the great gift idea exchange - part one

We have so many great gift ideas so we are excited to share them with you. Some gifts would be great for family and others are smaller that would be great for neighbors, teachers, and friends. We decided to share 5 ideas at a time so here is our first five. The others will be posted in days to come.

1. Lantern with Candle- These are a beautiful addition to holiday decor and a scented candle only helps this cause, but we also found when our power went out , this makes a safe and practical source of light. It would also be fun to etch the family initial on the glass First get the stencil made out of vinyl and then follow the directions on the etching cream which can be found at most craft stores. The lanterns are available at IKEA for $6.99.
May your holiday be merry and bright!

2. Windshield Wiper Fluid- If you live in a cold area get the kind that doesn't freeze. Add a cute little tag like. This would also work for some fun hand soap.
Here's washing you a Merry Christmas!

3. Family Fleece Blanket- These are especially fun with the family name embroidered on it.
May you have a warm and wonderful holiday.

4. Wooden Block Photo Puzzle - I think these are so fun. Here are a few different instructions.

HowDoesShe

Not So Idle Hands

5. Your favorite family card or board game.

May you have a FUN and wonderful holiday.

congratulations to our winners!!!

Thanks for all your comments and great gift ideas. We almost have them complied and ready to post. Our Great Gift Exchange winners are Kim and Alysha. Kim won the growth chart sticker and Alysha won the apron. Congratulations and thanks again!

simple way of giving thanks

Make a thankful book.

This would be a great activity for little ones while waiting for the delicious dinner or anytime this next week. All you need is:

Scissors

Old Magazines

Paper

Glue

My 4 year old loves loves to cut, glue, color, and tape so this was to perfect afternoon activity at our house. For others not so good with scissors yet I has a pre-cut pile of pictures from old magazines to choose from. We stapled a few pages together to make a book and they decorated to cover. We then chose all sorts of things that we were grateful for and pasted them on all the pages. It was very simple but very fun.

Here are some other Thanksgiving ideas that we thought would be fun.

Nature Give Thanks Banner

Pumpkin Pie Bites

oops, how to get stickies off your iron

Ironing Dryer Sheets

I am sure I am not the only one that has made this mistake so I thought I would share. I was working on a project and while using iron-on-interfacing I did not cover it with the paper completely. Needless to say I had a big mess and one sticky iron plate. So what do I do when I have a problem like this, right google it. I read that you can purchase and expensive iron plate cleaner or you can just iron dryer sheets.

I put an old towel under the dryer sheet, set the iron on to a pretty hot setting, and started ironing. It did take a a few sheets but it is now as good as new. Quick tip that I am sure I may need again in the future.

the thankful tree

We came up with this a few years ago for the Thanksgiving season. We call it the Thankful Tree. I placed a twig from outside (we found a lilac bush to have the best little branches) in a small pot and then filled it with Plaster of Paris. You can find this at any craft store. After this dries place a little bit of moss on top around the twig.

I then cut out some varies colors of small paper leaves , hole punched the top, and threaded a piece to hemp (or string) through.

I then attached this little poem that we had written. You can then write things (or draw pictures) on the leaves and hang them on the tree. This a fun to do throughout the month or on Thanksgiving day. These also make fun little gifts.

I also think that it would be fun doing a similar thing with bigger paper leaves and hang your "Thankful Leaves" on a piece of twine or ribbon. Something like this at Pottery Barn.

password keeper

Do you have a hard time remembering passwords and login names for all of the shopping, bills, registrations, emails, etc. I know that this was becoming a problem at our house. We started writing them on a paper by the computer but were running out of room quickly. We found that an address book worked great for this. I found this one at a dollar store. You just jot down your login and password under the alphabetical letter that is applies to. A is for Amazon, B is for Barnes and Noble, C is for Chase and so on. I hope this helps with the missing passwords at your house.

make a monster friend

A little late than never right. Sorry for the gap in posts. We were having a few technical difficulties and we were also busy Halloweening.

My girls have loved these so much that I thought I would post this anyway. I have seen something similar here at Family Fun.

First I had each child choose scraps of fabric they wanted. You will need two body shapes (whatever you would like). It might be fun to have your child draw a shape and use that. I just cut out a shape. Next you will need two legs, two arms, a pocket on the back (optional), and face materials (buttons, ribbon, beads, felt, etc.)

With the legs and arms already stuffed place all of the parts on the inside and sew around the body shape.

Leave a hole to turn it right side out and then stuff the body and sew up the hole. The most fun for my little one was creating it. They loved to design their own monster.

An after thought I had was to cut out a little felt heart and place that inside while stuffing the body (something similar the Build-A-Bear).

***These little monsters became very helpful at our house because they are not afraid of the dark and will help you at night if you get scared.