Peeps Bag Topper - Free Printable

Easter is fast approaching and that means it's time for a freebie! This time it's a baggie topper for treats, specifically Peeps treats. Since I live in Germany and apparently all the Peeps are already sold out, I had to photography my baggie topper with cute chocolate bunnies.

Just purchase some Peeps (easier said than done here in Germany), a ziploc baggie (I used sandwich sides and tucked under the extra to make them shorter), and print out the toppers and affix them with some strategically placed staples. Voila. Instant cute treat!

Here's the non-photographed version:

Just imagine them with some cute bunny Peeps.

You can download the single baggie topper HERE

or the PDF sheet of two toppers tiled HERE

Please feel free to pin, tweet, post about these toppers, but please link back to the original posting (ie: this blog post) so that I may receive credit. Enjoy!

You Capture - Pink!

This week's challenge over at ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com run by the fabulous Beth is pink. Hmm. When I think of pink I think of spring, baby girls, and marathon runs (of the Susan G. Komen variety).

I lack baby girls (boo) and there's no marathons this week, so I was hard-pressed to find something pink. I settled on more spring photos. Shortly after this first photo was taken though, the poor tree lost all its blooms. Now the ground is covered with a blanket of soft pink petals. If it hadn't rained recently, it might have made a decent photo.

My second submission is Easter-related. If you look hard enough, there's a bright pink in there somewhere.

All photos taken by myself, Amy Proffitt, and copyright 2011 by Amy Proffitt.

How to Properly Enjoy Dandelions

Since we have an inordinate amount of dandelions in our backyard park, I've put together a tutorial for you on how to properly enjoy these little garden menaces.

Step 1: Head to the park, locate big, fluffy dandelion puff.

Step 2: Pluck dandelion from the ground.

Step 3: Hold dandelion near mouth, purse lips.

Step 4: Blow!

Step 5: Turn your head away from Mommy, try to eat said dandelion while she's distracted with snapping photos.

Step 6: Pout because A: you're not allowed eating dandelions, and B: blowing dandelion puffs is hard!

Step 7: Try, try again. This time, with success!

Step 8: Get bored that not all the puffs blew away, and mash the dandelion puff up in your chubby little hands (chubbiness optional).

You Capture - Spring

Beth over at ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com has a wonderful challenge this week, spring! I can't resist spring. I love love love spring! Did I mention I love spring? Here's a couple of my humble submissions for this week's challenge.

I just love spring! All photos taken by myself, Amy Proffitt, and copyright 2011 by Amy Proffitt.

Spring!

We're starting to have more beautiful days than not around here, so the family has been outside a lot. It's really great having that outdoor fresh air, the sun shining, and the breeze blowing through your hair. Everywhere I look there's something to make my heart rejoice.










I've also been spending some much-needed time with my camera and enjoying some photography. All images copyright Amy Proffitt. :)

A weekend of SUN!

This weekend was the loveliest of the year so far in Germany. That's not really saying all that much since it's only April but believe me, it was gorgeous. The weather was lovely, the boys were well-behaved, and we spent some much-needed time outdoors.

Since my husband is a big history and (in particular) WW2 buff, we went to the westwall museum nearby. It's a museum in a converted bunker from WW2. Sounded really interesting.



Here's the sign (in German) telling us it wasn't open except on Sundays and holidays (we were there on a Saturday...).



Oh well. Atleast it was a great view from the top of the hill. We'll be back sometime in the future. Sunday we went to the small nearby zoo. The boys love to get out and walk around (FREEDOM!) and Drake in particular loves the animals.



They even have a cute little playground that's a favorite of the boys. Drake really enjoys the slides (weeee! down!) and the rope crossing.



It was a great weekend, spent with those I love so dearly. Hope yours was just as lovely.

Jellybean Wreath or Shelf-Sitter

It's beginning to look like spring around here, and that always makes me excited about pastels, warm weather, and jellybeans! I always think that jellybeans (and a lot of the Easter candy) are almost too pretty to eat. I also took a look around my holiday tupperwares in the attic and found that I am woefully remiss on spring/Easter decor. So I created a modern jellybean wreath.


It's actually become more of an empty frame that's sitting on a shelf with some other pretty photos with a pastel, spring theme. But it's really easy to convert it into a wreath (my doors here are all solid wood and since we're renters I can't really poke a hole in them to hang up my wreath).

Anyway, here's what you'll need for this project:
a photo mat, or cardboard frame, or an artist canvas panel (prestretched)
one to two bags of jelly beans
small filler beads, one tube or one bag
hot glue gun and several hot glue sticks
a length of coordinating ribbon
a spray can of shellac or clear protective gloss

If you're using an artist canvas panel like what I did with my project, you'll require a pencil, a ruler, and an x-acto blade. I used an artist canvas panel because I had one sitting around that wasn't being used, and likely would never be used. It was 8x10 and I cut the middle out of it to create a border, but if you have a photo mat around it'll work just as well.



Here's a photo of my prepared canvas panel. I've measured 2 inches into the surface all around the edges, then traced a line, and cut along that line with my x-acto blade. Here's an x-acto blade tip for you: always make several lighter cuts along the same cutting line rather than forcing down hard and making one single bold cut.

Once I had the template, all I had to do was go to town hot-gluing down the jellybeans.



I may or may not have eaten a few while completing this project. Anyway, once I had gone all around the perimeter, being careful to make the pattern seem random but not putting the same color next to each other, I filled in the small voids left behind with some cute seed beads that I had leftover from a previous project.


Once those were in place, I took the whole thing outside and cleaned off the spiderwebs that you get from using a hot glue gun. I HATE those things, but I haven't yet found a way to avoid them. Once I had the design like I liked it, I put several thin layers of a clear protective gloss over the entire surface. It's best to use several thin layers rather than doing one thick spray-over. After it had dried, I hot-glued a pink ribbon to the back for hanging.



I think I like mine best as a shelf-sitter, though. It's right in the middle of my shelf composition and it provides a beautiful pop of spring color.

Sunshine!

Finally we had a beautiful day here in Germany. There's been some that have been really close to being absolutely beautiful, but today was exceptionally great. The boys and I took a walk to a nearby park, where they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They both came home not tired like I had hoped they would be, but completely dirty...just like little boys should be.