Thursday, January 20, 2011

Cute Valentines Day Butterflies and Alien Class Swap Cards!

Sweet Butterflies and Creepy Alien Valentine Day Class Swap Cards...
Easy and INEXPENSIVE!

Spend a morning with your young ones creating these sweet cards for their class party. Share pictures of your finished product and post them
here in the comments section!


This is my daughter's project from last year, but it turned out so cute I thought I'd post it for you guys this year! SO SIMPLE!

Supplies:
Pink and Lime Green Construction Paper
Scissors
Red Pipe Cleaners
Glue or Glue Dots, Stapler
Markers
Optional: Google eyes, stamps, stickers, punches

I cut out "fat" hearts for the girl's butterflies and "skinny" hearts for the boy's aliens.

Grace stamped the butterflies with more hearts and used a butterfly punch to add more details but you can let your kids decorate them however they like (or whatever supplies you already have on hand!)

She then used a single glue dot to piece the two butterfly "wings" together in the middle.

I helped her curl the antenas for the butterfly and alien by wrapping the pipecleaner around my finger.

Then she stapled them to the top of each card and there you have it - easy as pie!

For a slide show of photos showing Grace making these step-by-step, visit my Valentine's Day page at www.thekendalcompanies.com




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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Host a SWAP PARTY? Sounds right up my alley!

Another great idea from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine (Jan. 2010 issue).....

Ever heard of a Swap party? NO, it's not something you do with the couple down the street - get your mind out of the gutter!

Its a fun, free and green way to get rid of things you no longer want and take something you do home. Kinda like a yard sale with no money exchanged.

Here's how it works:

Invite a few friends and ask them to bring items to swap. Everyone will lay out their items (kinda like a flea market booth). Allow browsing time, then take turns choosing one new item for each item you brought. The  only rule is that everything for the swap is clean and in good condition.

Tips:
 - Invite five friends to bring 10 items.
 - Send ten tags to your friends for them to use to tag each item. They can write sentimental
    values of t each item, little stories about the item, "selling points", anything they wish, and
    attach it to each item.
 - When guests arrive, give them 10 clothespins with their names written on them. They will
    use these to "tag" the items they wish to chose. If multiple people "tag" an item, put the
    pins in a bowl and draw a winner.You can also play the "white elephant" game with your 
    items.
- Have  progressive swap. Each person will have their items at their own homes. The group
   moves from home to home to view items and have a different snack. Great for
   neighborhoods with close neighbors!
 - Have boxes and recycled grocery sacks for your guests to take their new treasures home
   in.
 - For anything that is left over, instead of your guests taking them back home, arrange for a
   local charity to pick everything up the next morning.


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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The $1 Challenge

Challenge -
Keep a zip lock bag or plain envelope in your purse or car. Every time you get a dollar bill in change back, put it in an envelope. When you get $50, put it in your savings account. In a year's time, you'll be surprised how much you have saved!

A local radio talk show host does this with every $5 bill he gets, but I think I'll start with $1 bills!


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