AWB Secret Santa Ornament Exchange

Back this past summer I found out about Arkansas Women Bloggers and was so excited to find a site that is local to my state! Well we had an Ornament swap earlier this month and it was so much fun! I love to craft and this is my first time trying an ornament craft. 

I thought about doing the craft with a plastic ornament but I was worried that the decorations wouldn't stick as good as a glass ornament.

I got an idea for my first ornament from Michaels Projects section. Thankfully Michaels organizes their crafts into how long it will take (ie how crafty you need to be!). The details for this ornament are included in the link above but it mainly consists of double stick tape, silver glitter, a decoration adorned to it and add a bow at the end.

My second ornament was a blend of ideas that I have seen over the internet. A friend had completely handpainted her ornament red and then painted the santa belt. I had also seen the pinterest idea of putting rolled up red paper in the ornament and then painting the belt around the ornament. All I could think about is me not being able to keep the belt straight the whole way around so I figured that the double stick tape I used with the first ornament would work perfectly.

Having never made ornaments I give myself an A- (or maybe a B+) and it was so much fun that I am making more ornaments for our own tree at home with my 8 year old.

I received the cutest ornaments in the mail earlier this week from Jodi at The Coffee House Life and they are absolutely beautiful on my tree. 

 I have seen these before on Pinterest and so glad to have them on my tree! I also received a sweet note with my ornaments and bless her heart she has 3 little girls (5,3,1) and still was able to craft these up! I thought I had it rough with a rambunctious one year old! I love that my angle one had the word hope on it because there are some days in life where you need a little hope and this angel reminds of it. 

Thanks again so much Jodi and Arkansas Women Bloggers for this fun time!

Easy Teacher Apple Book Bag

It's getting to be that time of year...school is almost out and summer is just around the corner. Well what a better way to thank your child's teacher for helping them learn all year than to get them a cute gift!

A bag for a teacher is a must have! They have books and papers and all sort of things to carry to and from work...so what better gift to give them than a new bag!

Luckily when I was out shopping at Walmart the other day they had canvas bags on sale! I got one for 3 bucks! The paint cost like 3 bucks per color so it was all pretty cheap!

You can decorate the bag however you want and I decided to do apples because apples seem to be synonymous with teachers.

 I washed the bag first as most bags will say on the directions and then I tried to iron out as many wrinkles as I could.

 Then I cut an apple in half and used a paper towel to dry it out as much as I could so the paint would stay on the apple.

I then took the apple and dipped it in the paint and applied it to the bag.

I did red on one side and then green on the other and put the teacher's name in writing at the top.

The paint takes about 4 hours to dry.

These are super easy to make and teachers love them!!

 

 On a completely different subject these little mesh snackers are AWESOME! I don't remember these when my oldest was a baby but Olivia sure likes them!