Thankful November: Happy Tags

Here's another fun idea we did as part of Thankful November, where we are doing little acts of kindness each day this month and bringing some good cheer to others (see a few other ideas here and here)

At the beginning of the school year I bought a few packs of journaling cards at Michaels to use as lunch notes for my kids thanks to Ashley's brilliant idea here. I really like journaling cards, and have become quite addicted to them. They are the perfect size for so many things (lunch notes included!) and always have cute fonts and colors. I happened to buy quite a few of the Recollections brand a while back but I also love the Project Life ones too...so pretty! Each pack contains little 3 x 4 inch cards with a writing prompt on each (as they are meant for journaling and/or scrapbooking) but there are always a few of the designs in each pack that have inspirational phrases or cute sayings too.

I thought it would be fun to pick out of few of the cards with inspirational phrases and cute sayings and glue them to a large manilla tag decorated with washi tape. On the other side of the tag I attached a small glassine envelope in which we could tuck in a small token or gift to brighten someone's day.

I bought some gift cards and scratch off lottery tickets to place in some of the envelopes and in others we added a few dollar bills. Then my littles and I ran errands and placed the tags all over leaving a trail of happiness wherever we went.

We left them at the dollar store, the gas pump, the Target cafe, on a vending machine, on a parking meter, with the bananas at the grocery store, next to the cream and sugar at a coffee shop, on a bench at a park, attached to a swing at a playground, and then we handed a few to some cashiers too!

We saw a few people find the tags and I so wish we could have had the time to stick around and watch more as it was so fun to see...I don't think my littles will ever forget this.

Hope this idea inspires you to brighten someone's day!

Thanks for stopping by!

 XOXO,

Pillowbox Surprises

Here is a fun idea we did as part of our daily Thankful November this month (see more about that here!) These Pillowbox Surprises are super easy to put together and are really fun for your recipients to open.

I was at Target, of all places ;-), one day and found these cute little pillow boxes for $1 on an end cap. They came 3 to a pack so, naturally, I bought a few packs of them! 

They are perfect for dressing up with colorful washi tape and twine.

The only unfortunate thing about them is that they are just a touch too small for a gift card. Darn it. So plan B was that I ended up taping gift cards to the backside and then wrapping them in twine so they were nice and secure.

You could put all sorts of goodies inside but we thought what would be the most fun was to put in a little glittered banner that said, "You Are Special" cause it's nice to hear that you are, isn't it? :-)

I made the banner with my Silhouette using pretty gold glittered scrapbook paper and then hot glued it to some gold twine.

Then I taped the end of the twine with the beginning of the message near the flap of the box and tucked the rest of the message inside nice and gently.

I made a little flag out of washi tape, wrote PULL HERE on it, and taped it to the other end of the twine which we let ever-so-slightly stick out of the end of the box once it was folded closed.

And then, when our recipients opened up their pillow boxes.....

A little message appears :-)

Just a little something for some special people to make their day a little brighter!

I'll share more of our Thankful November ideas next week! Happy weekend to you all!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

RECIPE: Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

We had our first snowfall this week. And as much as I wished it would have happened a month later than it did, I will admit it was really pretty. We had just enough to cover the ground and it stayed around for a few days. The kids were ecstatic and even though they got home from school after 4 that day, they zipped through their homework and dug out all of their snow pants and boots to play in the snow well into darkness (which right now is around 5 pm!)

Just as the snow was falling I thought about how nice warm pumpkin bars would be for the kids after school snack. Unfortunately, that thought came 20 minutes before the bus arrived, wah wah wah! I started making these bars anyways and figured they would be a great dessert buuuut since it was snowing I figured we could eat them right after they cooled a bit which would mean....dessert BEFORE dinner! Yeah, every now and then you just have to do that. :-)

These bars are sooo good! I have been making them for years now and they always please every crowd. I frost them with my 4 Ingredient Cream Cheese Icing which really makes them outstanding. And on a side note, I didn't have any vegetable oil when I made this particular batch so I replaced it with an equal amount of liquid-state coconut oil and they turned out perfect. Not a hint of coconut in them! Sweet!

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil (or 1 cup liquid-state coconut oil)

1 2/3 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together in a medium size bowl. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool and frost with 4-Ingredient Cream Cheese Icing (Recipe found here). Enjoy!

The ingredient list run down....pumpkin, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar, coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

Flour and eggs!

This recipe is so simple, truly!

Mix all the ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes in a greased 9x13 inch pan.

Yumm-o!

This would make a great dessert this Thanksgiving too! I hope you give it a try!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

 XOXO,

TUTORIAL: Turkey Table Favors

Need a super cute idea to give to your guests as a "Thanks for Coming" favor this Thanksgiving? These adorable and easy to make Turkey Table Favors will be the hit of your dinner table this year!

I love this idea as you can use these favor bags to place a few mints, a piece or two of good chocolate, or even a little piece of paper for your guests to write down what they are thankful for this year. And these also work out smashingly for gifting a small pack of crayons and stickers for the little ones coming to dinner. It's always nice to have coloring pages or a Kraft paper-covered kids table so the kids can draw and create while the final touches are being made to your turkey dinner.

You will love how easy these are to make too...even the kids could do it! 

Here's what you'll need...

Turkey Table Favors

Scrapbook paper in various colors

Muslin or burlap and twine (to make your own favor bags) or you can buy pre-made ones!

Googly eyes in various sizes

Hot glue and gun or glue stick

Scissors

I picked out a bunch of scrapbook papers and ended up going with these five...I thought they seemed nice and Thanksgiving-y :-)

If you choose to make your favor bags you can cut a piece of 10 x 3 inch muslin and fold it in half so that it measures 5 x 3 inches. Then sew up the sides and fold the top edge over 1/2 inch to make a casing for the twine, you want to make sure you leave a small opening to pull the twine through. Once you are done flip your favor bag right-side out, pull your twine through, and you are ready to decorate!

To make your turkey you will need a pair of scissors, a pen of some sort, googly eyes, and a hot glue gun or glue stick.

Make a feather template by hand and trace around it on you scrapbook paper. I made my feathers rather plump and only needed 5 per turkey but you can make however many you like.

Glue your feathers together at the base, like so...

Then glue on your turkey face...two eyes and a small triangular beak.

I filled my bags before gluing them to the feathers but that was just my preference :-) Nothing says Thanks for Coming than a piece of Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Caramel, right? And each favor bag also contains a manilla tag for each guest to write what they are thankful for....but really the sky is the limit on what you can put inside!

Thank you so much to JoAnn Fabrics for letting me be a part of such a fun campaign, as always I had a blast creating these Turkey Table Favors and I hope you do too! 

Use the hashtag #turkeytablescapes on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Twitter if you want to see more fun Thanksgiving ideas from other creative bloggers!

You can also find more fun ideas on how to make your holidays handmade in the JoAnn Craft Catalog!

And don't forget to print off your 50% off coupon to help you get your Thanksgiving craft-on!

 XOXO,

Thankful November

We started off our November with a bang this year by spending a few moments each day writing down what we are thankful for in our lives. I like the idea of taking a little time to do this since it gears us up for Thanksgiving at the end of the month and then will hopefully carry over into December too. I really want my kids to think of others especially during this time of the year when it is so easy to get carried away by all the things we want.

And although we like to do as many Random Acts of Kindness we can fit in each December (see here some things we did last year) I thought it might be fun to do one Random Act of Kindness each day in November too to up that Thankful factor!

We've been having fun creating in my studio. It's been so fun to see the lists of ideas my littles have for spreading kindness, I love how their little brains work!

There are just so many ways to spread kindness and joy.

I'll share a few of the things we do throughout the month, it's always fun to see what others do, right?

And, if you have time you should spread some kindness too! It would be so fun to get a whole bunch of people participating!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

The Thanks Giving Tree-TUTORIAL & Giveaway

With Thanksgiving coming up right around the corner...less than 6 days away, oh my!  I thought I would share a fun tutorial for a project that the kids and I did earlier this month as a reminder of all that we are thankful for in our lives.    Earlier this fall, Elmer's and X-ACTO sent a kit full of goodies out to me so I could try their new Z-Series Knife. This knife is X-ACTO's sharpest and most durable blade yet and I thought this would be the perfect project to try it out!

We made a Thanks Giving Tree to share all that we are thankful for each and every day.  This project is so easy to do and perfect for little hands to help decorate. This would also be such a great project to do on Thanksgiving, don't you think?  I cut out the 3-D tree and the leaves using the new X-ACTO knife (it's super sharp so only adults should be using it!) and I let the kids paint the tree and write on the leaves as well as decorate the tree with our thankful leaves...it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.  And we are always adding more leaves as we think of more things to be thankful for everyday!

Here's how you can make one too!

The Thanks Giving Tree

Elmer's Bi-fold foam board

X-ACTO Z-series knife

Assorted sheets of scrap book paper

Elmer's permanent dot runner

Brown craft paint

Paint brush

Pencil

Are you ready to make a Thanks Giving Tree with your family?  Let's get started then!

First, trace out a tree shape with branches onto your foam board with a pencil.  Then using an X-ACTO knife, carefully cut the tree shape out of the foam board.  Make sure to cut a small tree stand as well as a small slit at the bottom of the tree so the tree can stand by itself.

Using brown craft paint, cover both front and back of the tree and stand.  Let dry for 30 minutes.

Take your scrap paper and X-ACTO knife and cut out leaf shapes in different sizes.

Grab markers, pens, or pencils and write what you are thankful for on the backside of each leaf...or use a thick, dark marker and write on the front of the leaves..your choice!

Using an Elmer's Dot Runner, place a small amount of the dot runner tape on the underside of one tip of each leaf so that each leaf will be able to stick to the tree.

Press each leaf to the tree branches and voila!  You have a very pretty free-standing Thanks Giving Tree to decorate your home this Thanksgiving.  Now, whenever you see it you can be reminded of all the wonderful things to give thanks for in your life!

To continue with the Thanks Giving theme, Elmer's and X-ACTO would like to offer TWO $25 Walmart Gift Cards for TWO lucky readers to win so that you can try out their new products yourself!

To enter:

Tell me what you are thankful for this year!

For extra entries (please comment for each entry!)

1. "Like" X-ACTO on Facebook, here.

2. "Like" Smashed Peas and Carrots on Facebook, here.

3. Follow me over on Pinterest, here.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at midnight!

Good Luck!

XOXO,