Coconut Bowling: The Perfect Party Game!

For my boys' Last Day of School Party we had a Luau.  (FYI- Dollar Tree is the place to pick up some super cute Luau decorations!) One of the games we played was Coconut Bowling.  I'm all about easy and this game was easy to make and easy to play! I used the Palm Tree from our new Luau Clipart Set to make 6 trees.  Then I attached them to water bottles using clear packing tape.  I added a few drops of blue food coloring and water to look like the ocean.

We set them up like bowling pins and had the kids roll the coconut and knock them down.  Key word here: ROLL.  Throwing the coconut will break it and then you'll be cleaning up coconut milk.  We got a small crack in ours but it didn't break! Have fun!

Luau Clip Art at Grant Avenue Design

"Uh-Mason" End of the Year Teacher Gift!

Want to tell your child's teacher how "Uh-Mason" they have been this year?  This is a quick and easy end-of-the-year gift!

All you need is a mason jar cup (I got mine at Walmart for $5), crystal light or lemonade packets, and a favorite candy (I used Tropical Starbursts).

Download this adorable tag for FREE by clicking here.  Print it out, have your child sign their name, cut it out, punch a hole, and attach to the mason jar.  Doesn't get any easier than that!

The Real Easter Story

Several times during the year the kiddos and I visit and hand out little gifts to my husband's grandmother and the other residents at an assisted living facility.  At Christmas we gave them Nativity Scenes and they just loved it. So, I used our Easter Story Clipart and Easter Papers to make a scene and the kids will help us put them in frames.  All of my kiddos like visiting with the residents and checking out all their rooms.  They're curious little people and always have questions about the trinkets in their rooms! It's so sweet to see them handing out little gifts and chatting away with the residents.

Easter Story Clipart and Easter Papers

FREEBIE Friday! Chick Magnet!

 Get your crafting on with our adorable Chick Magnet graphic!  You can use it to make t-shirts, aprons, cards, and for digital scrapbooking.  You're only limited by your imagination! Share with us what you make for your own "Chick Magnet" on Facebook!  Click HERE to get the file!

St. Patrick's Day New Releases! Don't get pinched, get your projects going!

New St. Patrick's Day Clipart is HERE!

This is a perfect time to do some rainbow activities with kiddos!  I've been pinning fun things to do with my crew.  Today we made a rainbow cake which was fun to make and more fun to eat!  Directions here.

What fun St. Patrick's Day crafts are you making?  What activities are you doing?  Are there any fun traditions that your family has? Can't wait to hear!

CHD Awareness Begins Today!

This is a very important week to our family.  Congenital Heart Defects affect so many children and families.  My little man, Nolan, that you see above, has Aortic Stenosis and Regurgitation.  I'm going to share more about his diagnosis and journey next week, so stay tuned.  God has his hand on this little boy and you'll want to hear about how God has touched him.

CHD Awareness Week is February 7th-14th! 

Some facts about CHD from The Children's Heart Foundation:

• Congenital heart defects are America’s and every country’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 100 babies is born with a CHD.
• Congenital heart defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths.
• Congenital heart defects are the leading cause of all infant deaths in the United States.
• Each year approximately 40,000 babies are born in the United States with a congenital heart defect. Thousands of them will not reach their first birthday and thousands more die before they reach adulthood.
• Each year over 1,000,000 babies are born worldwide with a congenital heart defect. 100,000 of them will not live to see their first birthday and thousands more die before they reach adulthood.

So, now you know this is serious, right?  And you're thinking what can I do?  You can donate to fund research.  Just the other day I read about a new research project going on about valves.  There's no perfect solution for Nolan.  At some point he'll need a valve replacement and we'll be faced with the difficult decision of what kind of valve to choose: mechanical, that requires he be on blood thinners forever, or bovine/pig valve, that doesn't last as long.  Tough call.  This new research is trying to find a better alternative for valves- a cross between those two choices.  There's also new research about catheter placed valves instead of open heart surgery.  These kinds of research projects could change Nolan's life!  If you choose to donate there are several good options:

For Research:  http://www.childrensheartfoundation.org/donate-now

For Care Bags for Children:  http://www.savinglittlehearts.com/you-can-help/

Just for caring and reading about a cause that's close to my heart (pun intended), I've got two FREEBIES for you!  Feel free to post to your own blog or your Facebook profile to show your support of CHD Awareness this week! Download your FREEBIES here and here.

Cottage Loft Bed & 5 Freebies

My little Lola just turned 3 on New Year's Day! Turning 3 in our house means a big girl bed.  I got it in my head that I wanted a cottage loft bed.  This little girl has played robots, dinosaurs, cars, and been surrounded by all things boy for three years.  That's what comes from having twin brothers 15 months older than her.  Lately she has been wanting to play in her room with her dolls, dollhouse, and play kitchen so I really wanted her to have a little girly place in this boy world. I was thinking of a cottage loft bed similar to the one from Pottery Barn but I just couldn't imagine her safely getting down a ladder during the night.  So, I had to come up with another plan…

Plan A:  Buy one!  I went on a search for a reasonably priced one with stairs.  Let me save you some time - there isn't one. This plan was the easiest, but unfortunately it was the most expensive and hubby wasn't going for a $1,500 bed.  Maybe if we won the lottery or something. Haha!

Plan B: I could build it!  So, then I started looking for building plans and found these at Ana White.  But, there's no way with three kiddos, 4 and under, at home that I could build it.  Who was I kidding?

Plan C:  Talk hubby into building it!  I spent the most time on this plan.  He even went to Lowe's to price materials.  But, in the end, he said there was no way he had time to take that on.  He also said he thought I was too picky and I would end up not liking what he did.  What, who me???

Did I give up on my, I mean Lola's, dream?  No!

Plan D:  Find someone else to build it! My cousin Josh is a carpenter so he took a look at the plans I found and the millions of pictures I sent him and said he could do the job.  Woohoo!  We agreed on a price (let's leave it here and say I got a cousin's discount).  If you're interested in him building you a custom bed like this it would be about $800.  Don't hold me to that, because of course depends on all the details you add.

He delivered it and got it all put together in her room.  Lola was so crazy excited!

All put together in her room!

It took me a full week to paint and add the details and it was so fun to watch Lola's anticipation build of finally getting to sleep in her new bed.  She absolutely loves it!  We were running errands yesterday and she said "I just want to go home and play in my mommy kitchen house bed."  Every night when she goes to bed she's so excited.  Last night my husband said "You were right.  She loves it.  She will remember this forever." 

Ta-Da! All finished and ready to play.

For the steps I whipped up these printable vinyl stickers with inspirational words.  She can't read yet, but I read them to her as she climbs into bed at night.  Good things to have on the brain when drifting off to sleep. 

So, in honor of Lola's birthday I'm giving them to you!  Get them HERE for FREE! These labels/tags are in transparent PNG format (no yucky white background) and are each about 9" x 7".   Perfect for cards, decals, scrapbooking, and anything else you can think of.  We would love to see how you use them!  Come share your project using these inspirational words with us on Facebook!

FREE Valentine's Day Cards

Freebie Friday is back!  Enjoy two different versions of this cute and easy Valentine's Day card.  I love this one because you just sign it and attach it to a bag of Pop Rocks and you're done!  Get the FREE files here (pink) and here (teal).  What do you think?  Any other ideas you've been wishing to see?  Let me know!

Cute Valentine's Day Cards for Kids!

Looking for an easy and cute Valentine's Day card for your kiddos?  I used our O-fish-ally Yours Clipart and made this in about 3 minutes.  Put it in a baggie with some goldfish crackers or gummy fish and presto- a simple, but cute Valentine's Day card. Easy peasy!  I'm about to put my new Silhouette Cameo to the use and cut around these bad boys.  (I'll be blogging about my new little toy next week.)

Please note: There's no watermark on the clipart!

O-fish-ally Yours Clipart

Oh Holy Night! Easy Nativity Scene

Several times during the year the kiddos and I visit and hand out little gifts to my husband's grandmother and the other residents at an assisted living facility.  Last year, the kids made door hangers out of melted beads for everyone.  This year I used my Nativity Clipart to create a scene and the kids helped put the pictures in frames.  I got 20 frames at dollar tree and I had the scenes printed at FedEx to save my ink at home, so all together the whole project cost $25.  But, the reactions of the residents and the wonderful conversations and interactions we had with everybody...priceless!  I enlisted my mother-in-law to help me manage my crew and I'm glad I did.  Every room we went in the kids were fascinated with every little trinket.  One lady had a dancing Frosty the Snowman.  Thought we would never get them out of there! Hahaha. One lady had all these little butterflies everywhere she had made and one of my boys said "These are sooo beautiful!"  She was beaming with pride.  Oh, it's no wonder that Jesus loved the little children so!

Made using Nativity Clipart

Mamaw & The Grant Crew

Nativity Clipart

Christmas Card Ideas!

I just got back from an awesome trip to NYC with my Mom and my sister.  New York is the perfect way to kick off the holiday season!  Christmas is just beautiful up there.  Plus, there was an ice storm going on here at home and I completely missed it.  Yay!

Nothing better than getting back and seeing that the Christmas cards I did for my mom and for my family were waiting.  Check out my Dad and Mom's card and let me know what you think!

The Superman, Batman, and Ballerina are my kiddos! :)

I used our Gingerbread Love Clipart & Gingerbread Papers to make the card.  See all the great things you can make with our stuff! (shameless plug! haha)

Thanksgiving Goodies

Just a few little goodies I whipped up for my children's Thanksgiving Feasts on Friday.  They were a big hit with the kids and the adults!

The kids loved working on their pinecone turkeys.  I was a gluey mess by the time they were all done, but that's ok.  They're going to be our centerpieces at the kids table at our house on Thanksgiving.  Along with a tablecloth to be colored by the kiddos, we should have a pretty cute table!

 Sugar Cookie Pumpkin Pie Slices:

You will need:

Pillsbury ready cookie dough
Orange cookie icing
White cookie icing
Gingerbread or tan colored chocolate melts

1.  Roll out the cookie dough and cut into triangles.  After I baked my cookies they weren't very pretty triangles, so I just trimmed them up when they came out of the oven.
2.  After letting them cool, pipe on the orange icing.  Go around the edge first and let it sit for a few minutes, then go back and fill it in.  Let it harden before going on to the next step.
3.  Melt the chocolate according to the package directions.  Then place carefully in a baggie.  (I had to grab another baggie because the chocolate was too hot and melted a little hole in it).  Using scissors, clip a little bit off the tip of the baggie and pipe onto the cookies.
4.  After the orange icing is hard use the white icing to make the "cool whip" on your pie slices.  I let it dry between the 2 round of this- that way it built it up a bit.
5.  Enjoy!

Stacked Cookie Turkeys:

You will need:

Vanilla Double-Stuffed Oreos

Nutter Butters (small)

Candy Eyes

Candy Corn

Stick Pretzels

Red Cookie Icing

White Cookie Icing

Directions:

1.  Slide the candy corns and the pretzel sticks (I broke one stick in half to make two legs) into the cream of the cookie.

2.  Attach the nutter butter to the oreo with some white cookie icing.

3.  Put a small glob of red icing on the nutter butter and then use that to attach the candy corn.

4.  Use the white icing to attach the candy eyes.

5.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Party Game

Apparently I'm guilty.  Guilty of procrastinating with this room mom stuff again!  Although in my defense, I sincerely thought I was ahead of the game.  I went last Friday, a whole week before the Thanksgiving party, and a whole 2 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving, to Hobby Lobby.  The Thanksgiving section was already reduced down to a quarter of an aisle.  WHAT?  I really thought I had it together this time around.  Poor Turkey Day.  The holiday hasn't even got here yet and Christmas is edging it out.  Seriously, this drives me crazy!  Is there some reason that ONE whole aisle can't stay Thanksgiving until Thanksgiving is actually here?  I mean, wouldn't it be okay if we only had 14 rows of Christmas stuff in November instead of 15?  I don't think I'm asking much here!

Although I did eventually manage to track down some paper goods and I got the last of the foam craft kits at Michaels, I couldn't find a party game I liked for my 4 year old twins' class.  So, I decided to just make my own.  It's played like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" but with a Thanksgiving twist.  My kids loved playing "Put the Hat on the Turkey!"

You find this printable here.  This Thanksgiving game is perfect for a party!  The poster is formatted to be as large as 24" x 36' so you can print it at this size or scale it down.  It can be printed at your local shop or you can order online at uprinting.com.  Just a note- the actual poster does not have a hat on the turkey.  It's featured this way to show you the completed look.  The Pilgrim hats are in PDF format and there are two to a page.   Just print as many copies as you need.

Your party is sure to be a blast with this cute game!

November Craft Owl

November already!?  Here's a little owl craft that I did with my twin boys' class for their Fall Festival.  I got the idea here.  I used flat bottle caps and google eyes though.  The kids loved them!  Easy and cute!

FREEBIE...Pumpkin Bowling - Get Your Halloween Game On!

I'm in charge of getting the game together for our twin boys' Fall Festival at school on Wednesday.  (AND a craft AND a snack.  Guess who's room mom this year?)  I got a great idea from "A Girl And A Glue Gun"- Pumpkin Bowling!  Her pictures are soooo adorable!  She hand drew those!  One talented lady!

You know I love a printable, so in my spare time (hahaha) I whipped up some Pumpkin Bowling labels.  Just wrap empty quart sized paint cans in scrapbook paper and the then add these labels to the front of each can.  Then stack up the cans and roll a pumpkin (real or fake) to knock them down! Cute, crafty, and easy!

Each label measure 4.6"H x 4"W - Perfectly fits empty quart sized paint cans

I used these papers to make the wraps around the cans:
Halloween Fun Digital Paper Pack
Witches Rule Digital Paper Pack

Click here to download

Here are the set of "pins" I made for my boys' class.  Came out great!  The kids had a blast this morning playing with them!

Another FREEBIE today! "You've Been Boo'd" Printables

A sweet neighbor boo'd us yesterday!  This is so fun- I had never heard of it before.  I know, I know, where have I been right?!  I couldn't resist designing my own printables.  So, of course I wanted to share them with you!

They were made with our Halloween Fun Digital Papers and Halloween Fun Clipart & Witches Rule Clipart.

Click here to download.  Enjoy!

FREEBIE FRIDAY! Journal Tags

The RV trip was a success! 

We went to see The Promise in Glenrose, TX on Friday night.  It’s in an outdoor amphitheater and about halfway through a cold front came through.  Thank goodness my father-in-law brought blankets!  Saturday we moved over to a motorcycle race track in near Ft. Worth.  We had a great cookout and then had some ooey gooey s’mores by the campfire that night.  Delicious! On Sunday we watched my brother-in-law and my nephews race motorcycles.  My kids definitely have motorcycle fever now! 

I have to say that I’ve been biten by the RV bug- I want one!  Definitely my style of camping- bathroom, water, and electricity.  What more could a mommy with three little kids ask for when camping? Anybody else been on an RV trip or own an RV?  Share your experiences with me!  Love it or hate it?

I put together a scrapbook page with a few of the pics that I took. Came out pretty cute!

I used our Road Trip Clipart and Digital Papers.  Then realized I needed some journal tags/frames to match.  So I whipped up a few and I'm giving them away today.  FREEBIE FRIDAY is here again!

Journal Tags - Click here to download

FREEBIE Friday! Yummy S'mores!

The RV trip we're going on this weekend has been on my mind.  My fellow Mom friends, you know how it is when there's a trip.  I will be running around packing up anything and everything that anyone at any moment might need.  Clothes, pjs, toothbrushes, car activities, band-aids, snacks, bikes, underwear, socks, etc.  I think I am constantly making lists leading up to a trip.  I wake up in the middle of night thinking of things I've forgotten.  Now I understand why my mom was always so tired by the time we went on vacation.  It's work!

It seems I'm usually packing up all the food or snacks when I'm starving.  Camping food is so yummy! I must confess...I am REALLY looking forward to having a reason to eat S'mores!  All that melted chocolate and marshmallows are reason enough to go camping.  So, in honor of all that ooey gooey goodness, I'm giving away TWO FREEBIES! Click here or on the picture captions to download.

Enjoy and share what you make with us on our Facebook page!

Ooey Gooey Goodness Word Art

S'more Clip Art

Road Trip...in an RV!

Today while the kids are at school I'm getting us all packed up for our trip this weekend.  Our first ever RV Trip! We rented an RV and are heading to Glen Rose, TX to see The Promise.  We're so excited and the kids can't quit talking about our "bus trip"  They were with me on the day I went to rent the RV and try as I might, they still keep calling it a bus. So cute!  Here they are with me that day, showing me where they wanted their car seats to go.

Next week I'll be posting pics from the trip. If you want to get started on your own scrapbooking from your summer trips, try out our Road Trip Clipart & Digital Papers.

Post your scrapbooked pages on our Facebook page to share your ideas!

Road Trip Clipart

Road Trip Digital Papers

FREEBIE FRIDAY! Cute Fall Owl

Two things to be happy about today:

1) You get a Freebie!  Who doesn't love FREE?  

2) It's Friday!!  Just typing "Freebie Friday" always makes me smile!

My cute Fall Owl is perfect for card design, scrapbooking, and even web design!

Fall Owl Download

Here's what I whipped up with the Fall Owl.  I'm going to print it and put it in my daughter's room- which is decorated in owls.

The plaid background is part of our new Autumn Hues Collection.  Rich, vibrant shades of purple, teal, orange, green, and brown with chevron, paisley, plaids, and polka dot designs make this a unique Fall set.  

Autumn Hues Digital Paper Pack

Autumn Hues Clipart

Autumn Hues Bunting

Autumn Hues Tags/Frames

Send us pictures or post to our Facebook page things you create with our collections!  Happy Friday!