Snowmen Hershey Bars

I'm in the process of creating a gift basket of sorts to give to all of Drake and Lincoln's preschool caregivers (I'll post it later once I have all the parts assembled). Anyway, one part of it is a Hershey's chocolate bar wrapped up like a snowman, which of course I totally stole from was inspired by a pin on pinterest.

Too cute, right? It's not exactly like the pin but I like my take on it. I think it would have looked even cuter if I had some black round brads for the mouth and eye dots, but alas the craft supplies in Germany are sorely lacking.

To create this incredibly simple snowman wrapped Hershey's bar, you'll need sheets of white paper (I used cheap printer paper), a pipe cleaner, clear tape, orange construction paper, glue, a black pen, three scrapbook brads and of course a Hershey's chocolate bar.

What You'll Do:
Cut a sheet of standard US paper into half, while holding it landscape orientation, cut top to bottom. Each sheet of paper will make two snowmen. Place your Hershey's bar on top of the piece of paper to get an idea of where the middle is. Once you have the middle, punch three brads into the paper right in the middle for the buttons. Then draw in two eyes up top and five dots for the mouth. You could conversely use small black round brads, but I had none. Cut a triangle from orange construction paper for the nose, and glue it onto the face. Lastly, wrap a pipecleaner "scarf" around the chocolate bar, meeting up the ends in the front just off-center. Let each end hang down to be the ends of the scarf and trim as necessary. That's it! Very easy and very cute.

Digital Silhouettes

Recently, okay maybe not recently, a dear friend of mine sent me a care package in the mail. It was absolutely wonderful and thoughtful and amazing. It absolutely made my day week. I wanted to reciprocate the favor, but while I'm crafty at times, I know she has me beat in that department. I wanted to do something I knew she didn't already have or didn't have the time for. So I created some silhouettes of her children for her. These make lovely gifts. Here's how I did it.

Step 1: Find a photo of each subject, preferable a side view or profile view of that person. Enlarge that photo file to fit the size of your template (I'm going to frame mine in 5x7 frames so I wanted to make sure they fit and filled the 5x7 frame). You can size them in anything from photoshop (expensive program) to free programs like picasa, picnik, or GIMP.

Step 2: Once you have each subject scaled to the size you need it, you can go ahead and either remove the background to make it easier on your printer ink or leave it as-is (definitely the easier option). Print each photo on regular printer paper (you want it to be thin and easy to cut through).

Step 3: Find a bit of black poster paper or cardstock and place it underneath your photograph(s). Using a sharp knife, like an exacto blade, slowly and carefully cut through both your photo and the black paper beneath it. Voila!

Step 4: For an added personalized touch, create a 5x7 print with the child's or person's name in a fancy script along the bottom of the print. Adhere the silhouette to the 5x7 print. I used scrapbook squares to attach mine and they worked really well, plus they're acid free. Frame and you have a great and personal gift that any mother would love.

Cork Monograms

Inspiration from Pinterest strikes again! I've seen it several times pinned all over pinterest, so I just had to do it myself: a cork monogram. I actually just did one initial (for our last name). It turned out really really cute, so I made one for my brother as well for Christmas (shh..don't tell him!). His kitchen's decorated in a wine theme so his cork monogram should be absolutely cute and fitting.

I tried two different versions of the monogram, one with the corkends showing and one with the long sides showing. I can't figure out which one I like better. The one with the corks on their end definitely takes a lot more corks, but I think it's a more substantial piece in the end. There's really no tutorial here, since it's just as easy as it looks: you layout your letter, then once you're happy with it, hot glue the corks together. The M initial got a bit unwieldy and unsturdy due to its size, so I hotglued popsicle sticks to the backside as bracers. Thank you, Pinterest and all its wonderfully creative people!