classroom goodies

Tea-Riffic Teacher // Teacher Appreciation Week

14 · May 4, 2014 · 2 Comments

Time to celebrate our Teachers! It’s Teacher Appreciation Week and my daughter Emily and I have come up with a simple and fun idea for your tea loving teachers out there…

Emily’s teacher has been a wonderful support for her this year and we wanted to do something special for her this week. Emily mentioned that she loved tea, so I thought it would be fun to create a tea themed gift. We headed over to Starbucks and bought one of those $1.00 reusable cups and then made a fun new label for the cup.

You can print the cup label on adhesive label paper or Silhouette has a printable adhesive kraft paper that I just LOVE! Print out a sheet and cut out your labels and stick them to the cup. It’s as simple as that. We also added a Starbucks gift card and a box of her favorite tea. It’s a fun yet simple gift idea that any tea loving teacher will love.

Download the printable Tea-Riffic Teacher cup label HERE!

Tomorrow I’ll share a cup label that you can use for your tea loving mother. Yep, that will be two birds with one stone! Plus, I’ll have a fabulous Mother’s Day giveaway that I KNOW you won’t want to miss.

Valentine’s Day Popcorn Pops

2 · Jan 16, 2014 · 4 Comments

Hello Whipperberry friends! Jenn here again from Clean and Scentsible. It seems like Christmas was just yesterday but Valentine's Day will be here before you know it! Today I'm sharing these fun Valentine's Day popcorn pops with you – they're a quick and easy way to spread a little love!

Ingredients

8 cups popped popcorn {this is approximately 5 tbsp. of unpopped kernals}
3 cups mini marshmallows
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
red food coloring
3/4 -1 cup Smarties {these are the Canadian Smarties which are similar to M&Ms in the States!}

Directions

Pop the popcorn and place it in a large bowl {I actually ended up using 2 bowls so I had more mixing space}
Heat the marshmallows, butter, and salt in a large heavy saucepan over medium to low heat stirring continuously until the marshmallows are melted. Add food coloring by drops to make your desired pink color. I just wanted mine a faint pink so I only used about 5-6 drops.
Pour the marshmallow mixture over the popcorn gradually, mixing it well. You can use a greased spoon to do this but I found that it was easiest to grease my hands with butter to mix. {The butter should help to protect your hands from the heat but make sure it is not too hot!} Add the candy.
Shape into balls or use a heart shaped cookie cutter if you would like to do hearts. If you are using the cookie cutter, grease the inner borders and press the popcorn inside the cookie cutter until your shape is formed. Press popcorn firmly together once the cookie cutter is removed to hold.
Insert sucker sticks. For mine I used the basic sucker stick and then added a paper straw over top of it to give it extra strength.
Wrap each ball in plastic wrap. Makes approximately 8 {3 inch diameter} balls.

There are lots of fun ways that you could package them up – add some baker's twine, tie them up in a cellophane bag, or add a cupcake liner and some washi tape! Feel free to get creative – I always find that the packaging is the best part! 🙂

If you would like any of the printables, just head over to Clean and Scentsible for a free download!

If you are looking for other Valentine's Day ideas, you might also like…

Photo Handprint Card / Valentine's Day Teacher Gift / Quick and Easy Valentine's Day Breakfast

I would also love to have you join me on my Household Organization Diet – a year long project to get organized once and for all!

You can always connect with Clean and Scentsible here: FACEBOOK / PINTEREST / INSTAGRAM / TWITTER

Thanks so much to Heather for having me! I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! 🙂

Minty Muddy Chex Party Mix // A Fun Holiday Goodie

2 · Dec 16, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Ahhhh, I love this time of the year! Everyone is starting to focus more on family and getting ready for the holidays. I know in our house with the weather cooling down we are also slowing down and doing more things together like watching movies and playing games together. With all that… We are constantly on the look out for good snacks. One of our all time favorite is the iconic Chex® Party Mix. You can never go wrong when you are snacking on Chex® Party Mix!

Let's start with the cereal it's self… They have EIGHT different flavors! Seven of them are gluten free (Wheat Chex® cereal is not. For more Nutritional information please visit this site and make sure you read each label.) They have everything from Rice Chex®, Corn Chex® and even some super fancy ones like Chocolate, Vanilla and even Apple Cinnamon Chex® Cereal. All of them are like blank canvases when it comes to making Chex® Party Mix. Seriously… The sky is the limit. Don't believe me, check out the Chex® Party Mix Recipe site and you'll see all kinds of fun ideas. The nice thing about the party mix is that, yes… you get to have some of those scrumptious treats that we all crave but, you also get a nice helping of some good whole grains from the Chex® Cereal. Win / win!

The kiddos and I decided to create our own salty & sweet Chex® Party Mix recipe to have around the house. We call it Minty Muddy Chex® Mix and it's a fun flavor combination of sweet chocolate, Jiff's Whipped Peanut Butter & Chocolate Mint Spread, Peanut butter pretzels and salty Corn Chex® Cereal. It's sweet and nutty all at the same time. The bonus… It only takes 15 minutes to make!

Minty Muddy Chex® Party Mix Ingredients

8 cups Corn Chex® cereal

2 cups Vanilla Chex® cereal

1 cup butter

1 cup Jiff's Whipped Peanut Butter Chocolate Mint Spread

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 vanilla

1/2 cup powdered sugar

salt

1 cup mini M&M's

2 cups Rold Gold peanut butter pretzels

Minty Muddy Chex® Party Mix Directions

Start with a small microwave safe bowl. Add a 1/2 a stick of butter, the chocolate chips and the Jiff Whipped Peanut Butter Chocolate Mint Spread. Microwave in 30 second segments until the mixture has melted and is nice and smooth. Remove from Microwave and stir in vanilla. Place 3 cups of Corn Chex® into a large bowl and drizzle chocolate mixture on top. Carefully fold the chocolate mixture into the Corn Chex® Cereal. Place the chocolate covered cereal into a large Ziplock bag and add powdered sugar into the bag. Seal bag and shake the bag until the chocolate covered cereal is covered with the powdered sugar. Pour out onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Place in the refrigerator to set.

In another small microwave safe bowl or measuring cup, add the remaining butter. Place in Microwave for 45-60 seconds or until melted. Add the remaining Corn Chex® cereal into a large microwave safe bowl and drizzle the butter over the top. Add a generous amount of salt to the bowl and gently fold in the butter and salt into the cereal. Once the mixture is mixed well, place in the microwave for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the microwave and place in the refrigerator to cool for a few minutes.

Once your salty and sweet mixture is cool and set, place into a large bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Now, this snack is fabulous to share with family and friends during all of your favorite activities. This year I am going to make up several large batches and then bag them up as a fun holiday treat to share with neighbors, friends, co-workers, the mailman… anyone really!

This post brought to you by Chex® cereal. I have been compensated and given free product for my time & commitment, but all opinions are 100% mine

12 Free Start of School Printables // Great Teacher Gift Ideas

141 · Aug 14, 2013 · 24 Comments

12 free back to school printables // It's here, it's here! Well for some of us anyway. It's back to school time! My kiddos actually started school yesterday, so we are already in full swing school mode. Some of you still have a couple more weeks before those school bells start ringing.

Today, I've teamed up with my talented Printable Club friends to share 12 fabulous back to school printables that are sure to make this year even more magical for your kiddos!

I created a fun printable tag, that when added to a stylish notebook along with some pencils or pens will make a great 1st day teacher gift. If you're feeling extra generous, you can add a Target gift card or something to really earn some extra brownie points.

I found my notebooks at Target along with the gold pencils that paired nicely with the gold accents on the notebooks…

I layered the printable tag with some gold vellum and then cut slits into the sides and fed a ribbon through to secure the tag to the book. I used glue dots on the back of the book to secure the ribbon in the back. It worked rather slick! If you would like to print a fun tag for your kiddo's new teachers this year, all you have to do is click on the arrow in the box below to download the printable tag from Box.com…

For even more printable fun, click through this blog hop to find 11 more free back to school printables from some pretty talented ladies!!

1 // The Dating Divas – A Back To School themed dinner for setting goals with your spouse AND the kids!
2 // Somewhat Simple – Fun and quirky Back To School Tic Tac Labels: Arm your kids this school year with cootie antibiotics, brain cell boosters, and more!
3 // Whipperberry – A great gift for your teacher to start the year off right!
4 // Crafting Chicks – Teacher Emergency Kit to wish them a great year!
5 // Tatertots & Jello – Instagram-ready "hashtag" first day of school photo props.
6 // L'il Luna – An adorable Back to School Teacher Gift!
7 // My Sister's Suitcase – Printable Keepsake to record first and last days of school memories!
8 // I Heart Nap Time – A small gift for the first day of school.
9 // The 36th Avenue – A weekly chart to help keep your kids on track.
10 // Paging Supermom – Free Printable Lunchbox Jokes to brighten your kiddo's school day.
11 // The TomKat Studio – A "Bright" Printable Gift Tag for Teachers!
12 // The Idea Room – DIY Back-to-School Homework "To-Do" Notepad