General Conference Galore

For anything and everything you could possibly want for Conference including activity packets, go here:

http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3101

Cute Aprons Ideas

I'm in search of a cute apron ideas (for moms) for one of the projects at our Super Saturday (church craft day).  I'm looking for something cute, fun, and not too complex as sewers will be of all skill levels and our time is limited.  So if you have any fun ideas, tutorials, patterns please share them with me at delightfuldistraction@gmail.com.

THANKS A BUNCH!

Thanks & Father's Day Ideas

Thanks to all of you who are sharing your great ideas for teacher gifts.  I know I've definitely found some keepers.

Father's Day is quickly approaching so if you have any ideas and pics to share, send them my way!

Teacher Gift - Apple Stationary

I purchased this darling apple stationary set from this Etsy site:http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6388691

I have used it numerous times throughout the school year to send notes to Zach's teacher and thought she might like to have a set of her own to use next year. I just printed a set of the notecards, folded them and wrapped them (along with enough envelopes) with the belly band included in the download! The download also included a template to make your own matching envelopes, gift tags and small gift cards. I love these printable stationary packs because you can reuse them over and over again!

submitted by Shelly Brown (www.shellyabrown.typepad.com)

Teacher Gift - Supply Pail

It was the twins last day of preschool yesterday...so sad:(!! They really love their teacher and looked forward to going to her house every Wednesday. But they will be attending Pre-K this fall, so that will be fun! I really appreciated teacher Shelley, she was so awesome and very sweet. I wanted to show her how much she meant to the kids by giving her a little something from all of us. A few weeks ago Celeste and I found all this fun Crayola stuff in the $1 section at Micheal's. She came up with the clever title and putting it in a paint can. I added some Skittles, scissors, pens, pencils, sharpies, stickers, paper clips (in the Crayola tin), and ribbon to tie it all together. I stuck the lid to the bottom of the can with some removable adhesive. It turned out so cute and she loved it. The title says..."Teacher's fill the world with color...thanks for brightening our year!"

submitted by Shannon & Celeste (www.aplace4mommystoshare.blogspot.com & www.acraftychic.blogspot.com)

More teacher gifts...

Nikki has a bunch of great teacher gifts to share...click here to go to her blog post and check them all out along with info on how to do it yourself!

Teacher Gift - Lemonade & Gift Card

Kristi (murillofam.blogspot.com) got this idea from her friend Becca.

End of the year teacher gift time! Last year I stressed and worried all about end of the year teacher gifts... I over-worried, over-spent... I loved Colin's preschool teachers and wanted them to know it! A little older, a little wiser, and much, much busier this year. I love Ms. Aquino...she, along with all teachers, deserve a BIG thank you for putting up with our little darlings all year. However, I'm no millionaire...as much as I'd love to give her thousands of dollars it's just not fiscally responsible...especially in this economy. A gift card to the bookstore and a few tall glasses of ice-cold, delicious lemonade will have to suffice!

Teacher Gift - Wordle

This year, I made all ten of the kids’ teachers a Word Cloud or a Wordle. Here is an example of the one I made for HHE using all the teachers/administrators names and school words.

I emailed each teacher the following letter:

Hi
I am going to make your year end gift and I need your help to make it better. Please provide me with the following information to make your gift more special. Just skip any areas that don't apply. The more info you provide me the better.
What color tones do you like (Greens, Blues, Maroons, Other):
Names (your name, spouse, children & their spouse, grandchildren):
Nicknames (if any):
Names of your pets (if any):
If you have grandchildren, what do they call you and your husband?
Places or words that have meaning to you (college, favorite team, hobby, pets, nicknames, etc.): The more words the better!

Then you take the list of words and type them up in a word document. I added the following words deleting the ones that did not apply: fortunate happy kin loving parents offspring relatives wonderful hope love blessed faith son daughter sister brother daughter-in-law son-in-law trust wish dream ancestors joy mother father mom dad Hidden~Hollow elementary school educator Family Family Family

The words you want to appear larger you will need to list more times. I did last names and the word Family three times, first names twice and the remainder of the words just once. If you have two words that you want to appear together, you will need to us a ~ in place of the space.

Once you have your list of words, go to http://www.wordle.net/create. Copy and paste your list of words into the “Create” box and press “Go”. The next screen will allow you to pick your colors, fonts and layout. My personal preference is “Heat” for the Color, “Mostly Horizontal” for the Layout and “Loved by the King” for the Font. Once you are happy with your settings you can “Re-layout with current settings” or “Recolor” until you are happy with the finished product. Once I was happy with the look, I printed them on an 8.5 x 11 piece of photo paper and place them in a document frame. Here is an example of how they turned out.


submitted by Tracy Barger (www.bargerfam.blogspot.com)

Not your ordinary lanyard

What teacher wouldn't love a lanyard like this to wear their name/id badge on?  This fun idea comes from Cute2Carry click here for the tutorial.

Personalized Notepads for dads, teachers, etc.

Found this SIMPLE & EASY gift idea on Family Fun.  I thought it would also be fun to do something similar for teachers and let your child draw a pic of their teacher at the top and then write or type under it "from the desk of Mrs. Brown".

DAD'S PADS

Memo pads adorned with your child's original artwork make a noteworthy Father's Day gift. Simply have your kids decorate the top of a piece of paper and take it to a copy shop or printer to be made into notepads. Pads start at 50 cents each, depending on the paper size and your printer.   

Fathers Day Book

I saw this creative gift idea for Father's Day on Stacy Julian's blog and LOVED it! I'm pretty sure this is what I'll be making for the hubs and maybe even a different version for the grandpas this year. Thanks Stacy!

Teacher Stitching

This adoreable idea comes from Anne, her sister-in-law Dianna (who is a teacher and said she would LOVE something like this) submitted it.



She created it using a picture her daughter drew of her teacher and then she stitched it.  Such a fun idea!

Teacher Gift-Framed Crayon Letters

This cute idea and pics come from Hilary Shirley, and she found it via the Tip Junkie.





I bought an 8x 10 shadow box... printed the first letter of the teacher's last name really light in a plain font (I used Century Gothic) and the teacher's name on the side or bottom using a font called Pea Heather's Handwriting. I printed it on cardstock, cut crayons to size with a sharp paring knife and glued on with Elmer's glue. Crayons leave little flakey bits of color, so be careful not to smear your 'masterpiece.' I printed a sample on paper to hold my crayons up to to size them and a cutting board for cutting the crayons on. The cardstock does warp a bit, but it isn't noticeable in the shadow box.

Post It Note Holders for Teachers

These cute post it holders were submitted by Misty at thecreativeitchbotique.blogspot.com who go the idea from Creating Keepsakes Magazine. Thanks Misty!







MATERIALS NEEDED
Post-It notes (regular size)
Cardstock
Patterned paper (traditional or digitally created)
Bone folder, embossing stylus or scoring blade
Adhesive
Terrifically Tacky Tape
BasicGrey magnetic snaps or Velcro dots
Paper trimmer

Instructions:

1. Trim cardstock to an 8" x 3 1/8" rectangle.

2. Trim the patterned paper to an 8" x 2 3/4" rectangle, or create it digitally the same size. Adhere to the center of the cardstock.

3. Using the bone folder, embossing stylus, or scoring blade, make folding marks at 2”, 2-1/2”, 5-5/8” and 6-1/8”. Fold on the marks.

4. Use a strip of Terrifically Tacky Tape to stick the Post-It pad to the center of the inside of the cardstock.

5. Fold cover.

6. Place magnetic snaps on the center of the flap openings (if they won’t stay, use little pieces of the Terrifically Tacky Tape). If you don’t have magnetic snaps, Velcro dots will also work.

7. Add embellishments to the cover if desired.

Calling All Creative Minds

I think it would be great if we could get a bunch of ideas up here for end of the year teacher gifts (any kind of teachers, school, dance, coaches, music, etc). I know some of you have kids that are already out but others still have a few weeks to go, so please share any and all ideas from this year or years past ASAP by emailing them to me at delightfuldistraction@gmail.com. Pictures are always appreciated.

Thanks!

Recipe Requests

I've had several emails lately (okay, maybe some of the requests are 4 or 5 months old but hey didn't I just have a baby, oh wait, that was 4 or 5 months ago too...hmm...)requesting recipes for some of the dishes featured on previous posts. So I thought I'd just post them here instead of sending out a million emails. See below.

Enjoy!

French Breakfast Puffs

(picture and recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks Blog) 

French Breakfast Puffs
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening (Crisco)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 sticks butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside. Pray. In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening, then add eggs and mix. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden. In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Eat. Faint.

Ham, Mushroom, and Spinach Strata

This is delicious and a great idea for Thanksgiving or Christmas morning since you make it the night before. I got the recipe from my friend Alisha and the only change I made was adding some baby spinach. Thanks for sharing Alisha!

8 eggs
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
5 slices dense French Bread cut into 1-1 1/2 inch cubes
1 lb ham, cubed (I had deli ham on hand so I just sliced that up and it worked great)
1/2 pkg sliced mushrooms
8 oz grated cheddar cheese
1/2-1 cup baby spinach leaves torn into pieces (optional)

note: I used a little less ham and added 1/2-1 cup of baby spinach torn into pieces

Beat eggs; add milk, salt and dry mustard. Stir well. Add next 4 ingredients, stirring well after each addition.

I put it in a 2 1/2 quart DeMarle (silicone bakeware) mold to bake, if you do it in something else you'll probably need to grease it. Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes. Let stand 20 minutes before inverting onto plate (you'll only be inverting this if you use a DeMarle mold, you can just serve it out of the pan if you're using something else) Slice and serve.

Orange Rolls

Rolls:

Best Refrigerator Rolls - from the kitchen of my Mom

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup warm water
4 1/2 cups Better for Bread Flour - divided (note: my mom lives in UT and this works for her, I always end up adding a bit more flour here in OR, so you may need to adjust a little)
3 eggs, well beaten

2 Tbsp rapid rise yeast

Mix all ingredients together in mixer except for yeast and half of the flour. Then sprinkle yeast on mixture and add remaining flour. Mix until sticky. About 5 min. Place in lightly greased bowl and cover with a towel. Raise until double. About 2 hours.

Punch dough down and cover bowl with a damp towel. Refrigerate. (I make the dough the night before and then refrigerate it till whenever I'm ready to make it the next day)

Roll out as desired. Shape. (I divide the dough into thirds, roll each ball into about a 14" circle (about 1/4" thick) like a pizza crust and then use my pizza cutter to cut it into 12 triangles, then I roll them up into crescent shapes) Brush with melted butter. Place on baking sheets and cover lightly with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray. Let raise 2-3 hours. Bake at 350 for 15-20 min or 375 for 12 min.

Makes 3 dozen

Filling:
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp orange rind (I use more)
1/2-1 tsp orange juice

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp orange juice
1/2-1 Tbsp grated orange rind
1 Tbsp melted butter

Brush filling onto rolls before rolling them up (and before they rise) so it's on the inside, then dip tops of rolls in glaze when rolls have cooled. Makes enough for 16-20 rolls.