A friend showed me this craft a few years ago and I have made them every year since. They are sooooo easy and the kids LOVE to make them. START saving your milk jugs now if you want to line your walkway or driveway with them. If you only want a few, you can out them around your front door. OR if you drink as much milk as we do wait until the day before and you should have enough!

The best part is that the kids can draw the faces themselves and the bigger kids can cut out the tops.

Materials

• Clean plastic gallon milk jugs
• Black permanent marker

• Craft knife
• String of 50 clear low-wattage holiday lights

Instructions

1. Draw ghost eyes and mouths on the jugs. Tip: Leave the caps on while you do this, so the jugs don’t dent.
2. Use the craft knife to cut a half-dollar-size hole in the back of each jug (a parent’s job).
3. Arrange the ghosts near each other and string the lights between them, stuffing several bulbs into each of the jugs.

This is from Family Fun magazine, one of my favorite magazines ever! We will be working on these today actually as I have 5 out of 7 puking all night. EVERYONE stayed home from school sick today!

If you want to keep your kids (and husband) busy for a while, you can try this cute craft we just did for the 4th.

I had seen these cute candy favors on ETSY and had all the stuff to make them, so we went at it for gifts for the cousins tomorrow.

All you need are some lolipop sticks or skewers and soft candy. I used mostly gummy candies. I also tried to just use red, white and blue for the 4th. It would be cute to do them to match birthday parties with different colors.

This is the one Paul made, actually one of the 10, he really got into it with the girls!

The sticks and bags we put them in cost $1.75 each at Walmart, I also got a bunch of the candy at CVS for B1G1 free this week.

Photo Credit Sweetsindeed

This is the seller on ETSY, Sweets Indeed, where I saw them, I wanted to order some from her but it was too close to the 4th! They turned out really cute, she does a great job!

We packaged ours in little gift bags with ribbon tied around the top. On the ones for the girls we have little necklaces for the 4th to go with them, turned out really cute!

Do you have any cute crafts for the 4th?

If you took advantage of the Target deal or are planning on picking up some candles for a good deal, how do you give them as gifts?

I typically use them as Teacher or Primary teacher gifts just to say “thank you” randomly throughout the year. As with any gift sometimes the presentation makes the entire gift! I feel a little guilty giving a candle or air freshener that cost me only $.20 I would never want to just give it “as is” so I try and dress it up!

I quickly printed off this morning a business card size, little message with my kids pictures on them. I just framed them with card stock and laminated it. Then punched a hole in the corner and added a little ring.

Next, use the little clear party bags, tie with some ribbon, add some kind of “greenery” and your little tag. I think it turned out much cuter than just sticking it in a bag, it took almost no time and cost me $.60 total with the candle!

For the kids taechers end of the year gift and Christmas gift I do more, but these are nice “thinking of you” or “thank you” gifts.

What ideas do you have for embellishing gifts?

The other day I was so surprised to get this awesome card in the mail from a reader named Lisa! Thank you Lisa! I have not seen one made this way and am on a mission to get some made this week.

It is called a “Water Fall” card.

She took pictures that I had posted and made them into 2×2 squares and printed them in a 4×6 picture.

When you pull the little tab at the bottom, the entire thing pulls down and flips through all the pictures! It is darling!

This is a little video that if you are like me and need to see pictures, explains it very well!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3owXJxuVNWY&hl=en_US&fs=1]

If you go HERE you can see written instructions.

Back in the old days I used to make all my cards and even scrapbook. Sigh… now I just drool over everyone else’s!

Also, I’ d like to say thanks to my online friend Lelee for taking the time to send sweet and generous cards to my kids welcoming the new baby. The kids appreciated being thought of!

Take a cheap hand towel, I like white. The cheaper and thinner the better. They have them in packs at Wal-Mart for like 10 for $6
Fold one corner up like you are making a bandana.
Keep folding…
When it is all rolled up, fold it in half.
Next, now this is the hardest part, take the open ends (the ears) and fold it back almost half way. This is making the bunny face and ears.
Take a rubber band and secure the little face of the bunny. I had to use a hair tie because I used a heavier wash cloth, the thinner clothes can be done with a rubber band. Twist it around a few times so it is tight. Now pull the ears up a bit, and your done!
Tie a ribbon around the rubber band so you can’t see it.
If I had all the supplies I usually give him some googly eyes, a little pompom nose and a little pompom tail. But I didn’t want to pull out the glue gun. I think he is cute as it!

I stick a plastic egg in the little hole behind his ears, it is a perfect spot to hold something. I am using these as name sign for Easter dinner. I am putting everyones names on the eggs and putting a bunny by every plate. 
They are cute and less than $1 each to make. Can you beat the 23 second record?? 

There are some really awesome Valentines Day food and crafts out there on the web. These are a few of my favorites!

The girls over at Our Best Bites have an amazing tutorial on how to make Valentines Day fortune Cookies.