I’m over at OCFamily today with this fun pool noodle round-up. Happy Crafting!

It seems like right after Spring Break, summer fever set in and the countdown began! Well, I thought I would create a fun way for her to countdown until summer – perfect for my precocious tween! If you would like to make your own, you can get your free printable below.

Countdown to Summer Printable

Simply print out the Summer Countdown Printable and cut out each colored strip (print out enough copies to count one strip per day left before school is out). For instance, Maggie has 37 days left until school is out, so I printed out 3 copies.

Each colored strip has a funny different saying on it. My tween has decided that every night before she goes to bed, she will tear off of of the chain links and read off the saying to the whole family. Tonight’s was “Hooray, Summer’s closer by one more day!”

After you cut them until, simply connect in a paper chain fashion with a stapler. Then, hang one end onto a ribbon and attach to wall or door in a place that your tween can easily take a chain off a day, until they can finally yell, “Hooray for Summer!”

Hope you enjoy the printable and making your own countdown to summer chain. How are you and your family counting down to the sunny holiday? Share your ideas below. Happy crafting!

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I also had the pleasure over the weekend celebrating a dear friend’s graduation ceremony with my tween. Her daughter and son go to school with my tween, and she just received her Doctorate degree. What an accomplishment! I am so impressed, and I love calling her Doctor now. And as soon as I saw this inspiration on Pinterest, I knew I had to make her a chocolate graduation cap bouquet as a fun and delicious homemade gift.

Here is what I used to make the chocolate graduation caps:

• Dark chocolate mini Reese’s peanut butter cups
• Dark chocolate candy melts
• Lollipop sticks
• Mini M&M’s
• Colored Candy Decorating Pen

I melted the candy melts in the a ziplock bag for a minute, and squeezed the chocolate into small square silicone pan. I used a silicone mold for small brownies, but I know you can buy square candy molds as well. I tapped the mold on the table lightly until the melted chocolate had settled to create even square bars, and put into the refrigerator to set up. These create the top of the graduation cap.

Next, I carefully inserted the lollipop sticks into the top of each peanut butter cup. I used a toothpick first to create a hole, since putting too much pressure sometimes split the peanut butter cup in half. I put on a plate and placed these in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes too to make they were completely set up. Sometimes the heat from my fingers was enough to melt them just enough to want to come off the sticks.

Then it was assembly time. Using the candy writer as “glue” I attached a square chocolate on top of each peanut butter cup. I let the hats sit “upside-down” on a plate until they quickly set up before arranging each peanut butter cup on a stick on a Styrofoam circle that I placed in a small planter.

The last step was adding a stripe of color from the candy decorator pen and attaching the mini M&M at the top. I coordinated the colors to the university she was graduating from. This created the tassel.

After the whole chocolate bouquet was set up, I covered up the Styrofoam with some gift wrap filler paper and decorated the planter to make it even more personal. I love my Cricut machine which is what I used to cut out the letters in adhesive vinyl, but you can use paint pens too.

This one’s for you Miss Cherie! Or should I say “Dr. Cherie”! I loved helping you celebrate your huge accomplishment, and making you a yummy chocolate graduation cap bouquet.

This would make a great unique homemade gift for a graduate in your world, or a party decoration centerpiece for a graduation party. Happy yummy crafting!

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Here’s what you will need:

• Mother’s Day Medal Printable
• 12″ x 12″ patterned scrapbook paper (or you can use the medal strips in the printable)
• 2″ circle punch
• X-ACTO knife or paper cutter
• Glue runner
• Glue gun
• Ribbon (at least 1/2″ wide and 8″ long)
• Pinback
• White cardstock paper
• Scissors

Start by cutting out your circles (front and back for the center of the medal) and your patterned paper strips (for the cool accordion flower edge of the medal). For the circles, print out the medal circle centers on white cardstock paper and cut out. You will need to have a designed circle for the front of the “Best Ever” medal and a solid colored one for the back.

For the outer flower edge, either cut 2 strips of paper from a 12″ x 12″ piece of pretty scrapbook paper 2″ wide or print and cut out the three 8″ strips from the Mother’s Day Medal Printable. The strips can be printed on regular paper for easier folding. When put together, you will end up with a 24″ x 2″ strip of paper.

Fold all your strips of paper into an accordion fold about 3/8″ deep. With a tape runner, attach each strip together until you make a complete accordion folded circle. Here is the fun part, with two hands push the accordion circle together and down until it is flat and creates the cool flower shape. Prep yourself for when you attach it to one of the circles.

Cut a strip of ribbon about 8″ long and fold into a ‘V”. This will be the ribbon that comes down from the medal. You are going to sandwich it in-between the accordion flower and the back circle. Put some glue on your circle from your glue gun, attach the ribbon, and while holding your accordion flower together place on top of the hot glue to secure.

Put some more glue on the back of the front medal circle (with the best ever design) and attach on the front of the accordion flower. To finish up, attach a pinback on the center circle on the back of the paper medal with a little glue from your glue gun. You could also use magnetic tape and create a magnetic medal instead. The last detail is to trim the bottoms of the ribbon into a “V” shape at the ends, and you are done!

The second part of this gift is the “Mother’s Day Mad Libs” paired with a cute picture. One thing I know, grandmas always love pictures of their grandchildren! I found this cute simple frame at Ikea for $.99 and I love that it is two-sided. On the front I put a picture of Maggie, and in the back I slipped in a filled in “Mother’s Day Mad Libs” from her. She had so much fun customizing each one to each of her grandmas. To add some last touches, I decorated the frame with some pretty ribbon, and scrapbook stickers.

You can print out your own Mother’s Day Mad Libs Printable here and customize your own to a special mother or grandmother. I made a pink and blue rose version and a red rose version. If you don’t want to put into a frame, you could cut out and attach it to a blank card for an instant Mother’s Day Card.

Hope you enjoyed this Mother’s Day Tutorial and printables. If you want more homemade gift ideas, check out my Pinterest board here, or my recent OCFamily post on homemade Mother’s Day gift ideas.

You all deserve a medal this weekend for being the best mother or grandmother to your family. We sincerely wish all of the mothers out there a super Happy Mother’s Day! Happy crafting!

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The best part is that I only needed to craft the headband holding the marionette sticks above her head. The rest of the costume came together with clothes she already owned. I spent a dollar on the headband, and a dollar on the balsa wood stick at Michaels. I wrapped the headband in hot pink duck tape, attached about 6 inches of clear plastic tubing from my local hardware store (.49 a foot), and used my glue gun to attach them together. The rest was styling.

I put her hair up into pigtails and curled them with a really small curling iron. I used my liquid black eyeliner to draw on really big eyelashes and creases in her cheeks, and painted on red rosy cheeks with a red watercolor pencil. After she was dressed, I attached yarn from each end of the sticks atop her head to her hands and shoes.

My girl has always been a risk taker in her wardrobe, so I knew she could pull off the costume. Yes, this was a quick and easy homemade costume, but for me the most rewarding part was that we had so much fun working on it, and putting it together. She was so proud to walk into the costume party with her handcrafted costume made with her mom. That’s the part I will always remember – the fun we had working on it, and the gratification of our creative endeavor.

Mother’s Day is around the corner, and I am thankful that my 10 year old can be proud of me and herself. Out of the blue at dinner after the party, she mentioned that she thought I was so pretty that I looked like a model. Now, I know I don’t look like a model, but to hear those words from your daughter’s mouth that that is how she sees you – that is priceless!

The point of my post (and of Club ChicaCircle) is: craft with your daughter. You won’t be sorry for the memories and moments you two can create together. Happy crafting!

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I stumbled upon this quote recently, and couldn’t resist turning it into a custom big chocolate bar wrapper for a sweet teacher gift.

The mediocre teacher tells.

The good teacher explains.

The superior teacher demonstrates.

The great teacher inspires.

-William A. Ward.

I know we are all busy, and sometimes it is hard to find the time to make that special homemade gift, but this one is super simple! Start with a big chocolate bar. I love the big ones at Trader Joes, and I have also seen big Ghirardelli chocolate ones too. Print out the free Teacher Gift Chocolate Wrapper Printable. Cut it out with a scissors or X-ACTO knife. Wrap it around the chocolate bar, and secure with tape. I used pretty washi tape, but regular tape or stickers will work great too.

I found a cute little flower plant to pair with it. Love it! Take the time this week to let that special teacher or teachers know how much you appreciate them. Enjoy the free Teacher Gift Chocolate Wrapper Printable and happy crafting!

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The way Wordle works is that you type in any words you prefer, press the create button, and it loads them into pre-designed templates that you can choose from. I typed in her name, things her class has done throughout the year, and some great adjectives that describe her – and then voilá, I got a cool poster. I customized the colors a little, and kept pressing the button “randomize” until I got the design I liked. Keep in mind also, that the program counts every word as a single design element. So, for instance, when I typed in PilgrimFieldTrip, I typed it as one word with no spaces so that it stayed together.

I then pasted it on a large colored poster board, and added decorations with with washi tape and decorative duck tape (one of my favorite craft materials at the moment), along with some cute scrapbooking stickers.

I could see using this fun app for many purposes. Could be a fun and simple Mother’s or Father’s Day idea. If you haven’t tried this app before, it is worth a look. Very simple and super satisfying! Don’t be shy, make one for yourself!

Happy Crafting!

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Food is a critical element in every holiday celebration. One way our tween will help us celebrate Cinco de Mayo will be to make her fresh guacamole. In the video below- see if you can find her special tip on prepping the onions. (I learned something new as she shared this tip.)

Key Ingredients (all elements adjustable to accommodate personal tastes)

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 small onion – finely chopped
• 1/2 tomato – chopped
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• Juice from 1/4 squeezed lime
• 1/4 jalapeño – finely chopped
• Salt to taste

My dear tween will also transform out of her soccer uniform into her traditional Folklorico Mexican dance costume to perform at some of the local festivities.

Ready to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in a traditional folkloric dance costume

Check your local listings to find a celebration festival close to you. Interestingly, the largest celebration in the world for Cinco de Mayo is held in Los Angeles. If you are in Chandler, Arizona- take in the Chihuahua races.

For a fun craft activity, the entire family can make maracas. This craft will be fun for our tween as well as our toddler twins. Create a design challenge with random materials as well as a musical shake-off to test the final pieces. Kaboose shares some good inspiration for an easy maracas DIY.

Kaboose.com DIY Maracas

While you remember to keep this day fun and build memories to last – enjoy this video of the truly amazing Cinco de Mayo Dancing Dog!

Do you have any special recipes, crafts or traditions to share for Cinco de Mayo? I invite you to share them below!

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Here is a great gift idea with items wrapped together to create a special book/journal theme.

I recently took advantage of a fabulous Pick Your Plum deal, and ordered personal stamps for my tween’s teacher knowing that they would be a great Teacher gift. But of course, I wanted to pair it with other items to make a complete package. I paired it with an ink pad, a pretty blank journal (I found in the dollar section of Michaels), a crafty bookmark from our Etsy shop (launching soon), and a fancy pen and pencil.

I fancied up the pen by wrapping 2 coordinating colors of craft cord (like the kind used for friendship bracelets) around the barrel of a pen, securing both ends under pretty washi tape, along with a pretty feather. I then glued a couple jewels on the the tip of the cap and the end of the pencil to complete it.

I added a little personal touch on the front of the journal with a cute scrapbooking sticker, and wrapped it all up with a pretty ribbon.

You can certainly pull together a similar journal gift idea in time. If you don’t have time to get a personally made rubber stamp, try an rubber stamp with their initial on it, or one that is a generic “This book belongs to” stamp. You can have your child craft their own personal bookmark with cut out cardstock paper and ribbon.

However you choose to show appreciation to your child’s teacher, just remember, get creative, this is like their “Mother’s Day” that comes once a year. Stayed tuned for some more great ideas and free printables coming up this week. Until then, happy crafting!

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We set up our booth, and I brought along some lovely crafty assistants! Cut scrapbook paper squares from Doodlebug Design, Inc. and pinbacks from the ScribbleShop were set out, along with scissors and glue guns on one side, and a preview of some of my crafty creations for purchase on the other side.

Both the girls and their moms had so much fun creating there own paper flower pins.

My favorite was the sweet girl who kept coming back for more! What a fashionista!

And do you remember the preview teaser I showed you here? Before the show, I had so much fun making my own crafty creations that will be launching in our new Etsy shop coming soon! I created resin baubles with a variety of scrapbook papers, and fashioned them with colorful feathers and beads to create fancy hairpins…

bookmarks…

hair bands….

and necklaces…

We made a cute flower pot display for the hairpins and other fashion accessories.

I can’t decide which fashion jewelry was by favorite to create, but I know I have been accessorizing my hair with the feather hairpins, just as my tween has. Each one is a one-of-a-kind crafty creation, it is so hard to pick a favorite!

All and all, it was a great day. The best part was getting to see so many smiling faces leaving with pretty paper flower pins. And for me, it was lovely getting to spend the day crafting with my sister and confidant Lynnee!

Stayed tuned for more shop details. I would love to hear your comments on the new shop items. Until then, happy crafting!

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