Pink & Black Zebra Banner

My youngest daughter wanted a zebra birthday party.  So I used my new Cricut to make the banner & even cut out the vinyl letters for the bags I got at a dollar store. The bags were their party favor.  I think it all turned out really cute!  Plus was really easy!

Peppermint Hot Cocoa Mix

I do love Pinterest!  I borrowed this recipe and the printables. :)

This is going to be our gifts to our neighbors and it is the best hot cocoa mix!

And so easy too!  I tripled this recipe to make 8 pint mason jars. Plus, had some left over for the family.

Peppermint Hot Cocoa Mix

12 candy canes

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (I added to take it up a notch)

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

I used a food processor to grind the candy canes into a fine powder.

Did the same for the chocolate chips.

Mix all of the ingredients together.

Keep mix in an airtight container.

To make the cocoa, mix 1 cup hot milk with 1/2 cup of cocoa mix.

Thanks to lifeandkitchen.com for the recipe. Can't find my pin for the labels...so as soon as I find which website I got those from...I will thank them. :)

Puppet Theater

 I fancied up this puppet theater for my youngest daughters 2nd grade class.  They do puppet shows every week in reading.  It gives them a great way to read out loud & work on fluency. Using my Cricut, I cut the letters & stars.  Made the curtains & put it on a tension rod.  The kids loved it & all applauded when I was finished.  

40 Sucks!

I love Pinterest and all of the ideas I have gotten from it!  

I made this for my friend's 40th Birthday.

She started when I turned 40, making it a week long event.

So every day she got me something.

For her I made this for the first day.

Really, it only gets better after 40!

40 & Fabulous!

Pink & Brown Initials!

 I painted these for a friend.  She put these in her daughter's room.  So much fun!

I started with 3 -2" thick canvas boards.  You can use any size but here we used 2 - 20 x 20 and 1 - 20 x 24.  I sprayed painted all 3 of them white.  Then I taped off the 2 smaller ones with blue painter's tape.

Next I painted over the whole thing with pink & then took off the tape.

On the center canvas, I used a damask stencil with the same pink color as the stripes.  This is kind of hard because you have to move the stencil around without messing up the other wet paint.  But it turned out!

Then I painted the initials in a dark chocolate brown.  I did the initials freehand.  I still need to get a picture of this final project up on the wall of my friend's daughter.

I really like the way this turned out!  I need to do it for one of my own kids!

Wide Mesh Ribbon Christmas Wreath

Finally made a wide mesh ribbon Christmas wreath!  I bought the ribbon early at Sam's.  They had the best prices on this type of ribbon.  I used a wire coat hanger as the base of the wreath that I had shaped into a circle.  I took the red ribbon... gathered it on the end and taped it on the wire coat hanger.  Then I looped the ribbon, gathered the bottom of the loop & taped it again to the wire hanger.  I did this until I had gone all the way around the wire hanger.  Next, I took the gold ribbon, cut about 12" & then cut that 12" into half.  I then tied it at the base of each loop.  I hot glued an adorable reindeer ornament that finished it off!  My girls love this wreath!

Snowman Hand Sanitizer

Teacher gifts are so hard to come up with sometimes.  I mean...how many candles can a teacher get?  So I bought some hand sanitizers on clearance after back to school rush.  I wrapped some ribbon around the hand sanitizer and tied it in a square knot.  I glued on the foam pieces (snowflake, nose, & buttons) with E6000 glue.  Best glue...takes a while to dry but stays on much better than hot glue.  Also, used this glue for the eyes.
Can't wait to hand them out with my daughter next week.  Plus, this can be used all the winter months not just December. :)