Mini Easter Treat Baskets

We've been raiding the recycle bin again, and just in time for Easter fun. The boys and I put together these simple little Easter treat baskets for giving away sweets. We love turning boxes into all sorts of wonderfulness - especially for giving away.

These Mini Easter Treat Baskets are made out of tea boxes.

These Mini Easter Treat Baskets are just perfect for giving out your favorite Easter cookies, candies, and goodies.

Paper Poinsettia Ornaments

The boys and I have Christmas fever. We can barely focus on our school work these days. Luckily, I had planned out this Christmas ornament craft ahead of time. We make homemade Christmas tree ornaments every year - usually out of scrapbook paper. This year we're making these gorgeous Paper Poinsettia Ornaments, both for our tree and to give away as gifts. The boys are so excited to give them out, and working on them a little each day is scratching that Christmas itch - along with copious amounts of Christmas music and the eating of many a Christmas cookie. 😊

Our Paper Poinsettia Ornaments turned out fabulous!

We mixed and matched different shades and patterns of red paper to really make the ornaments pop.




Here's what you'll need:
several sheets of various red colored and patterned paper (one scrapbook sized page will make about 2 flowers)
a printer
a pencil for tracing (see note below template)
sissors
a glue stick
red and/or yellow pipe cleaners (1 per flower)
red curling or mylar ribbon (6 to 8 inches per flower)
glue gun (optional)

Start by printing and cutting the template below. Trace the cutouts onto the back of your pretty red paper and cut 'em all out. Each poinsettia will require 6 large petals, 5 to 6 small petals, and one circular base.

For each petal, cut an inch up from the bottom, put a generous amount of glue on the back of one end and glue it over the other end to create a pucker at the bottom. Hold that pucker closed for several seconds to secure while also bending the petal back at the middle. Poinsettias are an open flower and you'll want the petals to tilt out instead of in. Allow the petals to dry.




To the base, glue a six inch piece of curling ribbon to make a loop for hanging. Let dry.

If you have smaller children, you'll want to do this preliminary glue prep for the petals and bases beforehand. It's a little tedious.




To prep the center of the flower, cut a pipe cleaner in half and then in half again to get 4 equal pieces. Curl in the ends of each piece. Then, twist all four pieces together at the middle and separate out the little tendrils.




To put the flowers together (this is the fun part), glue the large petals, one at a time, onto the ribbon side of the base overlapping them a little as you go.




Now glue the smaller petals in the center, also, overlapping them a little as you go.




Glue a pipe cleaner center smack dab in the middle. This is where you may want to use a glue gun if you have one. Pipe cleaners need a lot of glue to stay secure.

These paper Poinsettia Ornaments turned our little fake Christmas tree (we call it our "humble" tree) into something spectacular. Aren't they just gorgeous on the tree?

Here's that template:




Note: If you're using 8 1/2 x 11 inch colored paper, you can load the paper right into your printer, making sure to print the template on the back side, and then cut out the petals for use. No tracing! If you're using scrapbook sized paper, you'll need to print out the template (card stock is best) and cut out 1 large petal, 1 small petal, and the base to use for tracing.

Happy Christmas crafting!

Easy Thanksgiving Garland

Thanksgiving is my favorite. I'm sorry to say that the discipline of gratitude isn't always on my radar throughout the year - except for the month of November. In November the weather is grand, the anticipation of an amazing feast with the ones I love fills my mind and heart, and my home is warm with good ol'-fashioned comfort food and the sweet faces of my little family. I admit, it's much easier for me to have thoughts and feelings of gratitude at this time of year.

So, my goal each November is to take advantage of a thankful disposition and usher our little family into a season of gratitude in whatever way fits us best. This year I've incorporated my boys' love for decorating with a discipline of gratitude in this easy Thanksgiving garland.

This garland is fairly simple to make. No sewing, no gluing - just a few thumb tacks here and there.

Here's what you'll need for this craft to line a descent sized archway:

6 yards wide orange wired ribbon
2 dozen felt leaves (mine came already cut)
4 to 6 dozen mini clothespins
8 to 10 sheets of card stock to print the thankful cards
a printer
sissors
chalk
a handful of push pins




Print out about 8 copies of the thankful cards using the template below. I thought a chalkboard design would be cute and we could write out our thanksgivings in chalk. My printer printed them best in the black and white setting. You can have kids cut them out.

Measure out where you want to hang your garland. When I say that, I really mean, kinda hold it up and try to picture where you want it to start and end. 😉 It can go around an archway, doorway, or just draped along a wall. You could also twirl in some little white twinkly lights. That would be so pretty.

Our Easy Thanksgiving Garland hangs in our dining room as a daily reminder to give thanks.

I thought it would be fun to have our garland hanging in our dining room where we'll be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner.



Hang the ribbon by pushing a thumb tack into one end and pinning it to the wall. I had two 3 yard long ribbons to work with, so I started them both at the top middle of my archway to get the most even hanging on either side of the arch.

Twirl the ribbon like a streamer bending the wire a little, if you need to, to get it to stay twisted. Press a tack through the ribbon and into the wall wherever you see fit to secure it.

This Easy Thanksgiving Garland sports the most adorable chalkboard thankful cards for us to write our thanksgivings on throughout the month.

Once your ribbon is secure, have kids use the clothespins to hang up leaves and thankful cards. If you have small children helping, you may need to rearrange some of the decorations. Just say'n. 

Throughout the month, the whole family can grab a card and write something they're thankful for with chalk. Have fun talking about new additions to the garland at dinnertimes. You can also share your favorite thanksgivings at your Thanksgiving feast.




Aren't these chalkboard cards just adorable? Happy crafting!

Easy, No Sew, No Glue Spooky Eyeball Halloween Garland

Boo! Scared ya, didn't I? Just play'n.

We've been super busy over here at Loverbee central. The boys and I didn't get the great start to the new school year that I was hoping for. On top of that, Nora's sleep schedule continues to derail me. I've had to cut down on baking to once a week. (deep sigh)

So, that said, here is this busy family's easy Halloween craft - easy peasy and super spookely cute.

This craft involves a little cutting, tying, and the hanging of a few simple decorations. It'll take you longer to say "Easy, No Sew, No Glue Spooky Eyeball Halloween Garland" than it will be to put this cutie together. If your kids can tie a knot, they can probably do this whole project by themselves.

Make this Easy, No Sew, No Glue Spooky Eyeball Halloween Garland for cuteness sakes!

Here's what you'll need:
4 yards burlap
3 yards orange ribbon
3 yards purple ribbon
2 dozen Christmas ornament hangers
2 dozen spooky eyeball ornaments

I found my eyeball ornaments at a 99 Cents Only store. I've also seen felt ones. If you can't find any, you can cut circles out of white card stock, have kids draw spooky eyeballs on them, and use a hole punch to make a hole at the top of each.




Start by prepping your burlap. My sections came in 36 x 18 inch pieces. I kept the length and cut each piece in half longways to get a width of 9 inches. By the way, to keep your burlap from unraveling, pull out a string from the center, where you plan to cut. Then, cut along the center, right where you pulled out the string. Here's a tutorial from Decor by the Seashore if you'd like a visual.




Now, tie each piece of burlap together with a simple knot.




Next, cut your orange ribbon in half. Then, cut each piece in half again. You should end up with four, more or less, equal pieces. Do the same for the purple ribbon.




I tied my orange and purple ribbons together in between each burlap knot. I just tied a simple bow.




Have kids loop a Christmas ornament hook through each eyeball and let them go crazy adding them to the garland. I found it easiest to hang the garland first.




I draped my garland along our dining room chandelier since we don't have a proper mantel.

"Eye see you," says the Easy, No Sew, No Glue Spooky Eyeball Halloween Garland.

You can also hang it on a wall, mantel, arch, or doorway.

Eye'll be seeing ya! 😉

Easter Egg & Paper Flower Garland

I totally let myself hog this project. I needed some creative space and some mama time so I didn't invite the kids to help on this one. I warded them off by telling them I was making them an Easter surprise - which I kinda was. Kids can definitely help out with this project if you want. Little kids can stuff eggs and cut leaves. Bigger kids can make flowers and tie on the eggs.

This Easter garland boasts beautiful handmade paper flowers and plastic Easter eggs stuffed with treats. The eggs are tied onto the garland with pretty ribbons in coordinating colors.



You can hang it up or use it as a centerpiece along the center of your Easter table.



Kiddos can untie ribbons and open eggs after Easter dinner.

My inspiration for this craft was a gorgeous floral garland from Oh Happy Day. It was wrapped around a giant paper maché egg. How fun is that? I love that site. I've since become obsessed with paper flowers. Stay tuned for a Mother's Day craft that's just as fun and pretty.

A dollar store is a great place to pick up supplies for this craft. Michael's will do too. For this project you'll need:
- construction paper in pastel colors
- a glue stick
- green twist ties (the kind you get at the grocery store produce section)
- large and small pastel plastic Easter eggs
- treats to fill your eggs
- ribbon in multi colors
- a cheap garland



I started the project by making paper flowers. They are the most time consuming aspect of this craft. I saw a Martha Stewart flower making kit online and just kind of copied it. I made my own templates and got to work. Go to the bottom of this post for templates.

I made 3 large flowers and about 6 small ones. I used templates P1, P2, P3, B1, and L1 to make big flowers. Templates P3, P4, B2, and L2 make small flowers. Cut out all of your petals and leaves. You'll need 1 leaf, 1 round base, and about 6 of each petal size per flower. You'll also need to cut 1 or 2 half inch strips the length of your construction paper to make the center.



You can see one here at the bottom of the picture. Cut little slits along the whole length of your strip(s) to make fringe. Also, prep your petals by cutting a slit in them about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom. Glue one piece over the other causing the petal to pucker as you see above.




Cut a small green twist tie in half and glue half of it to the base leaving half of it hanging out. That way you can use it to affix your flower to the garland. Next, glue your leaf down onto the base.




Now you can start gluing down your largest petals overlapping them a little as you go. Then glue down the next size. Big flowers have 3 layers, small flowers have 2. Once your petals are all glued fold your leaf up a bit so it isn't so flat looking. I even added a little glue to the big ones to attach them to the side of the big flowers.

Last, roll up your long fringed strip like a fruit roll up and glue it closed. Bend down some of the fringe starting at the outer edge leaving the fringe in the middle standing straight up or bending it in towards the center a little. Glue this to the center of your flower.




Once your flowers are ready to go stuff your eggs with treats. I used chocolate peanut butter eggs, chocolate bunnies and carrots, and cute little Easter erasers.




Cut lengths of ribbon for your eggs. I like the ribbons to dangle festively from the garland. To tie on large plastic eggs you'll need 16 to 18 inch pieces of ribbon. To tie on small or medium eggs cut 10 to 12 inch pieces. Tie an egg on to your garland to make sure you like the length of ribbon hanging.




Instead of starting my garland from scratch I used a dollar store garland leftover from Nora's birthday party. This cheap garland was simple and sparse - the perfect base for adding a whole bunch of cuteness. You can also use a long sturdy ribbon.




First affix your flowers to your garland interspersing them evenly along the length. Then you can start tying on eggs. The stuffed eggs will make your garland a little heavy so take that into account if you hang it.



Happy Easter crafting! Here are my templates.

Nature Wreaths

My boys have been little nature scavengers lately. They've turned our kitchen windowsills into a natural museum, including a jar full of chicken feathers (our neighbor's lost a chicken to a bobcat).

Mateo, my eldest, came back with several big bunches of some scraggly looking plant. Apparently it hangs all over the Oak trees around here. He jumped and climbed and received several scratches and scrapes to obtain his prized bundles. That's the kind of kid he is. 💖 I asked my neighbor about the plant (she is quite knowledgeable about all things natural and country out here). She told me that the plant is called Usnea, is non-toxic, and even has herbal uses.

Mateo's hard earned bundles bulging out of a bowl on the windowsill were begging to be used in art class. The plant is quite dry and scratchy and sticks to itself wonderfully, so I decided we would make wreaths.

I made a prototype first. I cut the center out of a sturdy paper plate with an exacto knife type of tool. I used a hole punch to make two holes on top to loop a ribbon through, and there you go, I had myself a frame to build on.

I took small sections of the plant and wrapped it around the plate gently pushing the plant into itself to stick it together. I overlapped each layer a little for good stick and good coverage. This is a totally great plant to work with.



















At this stage I was ready to bring in the boys. I prepared their plates, they picked ribbons, and we got to wrapping. This is a good floor activity. The plant is messy and a quick vacuum at the end of our project was all that was needed to clean up.

Mateo loved making his wreath. Ezra was a slightly different story. You know you've missed the mark just a bit when your youngest asks you if you can do his for him. 😜 After some more instruction, and hands on help, Ezra got his done too and was very proud of his wreath.

Here's my finished wreath on the door. Pardon my fingers. I had to steady the wreath to get the shot - windy day.