Easy Valentine Collection Bags: Kindergarten Craft

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  Cory's kindergarten class celebrated the holiday at school yesterday. We made these owl treat bags to hold their valentines. Easier and cheaper than the traditional Valentine box. 

I made the samples above for the class: boy and girl owls with wiggly eyes, a doily middle and little heart feet. 

I used kraft bags from the gift bag aisle at Michaels. The bags were sold by the dozen (a baker's dozen, actually) for $5.99. The bags measure 5.5 inches across and 8.5 inches tall. Perfect for this simple craft. 

Two of the boys made these fun versions. Got to love the bug on the heart! Ha!

Above are versions the girls made. So sweet. I love how they all turned out. 

This was a really fast craft for the class. They finished in about 15 minutes. Almost too fast as we had an hour to fill for the party!

After the bags were made, the kids distributed their Valentines. Or more accurately, I should say, the kids distributed the candy they brought in for class. It looked like Halloween!  From the 24 kids in the class, Cory received one handmade Valentine, one traditional store bought card and 22 pieces of Valentine candy with a sticker wrapped around it. Truth in blogging: the "valentines" that Cory brought to school were in that latter category. No stones here!

The one lone handmade Valentine. Yoda best! Love it!

Owl Canvas & Little Yellow Bicycle Giveaway

If you've followed my blog, you may have noticed that I have a soft spot for owls.  They are whimsical and fun and I can't help but be drawn to them. 

When Little Yellow Bicycle sent me the Cycling Team box for the Fern and Forest Boy collection, I immediately thought of owls and wanted to make an altered project. 

I started this project with a scene paper from Fern and Forest Boy.  The clouds and woodgrain were the perfect backdrop. 

Next, I played around with paper-piecing an pair of owls.  It took a couple tries to get the scale right. I drew  the owls on paper first. As you can see, in my first attempt, the mama owl was too big. 

I scaled down the mama owl, then added a paper-pieced baby owl.  I stitched each part separately, then pop dotted pieces for dimension. 

Once I had my owls ready, I filled in the rest of the scene and added a wood frame. 

I used pieces from Little Yellow Bicycle's Naturals, including the burlap sticker here and the cork butterfly and stick pin, to fill the empty spots. 

Here's the finished canvas: 

Giveaway: Little Yellow Bicycle was so generous to me that I wanted to share this collection with one of my blog readers. This giveaway will include 12 sheets of 6x6 Fern and Forest paper, two coordinating sticker sheets, a mix of stick pins and a flower kit. 

To enter the giveaway, please follow my blog and leave a comment below. Comments are open until midnight on April 22.  I'll announce the winner by random draw next Tuesday, April 23. 

You can see this project and other projects with Fern and Forest Boy and Fern and Forest Girl on the Little Yellow Bicycle blog.  Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Lollipop Tent Tutorial: Classroom Treats

For the Valentine's Day party at my son's preschool, I made lollipop tents for his classmates and an owl treat bag for his teacher. 

I used Echo Park's Love Story collection and Trendy Twine for these treats.  They were really easy and fun to do. I didn't use any die cut machines to make these treats. Just a paper trimmer, a score blade and a hole punch. 

To make the lollipop tents, I cut strips of patterned paper 2 inches wide by 8 inches long. I scored them at 2.5 and 4.5 inches to make the base and at 7.5 inches to make the closure flap.  Then I used a hole punch to notch a place for the lollipop stick.

These are the tents with the lollipops added. 

To decorate them, I added a sentiment pennant, a twine bow and heart. 

Another view of the lollipop treats: 

A closer look at an individual lollipop tent: 

Here's one of the owl.  I added a cellophane bag filled with M&Ms in his tummy. Yummy!

I have a tutorial on how to make the owl on this post.  The sentiment above says:  Owl Be Your Valentine. 

Linking this to Tip Me Tuesday.  Thanks for stopping by!

Teacher Gifts: Owl Treat Bags

These little owl treat bags are one of my favorite things to make. They're easy, don’t require fancy tools and are always a hit with recipients.  The sentiment can be changed to fit the occasion. I used these as holiday gifts for teachers and staff.

To make each owl, I cut a 3 inch by 12 inch strip of patterned paper. I used the Once Upon A Christmas collection from Little Yellow Bicycle and scored the paper strips at 4.5 inches from either end. The score marks gave the owls a 3-inch base, perfect for flat-bottomed treat sacks from Martha Stewart. After scoring, I folded the paper into a tent shape.

To make the owl's eyes, I punched two large circles from cardstock, covered them with adhesive, then added twine and googly eyes.  I used Trendy Twine in Holly (green) and Holly Berry (green/red mix). I have a tutorial for making twine circles on this post.

This is a side view of the treat bags. To make the sentiments, I ran bits of scrap patterned paper through my printer. One owl says:  Whooooo's a great teacher?  You are!  The other owl says: Merry Christmas, Y'owl.

We'd love to have you play along in the Trendy Twine monthly challenge. You have until December 31 to enter. There's a great prize up for grabs. You can find out all the details here on the Trendy Twine blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Whooooo Wants A Treat? Happy Owl-o-ween!

I'm on a little owl kick but I just can't help it.  I love the exaggerated features, especially the big eyes, and owls are the perfect critter for Halloween fun.

For this project, I used Echo Park's Chillingsworth Manor collection and Trendy Twine's orange licorice to whip up a Halloween treat bag.  This was a really fast and simple project.

I started by cutting a piece of double sided patterned paper 3 x 12 inches, scored at 4.5 inches from either end.  I folded the paper into a tent, stitched across the top to secure it shut, then added a large triangle beak.

The scoring measurements gave the treat container a 3-inch base which fits flat-bottomed treat sacks from Martha Stewart.  I buy the MS bags at Michaels and always keep some in my stash. 

To make the owl's eyes, I used a punch to cut two large circles from black cardstock, covered them with adhesive, then added twine.  To wind the twine, I started by tying a knot and using that knot to anchor the twine in the center of the circle.  Then I carefully wound the twine tightly around the knot and around the circle until all the cardstock was covered.

After I made the twine circles, I added large googly eyes.  I glued the twine circles on top edge of the triangle nose and added a die-cut journaling spot behind the eyes. Lastly, I ran a journaling card through my printer to add the sentiment: Whooooo wants a treat?

You can find more Halloween-themed design team projects on the Trendy Twine blog all this month.  You can also play along! To join the Trendy Twine October challenge, see the details on this post.

Linking to: Tip Me Tuesday.

Tutorial: How To Make An Owl Pillow Box

I love quick and easy treat boxes.  They are a great little gift and make candy more fun.

This little owl was simple to make:

The secret?  I used a premade pillow box. I bought a package of plain pillow boxes from the wedding aisle at Michael's.  I traced the pillow box onto Halloween patterned paper from Echo Park then scored the paper at the folds.  I used a coordinating paper on the front for his chest. 

I used a circle punch for big owl eyes and cut a diamond for his nose. To make the wings, I cut two rectangles and rounded the corners.

For a decorative touch, I added black stitching to the body, chest and and wings before adhering.  I used a sentiment stamp from the dollar bin and stamped a greeting on a sticker.  Then I filled the pillow box with candy for a yummy treat.

This project was picked up for the October 2012 issue of Scrapbooks Etc, but, alas, the magazine folded before it was published.  Sniff.  I did get paid, though.  Since it wasn't pubbled, I decided to reprise it here on my blog, just in time for Paper Issue's new theme: Halloween and Harvest. We've got a great sponsor and PRIZE for this theme.  Find out all the deets here on the Paper Issues blog.

Want to link up?  Paper Issues would love to see your seasonal projects. Join the linky party here.

The Paper Issues etsy shop has lots of fun new paper and embellishements including Lawn Fawn washi tape, brand new Glitz and October Afternoon's fun new Witch Hazel and Midway lines.  And what's more: it's all on sale. Use code IZZYB20 for a 20 percent discount on everything in the store!

Linking to Tip Me Tuesday and Itsy Bitsy Paperblog.