pinterest and type in "Teacher Appreciation Gifts," you'll get roughly a jillion hits.

I suspect my former math teachers would frown upon my liberal use of the number "jillion."

(And perhaps that frowniness is why I never gave them any teacher appreciation gifts...)

But moving on...

So, next week is Teacher Appreciation week and as a room mom I have to--how shall I say this?--facilitate the appreciating.  Yes, that's me: the facilitator of appreciation.

Usually it works a little something like this:  Room moms conduct a survey at the beginning of the school year to collect valuable nuggets of information from the teacher: "What's your favorite color?" "Where do you like to shop?" "What's your favorite restaurant?" etc.   We then use those answers to guide us during the holidays, the teacher's birthday, the end of the school year and, yes, Teacher Appreciation Week.

Typically during Teacher Appreciation Week we try and do a little something each day: Have your child wear blue on Monday!  Everyone brings in a piece of fruit (for a Stone-Soup style fruit basket) on Tuesday! etc., etc.  The problem is that some parents have three kids in three different grades.  This means that on any given day you might have one kid bringing in a banana, one kid wearing chartreuse and a third kid providing a daisy for a class bouquet.  That's fine for one day but five days gets a little old.  And confusing.

Not that I'm saying the teachers don't deserve the appreciation.  They totally do.  In fact I would prefer to give it to them in the form of a big fat raise but that's gonna have to wait until I'm queen of the world.  In the meantime, my co-room mom and I wanted to make the week simultaneously nice for the teacher and manageable for the parents.

This will involve some classroom funds (which thankfully we have), some shopping, some baking, and a touch of creativity.  The end result will be a week filled with small gifts, sweet gestures, a few lunches and one large(r) gift at the end.

I should note that many of our parents will be doing their own gifts, but those who don't want to-or can't-will be covered by us. Of the gifts that we're doing, there are two that I'm particularly proud of and wanted to share here today:

The first is the only thing we actually asked parents to do.  I have to give credit to my fellow room mom as this was entirely her idea, but I love it.  We asked that each child pick out a book from his or her personal collection to donate to the classroom library.  We provided them with homemade "book plates" to affix in the inside front cover.  On the book plate they explained why they liked the book they chose.

My daughter picked Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes.  Here's what she wrote in her book plate.  (The erasure on the word "purse" looks awful in this picture but not so bad in person):

(I blacked out her name which accounts for the box on the bottom.  And I know there are a million talented people out there who could do a waaayy cuter bookplate than that, but we kept it simple and I think her teacher will appreciate it despite its simplicity ;)

The other gift that I really enjoyed is Pinterest inspired.  (Except it kind of isn't.  Variations on this idea have been around forever.)  Apparently this teacher has a thing for chocolate chip cookies.  (I know because my handy survey tells me so.)  So I turned to one of my favorite cookie recipes.  (Found here.)  

Then I stacked the cookies in a cute spaghetti canister (which was my idea, though I wouldn't be surprised if others had done it before me):

  

Finally I attached this:

It says, "Thanks for making us into such smart cookies," except it doesn't show up too well in this picture.  

And here is the end result:

I'll be presenting her with these tomorrow to kick off the festivities.  

Do any of you have a great teacher appreciation gift to share?  (If it's on your blog leave me the URL and I'll pin it to my "Resources for Room Moms" board.)

Update:  you can buy a canister like the one above by clicking HERE.

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