Valentine Let Your Light Shine Printable Card

One of my favorite sayings to my kids is "let your light shine". As a Christian this phrase serves as a reminder daily to us to let our words and actions be just like Christ's were. To also be a reflection that Christ is in our heart, and when our light shines brightly for other they will see and want to also know the love of Jesus.

Valentine's Day is all about the LOVE, right? Married couples, engaged couples, dating couples, etc...But what about the little kids who aren't "in love yet"? I find that it is so hard to find classmate Valentine cards that are just simply for FRIENDS. Do your kids ever go through those generic packs and say I can't give that to Jane because she may think I like her? Or that one is too girly for Sam. I often think that our children grow up way to fast with all this boyfriend/girlfriend, kissy kissy, dating, gift exchanging stuff. Why rush it? Let them be kids.

Miss K will be taking these to her friends at school this Valentine's Day.

I created them in PicMonkey, then I punched holes in the ends. I purchased glow bracelets at Michaels for $1- 12 in a package (price before my coupon). Here is the finished Valentine. 2nd graders love the glow bracelets. 

I made a blank one for my readers to use also. Feel free to download at this link! 

And now to move on to the 14 year old...What? Carnations for sale at his school for $1. What ever happened to candy grams? 

Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

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Miss K turns 8!

Miss K turned 8 on Saturday. I have an EIGHT year old daughter. Once again we hosted a Birthday Party on a Budget. Total spent on party- $55!

I made the invitation in PicMonkey. Had them printed at Wal-Mart as 4x6 prints and invited 9 friends.

I picked up canvases and acrylic paints from Michaels and ordered paint trays, brushes and aprons from Amazon. I then used masking tape and taped off each girl's first letter of their name. Letters like "R" and "S" are hard y'all!

The girls painted over their taped off initial. They painted their way. Girls are creative that way.

The birthday girl hard at work. 

The final masterpieces! So adorable!

For the "birthday cake", I made cake balls. 81 cake balls to be exacts. Only 79 ended up getting decorated, and 45 ended up on the cake plates for the girls to eat. I served Miss K's favorite Cherry Limeade in Mason jars and Cheddar Cheese Bugles.

Each guest got their picture taken with the birthday girl. I really should have thought and had a better background other than the garage door. I will print these pictures out and send as the thank you card. 

 My sweet little sassy, artsy dancer is EIGHT YEARS OLD! Yes, we butt heads- like mad, but each day it is like looking into a mirror of myself at that age. I often wonder aloud about where she gets her independence, about where she gets her energy, her constant need to be doing something. I find more often than not that her need to do something involves creativity, either through a craft or through dance. I mean really, what 8 year old asks for duct tape and rubber bands for her birthday? She truly is my mini-me. She reciprocates everything I do, yet still embraces her own individuality. She is growing into a beautiful young lady, and I thank God each day that He chose me to be her mother.



P.S. Do you see the chalkboard easel in the first picture? My friend Glenna gave it to us. A huge shout of thank you goes out to her for that party decoration and toy. Also, what I didn't mention in the post was my trip to urgent care the morning of Miss K's party. My boy took over the heavy lifting and clean up of this party. I could never have pulled it off without him. My kids are AWESOME!

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A Very Pinteresting Christmas Linkup 2014, Day 13: Crow Bar Recipe & Bag Topper Tutorial

It's time to send the hourly subject teachers and the bus drivers their Christmas Gifts!

This year I am making my famous Crow Bars. So famous that Santa requests these. 

Print Recipe Card Here

I also made a fun bag topper. 

YES. I MADE IT. I love all the ones you see on Pinterest, but sometimes I find they are so hard to download, and sometimes you just want your own, right? Once again, I used PicMonkey. 

1. Choose the Design function. 4x6 canvas option. 

2. Rotate it. I left mine blank. I knew I was printing on green and red card stock since I was out of white and low on ink. 'Tis the season to run out of ink, right? 

3. Themes. I chose SantaLand. Santa's Buddies. Penguins are just so cute. 

 4. Time for the text. A simple Merry Christmas. Don't forget the back. Use the flip and flop buttons to turn the text upside down and around. I have no clue what those are really called. 

5. Then I added a fun candy cane border. And saved it to my computer.

6. To get it to print. You just open your word program. Add the picture 2x and then print, cut, fold and staple over a ziplock. Two bag toppers per page. Perfect. And getting that extra wave from the bus driver. Priceless. 

It's the season of generosity my friends. Making someone's day by giving something away.

"Be rick in good deeds...be generous and willing to share." 1 Timothy 6:18, NIV

Be sure to tune in each day this week as I bring you "A Very Pinteresting Christmas" Link-up and if you have any Pinterest inspired activities throughout the week, be sure to grab the button below and link-up your ideas!

I do have a few rules:

• You can link up pretty much anything as long as you "created" it. (A Pinterest inspired/worthy food, craft or DIY project)
• Keep it family friendly, I reserve the rights to delete any links that are not appropriate.
• By linking up you are giving me permission to feature or show off your project! Of course I am going to link it back to you.
• I would love if you linked back to my site and mentioned on your blog, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, G+, Instagram or any other social media site about the link-up. Help me spread the word please.
• Comment. Comment love means so much to others and builds those blogging relationships. Visit 2-3 other links and leave them a nice, meaningful comment. Thanks!

"A Very Pinteresting Christmas" will be 15 days of Pinterest inspired food, fun, crafty days of link-ups that all can be used during this wonderful season of joy. It will run from December 1-19 here at The 4-Crow's Blog. I hope you will join in on the fun, and be sure you are following my boards on Pinterest for all my ideas and fun!

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A Very Pinteresting Christmas Linkup 2014, Day 1: The Button

Welcome to the A Very Pinteresting Christmas with The 4-Crow's Blog! This is my third year to host this fun Pinterest inspired/Pinterest worthy link- up. I hope you will join in on the fun as we celebrate with food, fun, friends, crafts, lots of ideas, and even a IRL party!

Are you ready to get to the Pinteresting stuff? 

All good GREAT link-ups must have a great button to grab with a grab box, right? 

I designed mine in PicMonkey. (oops, I didn't screen print my original so I made a dummy for illustration purposes)

1. They now have a blank canvas to work with. Go to Design, then choose your shape/size. I chose the square. 

2. Then I chose texture. I chose boards, of course. I love chalkboards. As if you didn't know. 

3. Then add text. I used the fonts Eraser Dust, Pencil Pete, and my own  Handy George (you get to use your own with the Premium edition of PicMonkey.)

4. Then I went to Themes. There you can add some fun artwork. My themes are in Santa Land. 

5. Once completed. Save. 

6. To make a button, you will need a image URL. I use Photobucket to get the URL's for my buttons. I also resize my images there to 200x200 since I am using two different sizes of this image throughout my posts. Be sure to grab the correct URL for the resized image. 

7. Now I am going to introduce you to a new found secret. I am not an html queen. I can copy/paste into html, but for some reason Blogger is not liking any of my old codes. I found a new site that generates the box and image for me. "Grab My Button" Code Generator is my blog's hero! Go try it. You enter your site name, your site address, your image URL, and then the html is generated for you. EASY!

8. So once you have copied your html from "Grab My Button", go into your blog's layout, add a gadget, choose html.

9. Then you paste the generated html into the box, give it a title and save! It's done!  

I would love to see some of your button creativity! 

Be sure to tune in each day this week as I bring you "A Very Pinteresting Christmas" Link-up and if you have any Pinterest inspired activities throughout the week, be sure to grab the button below and link-up your ideas!

I do have a few rules:

• You can link up pretty much anything as long as you "created" it. (A Pinterest inspired/worthy food, craft or DIY project)
• Keep it family friendly, I reserve the rights to delete any links that are not appropriate
• By linking up you are giving me permission to feature or show off your project! Of course I am going to link it back to you.
• I would love if you linked back to my site and mentioned on your blog, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, G+, Instagram or any other social media site about the link-up. Help me spread the word please.
• Comment. Comment love means so much to others and builds those blogging relationships. Visit 2-3 other links and leave them a nice, meaningful comment. Thanks!

"A Very Pinteresting Christmas" will be 15 days of Pinterest inspired food, fun, crafty days of link-ups that all can be used during this wonderful season of joy. It will run from December 1-19 here at The 4-Crow's Blog. I hope you will join in on the fun, and be sure you are following my boards on Pinterest for all my ideas and fun!

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Birthdays on a Budget

For some reason I decided to have Winter babies. December 12 and January 31! Ouch. Those dates are hard on the pocket books. No matter how much I plan to save up for my children's birthday and parties, the savings ends up going to the essentials in life- food, shelter, utilities, clothing and doctors.

I am telling you right now. Pinterest can be your friend and your frustrating enemy. I like the ideas, but I am an extreme DIY mom and I do not like paying for things I can do myself. For instance my daughter is turning seven in a few short weeks. She is totally into all things American Girl Doll. Now that is a pricey subject that just blows any household budget. Thankfully we have a few family members who are willing to go together and have now for a few years to make Miss K's dreams come true in the doll category.

But, how do I possibly pull off an American Girl Party for her and her friends? For me....

1. After holiday sales. Think red, white, silver, stars. Seriously, you can do this for almost any party, boy/girl any holiday!

2. Peruse Pinterest and pin ideas to your child's personally named party board. If you do not individualize your party boards, you should think about it..

3. Make your own invitations. Use PicMonkey, Word, or other software programs that you are familiar with. Or Evite. I love Evite.

4. The cake. Can you open a box? Do you have an oven? A cake ball maker? My $19.99 cake ball maker has entertained now at 6 parties. I love this appliance. So much that my mother in law asked for one for her birthday one year. Score!! Seriously, cakes are just going to be ate. Make one and forget it. I have bought a few in my life. We eat the homemade ones a lot better and faster. 

5. The venue. This is a toughy. I do not like paying for places to host parties, so we typically go for the "at home" parties. To be honest with you, my home is small and although I love to entertain, I used to shy away from hosting in my own home. Guess what? Kids do not care. They have fun no matter where. I will say this particular party is not going to be in my home, but rather my mother in laws. She has a looooong table that will sit the girls and their dolls perfectly! We are blessed. 

6. For a girl party to be a success, I think you only have to have a few things. Food/drink, play and/or craft and an open mind. Remember, the party is about celebrating her and letting her enjoy some one on one time with her friends. The preparation you put into it makes it fun and enjoyable for all. The smiles are priceless. 

These are just a few of my tips for birthdays on a budget. On February 1, you will have to look out for my actually party post to see what fun the girls have.

P.S. Just a  plug, but on February 4, 2014, I will be chatting it up on Twitter at 1pm with Offers.com during their #STSMchat (save time save money). We will be discussing party planning on a budget further. I cannot wait to hear more ideas to help me save time and money. Be sure to go read more about it on their blog!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful man in the world. The man we like to call Dad, Daddy, Honey, Babe & Jason....

We Love You!!!

Of course this is not an original idea of mine, I just love being a Real Housewife of the Internet and using my favorite tool in the world of Pinterest for gift inspiration. Of course I always add my own twist, so I guess my originality does come in somewhere. We made a collage at Walgreens (FREE) and a card. Also, let me tell you a little secret. Braden does not own a plain white t-shirt. The one he has on in the photo has a flag on it. PicMonkey is my favorite picture editing tool ever. Yep I drew that flag right out of that shirt. 

A Very Pinteresting Christmas Day 5: The Party Part 5

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A Very Pinteresting Christmas" Linkup with The 4-Crow's began Monday. This week I am taking all five days to tell you about the IRL Pinterest Party that I hosted in my home last Friday night. If I covered the entire party in one post it would be looong and very overwhelming so I am breaking it into pieces throughout this week. Today is Part 5: Door Prizes.

Day 1: Intro & Snapshots
Day 2: Party Food
Day 3: Drinks
Day 4: Crafts
Day 5: Door Prizes

As my friends arrived to the party I handed them one of these:

I found the original design of this card on Pinterest, and decided that I could change it up a bit. Have you used PicMonkey yet? Its my favorite photo editing tool right now, I keep finding new things all the time.  I just added the Pinterest logo, a caret, a Christmas border and some writing and sent it off to Walgreens to have printed on 4x6 photo paper.

While everyone was working on their trees- see yesterday's craft post. I went through the cards. The winners of my door prizes were going to be:

A. The Pinterest addict- the one with the most recent pin.

B. The Pinterest wanna be- the one who had ZERO pins.

We ended up with 3 winners. Kortney the Addict- who pinned 30 minutes before the party. Tamara who had a Pinterest account and has ZERO boards. Kendra who I still want to know WHY she came to a Pinterest Party since she isn't even on Pinterest. Really? She is now...

The winners received one of these: 

Christmas Cupcake Ornaments

I found the orginal pin here. No instructions. So I just made them myself. Later I found another pin that I had pinned, that had instructions that I might try next time. (She used a modge podge/glitter mixture, and also did ornaments instead of styrofoam balls.)

1. Plastic ornaments ( I used the sparkly white ones at Hobby Lobby 1/2 off)
2. Glitter
3. Cupcake liners
4. Elmers Glue
5. Red sparkle balls, Peppermint Balls & Peppermint Discs (Mini Tree section of Hobby Lobby)
6. Hot Glue

What I didn't show you was putting them into the cupcake holder. This was a task, until I figured it out. Elmers does not hold cupcake holders on balls. Hot Glue does. So since you have you glue gun out anyway, that's how you adhere the cherry/candy on top- make sure you put the hanger side up- glue your liner on the ball. Next time this should all come together easier, especially with the modge podge. I'm a messy glitterer. Yes, I think that's a word. LOL!

These ornaments are less that $1 each to make and served also as a centerpiece at my church's "A Christmas Gathering." They are now hanging on my tree and are fabulous. I think I might make more for my daughters birthday in January- party favors?

Be sure to tune in each day this week as I bring you "A Very Pinteresting Christmas" Linkup and if you have any Pinterest inspired activities throughout the week, be sure to grab the above button and linkup your ideas! "A Very Pinteresting Christmas" will be 15 days of Pinterest inspired food, fun, crafty days of linkups that all can be used during this wonderful season of joy. It will run from December 3-21 here at The 4-Crow's. I hope you will join in on the fun!