Greetings from Mexico!!!

Hi friends!!! Just letting you know that I'm vacationing in Mexico this week so I will respond to your comments and emails beginning Monday the 29th!

:)Jamie

Free Printable: Floral Labels

Happy Friday!!!  Our family has been busy visiting grandparents, enjoying cookouts, and packing for our vacation to Mexico! On top of that, I'm trying to keep up with the abundance of Etsy orders, household chores, and of course being a MOM!!! I know you can relate!

I wanted to share some new labels that I created!  I'm usually not into floral designs in general, but I saw these beautiful backgrounds for sale in an Etsy shop and I couldn't resist! These labels are sized for Avery 8164 mailing labels, but could also be printed on plain paper. Use for organizing, crafts, mailing labels, etc. Enjoy!
PDF HERE . INDIVIDUAL LABELS HERE


Backgrounds by AMBIllustrations on Etsy.
Frame by Coloryourway on Etsy.

Free Printable: Animal Print Labels!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous summer so far!  My list of projects around the house seems to be never-ending and I have to admit that I'm not checking off many boxes these days!!!  Yikes! I was thinking that if I share some of my list with you in the upcoming weeks, I'll be more motivated to actually finish them!!  My first project of the week is to tackle our home office, which has become a dumping ground for every paper, project, bill, craft, and misc. clutter that exists in our home!!

As I was wandering around the office, trying to decide on label categories and organizational systems, I was sidetracked by my scattered brain to create these leopard and zebra print labels for you! They are formatted for Avery 8164 shipping labels, but you could also just print on regular paper.  ZEBRA HERE   LEOPARD HERE Enjoy!!

Label frames purchased from coloryourway on Etsy
Label backgrounds purchased from DigitalMagicShop on Etsy

Painting for Beginners!!!

My little girl celebrated her 8th birthday on Memorial Day!!  I can't believe it's been 8 years since I gave birth to her and now she has finished 2nd grade already!  We'd been having her birthday party at a park the last few years so we could: 1. Basically invite an unlimited number of people, 2. We wouldn't have to get our house ready and 3. We wouldn't have to clean up afterwards! But this year, she wanted.....a SLEEPOVER!!!

So that's what she had.  I told her she couldn't invite every single friend, and that we would keep things simple.  She narrowed it down to just a few friends and we had a very talented teenager come and teach the girls how to make a painting!!! (Then the girls moved on to cake, presents, watching a movie, playing Sleepover BINGO, and I think by 3:00AM most of them were asleep!!!!).

OK, now back to the whole painting lesson!!

I had never been to one of those painting classes that you see on Groupon all the time, so I had no idea how this worked.  But my friend, whose daughter was teaching us, knew the whole deal.  Here are the supplies we needed based on my daughter's choice of this (advanced level) painting from Pinterest (yikes!):

SUPPLIES:

2 - 2 oz. containers of acrylic paint in each of the colors of green, purple, and white

1 - 8 oz. container of acrylic paint in each of the colors of blue, read, and yellow

1 large paint brush and 1 small paint brush per girl

Baby Wipes

Paper Towels

Cup of water for each girl

Paper plate for each girl

Canvas for each girl

Paint smocks or old shirts for each girl

She simplified the painting for 8 year-olds and did step-by-step instructions for the girls!

This was the lovely almost-finished product of our artist (who happens to be only 13, can you believe it?!!):

It was so fun to see the girls' different paintings!!! 

I made the painting placemats for the girls using some gift wrap, zebra cards, plain white paper, a name label, and my laminator:

Oh gosh, I can't believe I'm posting these pics, but I got very inspired during and after the party to paint my own paintings!!! I am a very new beginner to painting!! But I'm loving it!!!!

Here is the one I did during the party:

And I made a cupcake based on a similar one I found online:

And then I got inspired to paint a tree for our family room....

I can't wait to go buy some more canvases!!!!  Who knew painting could be so relaxing and fun?!!!  I think in my older age, I'm not so worried about making mistakes, so I just go with it!

The party was a success!

Free Printable Bus Driver Thank You Card!

Tomorrow is the last day of school for our district!  Wow, I can't believe it's here already!!  So I'm trying to finish up teacher gifts and cards and I remembered how Mya's bus driver loved his personalized card last year!  I made another one for him today with his name and bus number, and I thought I would share a similar version with you! 

You can download both the 5x7 card and a sheet of buses to use to wrap around a gift card!!

How to wrap the gift card:

(You'll need an extra strength glue stick, your gift card, and of course you'll want to print the bus paper. Download the bus driver thank you card here and print it too.)

 Fold up about half inch over the gift card.

Fold the right side across: 

Glue right side.  Fold left side across: 

Press and hold for a minute to secure: 

Fold the two tops inward to form a point.  Glue down: 

Glue the point (or a bus sticker works great too!): 

Have your kid(s) sign the card: 

Add a ribbon and even a note for a personalized touch! 

The bus driver will love it, I promise:)

Clipart purchased from ClipArtopia.

Free Food Label Printables!!!

I'm happy to introduce a guest to my blog today!!!  Dana from foodpackaginglabels.net is sharing a fabulous set of FREE Food Label Printables and some great tips on how to clear the clutter and reduce frustration in the kitchen...the most used room in the house!!!


***How to Organize Your Kitchen With Free Food Label Printables***

It’s very easy to make a mess in the kitchen while trying to prepare food at home. For example, you most likely have to open a bunch of cupboards and peek into a dozen food jars scattered around the kitchen in order to find your flour or rice. Baking and meal preparation in general can become a real headache regardless of the kitchen’s storage capacities if you don’t organize it properly. Therefore, kitchen organization is very important, especially if you are preparing most of your meals at home. But how do you arrange everything in order to make your kitchen a more pleasant and inviting workplace? These free printable food packaging labels can make your life much easier. 

The first step is to organize the heart of the kitchen -- the pantry. This space is often cluttered as it is a magnet for accumulating all sorts of items. Removing all the unwanted content and transferring all ingredients into jars and canisters will help you clear the clutter and maximize the space. However, in order to utilize the jars and canisters properly it is best to label them. The collection includes pantry labels that will help you organize the basic pantry items like flour, sugar, pasta, rice, oatmeal and cereal. The labels will help you keep the pantry in order at all times, since every family member will know what goes where without making a mess while rummaging through the cupboards. In addition to this, there will be less frustration and lit will save everyone time. 

If you or anyone of your family members have food allergies or special food dieting needs, your pantry is most likely stocked with allergy safe foods. These healthy tags will help you to label food that is gluten-free, lactose-free or sodium-free. You can even label the dinner leftovers in your fridge in order to make sure that no one would make a mistake even with the prepared meals.

Good kitchen organization and healthy diet often requires careful menu planning. You can hang up this weekly meal planner on your cupboard doors or on your fridge so everyone will know what’s on the daily menu. This will also help you to better plan your grocery shopping, which can save you lots of money and time in the long run.

And last but not least, these lunchbox stickers will put smiles on the faces of the youngest members of the family. Sometimes it’s really hard to get your child eat healthy food. But, by spicing up their school lunches with some fun and inspiring notes can make the challenge less daunting.

These ideas will hopefully help you transform your kitchen into a neat and organized space, where everyone will enjoy working and hanging out. Just download the printables, print them out and give your kitchen a fresh new look!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Wishing all of you Moms a very special and relaxing Mother's Day!!!! :)Jamie