Happy Valentine's Day

I can't believe that it is already February and Valentine's Day! We have been so busy and I am so behind in posting projects. We have been doing things though! Let me share what's been going on since my last post.

We have had a few Upward basketball games...

 We have done a few pageants...

We have gone to a few birthday parties...

We have celebrated a few birthdays...

We have cleaned up and organized a little...

We have watched MyCraftChannel.com and fallen in love with Teresa Collins and Heidi Swapp (already loved Sarah Hamer with Sarah's Stack Up and MyPinkStamper, Robyn, on her site)...

This is one of the first books I made with inspiration from Teresa Collins and using my Cinch I received for Christmas. So fun!! I have made a few other books from Heidi Swapp's inspiration, and I'll try to post those as well.

And finally, here are the Valentine's treats for my kids' classmates.

We do alot with Smarties around here as they are a safe treat with our little one's food allergies. Just retested him this last month too, and we still have to avoid milk and eggs.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Home Run! Goodie Bags

Lately, I have been enjoying putting together goodie bags for my kids and their various school and extra curricular activities.  Here is the latest one for my son's ball team.  It is for their end-of-season party.  Go Rangers! 

I had to make 11, so I mass produce in this case.  I usually do one trial run so I can work the kinks out.  But as usual, I always run across a way that I should have done it when I'm in the middle of "production".  I'll always try to include those tips along the way -- lessons learned!
Supplies
4x4 cello bags (I order from GTBags.com)
red, black, and white cardstock
patterned paper (I used a piece from an Assorted Pack at Hobby Lobby.  First time I bought this pack, and it's great!  It comes with 50 preselected sheets -- you don't know what you're gonna get -- for $7.99.  Paper packs were on sale for 50% off, so I got 50 sheets for $4!)
Cricut cartridge - Plantin Schoolbook
Stapler, scissors, adhesive, paper trimmer, pop dots
CANDY

1. Cut the Blast shape from Cricut cartridge.  I cut white shape at 1.35" and black one at 1.82" -- I have a Gypsy, so that's how I get those odd sizes.  If you don't have a Cricut or that cartridge, you can use any shape you want for the background of the baseball.
2. Stamp baseballs and cut out.  Apply pop dots to back.

3. Cut out 4 x 4.5 toppers from red cardstock.  Score the 4" length at 2" to make your topper fold. Fold the topper and go ahead and stamp "Home Run" on topper in upper right or lower right.  Lesson Learned -- waiting until after you've applied topper onto bag can make it difficult to stamp because of candy in bag!!
4. Fill your bags with candy.
5. Fold the red topper over bag and staple -- place the staple at location where patterned paper will cover.
6. Cut patterned paper at 4.5 x 1.  Adhere to red toppers.
7. Adhere the white and black blasts to one another and attach to topper.
8. Attach the baseball to blasts.

Have fun making your own goodie bags!