Eleven Fun and Easy Valentine Ideas

For some reason Valentine's Day crafting and creating has been difficult for me this year! I'm not sure if it's because I used up all my creativity over the last few years, or if Pinterest has made me feel way less creative than I thought I was. Either way, the new Valentine ideas have just not been flowing much this year. So I thought  it might be fun to recap a few of my past Valentine's Day ideas in one big Valentine Round Up post!  They are all really cute and really easy to do...which is perfect for all us busy moms who really don't have to make all of those amazing Pinterest level crafts!

Number 1: Kaleidoscope Valentines

Number 2: Valentine Chalkboard Candy Boxes

Number 3: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Waffles

Number 4: Valentine Hula Hoop Wreath

Number 5: Tootsie Roll Bank Valentine

Number 6: Love Note in a Pancake

Number 7: See Through Valentines

Number 8: Play-Doh Valentines with Printable

Number 9: I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts

Number 10: Valentine Mailbox Magnets

Number 11: Ruffled Valentine Dishtowels

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Easy Teacher Gifts in Jars

*mason jars*

*fabric*

*string*

*gift tags*

*& some kind of sweet treat*

{like Chex Mix Muddy Buddies}

 *quick, easy, inexpensive, and SUPER cute*

Back to School Apple and Caramel Teacher Gift

My boys have been in school for a full week now. It doesn't seem like the summer should be over yet, but it is and we are slowly getting back into the groove of school and homework and lots of school papers. If you have been around my blog long, you know that I love to send little happies to my boys' teachers throughout the year just to let them know how much we appreciate all they do. So the boys ended their first week of school by taking their teachers these cute and {oh so simple} Back to School Apple and Caramel Teacher Gifts!

I looked all over the internet and Pinterest trying to find a quick and easy recipe for caramel dip. There are a ton of recipes out there, but the best one I found came for the adorable Alisa at The Sweet Life. It is so simple that it only calls for two ingredients: store bought caramels and a can of sweeten condensed milk!

The original recipe called for a bag of caramel bits, but our local grocery store didn't have them so we improvised a little. We used two small bags of caramel squares, and I'm pretty sure one big bag would be fine in this recipe too. I got a little assistance unwrapping all those caramel squares from two very excited helpers:)

Then I opened up this can of deliciousness and tried not to eat the whole thing with a spoon before it made it into my recipe!

I put the two ingredients into a microwave safe bowl, gave them a little stir, and then heated it in one minute intervals until it was melty and combined.

I poured the caramel dip into cute half pint mason jars. One batch of this caramel dip was just enough to fill four of this size jar.

I let the caramel cool a little, then I placed it in the bottom of a clear gift bag. I topped it off with a pretty red apple and tied the whole thing off with a little bit of raffia. You could tie on a cute tag, but we were running out of time and I thought it was plenty cute enough even without a tag!

This is a fun way to say thanks to your kiddo's teacher for all their hard work, and it's a great way to give that quintessential apple gift to the teacher without being just a boring old apple!

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A Little Easter Happy

I'm pretty sure I've confessed my love for the Dollar Spot section at Target at least a hundred times here. I seriously can't go into Target without getting at least one SUPER cute item from the Dollar Spot. It is a great place to pick up treats for the kiddos, party favors, and holiday decor. But my favorite things to find in the Dollar Spot are "happies". You know the stuff I'm taking about...the cute stuff like notepads, picture frames, & pens. I also LOVE all the different containers!

The Dollar Spot is my go to place for teacher happies all year long! A few weeks ago I came across these cute metal buckets {with super adorable gingham ribbon handles} and I knew they would be perfect for some fun spring/Easter happies for the boys' teachers! 

 I picked up a few beauty supplies to place in the Dollar Spot buckets. I figured nail polish would be a great Easter gift so that their teachers could have pretty toes to go with new Easter dresses and shoes:)

****

nail polish {$2 in the beauty section}

nail file {$1 on end cap in the beauty section}

nail polish remover pads {$2 for a pack of ten in the beauty section. Each teacher got two & they are inside the eggs}

Burts Bees Chap-stick {2 pack for $5. Each teacher got one}

 a pretty floral note pad {$1 in the Dollar Spot}

& a cute chalkboard sign {$1 in the Dollar Spot}

****

All that was left was to assemble!

I started by stuffing an empty Target bag into the bucket and then topping it with some white shredded paper....green Easter grass would be really cute too, but the only Easter grass I had was in the boys' baskets and I didn't want to steal theirs:) I wrote a cute Happy Easter note on the chalkboard sign and stuck in in the back, then added all the other happies to the bucket...including the filled Easter egg  to make it look extra Easter-y!

**So if you are looking for some happies to make someone's day a little more special, head to Target & the Dollar Spot!**

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Sonic Drink Holder Valentine Gift Box

Back in November I started collecting those cardboard drink holders from Sonic. I had seen some really cute gift baskets made with lots of different kinds of drink holders and the Sonic ones seem to be the best...plus who doesn't want a reason to order a few yummy drinks at Sonic:)  Anyway, I was planning to use the drink holders at Christmas to make the boys' teachers gifts. I ended up giving them a different gift, which means my stash of drink holders {yes they are part of collecting vs. hoarding issues too} was still sitting in the dining room waiting to be turned into a cute gift box. I decided that Valentine's Day would be a great reason for me to pretty up the {kind of plain} cardboard drink holders and add a few goodies!

 I started by gathering up a few things to put into the gift box: a coffee cup, hand sanitizer, a Starbucks drink, and a recycled PB jar full of yummy cookies. 

 I used some left over Christmas wrapping paper {red and white polka dots work for so many things} and some scrapbook paper to cover all four sides of the drink holder. I simply placed the drink holder on the backside of the paper and traced around the part that I wanted to cover. I used spray adhesive and a glue runner to attach the paper to the box.

 I added a few vinyl letters to the coffee cup and the hand sanitzier just to make them more personalized. I also added a strip of chalkboard vinyl to the peanut butter jar {to cover up the sticky glue that wouldn't come off}. Then I let the boys decorate the jars with chalk. They wrote Happy Valentine's Day, drew a few hearts, and signed their names.

 I added a circl of scrapbook paper to the top of the jar to cover up the Jif label and then filled it up with yummy Valentine M&M cookies.

To finish off the gift box, I wrapped up the Starbucks drink, added a few pink & white paper straws, and tied on a cute tag with some bakers twine. The boxes took a little bit of time and effort, but they only cost a few dollars {around $7 each} to put together and they turned out SUPER cute! I hope the boys' teachers like them:)

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Collecting or Hoarding?

I have a habit slight obsession of collecting empty jars and containers. I'm not quite sure if it qualifies as collecting or hoarding though...where do you draw the line? Anyway, I find myself keeping lots and lots of empty peanut butter jars {they are perfect for gifting cookies in}, empty pasta sauce jars {there are so many mason jar type crafts out there that I want to try}, and empty trail mix containers {because we might make our own trail mix one day}. 

 They usually sit by the sink for a few days until I decide to finally wash them. Getting the labels off some of the containers is difficult sometimes so I procrastinate cleaning them until I get a small collection going:) 

 I had been storing my collection in one of our kitchen cabinets, but it started taking over a little bit {I think this may be where my collection is borderline hoarding}. We are in the process of moving Eli out of the nursery, which will be turned into my craft room...so I moved my collection into one of the emptied-out drawers in the nursery/craft room. They are out of the way for now which makes me feel like less of a hoarder:)

 The point of this post isn't to embarrass myself with pictures of my jar collection, but to share the awesomeness that can be made with said collection! This is the happy that I sent to school with Grant today for his assistant teacher's birthday. Sorry for the not so great pics, but I forgot to snap a shot before we left home so these are iPhone pics {with Instagram which I LOVE} that I took in my car when we pulled up in the school parking lot.

 This was a trail mix container {probably from Target because we love their Monster Trail Mix} that I cleaned up, added some polka dot paper over the stickiness from removing the label, added a tulle bow, and a chalkboard label to the top with a little happy birthday note. And it turned out really cute. It is the perfect way to gift some yummy goodness like homemade peanut butter cookies {which is why we have so many empty peanut butter jars}.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who collects random thing that other people throw away!?! What kind of collections do you have at your house?!?

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