Gift giving

I have mentioned this before, but will mention this again... I administrate a Facebook group called "Extraordinary Visiting Teachers."

   

You should go join, because there is a lot of really good conversation on that group, that can be so helpful in so many ways! Anyhow....I recently posted  a page of ideas to help people come up with "Easy, quick and cheap, but thoughtful things to take to a friend," which are gift giving ideas.  I cannot tell you how often I am in need of  a little thoughtful gift to give to someone at a minutes notice.  I included links to some blogs or websites for some of them, but I have no affiliation with any of them, but needed an example of the gift ideas. (You know what they say... a Picture is worth a thousand words.)  Anyway... Feel free to use these or copy the page, and pass it on to help others.  That is what it is all about... Serving others, and a side benefit from doing kind things for others is that it makes you feel so darn good too!  Go out and serve.  Enjoy!  Katie G

Cute Easter Ideas

I have been so swamped with so many other things to create my own ideas for Easter, so I have found some cute ones that I wanted to pass on to you.  Darling ideas, and the links to them. 

This is the link to this darling "Carrot" filled template.  Easy to create!  http://emilyburnette.blogspot.com/   How cute would this be to take as a little Easter Visiting Teaching gift?  I think I am going to use this template for my visiting teaching.  My sisters and I are going to lunch at Olive Garden to get to know each other better.  Over lunch I will give the lesson, and then this will be a fun and cute take home for them to enjoy.  I want my sisters to feel loved.  I wrote Emily who is the author of the website that this idea was founded, and I found out she is LDS too.  Isn't it fun to find sisters throughout the world with the same goals, and efforts to serve others.  Thanks Emily!

SMORES IN A JAR can be found at this site: http://rootsandwingsco.blogspot.com/2009/03/smores-in-jar-for-easter.html   At this site, she had many ideas that are great for Easter.  I love the cute marshamallow bunnies that are being made now in different colors anf flavors.  Of course I am a Peep lover, and would probably use peeps.

Now speaking of Peeps, if you go back into my archives you can find all kinds of great ideas to use Peeps with.  Click on this link  http://visitingteachingsurprise.blogspot.com/search/label/Easter  and it brings up all my Easter and Sprintime ideas. 

Now lookie what I found.... Templates to make Easter Baskets.  The first one is created by "Tracy" and she use to design for Digichick, but I can't find a link to her.  The second one can be found at http://kelleighratzlaff.com/headline/the-easter-basket-template-set-and-cutting-files/ She has a template and other darling baskets that she made including a Birthday basket. 

They can be made up so cute with the darling digital or other scrapbook papers that are available now.  I just suggest that you get one that is printed on cardstock so it will be more durable.  Wouldn't it be sad if you went to all that work to make such a cute basket, and it broke because the paper wasn't strong enough.  There is a solution if you find just the right print on paper..... if you use spray glue and glue it to a piece of cardstock, then it would be heavy enough to use for an Easter basket.  Here is one freebie template link http://guidinguk.freeservers.com/Easter-basket.html and another one that is pictured next comes from

http://jannekesmit.blogspot.com/2010/04/free-easter-basket-template.html  Jannie who is the designer at this site, encourages you to make up her template and then take a photo of how it turned out and send it to her.  That would be a nice way of saying Thank-you for using her template design for free.

I could go on and on with Easter ideas to give to the women you Visit Teach or to Friends, neighbors, your own children, parents, or whomever, but my time is gone and I need to clean my house, lest my husband return and say... "Did a tornado go through today?"  Just kidding, he is really patient with me as he knows my love for creating cute things, but I do need to stop now.  Hope you enjoy these ideas and if you have a cute one and would like to share.... please let me know.  My email is listed on the right column of this blog.  Happy Easter!  Katie G.

Very Cute Valentine Ideas

 

   Have been looking for some cute and original Valentine Ideas to do for my children.  I have found some really cute one that I wanted to provide links so that you too could see these fun things to do.  Here is the first one that I found.  It is soooo cute and would be cute even not hanging with a berry wreath behind it.  I have put this link below the image.  To see it closer, click on the image 
http://www.lilluna.com/2011/01/tutorial-tuesday-valentines-wreath.html  There is a complete tutorial of how this was made and it only cost $4! 

Now I found this next one in my search for really cute and creative things to do for Valentines at this site: http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/01/whimsical-valentine-wreath.html  I can't believe just by looking at the picture that it is made out of cupcake liners.  The tutorial on how to make it is on the blog, so be sure to go to it and have a look see!  My mind of course went wild with this one, because think about all the other holidays that you would like to have  a wreath up and you could buy the cupcake liners for St. Patricks Day ( which I have a hard time finding decorations that I actually like for that holiday) of for any other holiday or time of year!   SO CUTE!  Make sure to scroll down below the instructions, because displayed on that blog are a bunch of other cupcake wreaths!

When I find some ideas from blogs that I like, I usually find that their tastes are like mine, so I really enjoy looking at the other cute things they have created, and I make sure to save them to my favorites list so I can find them again when I need another project.  So.... I kept looking around on this same blog and found this other cute idea for Valentines Day....  They are playing cards made into Valentine Coupons.  Now how cute and cleaver is this?  She even has the printable coupon link on it so you can benefit from her work and ideas.  It is so very cute.  Here is the direct link to this project http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/02/valentine-project-playing-card-coupon.html  You will need to go look at other projects on this blog because she has so many other ones that are just darling!  So here is the link that will take you there http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/search/label/crafts 

and as I scrolled down I came to these darling flowers made out of felt or leather, but I also thought you could buy some vinyl and make them too.  http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/11/1-leather-or-felt-flower-gift-idea-with.html is the direct link to the tutorial to make these but what a versatile project.  These could be given as a gift to someone or made for yourself to have a purse clip, a hair clip, a belt clip, a shoe clip or any other kind of clip that you came up with.   I absolutely love this site and the ideas that she has so cleverly come up with that are new and fresh.  You know, I have seen cute purses that have cute flowers and ruffles all over them, and you could make one using a plain purse or bag pattern and adorn your purse with these darling flowers.  We have a store in Utah that is called Home Fabrics, that have bolts and bolts of fabric that can be used for draperies, upholstering  furniture, and they also have large rolls of vinyl and leather for really cheap per yard.  I think this must be a seconds store, but looking at these darling flowers tutorial, my mind went wild about where I can go to get the materials to make something really cute like this. 

This image came from this blog http://ptskjohnson.blogspot.com/2010/09/jizdani-designer-bags-giveaway.html and gives sort of an idea of what you can do to decorate a purse with flowers.  The one on the image aren't the same ones as above, but you can find a pattern for those as well online.  Look how she has added a cute button to the center of the flower to make it even cuter!
Here is a link to a site that has all different kinds of free patterns for making purses that you can use.  There is even one that is made out of duct tape if you can imagine!!!!
http://pursepatterns.com/free_bag_patterns.html    Here is one that looks very simple to make, http://tinyhappy.typepad.com/tiny_happy/2006/06/shoulder_bag_tu.html and would be darling with flowers all over the front of it.  I would make the purse in a vinyl and then put darling fabric or vinyl flowers all over the front of it.  I found this purse at this site http://craftstew.com/sewing/free-purse-and-tote-bag-patterns and it has lots of other purse patterns too.  I think just alittle clutch purse with a zipper would be so cute decorated with these flowers.  Can you tell I like these flowers???

 
           One last thing... Don't forget to go to my own Valentine ideas on this site that I have created in the past years for ideas too.  (go to the Labels section on the right and at the bottom, click on "Valentines" ..They are still cute and current ideas and there are printable things that make it so much easier, that is if you own a printer.  Enjoy!  Katie G.