Sweet Candy Straws

Happy Hump Day!  It's Kristine with you again, and today I have a super cute, super EASY craft that kids of all ages will love!  Take a look at these adorable candy straws:

Aren't these cute?  Who wouldn't love to get one of these?  Let me show how incredibly easy they are to make!

The first thing you need to do is get some of these cellophane bags.  I got mine from GT Bag - these are the 1"x8" lip and tape bags.  They're only $4 for 100 bags - you can't beat that deal!  Here's the product number, in case you can't find them on the site:

The next thing to do is decide what you want your topper image to be.  I'm a teacher and my students take their big state exams next month, so I thought a little encouragement in the form of superheroes would be appropriate - enter Sweet Stamp Shop's Girl Power and Super Boy stamp sets!  I stamped the hero figures on white cardstock and cut them out with a 2" circle punch.

Next, I colored the figures and attached them to colored cardstock cut with a 2-1/4" scalloped circle punch:

And then it was time to assemble!  I filled each bag with Skittles to the top (any candy about the same size as Skittles will work; I've also used plain m&m's), then peeled off the tab and folded down the top to seal them.

Then I added a little adhesive to the back of the toppers (I used glue dots) and stuck them on the top of the bags.  Voila! SUPER awesome candy treats that I know my students will enjoy.

The amazing thing about this project is that the applications are truly almost limitless - they can be made as any kind of party favor (retirement, birthday, baby shower, you name it!); and grouped together in a mason jar or other cute container, they'd make perfect centerpieces, too!

I hope you guys liked this project - if you decide to make your own candy straws, please tag me on Facebook (Kristine Bryant) or on Instagram (@teachplancraft).  I'd love to see what you do with this idea!

Plan With Me April 25 to May 1

Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's Kristine with you on the blog today, and I've got a plan with me video for next week's spread in my DIY Carpe Diem planner.  I am loving the flexibility of this planner, and I have to tell you - after simplifying this week and doing a LOT of reading up on bullet journaling, I think I see a switch to bullet journaling in my future - probably with the beginning of next month.  If I do that, I'm not sure how much, if any, stamping I'll be doing - we'll just see how it goes.  For now, though, I've got this spread.

A couple of things you need to know about the video - one, I chose a rather pale ink color this week, and I'm afraid you can't really see it too well in the video.  So sorry!  And the washi tape you'll see in the opening frame is not the same one you'll see me put down in the video - once the filming was over, I decided I hated that polka dotted washi and changed it, lol.

As always, thanks so much for watching!  Please feel free to leave a comment - I appreciate all feedback, both positive and negative!

Wedding Card Featuring Lawn Fawn

Hello everyone. It's Jes again, here today with a fun wedding card I put together for a friend. I leave early Saturday morning to take my first train trip across country for a wedding. I wanted a fun card that reminded me of my friend, but that was fairly simple, since most of my craft supplies are packed in my bag.

My supplies include:

      Bake Me A Cake from Lawn Fawn
      Home Sweet Home also from Lawn Fawn
      Pray For Us (the small boy and girl) from Sweet Stamp Shop
      Black Licorice Ink from Lawn Fawn
      Papers from one of the Let's Polka collection from Lawn Fawn, (the ones I used are retired now)
      A Gyro-Cut from Amazon
      And some Tombow markers.

The first thing I did, was stamp out the cake bits from Bake Me A Cake on different patterned papers. I made sure to alternate the sizes on the papers so that my final project would be turquoise/yellow/turquoise/yellow which are the wedding colors. I pulled in a bit of pink paper as an accent color. This will be the stand, and later a little Congrats banner on the cake.

I didn't want to leave my background plain white, so I used my tombows and some watercolor paper to add a fun smooshed background. (Here is the link to my Ink Smooshing tutorial.)

Next up, I had to cut out all my cake layers. I love my little gyro tool for cutting out stamped images.  It's the next best thing to having a die cut machine. Kristine has a great little example clip of the gyro in action on her IG, @teachplancraft. Once my paper was dry, I adhered it to my card base, then added my cake pieces. 

I thought it looked a little plan still, so I pulled out the mini boy and girl from the Sweet Stamp Shop Pray For Us set and turned them into a bride and groom. Those itty bitty things were HARD to cut out! But definitely worth it in the end. They tied the whole card together.  

Thanks for reading! I'll be back on May 2nd with a post about my DIY travel journal, and how I used it to plan my upcoming trip, and document my first train trip.  :) 

15 Minutes Crafts With Jes - Bookmarks

Howdy Friends! Jes here, back with another 15 minute craft.  Today, my husband took our four year old out to the park, and I had a chance to sit down and read for a blissful, uninterrupted hour. I pulled out my kindle, and set the kettle on to boil for tea.  I could not find a single bookmark. I'm one of those people who doesn't really like to use scrap paper, because I like my bookmarks to be pretty.  I had a few minutes before my tea was ready, so I sat down and put together a few super cute bookmarks using the new Book Club stamp set from Sweet Stamp Shop. I also used their Big Flags set.  I've been hoarding my Let's Polka paper from Lawn Fawn (this set seems to be retired, but here is a link to more of their awesome paper collections), and I pulled some out tonight to make my bookmarks. I love striped patterns!

Here is the final project. And if you pop over to our YouTube channel, you can see the video of how I made them.  I'd love to hear what you think of them. If there are any other fifteen minute projects you'd like to see me try, leave a comment and I'll give them a go. :)  Thanks for stopping by!

A Homemade Card with Brusho Watercolors

Hey, everyone!  It's Kristine with you again today, and I've got a tutorial for you on Brusho watercolor powders.  Now, I did a post awhile back on those and how fabulous they are, but today I've got a VIDEO for you so you can actually see them in action.  They are amazing!! I made a card for a friend of mine, and start to finish, the whole thing took 20 minutes.  Did I say amazing already?  Amazing!  And it's a totally unique look.

Here's the link to the video.  Hope you enjoy it and are inspired to try Brusho for yourself!

Hi, everyone!  It's Kristine with you today, on this unseasonably cold April Sunday!  I don't know about you, but I don't expect SNOW in Virginia in April.  Yesterday was nuts!  NO snow today, but it is still cold - my heat is running and it's just WEIRD.

Anyhoo, I've got a PWM video for you today.  Now, I have to warn you that this week, I planned a layout of my own design in my new Carpe Diem binder.  I've been feeling kind of restricted by the structure of my Inkwell Press flex planner, and I wanted to stretch myself and try something new.  I would love if you'd take a look and let me know what you think!

Have a great week ahead, everyone!  And here's hoping for some warmth this week!

Hi everyone it's Jes.  I finally figured out my camera and I have new talk through plan with me video up on Youtube.  :)  I hope you like it.

15 Minute Dashboard

Hi everyone, it's Jes here. Have you ever been in a crafting mood, but only had fifteen minutes to spare?  Most of the time I just end up waiting till I have time to sit down and work. But sometimes, when I'm stressed, taking that little tiny bit of me time and making something pretty, makes all the difference in my day.

I'm going to show you how I made a fun dashboard for my planner in just a few short minutes. The fun thing about this smaller dashboard is that it can easily become a card when I am ready for a change in my planner.

You'll need:  A fun piece of paper cut down to card size. Mine is 4.25 x 5.5. Stamps of your choice, embossing powder, a heat tool, embossing ink, and clips for your planner. 

Ink up your stamp and stamp it on your paper.  I love my Fiskars Stamp Press for lining things up just right. 

Cover the image generously with embossing powder.  I find that if I fold a piece of printer paper and give it a good crease, before opening it up to emboss on it, it is much easier to pour the powder back in the jar.  

Once you've tapped off the excess powder and put it back in the jar, heat set your project till the embossing powder melts. 

I used a tombow marker and a water brush to add a super fast color wash to my piece because I thought it looked boring.  

It was still missing a little something, and I decided to add my April motto to the card, "Dare To Dream" using the Mixed Alpha stamp set from Sweet Stamp Shop. 

Finally, I added my Spiral Snaps and slipped it into my planner.  All total the project took me eighteen minutes, and that includes digging out supplies, and taking photographs. 

Supply List:

Stamps- Mixed Alpha and Across the Miles from Sweet Stamp Shop

Ink - Versamagic

Stamp Press - Fiskars

Spiral Clips - Spiral Snaps

Embossing Powder - Mine is from Michaels