Peppermint Bunnies

Jenny over at Crazy About Cricut is celebrating Thankful Thursday. If you haven't heard about Thankful Thursday, it's all about family time, crafting with the kiddos and spending time together. The theme this week is to make Easter or Spring Treats.

 My sons and I are making these cute bunnies for classroom goodies for Easter.  They turned out so cute! :)

First off, I know you are thinking it already...

"Where in the heck is the Gypsy cut file for these A-DOR-A-BLE bunnies? Cheryl always shares her Gypsy files!!"

Well, here it is:

Peppermint Bunnies . gypsy on 4 Shared

To make these yummy bunnies you'll need a Gypsy, the Gypsy Wanderings cart and these other supplies:

Peachy Keen face parts stamp set (or draw on the face by hand)

ATG glue or other glue runner

Scotch Quick Dry Glue

Tweezers

tape

Ink pad 

Peppermint patties candies

- we also add my son's personalized stamps for the back of our bunnies - 

See how cute a personalized stamp is? I love these and they only cost $6 each.

We cut out all out pieces on the Gypsy. On my file you'll see one layer for the head (including the welded ears), one layer for the faces (including the nose cut out), and one layer for the inside of the ears.

With the noses cut out of the faces, we just lined up some Peachy Keen face parts on our stamp block.

Then we flipped our faces and taped a piece of pink card stock to the cover the nose hole.

We also glued on the inside of the ears using Scotch Quick Dry Glue.

How do you like our bunny parts? :)

Next I applied ATG tape to the face and head pieces and my boys put them all together, sandwiching the peppermint patties in-between.  So cute and they really don't take too long. We put 50 of them together in just over an hour.

Here are our happy bunnies.

What an adorable side shot, huh!

We made a tag to match our bunnies.  Here I clipped off the ends of the ear parts. The "Happy Easter" stamp is from Close to my Heart.

We put 25 of the bunnies in one of these $1.50 paint pails from Joann's. We added some plastic Easter grass and some sheer ribbon to the outside and we were done.

So cute right!  Now download the Gypsy file and take some time to craft with your kids today! 

In case you missed it earlier, here is the Gypsy file again:

Peppermint Bunnies . gypsy on 4 Shared

I'll also be entering these wonderful bunnies in the following challenges:
 Fantabulous Cricut Challenge: Bunnies
Easy Craft Projects ~ Easter

Scrappy Frogs ~ Easter

Sisterhood of Crafters ~ Easter Best

Die Cut Dreams ~ Easter

Jump on over to Jenny's blog at Crazy About Cricut and see what the other Thankful Thursday Designers made for you today.

Let's go "green" kids craft

Jenny over at Crazy About Cricut is celebrating Thankful Thursday. If you haven't heard about Thankful Thursday, it's all about family time, crafting with the kiddos and spending time together.

Our project is a Whirligig that is made out of your recyclables.

Materials:

1 or 2 - 2 liter pop bottles Plastic beads, can be faceted, or pony beads, etc. 

12 inch piece of heavy wire (cross piece of a clothes hanger will work) 

An 8" piece of cord, ribbon or leather lacing for hanger

 Hole punch 

Needle nose pliers Scissors  or paper cutter.

Option: Lengths of ribbon can be tied in an overhand knot in the bottom

A parent to help (mostly with cutting and bending wires)

Instructions:

You can use clear bottles, colored bottles or decorate the strips with glass paint or Sharpie markers  if you wish. This should be done before you start adding your strips to the Whirly-Gig.

Cut 12 to 14 strips from the plastic bottles. Each strip should be 1/2" wide and 10 inches long. Use your hole punch to make a hole in the center of each strip 1/4" from the end. Repeat for the other end of each strip. We used my Crop-a-Dile but any hole puncher should work fine.

With the needle nose pliers make a loop at the bottom of the heavy wire. Thread the first of the beads onto the wire.

Place the first plastic strip over the wire and add the next bead. Alternate the beads with the strips of plastic until you have used all the strips. Use my whirligig model to help you or your child out. We build out whirligigs from the bottom up, but either way works fine.

Measure from the bottom loop to the top of the stack of beads and plastic strips. Now measure down from the top that same distance plus 1 1/2 inches for the top loop and mark the spot on the wire. Add beads to fill the wire to just below your mark with beads. Bring the other end of first strip you placed on the wire up (this will be the very bottom strip) and place the hole at the other end over the wire. This should make the strip bow out a little as in the drawing. Add a bead and then bring the other end of the second strip from the bottom and place it on the wire. Continue adding the beads and the strips until you have filled the wire. You will always use the bottom strip with the loose end as the next strip to add.

Place a final bead on the wire and with the needle nose pliers form a loop to hang your windspinner. Make sure you do not push the beads and strips together too tight or it will not spin. If you think it is too tight you can make the loop a little smaller or remove the top bead. Place a hanger cord in the top loop. Arrange the strips in a spiral around the wire and hang it where the wind will catch it.

Here is my 6-year-old's whirligig.  

As you can see he went for a "which ever bead I grab first" approach! :)

And my 8-year-old went with a green and white color scheme!

Please take some time to play with your family today! :)

If you haven't already, please enter Jenny's challenge at Crazy About Cricut!

My Little Leprechauns

Jenny over at Crazy About Cricut is celebrating Thankful Thursday. If you haven't heard about Thankful Thursday, it's all about family time, crafting with the kiddos and spending time together.

The assignment this week was to make a Leprechaun craft.  I threw a hundred ideas around in my head before my kid's picked this one out.  They both LOVED seeing themselves as a Leprechaun.  

I used Photoshop to place a picture of my boys inside the Leprechaun face!! They thought is was so funny!!!  I sized the photos so I could cut them to fit an A2 sized card.  I printed two for each of my boys (in case a mistake was made that was not repairable!! :)

Here is my 8-year-old coloring his picture...

and my 6-year-old working on his Leprechaun. 

The finished cards.

  

My boys wanted to give these to their teachers, so I created the sentiment block for the inside.

It reads:

"We are so lucky to have a teacher like you!"

This is the coloring page Leprechaun we used for out project. You are welcome to grab it for your own version of our project! I'd love to see what you and your kids come up with.  

(click on the picture to enlarge it and right click to save it)
When you create your project, be sure to link it up at Crazy About Cricut. 

 Jenny is running a kids crafting challenge every other week!! 

Boredom Buster Jar

To Enter the Kids Craft Blog Hop Challenge scroll down or click here!

Hi guys, Jenny over at Crazy About Cricut is again celebrating Thankful Thursday. If you haven't heard about Thankful Thursday, it's all about family time, crafting with the kiddos and spending time together.

I just wanted to share my Boredom Buster Jar... 

okay, it's my kid's "Mom... I'm Bored" jar.  

Here's the idea.  The jar loaded with fun things to do as well as chores...

 it really is just luck of the draw!! 

We made this jar last summer and it gets used on a regular basis!! We change the chores and activities to suit the season.

Some of the things we have in our jar is:

Take a walk to the park

Bake cookies with Mom

Play video games for 30 minutes

Built a fort in the living room

Pop popcorn and have a movie night

Plan dinner for tonight

Plan a day trip for next week

Play a board game

Some of the chores include:

Empty the dishwasher

Clean the front room

Clean up the back yard

Water the plant

Weed the garden with Mom

Find 5 toys to donate to Goodwill

Take a nap

Take out the trash

I print out all the slips, trim them down, roll and tape them.  You can print up any chores or rewards that work for your family.  

Please take some time to play with your family today! :)

If you haven't already, please enter Jenny's challenge at Crazy About Cricut!

Have your kiddo write a story about someone you/they love. This can be journaling on a layout, or the kids can write a little story on some paper and draw a picture to go with it.  

Take some pics and link it up at:

http://crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/2011/02/winner-and-new-thankful-thursday.html

Kids Craft : Book of Love

Today is "Thankful Thursday" (formally "Family Friday") 

over at Crazy About Cricut.

 The assignment is to make a love story with your kiddos!!! With Valentines being earlier this week... we took to this project early. It's pretty simple but does take some parent support.

For this project you'll need:

Red card stock

white paper (or card stock)

scissors or a Cricut

needle and tread or yarn

Step 1: Cut out two red paper hearts for the front and back cover of the book. I used my Cricut and Plantin Schoolbook to cut two (for each book) at 4 1/4".

Step 2: Cut out white hearts for the pages (I cut out 8 for each love book). These hearts measure 4".

Step 3: fold all the hearts in half and poke or punch holes down the center fold line. I used a paper piercer to poke a hole every 1/2".

Step 4: Stack up the book (covers on top and bottom) sew the books together.  I went down one side and back up the other to make sure my books would be strong.

Step 5: Have your kids decorate the covers. My kids made it a two sided book.  When holding the heart the right hand side became your book... flip the book over and you have a second book to fill.

My kids chose to make it a love book about their dad on one side and me on the other. They turned out so cute!! They wrote in reasons they love Daddy!! Some pages got pictures too! :)

They both wanted my gel pen stitches on the covers.  We used glitter hearts we bought at the Dollar Tree (they are called table scatter) and attached some hearts with pop dots and some with Scotch Quick Dry Glue.

My 6 year old's book of love

My 6 year old's book pages

My 8 year old's book cover

My 8 year old's page

Don't forget to craft with your kiddo today!

Thanks so much for visiting me here at CardsbyCG.blogspot.com.  I'd love to hear what you think.  Feel free to become a follower or sign up for my email updates (provided through FeedBurner).  I'd love to share my crafting journey with you! - Cheryl

Recycled Valentine Treat Containers

Today is "Thankful Thursday" (formally "Family Friday") over at Crazy About Cricut.

 The assignment is to make Valentine classroom treats or
 Valentine items that can be made in bulk. 

1. collect cardboard toilet paper rolls

2. cut your paper to cover the cardboard rolls, usually 4" x 6 "

3. emboss the paper (I used D'vine Swirls -- my kids love to do this step)

4. attach the paper to the rolls (we used my ATG tape
but any double sided tape should work)

5. fold the ends in on one side (fold in the seam edge first) - see the picture

6. add your candy (wrapped candy is the best) and fold the opposite ends in to match 

Yep, that's my Tinkerbell coffee cup in the back ground!
I love that little fairy! :)

7. tie some ribbon (or lace) around the body of the candy holder

8. add any decorations or tags - my kids like to add their classmates names - we added CAC hearts cut @ 1 1/2" RDS and used a gel pen to add the "to" "from" or just a classmates name - attach to the back of the treat container

That's it, I finished 7 of these in 15 minutes.  My sons each have 20 students in their classes, so in a few hours we'll have all the favors done! :)

This project is included in the "Fun Valentine Linking Party" over at Passionately Artistic.  Link up your fun Valentine idea too! 


Thanks so much for visiting me here at CardsbyCG.blogspot.com.  I'd love to hear what you think.  Feel free to become a follower or sign up for my email updates (provided through FeedBurner).  I'd love to share my crafting journey with you! - Cheryl