DIY cupcake toppers and Easter plans

My 20 month old daughter has been facinated with our stash of plastic easter eggs for a week already and loves to play "find the Easter Egg" in the house. So this year for Easter should be really fun for her and fun for us to watch. It's good to see how excited kids get about things like that. 

Now that she understands things a little better, I get really excited for holidays like this. For Easter I'm planning on making a note that says "follow the trail"with a string that goes throughout the house and outside and eventually leads to her Easter basket. Got the idea here. We'll also have a late lunch, eat candy, hide and dye plenty of eggs, and enjoy the special day together with family. 

We'll be making cupcakes as well so I made some toppers for us and anyone to copy and print.
Hopefully they will be able to print out ok for you.
(click and print picture)

Easter decor

Family Fun (one of my favorite magazines-inspired by my sister) has an easy tutorial on how to make yarn eggs. We made these while growing up as kids and I still get "egg"cited to make them now (sorry I just had to add the "egg"). 

Jelly beans!

For me, jelly beans are the best thing to eat around Easter time. 

I even LOVE the black ones! Of course the Jelly Belly brand is my all time favorite.

Take a look at these cute jelly bean cookies! We'll be making these come Easter in our home. You can get the recipe and free box download here

Polka dot balloons

These balloons are adorable!!

found here

buy them here

St. Patrick's Day DIY links and ideas

Only 5 more days till St. Patricks Day. 

Here are some ideas of what I'll be doing for our little family 

Green eggs and ham- dessert style here

Green cupcakes

click here for these free DIY print toppers from 

-3 Four and Under-

You could make a Leprechaun trap if you have kids. 

Kind of like a spin on Easter Egg baskets. Sounds fun, so I'm in. 

Idea here

Make green milk shakes:

2 cups ice cream

1 1/4 c milk

1/4 tsp mint extract

8 drops of green food coloring

or use Mint ice cream with milk alone. 

Add these snazzy straws from HeyYoYo

A pot of gold- jello

link here

and attempt to make a hair clip for Kai with this inspiration

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Free printable cupcake toppers

The gracious Brittany from One Charming Party has a few 

freebies here for your cupcakes or as a favor tag.

Check out her post for the coordinating baby shower. 

photo via One Charming Party

How to: Spring make-over

I'm coming down with a fever. 

Spring fever. 

We've had two Japanese paper lanterns/lamps in our kitchen for a few years now.

 I really like the feeling and ambiance of lighting they give off, 

I just felt that they needed a pop of color. 

I saw this idea a few weeks ago on a blog while searching for new crafts

 but I've long forgotten where the source came from. 

But here is how you do it:

 Let your imagination take you away and starting painting a bare branch. 

The more spontaneous and less planned out it is, the better

Then add some flowers and fill in gaps with green buds and leaves. 

Viola!

I used normal acrylic paint and plan to make small pink flowers out

 of tissue paper and place over each painted flower for a 3D effect, 

I just don't have the right color of tissue paper right now. 

before & after

Follow this branch pattern if you don't know where to start. 

 link

Adorable favor boxes

I came across this creative site on etsy called Favor Makers. They custom make adorable favor boxes. Here are some of my favorites: