Getting an Early Start for Valentine's Day

Can you guess what we are doing with all these crayon pieces?

The kids and I are making heart shaped crayons.

The boys loved how the crayons turned out being multicolored. It's neat to see how different each one turns out.

We were getting a head start on making gifts for Valentine's Day. Jeremiah is excited to take these for all his Puggles friends at church.

We made soap dispensers last year for Valentine's Day and this was one of my kids favorite projects. I had my daycare kids make them this week so they can enjoy using it before Valentine's Day. The girls had so much fun and they loved it! We have some friends coming at the end of this week to make more soap dispensers and my boys will decorate one for their Nana & Great Grandma too. These make the perfect gifts for family! :-)'

Shutterfly Christmas Card Giveaway

I can't believe Christmas is just right around the corner. Seriously, where has the time gone!? Each year, I get so excited to send out Christmas cards to all our family and friends. One of my favorite photo companies is Shutterfly. I have used their services for years and I have always loved the products that I have ordered. We have a tradition each year of ordering personalized Photo Calendars for ourselves and both sets of Grandparents as an annual Christmas gift. Photo Books are also great too! Who wouldn't love seeing pictures of their Grand kids!?

Here is the Christmas card I ordered from Shutterfly last year. The print quality was amazing and I have never gotten so many comments and compliments (maybe because my boys are the cutest kids ever......ok, so I'm a little biased) on a Christmas card of all things.



Shutterfly just recently released their new Christmas cards for 2011. It's always so difficult to pick out which Christmas card I want to order because they have so many great designs to choose from. I was browsing through all the designs and here are the two I'm contemplating on ordering this year.






Now comes the fun part! Shutterfly is generously allowing me to give away a set of 25 free cards (of the winner’s choosing!) to three of my blog readers. Yay! To enter, leave a comment and I’ll choose a random winner on Friday, November 11th. So, head over to Shutterfly and start picking out your faves.

Looking for the Perfect Holiday Photo Card

Are you looking for the perfect Holiday Photo Card? Shutterfly has just about every selection of Holiday Photo Cards available to choose from to fit your needs. There are three different styles available: Folded Greeting Cards, Flat Stationary Cards and Flat Photo Cards. As you can see, the varieties are endless to choose from. I always have such a hard time figuring out which one I want to use every year because they always have such great designs!

Here are my three favorite Holiday Cards:

This is my favorite photo card. Faith And Family Religious 5x7 photo card. It has a nice Christian message with a beautiful elegant script. I also like how is has 3 photo spots available so you can highlight your favorite photos without trying to just choose one.

Rejoice Lord King Religious Christmas 5x7 folded card. Not only does this card have a wonderful message, but it also gives you the ability to add 7 photos which is great if you have a large family & you want to share in all those special photo moments.


Holly Jolly Story Christmas 5x7 folded card. You can include 4 photos with 4 captions and 4 text boxes. These can be used to highlight special events of the year or to highlight each member of your family and they are easier to create than a multi-photo collage on the front of the card.

I have personally ordered Shutterfly Photo Cards for Christmas a couple times in the past and I was extremely happy with the quality. I look forward to getting started on my Christmas Photo Cards now. :)

This post is sponsored by Shutterfly. Bloggers get 50 free cards from Shutterfly, find out how… http://bit.ly/sfly2010.

The Rusted Chain Giveaway

The Rusted Chain is giving away a $25.00 gift certificate. If you haven't heard of them, go here to check them out. There jewelry is awesome & inspiring! I have my eye on a few pieces I would love to have. :)

Handprint Paper Lilies Flower Bouquet

These are the flower bouquets the kids made for Easter. Aren't they just adorable? They actually turned out wayyyy cuter than I imagined. Not only was this extremely easy, but very inexpensive as well. These will be a cute little Easter surprise for my daycare parents.

Enchantedlearning.com is the website I found this cute idea from. This project is called "Handprint Paper Lilies". I thought I would dress it up a little and add a flower pot with some moss on top to make it look a little more unique. The kids just absolutely loved them. I found these cute little butterflies at the dollar store I added to the flower pots with a hot glue gun. It gives it that extra special touch!

These turned out so cute, this would be a great Mother's Day gift too! I know we are all looking for ways to make those special, but unique gifts for those amazing people in our lives, all while trying to keep the cost down (trying to stay within budget people:):):) I only spent $1.75 per flower pot including everything. I had the cardstock & straws on hand already and I got the rest of the items at the dollar store. The moss covered two flower pots and the butterflies came 3 in a pack. I also got the green styrofoam that's on the bottom of the flower pot holding the straws in place. They came four in a pack. This was a fun project to do with the kids!

ArtsCow Photo Coasters $0.99 + FREE Shipping!

ArtsCow is offering up another photo deal! They are offering up Rubber Photo Drink Coasters for just $0.99 + FREE shipping! …And there is no limit to the amount of Coasters you can score for $0.99!

Here’s what you need to do:

• Just go here and choose a photo Coaster.
• Start uploading your photos and then add as many Coasters as you like to your cart.
• At checkout use coupon codeDRK99CST
• Your final total will be just $0.99 + FREE Shipping for each one purchased!
  

I will definitely be making mine later today for someone special! These would make great Valentines Day gifts… especially the Heart Shaped Coasters!