Teacher Gift Idea: DIY Crayon Wreath

I made this crayon wreath for my son's daycare teacher and gave it to her on his last day there. She loved it so I have also decided that I'm going to make one her his Kindergarten teachers as well. 
It will be the most perfect Christmas gift for them; unique, unexpected, and I am sure all the kids will love it too!
Oh, and it's super easy so you can have the kiddies help too!
What you need:

• Two Embroidery Hoops (one 12 inch and one 8 inch).
• 64 Crayons
• Ribbon
• Assorted school stickers
• Block letters
• Hot glue gun (forgot to include that in the photo!)

How to:

1. Place the small hoop inside the large hoop, ensuring there is equal distance all the way around. I put the embroidery hook the at top part of the wreath because it's easy to cover with the ribbon later.

2. Starting at the top, glue the crayons on one-by-one by using your hot glue gun; dabbing a a small dot on the top and bottom embroidery hoop, placing your crayon on top. 

Leave a small gap at the bottom as it can get pretty tricky to get the nice even circle if you don't. Spacing as you go works well; and you don't need to be afraid of pull off the crayon if you make a mistake - I did that many times!

I've seen many tutorials that have you lay out the crayons on the embroidery hoops first, but don't waste your time with that. It takes too long and the crayons never stay in place anyway.

3. Once you glue all the crayons, tie the ribbon at the top around where the embroidery hooks are; the ribbon covers them really well. I just tied a bow at the top, but you can get more creative if you want. Just make sure that the bow or knot is tight at the top so when you hang up the wreath it doesn't fall down!

4. Arrange and glue your stickers and block letters as you wish. The stickers will not stay on on their own, you will need to use the glue for them.

That's it! Super easy right? And once I was in my groove, it took me about half hour total to do.

I am sure your child's teachers will love it!

Fall Family Photo's

Every year my family gets Fall photo's done and my husband Doug and I are so happy with the way they turned out this year. I think it's important to keep the family's profile up to date so we can pass on the pictures to future generations. Plus, I think it will be good for Eric to have lots of memories for when he's older. 

This was our second year using our fabulous photographer, Charlotte. You can view here website here. I would truly recommend her to anyone. She really knows her stuff and is super good (and patient) with children.

The photo's were taken at Paletta Mansion in Burlington, Ontario back in October. I can't wait to get them framed and use one for our Christmas cards this year.

Hope you enjoy!

 

 

  

 

*I am in no way affiliated with Charlotte and am not being compensated for this post.

Christmas Craft Day

I know what you're thinking; it's too early to think of Christmas. But to be honest, I start to think about it right after Halloween is done and over with. It's my absolute favourite time of the year; the music, lights, festivities and family events, I just can never get enough. And I've already started my Christmas shopping!

It is November 12th after all, and we're almost half way through the month. My sister Shannon and I decided it was the perfect time to do some Christmas crafts with the boys (my son Eric and my nephew Logan). Oh, we also baked some cookies too.

We did some painting, we made ornaments and reindeer and all around had a good half hour. Short and sweet I always say. Not to mention the boys' attention span was a little short that day. To be honest all they wanted to do was play with their toys, but at least we got some craft time in. I guess my post should be called Christmas Craft Half-Hour, but Christmas Craft Day just sounds so much better. 

Anyway, I wanted to share how are day went. 

This is only part of our supplies. Shannon brought over a bag full of things too.

We started with our popsicle stick Christmas tree's. Eric and Logan were very precise when colouring their popsicle sticks.

 

 Then we moved onto decorating felt Christmas tree ornaments. 

We also did some painting, made hand print reindeer and then made snowman ornaments from their thumb prints. These are Eric's finished crafts.

These are Logan's finished crafts.

 

After the crafts, we had the boys' layout cookie dough on the cookie sheet so we can bake some cookies. We just used the Pillsbury Reindeer Shaped cookies. 

 

After we had finished everything and as Logan was getting ready to go home, I think they were both ready for a nap. Just look at these cute, tired eyes. 

Needless to say, Eric slept for two hours that afternoon.

By the way, did I mention we also listened to Christmas music?

Pumpkin Carving

Last night the family spent some time together carving our pumpkins so I thought I'd share some highlights. Believe it or not, this was actually our first time carving pumpkins since Eric was born (he's 3 now)! I know, I can't believe it either. We do buy pumpkins every year and take him trick-or-treating, but we have never carved them before. But, we had a lot of fun and will now keep up with this tradition.

Eric had a blast drawing a face on one of the smaller pumpkins, as well as colouring all over one with a permanent marker. He kept telling me he had to colour it "really really fast". He was just too cute.

Here's our night in pictures.

Getting ready for the fun!

After Mommy cut open the top, I'm ready to clear out the seeds.

But only with a spoon (he hates getting his hands dirty).

Drawing my pumpkin masterpiece.

Admiring his work.

Our grand pumpkin display.

Are you ready for Halloween?