FF- 5 a day

One of my good friends asked me months ago if I would come up with a way to keep track of eating 5 a day-you know 5 servings of fruits and veggies (although is it total or is it 5 veggies?). Anyway, I guess it's up to you. I finally did it. A simple monthly calendar that has five little circles around a number (the day of the month) so you can fill in on each day how many healthy plant things your eating :) It's actually been really good for me to start thinking about adding that extra fruit or veggie at meals. But I may just need a separate calendar for each family member (those picky eaters!)

You can find the calendar here. 

Enjoy!

Freebie Friday: Spring Has Sprung Poster

So, today I just felt like making something. Hooray. We've  had head colds at our house for two weeks and mine is currently residing in my forehead. So this afternoon fighting the little buddy to clean up all the toys in the basement just seemed overwhelming. Instead I made him put away his pj's and let him watch netflix while I checked my email. I had some graphic design work waiting for me, and one thing led to another. But I've been thinking about spring all day noticing little green leaves on the trees! Hooray. It really is coming!

Download the printable poster here. Print on letter size cardstock and cut on the lines to 8x10.

 Enjoy!

Freebie Friday: Pretend Pasta Box

With the new kitchen the kiddos got for Christmas they have all these cute little  pots and pans. But all the plastic and wooden food they have doesn't fit very well inside. One apple in the pan just doesn't seem right. . . So I made them some felt pasta. It's been probably a month since then and I've found felt pasta everywhere. They needed some containment. So our freebie today was born: a pasta box for felt fettuccine.

 Get the box here. 

 I just cut it out, taped some plastic on the holes, folded it and taped it up. Although in retrospect, I think I may go back and laminate it instead. . . last longer that way.

branching out

Today was a day. The sweetie is turning into a little explorer. I think she's getting to the terrible twos a little early. We managed to change her clothes three times today. It probably should have been four after she dumped her entire sippy cup of apple juice on the floor at her feet. (I only changed her socks that time). If she wasn't making a mess or getting into something she shouldn't, she was hanging on my leg trying to be held. I think I held her half the day. She may be teething, but wow, it is good to have it today behind us. She did have her sweet moments though, like putting a donut shaped toy in her mouth that pushed up her top lip and showed her front teeth through the opening in the middle. She looked  like a scary rabid rabbit. That was pretty funny. I'm only sorry I didn't get a picture. She also gave me lots of cuddles which are always priceless. I do love some cuddles! Well, anyway, it was a definitely a day. On to more related topics . . .

I've started playing around with combining design on the computer and handmade cards. I love the look of handmade cards, but sometimes it can be limiting (especially when I'm not willing to spend a fortune on crafting supplies). I thought a card with a branch coming out designed on the computer would be fun to dress up with leaves of any color, or blossoms . . . so many possiblities! If I can fine tune the details I will post it as a freebie. Happy Wednesday!

In the shop: Animal Shaped Alphabet Toppers

I've just posted these fun Animal shaped alphabet circles

The idea of these toppers was to make my ABC posters a little more accessible, and useable. They are fun on a wall, but I want to use them in more ways. 

The possibilities of these circular little ABC's created by animal bodies are pretty vast. Here are some ideas:

Obviously you can use them as cupcake toppers

How about as a card embellishments

A small gift tag

A monogrammed seal for kids gifts, favor bags, etc . . .

Make a mini word banner for the top of a cake or a small space

Turn into stickers

Make into a matching game

Make into badges or a knecklace

Anyway, pretty fun. Find them here. 

Freebie Friday: Advent in 3 parts

This is a three fold freebie friday, which if I'd been on top of my game, I would have shared with you last friday. My apologies. I finished our advent yesterday. Here it is in all it's glory: and the best part of all: FREE. (if you don't count ink).

First off is the envelope. Find the printable template by clicking here.


My take was to use wrapping paper cut to letter size and CAREFULLY fed through my printer (the expensive thick kind works best, but I used cheap too and it works- but can get jammed in the printer too.) I ended up feeding only one sheet through and then stapling three more sheets under it (NOT inside the outlines of the envelope) and cutting out four at a time-which saved time and printer headaches. folded, and glued.

Second are the advent numbers. Find the printable by clicking here.


I used my 1 1/4 inch hole punch to punch them out- but they are an inch around in diameter (I just don't have an inch hole punch). Glued them to the center of the envelopes.

Third are the advent cards. Find the printable cards by clicking here.
 
These I tailored to my family and our traditions and beliefs. It was a last minute idea to share them. Each card has a scripture and an activity. The scriptures found on the advent include the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants (abbreviated D&C on the cards). All the scriptures I included are about Christ and/or his birth. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I believe in not only the Bible as scripture but also these other two books, and really they are all just wonderful scriptures. The list of activities are things that we do in December and so I just made them our advent. That way I fit in all our traditions, have a timetable and an advent too. I love it. It's a simple way to organize December for me. Feel free to use mine if you wish or to just take ideas to make your own advent cards.

enjoy!

ABC Poster Giveaway

Young, Yippy, Youthful Y is for Yak.  Yahoo. The ABC posters are up in the shop. I've even included a printed option. (well, most of the ABC's are up. The stomach flu this week postponed a few things, alas). So to celebrate we are doing a giveaway!

One printed poster and two printable pdf posters for three different winners. The letter of your choice.

Here's how . . . .

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite animal
2. Leave a SECOND comment if you follow me
2. Winner will be announced Wednesday November 23

goodluck!

Freebie Friday: Personalized Labels

So I was privileged to be a guest poster on Meremade for her back to school month, which is still going on so head on over and get some more great ideas! Here is my contribution:

 I may have a small obsession with labels :) But when it comes to school supplies, can you really have too many labels? I don't think so either, especially fun printed and personalized-for-you labels.


Today that's what I'm sharing--some free printable Personalized Labels. The beauty of these downloadable labels is you only have to type in the name once and it fills out all the labels on the page! So nifty! (Or annoying if you wanted them all to be different . . . alas).  I say some because there are a few color choices for you to choose from. Color is important, right?

Okay, so the options are (click to download):

• RAINBOW with BLACK writing
• GREEN with BLACK writing
• GREY with TEAL writing
• GREY with HOT PINK writing
• MUSTARD with GREY writing

They all have the same font with light grey outlines around them. Those are the cutting guidlines. If you have a paper cutter you will be happy :) If not it won't be too bad!

So my mini tutorial is simple:

What you'll need:


Printer
Printer Paper
Scissors
paper cutter (optional)
Packaging Tape

Stuff to label---lots of it!


1. Download the Labels of your choice. Open them up in adobe reader and click on a yellow box inside one of the labels. Type in the name of your choice. Push enter and watch as all the labels are magically filled in for you! Print out on plain old regular printer paper (don't worry the yellow highlights won't print).

2. Cut out with scissors or a paper cutter. Even if using a paper cutter you may need to cut a little bit with scissors since some of the lines don't go straight through from one edge of the paper to the other.

3.  Pull out the packaging Tape and get taping!  I cut my tape with scissors so it would have smooth edges instead of the jagged ones made by an included cutter.

4. Make sure the packaging tape goes over on all edges. We don't want any water getting underneath because you probably printed on an ink jet printer and they bleed if water touches them (which is a good reason not to print on the letter size sticker paper--kudos for being cheap).

5. The flag labels are the ones with the small writing on both ends. I put them on my scissors.  I used a peice of double stick tape to stick the two flags together as well as the packaging tape on the outside (I didn't bother to do that with the flat ones). It's also a little bit tricky to get the tape through the scissor handle without getting it stuck. But once you do, CAREFULLY fold the pointy tips together first and then stick the rest of the tape down towards the handle. I had to clip the tape at the handle to make it fit a bit better, but it's really up to you.

If you are more into practical stuff  than fun flags, I might just tape a little label onto the side of the scissors . . . if you're boring (have I discouraged you enough yet, hee hee!)

6. For the crayons I didn't want huge pieces of packaging tape on my crayons so I cut a piece of tape the width of my tiny labels and then cut that in thirds and used all three pieces for three different crayons.

Anyway,  you get the idea. Not too tricky. Now all your stuff has pretty personalized labels that were fairly fast, and hopefully super cheap and everything is so organized right? Hah. Good luck finding the time to do it!


Happy labeling!

Freebie Friday: ABC Squares

Some fun and versatile ABC "squares" for the freebie this friday! (click on the words to go to the download)

Just in time for school, eh? Two pages with a couple double letters- the most common ones.  Here are some fun thoughts on using them:

modge podge on wooden blocks
memory, matching or go fish game
tile them in a large frame

mount them on a chipboard or laminate them
make them into magnets
use them as cupcake toppers
Put them on buckets/ boxes or jars and fill them with things that start with that letter
use them as labels to spell out names, etc . . . 

enjoy!

ABC Posters Discount & Old Files

Okay,


So here's the deal. I've been getting lots of emails with people wanting my old files-most of which aren't linked up anymore. Here's why: All my old files I hosted through google groups. They've discontinued that service, and so none of the links work. I'm slowly working to re-upload them to scribd and relink them all. Hopefully I will get them done soon. So far I've uploaded all my striped birthday freebies, the dinosaur shapes, and my menu planner. So if you've been wanting a file that isn't working, you can either wait until I can get it uploaded to scribd, or you can email me and I will email you the file! Happy printing!

On to more exciting news:

My latest project, one that I'm very excited about,  my ABC posters that I've added to my shop. I'm still in the designing (aka drawing them free hand on the computer) works, but have finished A-G. Aren't they fun? I'm excited to put some of them up in my own kids rooms. I can see them in a nursery or playroom too! What about to spell out a word? fun fun. Over the next few weeks I will be adding the rest of the alphabet. I'm considering also adding a printed version, comment if you would be interested in that option. It would probably be a little cheaper.

The idea stemmed from wanting to make a funner flashcard set, but there are so many flashcard sets out there, including my own! But OH how I love letters, type and design-the three mixed together just make me want to jump up and down. So, I keep coming back to it. Anyway, in honor of this latest project there will be a 20% off discount code for the next two weeks at my shop. Just type in  ABC0811  in the coupon code box at check out! Happy shopping!

Freebie Friday: Graduation Toppers

So my Freebie Friday's have been a little hit or miss lately, you probably noticed, eh?

It's been an entire year since I started the Freebie Friday posts. I'd kind of planned to give them up after a year. They are often quite time consuming and I'm trying to be better at prioritizing (hence the hit or miss-I do apologize).

But I don't feel ready to abandon them. I like having a little something germinating in my mind through out the week. It's the weeks when I'm too busy to have time to think about it, and then the late Thursday night scramble that isn't so fun. . . so with the new year (for freebie fridays) I plan to post them as often as I can, but I'm not promising they will be weekly. It's for fun right?

For today it's graduation toppers. Can't believe it's almost June!! I think they could be fun turned into badges, a big ribbon award, cupcake toppers of course, and with some fun bold colors or prints behind them they could even be fun for a kindergarten or joy school graduation eh? 

This is a simple strip of paper accordion folded and taped at the end. It's pretty easy-just use hot glue to secure it. (yeah tape doesn't work). 

enjoy!