A few nights ago I had the honor of hosting a baby shower for my friend and her new baby boy. I love these types of celebrations!

Some party details:

Of course the only photo I took of the food table was before all the food was on it. (I would do something like that – maybe because [...]]]>

A few nights ago I had the honor of hosting a baby shower for my friend and her new baby boy. I love these types of celebrations!

Some party details:

Of course the only photo I took of the food table was before all the food was on it. (I would do something like that – maybe because a half an hour before guests arrived I was in the shower haha). We had the most delicious cheesecake ever (thanks, Amy!!), lemon bars, and chocolate cupcakes filled with whipped cream. Plus, we had Vietnamese Salad Rolls (thanks, Tricia!!) which are so yummy, artichoke-spinach dip, fresh strawberries, fresh clementines, and fresh veggies. Lemon water and Izzes to drink.

(love my Kroger flowers?!)

I made the garland out of craft paper and string. A matching one hung on the mantle.

The food was all labeled with these cute signs. I’m working on making this into a free download for you – I’ll let you know when it’s ready.

******UPDATE: Click HERE for the free download of these labels to use at your own party! It’s a 2-page pdf with the big labels I used for the food and the little labels I used on the cookie treats. Enjoy!******

I don’t believe any party guest should leave empty handed so everyone took a “glad you came” cookie for the road. (These labels will also be available soon for download)

And, of course, there were candy munchies a plenty (everyone needs buckets of m&ms!)

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ve also had a bunch of custom book orders lately – keep them coming! I love custom orders. I’ll post pics soon.

I’ve dedicated January’s tutorials to letter writing. To start off, I’ve made a holiday thank yous tutorial. So begin your new year with gratitude and write a thank you.

Here is my quick start guide to writing your holiday thank yous.

1. Gather writing materials: paper, envelopes, addresses, stamps, markers, stickers, etc. Keep it [...]]]>

I’ve dedicated January’s tutorials to letter writing. To start off, I’ve made a holiday thank yous tutorial. So begin your new year with gratitude and write a thank you.

Here is my quick start guide to writing your holiday thank yous.

1. Gather writing materials: paper, envelopes, addresses, stamps, markers, stickers, etc. Keep it simple. Don’t get hung up on making/buying some fancy card. That part doesn’t matter as much as the handwritten note. I wrote mine with crayons on construction paper. To help my toddler write his own letters, I made a thank you form letter he could fill in himself. He told me what he wanted to say and I filled in the blanks and then he traced over my letters. He made little drawings in the box at the bottom of the page.

2. Prepare a list of who you need to send thanks to. Before we started writing our letters, we each took a “Holiday Thank Yous” checklist and wrote down the people we needed to thank and why. The boys really got a kick out of checking the box next to each line on their lists when they completed a letter.

3. Gather your family together at the kitchen table and start writing. The more the merrier! We spent an hour last night writing our thank yous. What a great way to teach the kiddos the importance of saying “thank you”.

In case you have some letter writing to do, I’ve included two freebies!

[Click on the images to download]

Happy thank you writing to you and yours! Let me know how it goes.

Make this little memory game to play with your kiddos as part of your advent calendar this week. Or you could make a set to share with a friend. Or give as a gift to a neighbor.

SUPPLIES + 2 copies of the Christmas Memory pdf download + 2 pieces of craft paper + an old (or new) manilla folder + [...]]]>

Make this little memory game to play with your kiddos as part of your advent calendar this week. Or you could make a set to share with a friend. Or give as a gift to a neighbor.

SUPPLIES
+ 2 copies of the Christmas Memory pdf download
+ 2 pieces of craft paper
+ an old (or new) manilla folder
+ spray glue
+ ruler
+ xacto knife

1. GLUE
Use the spray glue to attach the Christmas Memory pdf to one side of the manilla folder. Attach the craft paper to the opposite side of the manilla folder.

2. CUT
Trim each square to 2″ by 2″ following the guides using your ruler and xacto knife.

3. PLAY
Set up your new game of Christmas Memory and enjoy!

[please remember] All freebies I post are for personal use only. Make them, use them, give as gifts, and share them with your friends. Please do not alter any illustrations, sell the freebie, or claim it as your own. Thank you!

One activity from our advent calendar this year was to play Christmas Bingo with a few friends. Well, that’s what we did Saturday and it was lots of fun. So much fun that I didn’t even take photos. Why does that always happen? Oh well. I’m sharing my Christmas Bingo boards with you. To download the [...]]]>

One activity from our advent calendar this year was to play Christmas Bingo with a few friends. Well, that’s what we did Saturday and it was lots of fun. So much fun that I didn’t even take photos. Why does that always happen? Oh well. I’m sharing my Christmas Bingo boards with you. To download the Bingo boards, click HERE. It’s a 10-page pdf with 10 different Bingo boards. I filled one of my apothecary jars with prizes from the dollar store and had some snacks to munch on. We will definitely be adding this to our holiday traditions.

Another great thing I made last week was inspired by my Auntie who is an amazing baker. I made the most delicious chocolate cupcakes. Cooled them in the fridge. Dug out a tablespoon of cake from the bottom. Filled the hole with freshly whipped cream. Stuffed the cake bottom back on. Drizzled a chocolate ganache over the top. YUM! Don’t worry. I’ll be posting a tutorial on this one soon.

Also, we decorated graham cracker houses a few days ago. Two things that worked really well: we separated the candy into muffin tins so the kiddos could see what their choices were and to construct the houses I dipped the graham edges in melted sugar. Worked like a charm.

Welcome back for another Tutorial Tuesday! The Pocket Accordion Book Tutorial builds off of the Accordion Book Tutorial I posted last week, but you can make this even if you didn’t make the accordion book. [Or you can skip the tutorial and head straight for my etsy shop... just kidding! You can do this! [...]]]>

Welcome back for another Tutorial Tuesday! The Pocket Accordion Book Tutorial builds off of the Accordion Book Tutorial I posted last week, but you can make this even if you didn’t make the accordion book. [Or you can skip the tutorial and head straight for my etsy shop... just kidding! You can do this! Go get your supplies.]

Supplies:

paper or bookcloth for the outside cover
paper for the inside
davey board (mat board or any other kind of board)
pva glue (elmer’s glue will work)
paintbrush
ruler
xacto knife
self healing mat
bone folder or old credit card
scissors

PART A: Decide on the dimensions of your accordion book and prepare the inside paper.

This tutorial is for a 4″ by 4″ book (same as last time). So the covers will be 4″ by 4″ (same as last time). Your inside paper (mine is white this time) needs to be 7″ by 24″. You can piece the paper together if you need to.

1: Using your ruler and bone folder (or credit card) score the inside paper lengthwise at the 4″ mark. Fold.

2: Lay the paper flat again. Make a second score mark 1.5″ along side the fold you made at the 4″ mark. Fold.

3: Flatten out your paper and make a score mark every 4″ parallel to the short side (this is the same thing you did last time only your paper is 7″ instead of 4″). Fold accordion style. Flatten back out.

4: Now fold your pockets. Fold up the paper along the long fold you made in step 1. Then fold up the fold you made in step 2. Last, fold the whole thing up accordion style like you did in step 3.

5: To secure the pockets’ edges, I hand stitched them with waxed linen thread. You can sew them, glue them or use double sided tape. If you choose to sew them, first poke holes along the edge (this will make the sewing easier).

6: Then go for it with your needle and thread. Do the same thing to the opposite end.

PART B: Make the front and back covers.

This part is identical to Step 3 from the Accordion Book Tutorial. I copied and pasted those directions here. (That’s why the paper is different)

Start with the front cover. Squeeze out some glue onto the davey board. Spread it out evenly with your paintbrush. Flip it over and center it on the wrong side of the paper for your cover. Smooth out any air bubbles.

Cut off the corners of the paper at an angle, making sure to leave about 3mm between the point of the board and the edge of the paper.

Next, spread glue on one of the sides of paper. Fold over and press.

Using your bone folder, smush down the extra paper against the board. (I’m doing all these steps on top of scratch paper to protect my desk from getting glue all over.) Do the same thing to the opposite side.

Then glue down the 2 remaining sides. Prepare the back cover in exactly the same way.

PART C: Glue the inside paper to the front and back covers.

This part is identical to Step 4 from the Accordion Book Tutorial. I copied and pasted those directions here.

Spread glue on the wrong side of the front cover. Line up the inside paper with the cover and press. Smooth out air bubbles.

Then spread glue on the back cover. With the front cover face down on your desk, fold up all the inside paper so that it’s flat. Attach the back cover to the last page of the inside paper. Press down and smooth out air bubbles. Admire what a good job you did! You made a book!

PART D: Press and personalize.

Get your pocket accordion book under something heavy and leave it there overnight (I used a stack of old textbooks from my college days). Now for the fun part – personalize it! I made little positive affirmation cards to stick in my little pocket book (can you ever have too many positive affirmations laying around?!). In the next day or so the book will most likely show up near my husband’s sink before he wakes up in the morning so he can start the day off with awesome-ness.

Do you have a friend or child or neighbor who could use a little positive reinforcement? Well, good thing, because here is the positive affirmations pdf! So get to work and brighten someone’s day.

As always, you can buy this pocket accordion book from my etsy shop for less than a Hallmark card.

Happy Tuesday!