The first day of school isn’t the first day of school without a photo op! Start this yearly tradition with your younglings–it’s totally fun to see the pictures pop up year to year. If you need a first day of school free printable sign, I’ve rounded up a few I think are totally photo-worthy! Click…
Holidays
Easy DIY Sombrero Chip Platter for a Cinco de Mayo Party
Having a Cinco de Mayo party? This sombrero chip hat is an easy DIY to make the party a little more fun. The materials are super simple, and you can find most of them at the dollar store. This Cinco de Mayo sombrero chip platter originally came from my kids’ DIY Cinco de Mayo party….
Older Kid Easter Egg Hunt Ideas at Home
Every Easter my family has a tradition of hunting Easter eggs through the house immediately when they get up. I can remember watching excited little faces grabbing a basket at the threshold to their doorway just waiting for mom and dad to say “go!” then watching them scramble through the house in search of all…
DIY Easter Decoration: Bunny Pull Toy
Easter decorations around the house can really make everything bright and cheery as spring starts to unfold. After a long cold winter, the pastel colors are so good at lifting spirits! If you have a Cricut machine, making a few DIY Easter decorations of your own is super simple. These old-fashioned bunny pull toys are…
St. Patrick’s Day Cocktail Ideas
Here is one last St. Patrick’s Day idea for you and what you may want to do with a giant bag of Lucky Charms marshmallows. We are getting into the spirit of the party with two St. Patrick’s Day cocktail ideas – one for you guys that don’t drink beer but want the green drinks,…
Lucky Charms Marshmallow Muddy Buddies Recipe
After I purchased a pound of Lucky charms marshmallows on a whim, I had to figure out something to do with them. A Lucky Charms Marshmallow muddy buddies recipe seemed like a natural fit and are great for St. Patricks Day treats or Unicorn Party snacks! The ingredients are pretty simple, and made just…
Lucky Charm St. Patrick’s Day Favors for the Classroom
It’s a good thing my son likes to take St. Patrick’s Day favors to share with his class. Because I randomly ordered a pound of Lucky Charm’s marshmallows ONLY on Amazon without any thought about what to do with them. (You can do the same random sort of shopping for freeze dried marshmallows here.) Some…
How to Iron Vinyl onto Burlap – a Mother’s Day Gift Idea
It looks like it might be a little difficult to iron vinyl onto burlap, but it’s really not if you know a few tricks! This Mother’s Day gift idea is good way to give vinyl and burlap a chance. It’s a Craft Lightning idea made with my favorite crafting tool, my Cricut machine, so it…
Unicorn Free Printable Classroom Valentines
Tween age girls love unicorns. Little girls love unicorns. Heck, I even know adults that love unicorns! It totally makes sense to bring a little magic to the classroom with unicorn free printable classroom Valentines. We came up with these after a trip to Target. I let my son rifle around in the dollar bins…
Scrabble Wall Art for National Scrabble Day
National Scrabble Day does not occur until April 13, but I thought I’d give everybody a jump on starting their Scrabble craft project to celebrate the day. And seeing how it’s February, you can also use the “Love” Scrabble wall art as a pretty little piece of Valentine’s decoration. Bonus? This is a Craft Lightning…
Free Pokemon Printable Valentines Cards
Pokemon seems to be a favorite that is going to stick around – and there are no shortage of kids that LOVE the imaginative critters in this game. When Valentines Day comes around this year, you can let your favorite Pokemon trainer hand out Pikachus with these free printable Pokemon Valentine cards! Aren’t these the…
Monster Valentine Card Box and Monster Valentine Card with Cricut Maker
This monster valentine card box post was sponsored by Cricut. All thoughts, feelings and ideas are my own. Affiliate links ahead–they cost you nothing, but help keep my content free! One of my more popular post this time of year is for a Valentine’s Day card box to use for valentines in the classroom. I…
Reusable Gingerbread House Centerpiece with Cricut
Not going to lie. This reusable gingerbread house centerpiece is one time-consuming project, but it’s pretty cool to have in your house for a gingerbread party like this one or just for the holidays. You’ll need a Cricut Maker machine (buy it here) with the knife blade attachment to cut all the pieces out. There…
Easy DIY Neighbor Gift: Chili Seasoning Kits
I love having something small to give my friends and neighbors for Christmas. Because frankly, I love being generous, but I don’t always have fun to do lavish for everyone. A DIY neighbor gift is usually what I end up doing. Something thoughtful and edible usually does the trick to make people feel warm and…
DIY Neighbor Gift – Monogram Blanket
Wrapping up in a fuzzy blanket is like wrapping up in a nice warm hug. What better DIY neighbor gift to give at Christmas to friends than a DIY customized blanket? It’s practically the same thing as wrapping them up in a little bit of love. I gave out quite a few of these last…
DIY Christmas Shirt for Swimmers – H2O H2O H2O!
A funny DIY Christmas shirt for swimmers was a must have this year. If you’ve read my blog at all, you know I have a bunch of really active kids. Both of them swim, one of them triathlons, the other is a super competitive swimmer… as in she went to regionals on the high school…
Gingerbread House Party in a Hurry
I have a confession to make. This year’s gingerbread house party was NOT the result of careful planning and meticulous attention to details. Rather, I it was the result of a long day or two and perhaps a sleepless night. A.K.A. this gingerbread party was thrown at the last minute. Be sure to get to…
New Years Eve at Home with the Kids and Cricut
Being at home on New Year’s eve with the kids always seems like it’s going to be hard. Can you entertain them enough to make this memorable? Are they going to love New Year’s eve because of what you’re doing? Is anyone going to bother to stay up until midnight? What I can say is…
Christmas T-Shirts for your Cricut Machine
There is nothing like a good Christmas shirt to celebrate the season. Snarky or sweet, as long as it gets you in the holiday spirit, it’s a good thing. Recently, I put a whole bunch of great Christmas t-shirt designs into Cricut’s Design Space for you to use and here they are! For each…
Preschooler Christmas Shirt: Snowmen!
Making little Christmas outfits for my nieces and nephews was one of my favorite parts of the start of the season this year. Preschool Christmas shirts especially are super fun, they’re nice and cartoony and you can put their names all over it and they love it. For my niece Lillian, I made her a…
How to Make a Wreath: Wreath Basics
This time of year you see some pretty spectacular wreaths out there–they get really really fancy!! But how the heck do you do that yourself and not have it fall apart??? It’s actually a lot simpler than it looks. Watch the video for a good primer on how to make a wreath. It’s wreath basics…
Gingerbread Tablescape with The Cricut Maker
This gingerbread tablescape post is brought to you by Cricut. Affiliate links included. All thoughts, feelings, ideas and designs are my own. Setting the Christmas tables is a fun part of decorating for the season. This year we are gearing up to have another gingerbread decorating party at our house, so we’re setting a pretty…
Send These Fresh, Hand-rolled Bagels as a Gift to Anyone!
This post about bagel gift bag ideas is sponsored by New Yorker Bagels. All thoughts, feelings and ideas are my own. About this time of year, we all start scratching our heads and thinking up things to give the important people in our lives that take care of the hard stuff for us, like teachers…
Dollar Tree Christmas Craft: Kid’s Lego Wreath
Your local Dollar Tree store is a great source for supplies for fun Christmas crafts! Today I am participating in a Dollar Tree Christmas craft party with some talented bloggers around the web, and my contribution is this super cute Lego Wreath just for kids! I can’t tell you how excited my son was to…
Custom Christmas Shirts for Toddlers and Infants
This Christmas, I’m SOOOOO enjoying being an auntie. I now have three nephews and three nieces to spoil, and lots of babies to pinch cheeks. All these new little family members means I am able to make some custom Christmas shirts in toddler and infant size! You can use these as jumping off points for…
Gluten-Free Holiday Side Dish: Garlic Green Beans
Finding a gluten-free holiday side dish or two sometimes means making a change or two to a recipe to make it diet acceptable during the holidays. Creamy casseroles are a little bit of work to make gluten-free, so I tend to steer clear of those and make lighter dishes. Green bean casserole was long a…
Gluten-Free Holiday Side: Sweet Potato Soufflé
Navigating the holidays with guests or family members with dietary needs gets tricky. In our house, there are several of us with gluten issues, so we make almost all gluten-free holiday side dishes. Besides the bread that most of the gluten eaters demand I put on the table, everything is safe to eat for everyone….
Gluten-Free Holiday Side Dish: Andouille Sausage Stuffing
It’s about that time again where we start digging out the traditional recipes for our holiday meals and start preparing for the feast! Our family recipes need a bit of altering because we have a gluten-free family member, namely me, so I set out to make everything we usually do, but so they still taste…
Six Genius Ideas to Get your Home Holiday Ready
This post is sponsored by Babbleboxx.com. All these holiday ready ideas and thoughts are my own. There is an endless enjoyable stream of company to host, guests to serve and family to create memories with during the holidays. Most of these memories get made at home, so we tend to put a lot of…
Cup full of cheer custom coffee mug for Christmas
This is a paid partnership with The J.M. Smucker Company and Danone. My opinions and ideas for this cup full of cheer custom Christmas mug are my own. There is really nothing like a perfect cup of coffee. Steaming hot, full of caffeine with a touch of creamer and preferably served in a snarky sort…
Boo Your Neighbors Halloween Piñata from Recyclables
fiI do love a fun bucket full of candy to “boo your neighbors.” But it’s even more fun to boo your neighbors with something creatively different like a mini Halloween Piñata. Creatively different does not equal hard to do or crazy expensive. In fact, these mini piñatas were made from recycled cracker boxes, tape and…
Let’s Get Lit Holiday T-Shirt Designs
Welcome to another lovely edition of Craft Lightning! This month’s project is a 15 minute or less holiday t-shirt project, or in the case of this design, Let’s Get Lit holiday t-shirt designs. I made shirts not only for Christmas, but also one for Hanukkah and have them all for you here as free holiday…