Supplies for Bottle Cap Bookmarks

• 1 inch hole punch
• scrap booking paper
• 1 inch epoxy stickers
• jumbo paper clips
• bottle caps
• craft glue

With a 1 inch circle punch cut scrapbook paper.

Place a thin layer of craft glue on the inside of the bottle cap.

Place the 1 inch paper circle in the bottle cap. Press firmly smoothing paper. Next place the 1 inch epoxy sticker on top of the paper.

Hot glue the jumbo paper clip to the back of the  bottle cap.

It doesn’t take long to make a bunch of beautiful bookmarks!

A thoughtful and useful gift for mom, or other loved one!

Teacher Appreciation Week is the first full week in May.  This little gift will knock their socks off! …. and what teacher doesn’t love cupcakes!

These aren’t really cupcakes they are socks! Perfect to keep your teacher’s feet warm.

Sock Cupcake Supplies

1 two cupcake bakery box

1 two cupcake insert

2 – straight sided baking cups

2 pairs of sock (the furry spa socks are fun and cozy)

2 rubber bands

2 – 1 ” pom pom

Glue dot or dimensional glue sticker

Gift tag

Roll up one pair of socks and fasten with a rubber band.

Place socks into the straight sided baking cups. Using a glue dot or dimensional glue sticker attach the pom pom to the top. Now repeat the process with the other pair of socks.

Edges of socks can be rolled down to make it look more like frosting.

Put sock cupcakes in the bakery box and tie up with a cute gift tag and ribbon.

Now you are ready to let your teacher know they knock your socks off!

If you would like more teacher appreciation gift ideas, don’t miss my Teacher Appreciation Ideas series. Amazing bloggers are sharing some fun ways to show your appreciation!

Printable Leprechaun Beard Download

Download the printable leprechaun beard and color the beard area.

Cut out the leprechaun costume paper beard.

Fold mustache on dotted line.

Color mustache.

Staple a string or elastic cord to the edges. I stapled and then tied a knot around the staple to make it secure.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, kids!

Poke the toothpicks into the gumdrops.

The gumdrops will hold the toothpicks together.

Amazing structures can be created! And when you are finished you can have a sweet snack!

First print out the “100 DAYS Project ideas” printable. Here your child can start brainstorming ideas and organizing his/her thoughts.

100 Days Project Ideas Printable

Depending on your school, kids might be asked to bring items glued to poster board or it can be items hooked together like a necklace, banner or items turned into sculpture.

Here are a few ideas to get you started!

• make a cheerio necklace with 100 Cheerios
• make a paper clip chain
• paper chain
• fill a jar with 100 jelly beans
• make a paper lady bug with 100 spots
• 100 Dollars with play money
• popcorn bucket filled with 100 pieces of popcorn
• 100 stickers
• 100 cars on a cardboard race track

We Tell us your ideas for the 100 Days Project!

[Editor: here's a link to fun 100th Day of School Projects from around the web.]

Looking for a simple and mess free craft to celebrate the holidays? These washi tape Christmas tree ornaments are just that.

All you need for this tutorial is washi tape, a plastic ornament and scissors. I love Downtown Tape for finding great washi tape. The plastic ornaments and more washi tape can be found at Michael’s Arts & Crafts.

Simply wrap the tape around the plastic ornaments. Cut to different lengths, overlap, make patterns……the sky is the limit.

Ta-da! Beautiful ornaments to adorn your tree!

Letter to Santa

Just print out our free Letter to Santa printable and start writing!

Bella has a December birthday so she has been lucky enough to have breakfast with Santa for her parties.  As you can see from her letter he is an important guest!

There are several ways that you can Send Santa letters to:

1) You can send to Santa Claus at the North Pole, or
2) You can have your child send letters to US Postal offices participating in Operation Santa through

Santa Claus
LOCAL CITY, STATE ZIP CODE

Some US postal offices cities participating in Operation Santa Letter that have “Christmas sounding” names:
Bethlehem, PA 18016
Faith, SD 57626
Garland, UT 84312
Nazareth, TX 79063
Snowflake, AZ 85937

Here’s a longer list of interesting Christmasy post office addresses. Aren’t these addresses awesome?

According to the US Postal Service, if you would like your child to receive a letter in return from Santa with a North Pole postmark, you (the parent) need to do the writing, but they’ll help you out:

Here’s how to obtain a letter with a “North Pole” Postmark
* Write a letter to your child and sign it from Santa
* Place this letter into an envelope addressed to your child with the return address from SANTA, NORTH POLE (Please make sure you have a First-Class® stamp affixed to the envelope).
* Place that envelope into a larger envelope, with appropriate postage, and address the larger envelope to:
NORTH POLE CHRISTMAS CANCELLATION
POSTMASTER
4141 POSTMARK DR
ANCHORAGE AK 99530-9998

Last year, the letters from Santa needed to be received in Anchorage, AK, before December 10. After that date, they needed to be sent via Express Mail. I will update this post once I know the new deadline (which has yet to be announced).
 

These simple puppets take only a few supplies, things you probably already have!

Start with a 8 1/2″ X 11″ piece of bright-colored paper.

Fold the paper in thirds, length-wise.

Fold the paper in fourths.

You have created a perfect place for fingers to slip in!

Now it is time to decorate. Glue bits of paper, googley eyes, pipe cleaners, etc to make a fun monster. We cut our bits of paper a little longer than needed, then folded to create a tab to glue to the puppet.

So easy and fun to turn a simple piece of paper into a puppet.

Download the pdf, print in color on white card-stock.

Printable Lunch Box Jokes

Cut out the individual jokes.

Fold on dotted lines.

Place permanent glue stick on the center of the strip on the blank side.

Fold the right side in, making it permanently secured.

Dab a tiny bit of Scotch removable restickable glue stick on the right edge, just enough to keep the flap closed, but sill allow it to be opened.

So why is it hard to play cards in the jungle?

…………….. too many Cheetahs!

Joke Sources: Activity Village, Enchanted Learning, Aha Jokes

To make these refrigerator magnets you will need a photocopy (not inkjet) of a favorite photograph sized for the wooden shapes,  wooden shapes (Michael’s Arts & Crafts has a great selection), Decoupage, medium magnet clips, strong adheasive like E600 (use in a well-ventilated area), an x-acto knife for trimming (for use by a responsible adult) and a foam brush.

Trace around the wooden shape on the photocopy with a pen and cut out. It will be slightly larger than the wooden shape, it will get trimmed later.

Paint wood with a thin coat of decoupage and place photocopy on top.   Allow to completely dry and then flip it over and trim any excess paper (the x-acto knife should be handled by a responsible adult).

Paint two coats of decoupage on top of the photocopy allowing decoupage to dry between coats.

Once decoupage is dry, glue the wood shape to the magnet handle. When glue is dry you have an adorable magnet!

These magnets would make great handmade gifts! If you are looking for more handmade gift ideas please check out The Handmade Gift Guide I created!

** Don’t forget when crafting with magnets, to always be extra careful around small children and pets because of ingestion risk. Though the magnets we use in this craft are medium-sized, we’re using it as an opportunity to remind folks.