Easter 2025

 This post is extremely short, but here are three photos from our Easter 2025. The decorations were very simple because I also did a birthday party on the same day and it felt wrong to combine the two, so I decorated our house for Easter and another house for a birthday. I painted the backdrop, which was an ordinary poster, used sticks outside for the cross, and went for a dramatic complimentary color scheme of dark red and dark green (although the backdrop turned more blue than planned) for the symbolism those colors hold. And also simply because I love that color pairing, and had not done that palette for Easter before. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

-Lauryn 

Handmade Mysterious Benedict Society Costumes (Disney Version)

 Hello everyone, it has been so long since I have had time to create a post. This is an overview of how I created our Mysterious Benedict Society group Halloween costumes this past October. It's not exactly a tutorial, but I will try to describe in summary how I made each. 

Cosplay inspiration:

Ours:

For Constance, I found the perfect plaid pattern on thrift store pajama pants, which I cut and sewed into a shawl (I basically just needed to hem and attach two rectangles). I used extra strips for hair bows. I also found a pink, long button-up shirt at the same store. I had to trim the sleeves, add plaid to the tips, and hem them. I hot-glued more of the extra plaid fabric to the buttons to make them match. I bought long white socks at Dollar Tree. That's all there was to it! 

For Mr. Benedict, we already had a hat and grey face paint, so I painted a beard and used Dollar Tree yarn to make hair. The shirts/jacket were thrift store finds, as was the tie. This costume was basically finding and matching up parts, it did not require much creating. 

For Reynie we bought a green sweatshirt at a thrift store, then my brother cut it into a vest and painted a gold trim. He had tan shirts, I got him long mismatched socks at Dollar Tree, and the shirt came from the thrift store, too. 

Finally, for Kate I bought a hat and jacket that were the right materials but wrong colors. I also found a striped shirt and orange-brownish pants. All of the thrift store supplies including those were bought at a big sale at our local Freedom Hill store. I mixed acrylic paints with fabric softener and painted the hat green, and all of the jacket. The jacket took many, many layers and several days since I had to wait for each layer and side to dry. 

I hope somebody who sees this costume idea knows what The Mysterious Benedict Society is unlike everybody we encountered on Halloween, and if you appreciate the series as much as I do, perhaps you'll find this idea useful for the future. 

Thanks for visiting!

-Lauryn 

DIY Marvel (Easter) Gift Basket

 To go hand in hand with the post I shared earlier, here is another themed Easter basket that could be used for any occasion, this time for Marvel fans. Again, I printed Marvel activities from the internet along with the clock from Loki, and I bought my brother a Hawkeye shirt I happened to come across in advance at Five Below. The card I handmade read "As you Marvel at the miraculous Easter story, I hope you enjoy this super gift!" But a card could say something like "I hope you have a marvelous birthday!" This gift was very simple, I like to keep celebrations Loki. Sorry, I'm going to stop now.

I hope you find this handy!

-Lauryn

DIY Beatles-Themed Easter Basket

 This post is super random, but I was looking back at gifts I put together and thought that even though this is an Easter gift, the idea could easily be translated into a birthday or Christmas gift for those of you who, like me, have a huge Beatle fan in their life. I used a lot of free printables found on Google such as the Yellow Submarine on the front. In the Easter eggs, I printed out a mini Paul, Beatles activities such as crossword puzzles, and you could also include sheet music for musicians. This gift was honestly very last minute, so those printables were a life saver. A gift saver, I suppose is more accurate. I added a decorate-your-own-mug kit (Michaels sells them), cookies that I repackaged to look fancier, and a handmade card. The card said "You can't Beatle that Jesus has done for you. Happy Easter!" or something along those lines. If you didn't get that, you are not alone, but I tried. 

I hope you found this simple gift idea useful. Thanks for stopping by!

-Lauryn

"Reach for the Stars" End of the Year Class Party + Student Gift Ideas

 Hello! Today I would like to share an end of the year class party I had (actually, three with the same decorations) with a "Reach for the Stars" theme in gold and neutral colors. As end of the year gifts, I wrote a special note to each student pointing out their gifts and what I appreciated about teaching them attached to favor bags. In the elementary bags, I included Lego figures (although they were not the Lego brand to be honest) or animal toys, bouncy balls, and multi-colored heart crayons made by a friend who sells them locally as a fundraiser to allow children to get involved in theater/theater camps and are not able to financially. In my middle school bags, I included cars, bouncy balls, and flashlight pencil keychains. In my high school bags, I included flashlight pencil keychains, bouncy balls, and gel ink pens (I think), which I don't have pictures of. The favors with the race cars had tags that read "This year raced by! I hope you have a great summer!" My drama student gifts had tags related to the pens that read "You are truly ink-credible and noteworthy. I hope you have a great summer!" Here are the free pintables:

For the elementary art class parties, we not only played fun improv games, but also a few art history-themed games I made up, listed below:

How Fast Can You Gogh?

This is just a team race where teams of two split up and line up on opposite sides of the gym (making two lines). In the middle were two large Van Gogh prints. Partner #1 would start when the race began, touch a Van Gogh work, then tag their partner. Partner #2 would run as soon as they were tagged, touch a Van Gogh print, and race to the line that the first partner started on. The first team to finish wins.

Art Analysis or Dare

This game was actually played in class, not for a party, but it seemed successful at making art analysis and discussion more fun. How this Truth or Dare variation works is I printed and cut into strips art critique prompts, such as "How is the element of shape being used?" "Does this picture have a good color harmony? Why or why not?" I would throw a bouncy ball to a student, ask "Analysis or Dare?" If they chose analysis, they would draw one of those strips from a paper bag and discuss the picture I put at the front of the room or handed them in response to the prompt. If they chose dare, I would give them a dare such as "Make up a dance that expresses this picture." Or "Sing a song about this picture." or "Create a poem on the spot about this work." Either way they are analyzing the work. 

Art Apples to Apples

This game was also not used for the parties but in class to analyze art and gain some art history appreciation. I used my Disney Apples to Apples winning/adjective cards and my classroom art cards (each card had a large work from an art movement). I handed out all of the adjective cards that read things like 'frightening' or 'beautiful', giving each student around four. I would have them pass an artwork around. Then they would all choose what they thought their most fitting card was, place them at the judge's desk (we chose a student to be the judge each time), and the judge would choose a card. Whoever's card got chosen would get the art print card. The one with the most art cards won a prize at the end. 

I made up several other games I'm quite sure, but I do not remember them at the moment, so I might add to this list at a later time. 

I hope this comes in handy this upcoming school year for teachers looking for affordable student gifts, end of the year party ideas, or art teachers searching for more activities!

-Lauryn

10 Simple, Cheap RAK Ideas

Hey guys! Today I am just sharing a quick list of simple, cheap RAK ideas that you can probably make with items from your home or for $1-2 (for a lot of them), depending on where and how you buy your materials. I am not going to describe how to go about creating them since they are pretty self-explanatory and very open-ended. That is for you to decide. These are just some ideas for inspiration, but there are plenty of examples of them on the internet. I also suggest adding a Bible verse to uplift people and share the love of Christ. Some people will write to pass on the kindness and challenge recipients to do an act of kindness in return. I prefer to avoid that since that might stress the recipient out and make them feel like they need to pay for the gift. If they are inspired, they will probably do that on their own anyway. Another item I suggest avoiding unless you know the recipient well is food such as candy since so many people are on such a vast variety of diets. As for the balloon dogs, I will share a tutorial and free printable for that in the (hopefully near) future. I hope you enjoy!

RAK Ideas:

 -Balloon Dogs or Helium Balloons

-Magnets

-Stickers

-Snail Mail

-Painted Rocks

-Kindness Letters

-Flowers

-Practical Pun Gifts (for example: "You are stupendous!" with pens.)

-Banners/Cards/Confetti (there is a free printable sunshine banner here.)

-Bubbles/Chalk/Glow-sticks (or other items that will probably cheer someone up.)

I hope you enjoyed these ideas! I hope you visit again next week for a new post I look forward to sharing with you! 

-Lauryn

DIY Easy Nutella Gift

Hey guys! Today I have a super quick and easy gift tutorial for any chocolate-and-peanut-butter lovers you know. If you are scrambling for some last minute ideas, this hopefully will come in handy! This could go for any type of butter, too. Almond, cashew, plain peanut butter, apple butter, and so on. This could even be just an addition to a gift basket or some other gift (as it was in my case).

All you need is:

-A Spoon (I chose metal because I planned to metal-stamp it but that didn't work out, but any kind would work)

-A Jar of Butter/Nutella

-Paper (for the label, preferably cardstock)

-A Ribbon or Alternative String

-Scissors

-A Pen/Marker

-Tape/Glue (almost any adhesive would do)

I don't even need to break this into steps as the gift is very self-explanatory. All you need to do is create the label by cutting out a circle, write "There's no 'butter' _______(fill in the blank) in the world!" or "than you!" followed by "Happy ____(fill in the blank occasion)!" You could tape or glue this onto the lid. Tie the spoon onto the ribbon or string and tie that into a bow around the mouth of the jar. That's all there is to it! 

I hope this comes in handy! Thank you for visiting! 

-Lauryn 

DIY Jack Costume (From "Mary Poppins Returns")

Hello, everyone! Today I am going to share a quick tutorial for one of the costumes I made last year for Halloween, which was Jack from "Mary Poppins Returns". This costume is super easy to make. 

My brother got the hat online, although I'm sure it could be paper-mached. I found the coat and pants at a thrift store, although I got quite a few before I found one that fit right, and I had to sew the pants smaller. I found a red vest at a thrift store with a zipper, cut the zipper out, hemmed it, cut button holes with scissors or an exacto knife, and sewed buttons on. For the scarf, I found a short red scarf or bandana type of thing at a thrift store and painted the black swirls on  with acrylic paint. The white undershirt was also from the thrift store. Because we live in Georgia and Jack wears so many layers, I think I had to modify the shirt by making it short-sleeved or something so that he wouldn't die of heat. Basically, the costume was just a lot of searching and modifying, which in this case was cheaper than making it from scratch. Fancy suits, plain white shirts with collars and vests are all very common at thrift stores, it's just a matter of knowing which ones carry them for cheap. If you live in Georgia, definitely try the Cleveland Community Thrift Store. If I remember correctly, that's where all of my costume parts for this came from. 

That's all there is to it! 

I hope you enjoyed this random post and find it a useful resource in the future. I look foward to sharing more tutorials and events soon!

-Lauryn