Have A Wild Valentine's Day

Well, it's that time of year...Valentine's Day parties at school!  In the past, parties have been on Fridays.  It's nice that way because we can sugar the kids up and then send them home to settle down over the weekend.  This year is different.  Valentine's Day parties are tomorrow!  It should make for an interesting week to say the least.  I'll use any excuse to make fun crafts, so Valentine's day was the perfect oportunity for me to try out some new ideas.  See what you think!


First, I made these "dynamite" valentines.  They are super cute and easy to make.  I wanted to use Rolos candy, but I was unable to find single packs of them.  I settled with Mentos.  I covered them in red card stock first.  Next, I hot glued the three rolls together.  After that I wrapped black pipe cleaner around the three packs and added a short piece at the top.  Lastly, I attached a piece of card stock with the saying, "You're the Bomb." They only took a few minutes to create and are super cute!

Next, I made treats for the students in my after school group.  I found this idea from a blog, thegunnysack.com, and fell in love! It was awesome because there was a template of the tags that just had to be printed.  This project was also pretty simple.  I did have my mom help me hold the balloons open so I was able to stuff them with candy easier.  I think they turned out pretty awesome :)

the finished product <3

i had to use pink balloons too :)

Finally, I made treats for my co-teachers.  I used to make these pretzel cookies for Christmas with regular Hershey Kisses and M&Ms.  For a creative twist, I used the Hugs & Kisses Hershey Kisses for a "wild" themed treat.  

Simply place a kiss on top of each pretzel.  Place in an oven heated at 300 degrees until the kiss begins to melt.  Press an M&M into the center of the kiss.  I placed mine in the refrigerator so they would cool more quickly.  After they cooled, I placed them in snack bags that I had decorated with homemade tags.

so cute!

finished product :)

I used Elmer's dot runner glue to attach the labels to the baggies.  My friend, Julie, introduced me to this AMAZING craft tool, and I can't believe I crafted before without it!  They run about $3.00 at Wal-Mart and are awesome!

I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day <3

Desk Decorations

My desk at work has too much paperwork and not enough decorations, so tonight I decided to fill a few picture frames to spice it up a bit.  I started out just going through some of my old pictures hoping I'd find a few good ones.  I came to some of my kids who were in my class during student teaching.  I miss them a lot, so I figured the pictures of them would brighten up my desk a bit.  I put this together really quick & I think it turned out pretty cute :)

I used scrapbook paper & stamps to recreate a poster I found on pinterest for the center picture.  

Crayola Lamp

Long weekends always leave me looking for something to do to occupy my time.  Alex and I decided a trip to Hobby Lobby and Lowes to get stuff for her new apartment was a good idea.  Of course, we got distracted from our real shopping purpose and bought a load of stuff for crafting.  Three hours of shopping later, we headed home to make lamps for our classrooms.  Although time consuming, this lamp is simple to make and is super cute for my classroom desk :)

Finished Product :)

Here's how to create this sweet lamp:

Step 1: Glue crayons to your lamp (or other surface...Alex has done this on a flat canvas before and it looks wonderful hanging in her room).  Make sure that you use at least 4 crayons in each shade otherwise the colors run together and turn brownish black.  I prefer to use a hot glue gun to glue the crayons on to ensure they stay.

Step 2: After gluing the crayons around the outside of the lamp, I put a layer of hot glue around the inside edge of the lamp.  I wanted to ensure the crayons don't fall off if the lamp gets knocked over or bumped by the kids.

Step 3: Use a blow dryer to melt the crayons.  Be careful because the wax will splatter!  We had a plastic sheet to cover the floor with for this part, but forgot to bring it.  Our friend Craig's bathtub was a good substitute.  We used the highest heat setting and aimed the heat toward the center of the crayon.  Place the blow dryer close to the crayons.  You can change the drip design depending on the angle you hold the lamp shade.  You can change the thickness of the drip design, as well, depending on how long you expose the crayons to the heat.  The crayon wax will dry quickly.

Step 4: Clean up.  Since the wax dries almost immediately, the bath tub was stained with wax splatter.  To clean up the mess, we reheated the splatter with the blow dryer & used paper towels to wipe it up.  After getting most of it off, we used scrubbing bubbles and hot water.  The tub was sparkling white when we finished.

The finished product :)

Alex was excited to show off our craft!