Thanksgiving Banner

 

 

Can you believe in less than one week, Thanksgiving will be here? It crept up on me this year, truly. I had so many things I wanted to accomplish before it got here - crafts, blog posts, new recipes...

 

I do have a few projects in the works and I am going to try my hardest to finish them up this weekend. And then of course share them with all of you during the week.

 

But today, I want to share a quick little banner I made with inspiration from the Silhouette blog, you can read that post here. 

 

I ended up making my own banner shape from scratch. If you have a cameo and would like to use my file, I am more than happy to share. You can download the free Silhouette Cameo files here.

 



 

 

 

I decided to use a metallic gold paper for the background. I'm loving all things gold right now. To view all the details in making this type of banner, please refer to the Silhouette tutorial I mentioned earlier.

 

 

 

I cut out a bunch of maple leaf shapes that were pre-loaded in my software for the cameo. Because they are not mine to share, they are not included in the free files, but my guess is that you already have them in your shape library.

 

 

Then, using some twin, I strung the banner together and using scotch tape, added bunched leaves to the corners.

 

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Lisa :) 

Candy Free Halloween Party Favors

 

I remember being shocked by the amount of candy handed out at the very first Halloween party or "Fall" Party that my oldest went to at school. He was 4 and came home with a pile of tiny bags filled with treats. Don't get me wrong, I know how much fun it is to put together little things for the kids and I love seeing their eyes light up in excitement just as much as the next parent. I just wish there was a little less junk food.

 

I was bound and determined this year to find something for my kids to hand out that didn't involve sugar, and wasn't "totally lame". That's no easy feat, let me tell you. So I was thrilled when I came across these free printable bookmarks (click on the link to get your own!).

Look at how cute they are! But not only that, they meet my son's "cool" standard (he's in second grade - I know the bar will keep getting higher).

 

I printed out enough for 32 bookmarks on white 65# cardstock. After cutting them all out, I decided to laminate them for extra durability.

 

A word of advice - don't do like me and put your laminator on top of the stove. As I was snapping this pic, I failed to notice the corner getting stuck in the stove burners. Yup, I had a nice little hot plastic jam to fish out.

 

 

Here's a nice shot of my crinkled mess for you :)

 

 

After a little bit of damage control, I trimmed them up and there you have it! Super cute, inexpensive and candy free!

 

My initial plan was to punch a hole at the top of each bookmark and attach a ribbon. I was advised by my 7 year old that ribbons would make it too girly for his friends that are boys. We both agreed they were good like this.

 

 

I would love to hear some other candy free favor ideas. I'm still on the search for a preschool age appropriate handout. I would love some help!

 

Have a great day!

-Lisa

Hanger Tags - Easy Organization - Free Printables!

I am always looking for ways to streamline our mornings, especially now that I have three little ones to get up and out the door by 7:10 AM. I have never been much of a morning person. It usually takes me a good 30 minutes of slow-moving and a really hot, strong and large cup of coffee to get me going. Unfortunately, I think my children are following in my footsteps, and they don't get the option of coffee to help them out.

I have found that a little extra prep before bedtime goes a long way in this house. Which brings me to today's free printable. Hanger tags! Labeled with each day of the week, they minimize the amount of time wasted looking for the "right" outfit for each morning and reinforce the days of the week for my oldest two.

My little one loves pink, can you tell?


On Sunday night, we pick out everyone's clothing for the week and put them on hangers. I fold pants on the hanger and then put the tops on over those. Then we just pop on the hanger tags and hang up the outfits in order. This takes about 15 minutes total for all three kids, and I know it saves us loads of time overall during the week.

I may try and streamline this even more by simply adding a new outfit to the empty hanger and putting it in the back of the line. That would eliminate the 15 minute chunk of time on Sunday nights.

If you want to try it out, just click on the link below to a free PDF. There's two sets, blue and purple, in the document. I would suggest printing these out on card stock and using an exacto knife to cut them out. If this continues to work well in our house, I will probably laminate them as well.


Click here to download these for free.

Have a great day!