Gift Ideas Archives - Page 3 of 25

Father’s Day Man Cards

May 29, 2014 By Michelle Barneck 2 Comments

The countdown to Father’s Day is on. Do you know what you are getting the Dad’s in your life? There are lots of things about marriage and having kids that people joke about taking away their man card, so why not give it back to them? These testosterone building coupons will be just the thing to put a big smile on his face. We’ve come up with a variety for the sports lover to the foodie to just plain getting out of things they don’t want to do. Give them a set of man cards and let them feel in control.

Don’t feel like getting out of bed? No prob. There’s a card for that.

Have a guy who likes to be in control? There’s a card for that. Or how about a wannabe golf pro? Gotcha covered.

Is standing by the side of a river all day his thing? Stabbing worms and slipping on rocks is manly, give him a card.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, well, turns out it might also be through not making him shop or letting him watch the game uninterrupted.

There are plenty of ways to restore his man card so we came up with two full sets of cards and because we like to make things easy on you, we’re also providing the Cricut Design Templates so you can just load, purchase needed images, and cut. Easy as that!

Supplies Needed:

Cricut Explore
Cricut Mat
Gray Cardstock
White Cardstock
Blue Cardstock
Black Cardstock
Craft Glue

When you download the Cricut templates, they will not look like the following images but rest assured they will cut the needed components for the man cards. I had to layer and attach layers in a certain manner to get them to cut how I wanted.

Download Cricut template for the first set of man cards.

Download the template for the second set of man cards.

Now just cut all the layers, weed (which is mostly done conveniently by the Cricut mat pulling the letters out of the gray layer), and glue them all together to make your Father’s Day man cards. Easy peasy!

Which man card is your favorite?

Easy Mother’s Day Gift Idea

April 29, 2014 By Michelle Barneck 2 Comments

Post sponsored by DOVE® Dark Chocolate via MomTrends.

With Mother’s Day fast approaching it is always nice to have a fast and easy gift idea up your sleeve for family and friends. This is such a special holiday and can sometimes be hard to think of a gift that shows your favorite moms how special they are. I was recently able to spend some special time with an aunt of mine and she sparked an idea for the perfect gift!

As a seasoned mother of five girls, she was giving me some advice on how to stay sane as a mother of little ones. She said when she had young girls and would find herself overwhelmed she would go in her room, shut the door and indulge in a piece of chocolate. She would take a breath and clear her mind as the chocolate melted and once it was gone, time was up and she would continue on with her crazy day. Taking this little break for herself helped renew her spirits and we all know a little chocolate can go a long way to change the direction of your day.

I thought this would be the perfect idea/advice to share with special moms in my life and putting them in a painted jar would be the perfect way to hide them in plain site on a night stand or dresser. My boys would never touch such a dainty looking piece of decor and little would they know it was a treasure trove of treats.

See the full tutorial…

SUPPLIES:

Mason Jar
Milk Paint from Sweet Pickins
Ribbon Scrap
Patterned Paper
Lace Flower
DOVE® Silky Smooth Sea Salt Dark Chocolate
DOVE® Silky Smooth Mint & Dark Chocolate Swirl

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix up the milk paint according to package directions. Paint the jar with two or more coats until it is covered with desired amount letting it dry between coats. For a distressed look like the pic above, rough up with words and some areas with sand paper.

2. Cut a piece of patterned paper the size of the lid and tape or glue on the lid below the ring. Cut a piece of ribbon to go around the lid and hot glue in place.

3. Attach the flower with hot glue. Mine was a hair clip from Hobby Lobby, so they could even detach it and wear as an accessory if they like.

4. Fill the jar with chocolate. I did one bag of the DOVE® Silky Smooth Sea Salt Dark Chocolate and one bag of DOVE® Silky Smooth Mint & Dark Chocolate Swirl (which by the way are my new favorites, no lie).

I love that the DOVE® PROMISES® have little sayings inside each wrapper as well. Is this one not perfect for a little mommy time out?

I can’t wait to gift some of these cute jars to the special moms in my life to let them know I know they deserve a break every now and then. And, I mean really, who doesn’t love chocolate?

If you love DOVE® chocolate like I do, you can follow along on their Facebook and Twitter pages for the latest updates!

Disclaimer: Compensation was provided by DOVE® Dark Chocolate via MomTrends. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Dove or Momtrends.

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Last Minute Teacher Gift Idea – Cash Treats

December 18, 2013 By Michelle Barneck 7 Comments

Post sponsored by Martha Stewart Crafts.

I feel like December was getting away from us, but I wanted to be sure my son’s teacher knew how much we appreciated her. This gift is so fast and easy to put together, but is perfect for any teacher or anyone else who is hard to buy for. Cash pleases everyone right? And this giving it this way is sure to make it memorable.

I got the idea for making them look like treats from Life as Mom who dresses the cash in a box of chocolates. I had these cute Martha Stewart treat boxes and wrappers and knew they would work perfectly to make it more fitting for Christmas.

Supplies:

1. Open a treat box and place the printed tissue in with the patterned side down. Place 15 treat wrappers inside in three rows of five.

2. Fold your dollars in half and then in thirds and in thirds again. Secure with a swirl paper clip to mimic the design on the top of a chocolate.

3. Fill each wrapper money. I did every other alternating a dollar and four quarters so it would end up being $15. You can do any combination of bills and coins.

4. Fold the tissue down over the money to help hold it in place. Then add the box cover, ribbon and tag.

Now, beware, this is not a gift to shove in a backpack for the bus ride or it will be a big mess by the time it arrives. It has to be held still for obvious reasons.

What did you do for teacher gifts this year?

Disclosure: Martha Stewart Crafts provided the product for this post. The idea and cash was all my own.

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3D Snowflake Gift Wrap

December 7, 2013 By Michelle Barneck 3 Comments

Post sponsored by Martha Stewart Crafts.

Are you an early bird? Do you have all your Christmas shopping done? I love to have all the shopping done early so I can focus on enjoying family time and focus on the fun parts of the holidays. Wrapping presents is one of my favorite things about Christmastime. I love using fun papers and big colorful bows to make them look beautiful. This year our tree has a nostalgic snow theme, so I thought it would be fun to wrap some packages to match with a little 3D snowflake gift wrap.

Brown paper packages are not just one of Julie Andrews favorite things. I love the simplicity and the blank canvas it gives for patterned ribbon or in this case snowflakes.

Brown Paper
Tape
Martha Stewart Crafts Bright Star Double Punch, Medium
Martha Stewart Crafts Icelandic Snowflake Large Double Punch
Mini Glue Dots
Foam Adhesive Squares
Martha Stewart Crafts Peppermint Winter Label Sticker Book

Wrap up your packages in brown paper. Then embellish by punching snowflakes out of white cardstock. Alternate small and large snowflakes, placing the small with glue dots and large with foam squares to give it more dimension. Add a tag and your done! It’s as easy as that!