Sweet Shoppe Designs

Happy Valentine’s day everyone – it’s me, Darla bringing you some fun today. I am an avid crafter and love finding new ideas on the internet for my girls or most often for my girl scout troop. Pinterest has made this easy for me because I can pin some of my favorite ideas I have found for me to go back and refer to when I need an idea here or there. Sometimes I will find a few new unexpected pins (or “hints” as I call them) that my daughters have added to my board in hopes that I will do them soon – such as the glow in the dark slime that we recently did below:

This is a really quick and easy craft to do with kids that uses just a few items you can find at your local craft store or Target. Below is what you need to create your slime:

- borax (from laundry aisle of a grocery store)
- Elmer’s™ non-toxic blue glue gel (sold with office or school supplies)
- Glow-Away™ washable paint (sold near tempera paint at Michael’s craft store)
- water
- bowls or cups
- spoons

Instructions for Making Glowing Slime
1. In one bowl, mix 1/3 cup glue with 1 cup water. I used a whisk, since stirring with a spoon was slow.
2. Stir or whisk in about half a tube of the paint.
3. Pour about half a cup of hot water into a cup or second bowl.
4. Stir in borax until it stops dissolving (starts to leave some at the bottom). This makes a saturated solution without any measuring at all.
5. Measure and mix 1/3 cup of the borax solution (the clear part, not the undissolved stuff at the bottom) with 1 cup of the glue/glow mixture. You can try to whisk this, but it’s easier to use your hands.

You can store your slime in a regular baggie for what seems to be indefinitely. To make it glow, just put it under a bright light and then let the kids take it to a dark area in your home and when you hear the screams of excitement – you will know that it is glowing!

As part of a girl scout badge to learn about flowers, I decided to have the girls make a something using potpourri. My first idea was to have them take a foam circle ball and cover it with the potpourri but sadly I did not have much luck keeping the pieces on! Since Valentine’s was coming up, I decided to change things up a bit and proceeded to cut out hearts out of heavy cardstock instead. Here is a sample of what the little sweet smelling heart looked like.

To make these hearts, you will need the following:

- bag of potpourri, preferably a kind that has different pieces of flowers
- white cardstock
- heart shape template
- ribbon to hang the heart somewhere
- hole puncher for ribbon
- tacky white glue
- foam brushes
- bowls for the glue and potpourri
- paper towels to keep the mess to a minimum

There is really no instructions here because you want to encourage your kids to make any kind of design they want. I had 11 girls with me and each girl took their time designing their very own heart. The whole room smelled so wonderful and heavenly after we were done!

Besides Pinterest, the Disney Family Fun site has many ideas that you can do with your kids. A couple more of my favorite sites are: Enchanted Learning, Crafts.Kaboose and Martha Stewart’s site. I would add a word of caution – often you can have the best intentions about a particular craft but it is always inevitable that things may go awry and when they do – just laugh and let your kids come up with a creative alternative to the one you had planned to do originally! With that, I will let you get back to your Valentine’s plans and hope that today you let someone know how much you love them! Happy Scrapping!

Hi, Sweet friends!! Rebecca here with today’s post… adding a bit of hybrid flair!

It seems that the days are just flying by and tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It isn’t a big holiday in our house… but I do like to do something special for two of my favorite guys… hubby and kiddo.  The kid is pretty easy… he is getting this learning game that has words on the hearts and he can put together sentences…. and a heart shaped pizza, which he will be helping me make tonight for supper.

But for my hubby, I wanted to do something a little special.  I really didn’t want to buy anything big for him… so I decided to  breakout the printer and glue to make him a little gift from the heart…

I used Heather Roselli’s DYI Take-Out Box template and her super cute Love Monkey Kit.

It was really easy to put together, just followed the instructions that are included with the template. I put coupons in the fortune coupons for him to cash in for some time together. I also made seven paper strip hearts, one for each year we have been married, and wrote on the back reasons as to why I love him.

You just take a strip of paper, write your message on the back and folded the two color ends, attaching the two color ends facing each other… then played with it to make a heart shape.  Another idea would be to make these larger and have a chain of them all around the room… how awesome would that be?

All my fortune cookies and hearts fit nicely in the box and now I just need to get a bag of Peanut M&Ms and I am set for hubby… well, I also need to make him a steak dinner, his favorite.

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? Anyone making anything crafty for the ones they love?

Until next time!

{{hugs}}

Rebecca aka Mamabee

Yep, Valentine’s day is almost here!! Although it’s one of my favorite holidays, my hubby and I don’t get too into Valentine’s day. I love the colors and all of the sweet ideas floating around out there. Just because Nate and I don’t make a big deal out of it, doesn’t mean the girls and I don’t like to have fun and get crafty!! Check out some of these super cute, kid friendly ideas I’ve found for some Valentine’s day fun!!

I am looooving this Valentine garland idea. How cute and easy would this be?!

Here’s a cute handmade Valentine idea…

These are adorable!!

And what about homemade chocolate lip gloss?

I absolutely adore any craft that involves handprints!! This is too cute!!

This one may be a little above the kiddo’s crafting level, but it is such a sweet idea!!

I know my girls loooove pizza and I think they would just flip if I made them pizza for lunch with heart shaped pepperonis!!

There really are SO many amazing ideas out there and hopefully you’ve found a bit of inspiration to try something fun!! Hope you have a very Happy Valentine’s day!!

Hi y’all it’s Juli here with a little hybrid valentine fun.  To me it just isn’t Valentine’s Day without some kind of homemade gifts.  Today I’d like to share with you a few different ideas of things you can make for Valentine’s Day using your digital stash (or perhaps a shiny new Valentine’s Day kit) and a printer, scissors and glue stick.  These project are pretty simple and are sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face.  Some of these kits have been retired, but there are tons of awesome other kits in the shop that would allow you to make the same kind of project!

The past few years I’ve made coupons for my kids instead of giving them candy (you and I both know that I’m the one that is going to end up  eatting the candy anyway).  They always look forward to the breakfast in bed and mom/dad do one job for coupons.

Here is this year’s version of my Valentine’s Day coupons (for my teenager).

Credits – Heart Pouch Templates by Heather Roselli and At Last by Kristin Cronin-Barrow

Here’s a peak at the coupons I made last year.

Here are the ones I made the year before.

Credits – Little Miss Drama Queen by Eva Kipler (retired)

The other fun thing I like to make at Valentine’s Day are little gifts for my kid’s teachers.  Here are a few past favorites that might spark an idea for you too.

A mini milk carton filled with a small Bath and Body Works lotion and a small hand sanitzer.

Credits – Smitten by Julie Billingsley and Milk Carton template by Heather Roselli

Mini Notebooks

Credits – Swooning by Eva Kipler (Retired)

Flip Up 5×7 Teacher Notepads

Credits - Love My Daddy by Eva Kipler

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing and gives you a few fun ideas for homemade valentines for your loved ones!

Hi everyone!  It’s Dana with my first blog post in 2012 – and I thought I’d write a little bit about our annual family vacation while it’s fresh on my mind (we actually just got back home last week!).  My family is BIG on vacations – travel is something my husband never says “NO” too.  Therefore, we go on a LOT of trips  Now that we have kids, our trips are usually either to visit family in Chicago or Dallas or to go to somewhere warm (usually Florida or Las Vegas).  However, we always take one big trip each year with my husband’s family – and it is always to a Club Med.  This year, we tried out Club Med – Cancun and loved it!  There were 20 of us who went – and EVERYONE had a fabulous time.  I highly suggest a Club Med vacation – especially if you are traveling in a large group – there really is something for everyone!  (We love it so much we had our wedding there! LOL!) Also – Club Med is all-inclusive – so unless you are doing an off-site excursion or a specialty activity (e.g., scuba diving lessons) – everything is included in your stay!  This includes all food, drinks (even alcohol! although they do have some special wines you can buy at dinner – we just drank the complementary house wine), snacks, activities … )

We’ve been to many Club Meds – in France, Spain, Tunisia, Florida, Mexico, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.  They are each a little different – but there is still something similar about each one.  I had never been to one before meeting my DH – but he has been going since he was a child. Club Med is a French company – so for Americans, it is a little different than a normal American hotel/vacation.  For me, the biggest differences are in the rooms (they are not as “luxe” as a normal American hotel room, in my opinion) and the service (the front desk, reservations, etc. is a little bit slower than an American might normally expect).  There is a language difference as well – Club Med hires people from all over the world, so although everyone speaks English, it is not always their native language.  My husband’s family speaks French, though – so we love it!  There are many, many other things we love about Club Med – here is a list of my top five (in no order!):

1)  the FOOD:  Club Med really has great food – there is a buffet restaurant that is actually really fabulous – even if you don’t like buffets (and I don’t!).  They have a different theme each day – so there is an amazing variety of food, plus the basics (pizza, burgers, breads, pastas, grilled fish and meats) for the kids and less adventurous eaters.  One of their specialties is white chocolate bread – it is soooo good!  I only allowed myself one piece this trip otherwise I would have gained some major weight!

2)  the ACTIVITIES:  there are SO many activities included in your stay.  Some of our favorites this trip were snorkeling, sailing, water skiing and tennis – we did some of these things every day.  This is in addition to the beach and pool

3)  HEALTHY CHOICES:  even though it’s easy to be unhealthy on vacation (white chocolate bread and yummy pina coladas?!), there are also healthy choices available!  There are always healthy food choices (fruits, veggies, grilled meats, yogurt, etc) and they have great exercise classes too.  We tried something every day – including Yoga, Zumba, Abs + Buttocks, Water Aerobics and Sunset Stretching by the beach.

4)  the KIDS CLUB:  many of the Club Meds have kids clubs available from 9 AM – 5:30 PM (and sometimes even later) … we always put our kids in there for at least part of the day and they have a blast.  They do things like trapeze/circus, swimming, beach time, arts and crafts, sports/ball games, etc). This is super handy to give the adults time to do things on their own (exercise classes, water skiing, etc)

5)  the TRAPEZE:  the trapeze gets its own section for me – i LOVE it!  my kids LOVE it … my friends LOVE it!  LOL – it is seriously so much fun!  They don’t have trapezes at every club – but they are at many of them.   It is actually not too scary – and as the week progresses you get to do more difficult tricks.  For example, in the beginning of the week you would try to hang from your knees on your own.  By the end of the week you might actually get “caught” by someone hanging on another trapeze as you fly through the air  SO.MUCH.FUN!!

I uploaded a video from one of our first nights at the Club – one of the funny things about Club Med is that they have special dance moves (they call them “Crazy Signs”) to certain songs – they will play these songs and do the dances during the day and each evening and everyone dances along.  It’s so funny because even though it is completely goofy – it’s also really fun.  And, it is really great to hear them play a song from 10 years before and still remember the moves! Ha!  The kids loved doing this – especially at the end of the week when they knew the moves and they people working at the club.  Excuse the poor filming and my goofy family – we were just playing around

So tell me – have you ever been to a Club Med?  Did you love it?  Hate it?

I am just getting started with scrapping all my photos.  The hardest part was deciding HOW I wanted to scrap everything!  I’ve decided to do the following:

1) I am doing a digital form of Project Life this year – so I will have my normal weekly spread that covers this vacation.

2) I will do a 6×12 insert using Cindy’s new templates on one side – and just a photo collage on the other side.

3)  I will scrap any other special pics/special stories normally like i would do and put in my normal family album.

I have just started doing my digital Project Life page – I am going to work on this some more and probably change things up a bit before it is all over – but here is the first page so far – I am using Traci’s Document Life Sampler, Melissa’s Lemonade kit and Kristin’s Everyday Storytelling Journal Templates.

Hey ya’ll … Amy here. Better late than never, I slept most of the day today, that’s what my brain thinks rainy Sundays are for. Anyway, my post is really about yesterday. My very close friends and I went to the beach. Yes in the middle of January. I am just that crazy of a beach lover. They were having the 147th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Fort Fisher (North Carolina) one of the last battles of the Civil War. Fort Fisher is what allowed the blockade runners to keep bringing supplies into the south during the war and it’s fall is one of the things that ultimately cost the South the war. It was very interesting and we learned a lot about the weaponry of that time and how people lived, etc. Ever since my husband started his second job, we have not spent much time together on the weekends and it makes me sad. Last year he and I went to this event together, just the two of us, so I was a little sad. But it’s a wonderful thing to have such close friends. My “ex” boyfriend from high school and his wife are my very very best friends and I love their children like my own, so it was really funny to go with them and see my favorite place on earth through their eyes. The three year old especially loved the firing of the muskets, while his mom wasn’t quite so sure!! lol I can’t wait to scrap the pages with my memories from yesterday. I want to tell the story of how Ron came back into my life, and how I met my bestie Melissa through him, I want to scrap the raw emotion I feel every time I see the ocean. I want to scrap the wonder in Chase’s eyes at the guns, and the tears on his cheeks when he fell down and scraped his chin. I want to scrap the memories of events that molded our nations history, for better or for worse. It’s amazing to me how many ways you can look at one day and think about what you want to take away from it and document so you will remember if forever. I’m glad I’m getting my camera out more and I’m gonna scrap more and 2012 is going to be the year of memory keeping for me once again!!

p.s. if you wonder about the title of my post, those are the words that came out of my mouth as we were walking back up to the car after I had danced and twirled on the sand with the kids, just like I was 8 years old myself. The ocean is a spiritual thing to me, I can never describe how it makes me feel and people sometimes look at me silly when they see how emotional I get over it, but i NEED it. I read somewhere that we have 90% salt water in our veins and I said I knew that I had the ocean in me!! Till next time, sweet shoppers! I will close with a few pics of the day and maybe some of you can suggest some kits for me to scrap them with?

Hey there Sweet Shoppers!! Laurie here today and I’d like to talk about finding joy and gratitude. I know the idea of a gratitude journal isn’t new, but I’ve never done it before. Last year I was introduced to the book 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. What an amazing book this is!! I follow her blog and saw a post about taking the Joy Dare – to count 1,000 gifts in 2012. In this world we live in, it’s so easy to get down about things and really focus on the negative, even in the midst of lots of positivity. When you’re looking for the good in everyday life, it makes it harder to focus on the negative. I’ve decided to keep a notebook and record 3 things a day that I’m grateful for or that I found joy in. There is actually a list you can print out that has daily ideas or you can do it on your own. You can find it here in this post. For instance, one day you can write down 3 things you hear that bring you joy, another day you can write down gifts that made you laugh, or gifts that made you quiet, a song heard, a person. Anything. That’s the beauty of this is you can find joy in anything. This monthly printable can help jumpstart ideas. Anyone else plan on counting their blessings this year? I can’t wait to see the difference this makes in my life!! Here’s a layout I did highlighting my first seven days of joy.

Credits: Cindy’s Layered Templates: Half Pack 29 – Just For Journaling 3 by Cindy Schneider and Note To Self by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Jenn Barrette