Valentine's Day DIY School Bus Box

 

I wanted to share the Valentine box we made with our son last year. He loves vehicles of any kind, so we came up with this school bus. I wish I would have taken photos of the process, but I'll just have to explain as I go instead...

 

Supplies Needed:

2 boxes: 1 large shoe box, 1 small box

Duct tape: Yellow & black (or electrical tape)

Various lids: 4 jar lids (spray painted black for tires), 

4 small red (tail lights), 2 yellow (headlights--we had to use blue), 1 red (stop sign)

4 brads or screws

Stickers & Markers

Hot glue & glue gun (or other adhesive)

Scissors

 

 

 

Instructions:

1. Cut a rectangle out of the large shoe box lid for the Valentines. Our box had a flip-top lid, which was great for this. If your box lid is a separate piece, then duct tape it on to where it will flap open. This makes it super easy to get the Valentines out.

2. Duct tape the small box to the large shoe box.

3. Glue the red lids to the back for tail lights, the yellow lids to the front for headlights, and the red on the side as the stop sign.

4. Punch holes through the box and use brads or screws to attach 4 jar lids for tires.

5. Use the black tape to make a stripe on either side of the bus.

6.  Use a white marker to make the red lid on the side a stop sign. Let your child decorate the bus with stickers & markers! :)

 

 

 We used letter stickers & wrote "Love Bus" on the side & the school name. My son also put his name on top so the other students would know it was his. He drew windows & had fun doodling little details on the box.

Organize Your Home: Winter Hat and Glove Storage

BEFORE:

 

I hate to admit that THIS is what we were storing our hats and gloves in last Winter! I mean, really? I'm even laughing while I look at this picture, realizing that I even bothered to label it! Well, needless to say, it was really frustrating digging in this Huggies box trying to find matching gloves...or anything for that matter...so last January I decided to solve the problem.

First, I bought a plastic shoe organizer and some Command hooks.

 

...and some velcro.

 

 

Second, I adhered the hooks to the inside of the closet door & hung the organizer...

 

 

Then I added the velcro along the sides & bottom (just every so often) to keep it from swinging & hold it into place better.

 

...And I had THIS! :)

 

 

The next step was to dump the box out & sort the items by family member. You might need a cute little "Helper" like I had:

 

 

 

I put my husband's gloves & hats at the top since he's the tallest. His are on the top two rows.

(And yes, we are Razorback fans!)

My stuff went on the next row down...

And then my son's and my daughter's items went on the botton two rows. It's easy for them to reach & with the clear pockets we can see and access what we have!

 

AHHhhhhHhhHhhhh...a sigh of relief at this organized space! It's worked really well for us in the past year and will continue to!

 

Note:  I ended up pulling all my scarves out of this closet, but you could roll them & put them in the pockets as well, if you wanted. Since the scarves were all mine, I decided to hang them in my bedroom closet with a scarf hanger.

 

Who Peed on My Yoga Mat?

Let me set you straight. I have never even attempted to do yoga...but I did just read Lela Davidson's latest book, Who Peed on My Yoga Mat?. A wonderfully witty follow-up to Blacklisted from the PTA, this collection of stories from the front lines of parenthood, womanhood, even bloggerhood, will keep you grinning and giggling from the first page to the last!

Lela knows how to channel her wit, sarcasm and feistiness in way that makes you feel like you could go out and conquer your own blunders in life with grace and confidence. From her son accidentally dropping the F-bomb, to how to properly apply Aqua Net at your 40th birthday party, Lela offers up a rosy outlook on how she deals with life's little imperfections. And rest assured that you do find out who did the peeing as well as how she actually got blacklisted from the PTA! There's reason enough to run out and grab this book.

 

She's launching Who Peed on My Yoga Mat this upcoming Tuesday, Dec 4th!

It's also available on Kindle.

DIY: Halloween Card Album

 I recently shared the card album I made with my daughter's cards and I wanted to show you this one as well. If you're as sentimental as I am and save every card you or your child is given, then this is a great way to keep them together and organized. It's also a great way to honor them and be able to share them with others. We love Halloween around here and my son has received lots of fun cards over the last 6 years that I've kept in a box. I decided I had enough of them to make a decent sized mini album out of them, so I got to work!

 

I cut & covered a piece of cardboard with scrapbook paper and embellished it. You can buy premade album covers, but using cardboard was fast, cheap & easy!

 

I decided to keep them in chronological order, so I made little dividers (the orange square) and wrote the year, my son's age at the time, and what he dressed up as that year, on each of them.

 

Some cards are harder then others to bind due to weird shapes & textures, but I used "The Cinch" binding tool and that helped a lot. You could always use a paper punch to make holes to line up with your rings or spiral wire if you don't have one.

 

When I got to the end of the Halloween cards, I realized that I had just a few Thanksgiving cards (yes, my family loves to give cards!) so I added those at the end of the album.

 

You could make a card album to hold any type of card you want to save & remember~think holidays, birthdays, babies, etc. It's fun to go through the old cards with my son, and now they're a special keepsake. I have this album out on display in my home right now--it fits in nicely with our Halloween decorations!

New Drawing Winner

Sorry to post about this again, but I never heard back from Angel, therefore I had to draw another name from the comments to win an autographed copy of Blacklisted from the PTA.
The new winner is...Jess! Thank you for leaving a comment--I'll be contacting you! :)

Angel...are you out there? :)

Angel S. you're the drawing winner of the autographed book, but your profile says your email is unavailable, so please contact me or I will unfortunatly have to draw another name :(

The author is mailing out books to all the winners next week, so if I don't hear from you within the next day or so, I'll draw another name-sorry! Hope to hear from you! Thanks!

Drawing Winner!

***Update: Angel, I cannot seem to access your email address, so please contact me! Thanks!

Congratulations, Angel S.! You're the winner of the autographed book, Blacklisted from the PTA by Lela Davidson! I'll contact you through email with the details!

Angel S. said...

Love the canvas tips! Thanks for the chance~

July 10, 2012 10:50 PM

Don't forget to check out the book on paperback or Kindle and the rest of the party that's still going on on Lela's blog, After the Bubbly!

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