Crafts

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

The Ultimate Ice Cream Social with International Delight

1 · Aug 12, 2013 ·

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of International Delight Coffee Creamer. I love it in my drinks, I love to bake with it, heck… I even craft with my empty bottles! So… When International Delight™ introduced their new line of Cold Stone Creamery™ Coffee Creamers you know I was first in line to give these new flavors a go!

They are sweet and luscious and summer in a bottle. Somehow they managed to bottle those special summer days in those Cold Stone Creamery™ bottles. Days that you look back and remember walking down the boardwalk at the beach with your favorite ice cream melting down the waffle cone with your best friends chasing after some cute boys. Catching fireflies in the back yard with a cold mason jar full of vanilla ice cream, topped with fresh chocolate chip cookie crumbles and another jar collecting those magical little bugs. Swapping stories with your grandpa on the front porch sharing a pint of Sweet Cream. You know… Those kind of summer days!

We have four new flavors to test out. Sweet Cream, Hot for Cookie, Founder's Favorite & Churro Caramel! Four new flavor combinations to inspire you as we wrap up this summer. Doesn't that just make you want to plan the ultimate ice cream social? We are hitting the home stretch and the summer is almost over. My kiddos actually head back to school today, wouldn't it be fun to send summer out with a bang with the best ice cream party on the block? I've pulled together a fun Pinterest Board with all kinds of ice cream social ideas, here's what I would love to create to celebrate the last few weeks of summer…

… Are you inspired? I know my taste buds are a buzzing! Want some more inspiration? You can check out International Delight's Boards for even more fun.

How would you like the chance to throw your very own Ultimate Ice Cream Social with the help of International Delight? FIVE lucky readers will get to do just that in International Delight's Pin to Win Sweeps! Here are the rules.

Love ice cream + coffee? This summer, International Delight is bringing your favorite Cold Stone Creamery ice cream flavors to coffee and they're celebrating by giving away five $400 grand prizes to throw this summer’s ultimate Ice Cream Social! To enter, visit the ID + Ice Cream Pinterest board and pin your favorite image using the #IScream4ID hashtag. Good luck!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

Ruffled Apple Pencil Holder // Back to School

1 · Aug 11, 2013 · 3 Comments

Back to School // Hello fabulous Whipperberry readers! Jenn here from Clean and Scentsible! I am back today with a cute and easy teacher gift idea for you. Yes, unfortunately {or fortunately for some of you!} it is almost back to school time!

One of my favorite projects from last year were these ruffled pumpkins. With just a little change of color and a few different embellishments, this idea was easily able to be adapted into this ruffled apple pencil holder.

Materials

4 inch Styrofoam ball
straight pins
red felt {I used approximately 10 8.5 x11 inch felt sheets}
green material or felt scrap {big enough to cut two leaves}
hot glue {optional}
pencil or pen
3 inch punch or other circular shape to trace for the felt circles
mini-chalkboard {optional}

To Do

Cut out or use a paper punch to create a circular template that is approximately 3 inches in diameter. If you are using the 8.5 inch felt sheets like I did, you may want to trim this down just a bit so you can get 3 circles across.
Cut out your felt circles. I'm not sure exactly how many I did but definitely over a 100. Place 2 or 3 sheets of the felt together when you are cutting so you can cut out multiple circles at one time. It's a great mindless activity to do while you are watching your favorite television show! 🙂
Using a knife, cut a small sliver off the bottom of the Styrofoam ball so that it will sit flat.

Using a pen or pencil slightly larger than your pencil width, poke a hole through the center of your ball. {this should run the full diameter of the ball}.
Take a felt circle, fold it in half and then fold it in half again. Place a straight pin through the pointy part of your felt circle and pin it to your Styrofoam ball. Start at the top of the ball and work your way down and around the ball overlapping your circles as you go.

The last row of pins on the bottom of the apple were a little loose and a couple of them were starting to pop out so I hot glued one more circle over top to cover the pins up and ensure that they stayed in place. It gives it a much more finished look as well.

I have had these mini-chalkboards lying around in my stash forever and I can't remember where I purchased them from. I just used one for my picnic caddy and had one left over. I just used a little stain to darken up the wood and added the teacher's name with a chalk pen. I used another straight pin to attach it to the apple.

Cut out a couple of leaf shapes from the green material and pinch at one end. The "pinch" will let it stand up more. Pin to your apple near the top.

Now just add your pen or pencil and you are all ready to go! It's a unique and functional gift for your kiddos to give to their favorite new teacher!

For those of you that are already looking ahead to fall, here are a few ideas to get you started….

Ruffled Pumpkin

Slow Cooker Apple Crisp
Pumpkin Soap

Enjoy the rest of your summer and I hope you all have a smooth Back to School transition! 🙂

Friday Flair Link Party // Features no. 7

0 · Aug 9, 2013 · 27 Comments

Friday Flair Link Party // Happy Friday!! Where has this summer gone?! My kiddos start school next week and I can't believe that summer 2013 will then come to an end. This is the earliest we've even gone back to school. I'm used to the week before Labor Day so this is a little odd for us.

In other news… We're moving AGAIN!! Yepo, we have finally found a house here in Lincoln that fits all of our needs and I'm THRILLED that we found it before the school year started. Just in the nick of time really, but before, so that's great. Now we get to start school and move at the same time… Great! We've been packing up as much as possible this week with a few back to school errands peppered in. I'm so excited to get into the new house and finally start building a home here!! We're still renting, so I don't have carte blanche but I have some fun ideas that I can't wait to start working on.

Speaking of fabulous ideas… Last weeks Friday Flair was packed full of great ideas for home and kitchen!! Here are some of the great post that caught my eye last week.

diy photo clipboards (love grows wild) // chocolate and cookie butter mousse cake (dieters downfall) // diy slipcovered headboard (tatertots and jell-o)

calzones (love grows wild) // diy rustic bench (live laugh rowe} // remoulade sauce (wonky wonderful)

coastal bliss dress (sugar tart crafts) // s'more treat bag (polka dots on parade) // diy painted rug (live love larson)

glazed peanut butter chocolate chip donuts by java cupcake (via pint sized baker) // pink grapefruit margarita (today's creative blog) // greek chicken (a pretty life)

Let's Get the Link Party Started!!

Dressing-Up our Skinny Cow WoCavé // Mission no. 2

0 · Aug 8, 2013 · 4 Comments

This post brought to you by the Skinny Cow WoCavé // Who's ready for the skinny on my 2nd Skinny Cow WoCavé mission? It was so fun!! If you've missed it, here's the post all about this summer's fun adventure with Skinny Cow and the recap of Mission no. 1.

Basically my mission this summer is to rediscover my WoCavé. What is a WoCavé you ask? Well, your WoCavé is what ever helps you find your true self, it's what helps you fill your tanks so that you are ready to make life magical for your loved ones and tackle the challenges of the day. It can be a special place in your home where you can go to recharge or just a state of mind really. It's where the men are scarce and the Skinny Cow flows abundantly!!

Mission no. 2 involved a fun vintage shopping trip with some friends to find a few treasures to dress up our WoCavé. It was the fanciest shopping trip I've ever been on. We were picked up and whisked off for for our fun day with our very own driver in a fancy Town Car…

Heading out with my friends Kristen and Jamie for a fabulous trip around town. We of course started our journey with some Skinny Cow Snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches that were simply divine! These are available only for a limited time and they are amazing. The cookies have just the right spice for a snickerdoodle and the ice cream is just so creamy. At only 140 calories, 2 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber they were the perfect snack to start our shopping trip with!

Of course my Better Life Bag had to join us for the trip… Love that bag!! I decided that we would hit up some Junk shops here in Lincoln that I have fallen in love with. The first stop was Simply Bungalow…

…One of my favorite places here in town. I've been junking for a few years now, but it was so fun to introduce Jamie and Kristen to one of my passions. Junking is a mix of vintage shopping, antiquing, thrifting all rolled up into one. It's a treasure hunt really and it's so addicting. I'm always on the hunt for rusty gold or something unique to show off my personality. Heidi, the shop owner at Simply Bungalow has a great shop in this old house on 48th Street here in Lincoln that is full of all kinds of treasures!

Next, our driver whisked us away to The Coop, another vintage store that is full of fun old goodies and some repurposed items.

We were on the hunt for the perfect item for each of us to dress up our WoCavé and after a couple of hours of shopping, we took a break and headed to Fireworks for a fabulous lunch!

We were feeling rather spoiled at this point and definitely feeling the WoCavé groove!! It was so fun to get to know each other better. We sat and chatted about our treasure hunt and finally decided on the perfect pieces to dress up our little WoCavé spaces at home. We grabbed our driver and headed back to Simply Bungalow to make our purchases…

We found some great stuff, it was so hard to choose!! I found an old advertising piece that I just love and it will go perfect in my new kitchen which is for sure going to be my WoCavé. Kristen and Jamie found some fun pieces that they are planning on painting and the repurposing for their WoCavé spaces. I had so much fun introducing them to this fun way of dressing up their homes and can't wait for more shopping trips together in the future. I think they have both been bitten by the junking bug for sure!!

What does your WoCavé look like? If you had your dream shopping day what stores would you love to go to? Are you a junker like me or would you rather go on a more contemporary shop?

For more Skinny Cow WoCavé fun, you HAVE TO follow them on Instagram, Facebook or sign up for the new Club Skinny!

Disclaimer // this post is sponsored by Skinny Cow. However, all thoughts, ideas and opinion are my very own!

Crafts

Let's Get the Link Party Started!!

Footer