Pink Peppermint Blogger

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had any of these to share due to school policies, but this year here I am with two! Score. Here are a couple of quick and inexpensive ideas to treat classmates with on the last day of school. First up, this useful scoop o’ candy.

I thought this was a cute and easy way to give something the kids would be excited about (the candy) as well as something they could use this summer (the scoop, shovel or sand sifter). What kid doesn’t love to dig? Put your candy in the scoop, insert the whole shebang into a small (approx 4×8″) cello bag, tie off with twist tie or rubberband, and add cute ribbon and tag. Voila!

I was pretty pleased with the way these came out. Days later,  I saw a similar picture on Pinterest, and now I don’t know which came first. Did Pinterest plant the seed in my subconscious or is there some other crafty momma on the same wave length? Who’s to say at this point?

I can def claim credit for this cute tag though. I was there. I saw me make it. It says, “It’s Summertime! Can you dig it?”

I can also claim credit for this tag I whipped up for the treats Lauren’s son handed out. Moon Dough!

It reads, “Summer’s here! I’m over the moon. Have a blast and let’s play soon!” Lauren also included contact info for summer playdates, which I think is a cute touch.

She wrapped it all up space-age style with cosmic ribbon and stars. The contents were somewhat concealed so there wouldn’t be any fighting over the colors. You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit!

Quick. Easy. Inexpensive. Festive. Happy Summer!

Things have been so busy around here that I haven’t had time for my usual holiday merrymaking. I’ve always been a big fan of Easter and Springtime, probably because I’m an April baby.

While combing the seasonal aisles at Target a few weeks back, I bought one of these inexpensive bunny-shaped chocolate molds.

I rediscovered them Wednesday and decided to make some time to try them before Easter was long gone. I was so tickled with the way the first tray turned out that I made a few more sets for my daughter to share with preschool friends.

In addition to the candy mold costing less than $3, I thought it was super easy to use. I ended up going back to the store to buy three more sets of molds so I could make more than five bunnies at a time.  I also loved that the directions called for real chocolate, which I much prefer the taste of candy melts.

Here’s are list of the supplies I used:

Chocolate chips

GulfWax, optional

Squirt bottle

Lollipop sticks, 5 inches long

Lollipop cello bags and ties

Decorative ribbon

I melted one bag of chocolate chips and 1/8 of a bar of GulfWax in a double boiler, The GulfWax helped to thin the chocolate a little and also gave the finished product a bit of a glossy shine. Using a funnel, I poured the melted chocolate into a squirt bottle.  I have umpteen of them left over from Caroline’s candy house party.

I filled the molds then added the sucker sticks, covering the end of the stick with more chocolate. I gave the tray a final tap on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles and level out the chocolate. Then, I put them in the freezer to set.  I was nervous, but they popped out of the molds really easily.

Here’s another look at the finished product.

I think they turned out super adorable. We took them to the Easter party yesterday, and the kids devoured them! I started thinking about how cute it would be to play with different flavors and colors, using butterscotch, white chocolate, or maybe even peanut butter chips to create calico bunnies.

Totally adorable for a birthday party favor or as adult favors for a baby shower too.  So what are you waiting for? Get yourself to Target before they’re all gone. Just don’t go to my Target. I already cleaned them out.

I’m a bit on pink and red overload with Valentine’s. I’ve been wanting to create some new artwork. Decided I’d try something that feels sort of light and airy in comparison to all the heavy, saturated color we see this time of year. When I was reminded of these candy airplanes (instructions here) on Pinterest, it went perfectly with a theme I’d been batting around in my head, “Love is in the Air!” I decided I’d create a free printable collection along these lines in which the little candy airplane would make an appearance.

Here’s what I used, in specific, for my airplanes:

• Fruit Stripe Gum (still comes in an old-school pack WITH the white wrapper) and more appealing to kids than cinnamon gum in my opinion
• Red, pink, white or pale blue seamless ponytail holder (so the candy won’t taste all rubber bandy)
• Two cherry lifesavers (my kids would spit the white ones out pronto)
• One roll of Smarties
• Tiny Valentine’s stickers (these shown were 2/$1 at Walgreen’s)

Note: If you or your school is opposed to gum for kids this age, you can use a pack of Pez just as well (I’m thinking that an AirHead or mini Laffy Taffy might also work in the gum’s stead). There’s just no pretty white surface to sticker.

These cutie little airplanes fit perfectly into a 4 x 4 inch zipper bag (check your craft store’s jewelry section).  I’ve provided a sweetie pie printable bag topper which prints two to a page on a 4×6. There’s also a version with six to a letter page included. It’s very hard to tell from my fab photog, but the background is pale blue with clouds! Just trim in half and score down the middle of the red scallops to fold. Adhere with glue dots or double stick tape. I used some of each since my paper stock has an extra bit of body to it.

I also did a sort of girl and boy version of the flat Valentine’s handout cards–one with a heart balloon and another with the little plane skywriting “Love” in the clouds. Each has a place to write the names in.

I thought the balloon version lent itself well to a candy add-on. So using my rotary fabric cutter (or an Xacto knife), I cut a 3/4″ slit just below the red of the balloon tip and inserted this heart-shaped sucker. Cute, no? I trimmed some of the excess wrapper off to make it less bulky. If you like, you can score this card to fold in half, then seal it with a sticker. These also print on 4×6, but I have included a download for printing three on a letter-sized page as well.

Look at that happy little heart balloon/sucker! I secured the stick to the back of the card with a piece of clear tape.

Finally, available for free download are these sweet toppers. You can punch them with a 2 inch paper punch as shown here and use them as cupcake picks.

The same printable file also works well as straw toppers when using a 1 1/2 inch paper punch. Here, I freehand cut the 3/4″ slits with a my handheld rotary cutter and inserted festive paper drinking straws.

I am pleased as punch with the way these turned out, and I hope you will be too! You can download your free Valentine’s printables below or here. I can’t BELIEVE it’s almost February! Can’t you just smell the love that’s in the air? Or maybe it’s cupcakes. Either way, enjoy!

Valentine Cupcake+Straw Toppers

Airplane Valentine 4×6

Airplane Valentine Letter

Heart Balloon Valentine 4×6

Heart Balloon Valentine Letter

Airplane Bag Toppers 4×6

Airplane Bag Toppers Letter

Well, here we are on Valentine’s morning. We got in late last night, but I whipped these up in no time. I dipped, dried and sealed up the marshmallows for freshness last night. Then, I added the leaves to the sticks so all that was left this morning before school was to add the sticks and wrap the flower bunches. I secured the “stems” with small clear hair rubber bands, wrapped them in green tissue paper, covered them with a clear cello bag and added a bow and tag.

My 5-yr-old is giving these to his preschool teachers today. He was pretty excited because he loves to eat them himself!

Here’s a closeup of the tag. “I couldn’t have picked a sweeter bunch!” They got good reviews in the carpool lane!

My daughter’s class is celebrating Valentine’s tomorrow. Strange, I know, but she doesn’t have class on Monday.

S9 later today, we are tackling these ridiculously adorable necklaces for her teachers from One Charming Party.  Wish us luck, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

I made these marshmallow pops for my daughter’s winter princess party.

I had bought all the supplies: large pink marshmallows, squirtable white cookie icing (the kind that sets and comes in a sort of glue bottle), pink pearl nonpareils and 6 in. lollipop sticks–but thought surely I’d run out of time before the party started.

It was literally 15 minutes before the guests came. I tried it to see if it would work, and had what I think are great results given how totally easy they are to make. No, really. If you can use glue, you can do this. The kids L.O.V.E. to eat them, and it’s something that’s not messy that they can help make!

Pour nonpareils on a plate, follow the directions for preparing the cookie icing (*note: after some trial and error, I only heated mine for a fraction of the time it called for because hot icing=runny icing) and apply a THIN layer to the top of the marshmallow. Press the icing side of the marshmallow face down into the nonpareils.

Then lift and fill in any holes in the coverage and neaten the edges by hand. Set face up on a plate to dry. Once dry, insert lollipop stick into opposite side of marshmallow.

I cut some simple leaf shapes out of green paper and used a small hole punch (and a little wriggling) to thread the lollipop sticks through.

And Voila! A marshmallow rose.

If you want to do this step, it’s easier to add the leaves before you insert the stick into the marshmallow. My small hole punch was a little too small so I made a couple of overlapping punches to make the hole a bit bigger. We are giving a half dozen “roses” to teachers for Valentine’s Day wrapped in tissue paper and cellophane bags like real flowers would be.

I think this would also be cute for a Valentine’s party, as a festive centerpiece for a springtime shower, Easter parties or for other party themes where roses/flowers play a part–Beauty and the Beast, Bachelor/Bachelorette finale watching parties (do people have those anymore?) You get the idea. How would you use these?

It’s hard to believe that the end of the school year is upon us. In fact, here at the Pink Peppermint house, school’s already out for summer! They both really loved their preschool classes this year, and I know when we relocate later this summer that they’ll miss seeing those friends. So, we gave everyone a little something fun to get them ready for summer time.

Our two-year-old friends got a set of these fun sand tools from Target. I think they’d also be great for summer garden fun.

The tag said, “I really DIG being your friend!”

And the four-year-olds in the Monkey class got this super cute polka dot sidewalk chalk. I remember having one chalk holder when my sister and I were little. Seems like both of us always wanted it, and I’d never seen a chalk holder for fat chalk, so I thought this was extra fun.

The tag says, “Chalk it up to another great year!”

I think either of these work well for a sweet and inexpensive take-home from a summer time party too. But, I have to say my most favorite summer party favor is this:

How about gifting a roll of these sliding popsicles at room temperature? They come stuck together and perforated to separate.  Just freeze and enjoy. What a fun way to ring in the summer season! This is about the most fabulous idea ever, and I so wish I could take credit. The truth is I saw a boy at my son’s preschool toting one of these last year, so there’s some other mom out there who gave birth to this fantastic idea. Hats of to you, whoever you are! Our tag read, “Stay cool this summer.”

Hopefully these ideas will spark those of you who are planning to entertain kiddos this summer or who are looking for a little something to give to classmates as the end of school approaches. My kids aren’t old enough yet for me to be relieved that there’s no homework for three months. Instead, the pool’s not open yet, and we are looking for ways to entertain ourselves. Wish me luck!

Yep. Here we are. Valentine’s Day is upon us. It was just Thanksgiving and now, at least in the South, we’ve got bathing suit weather barreling down on us. Awesome. All the more reason to steer clear of the candy if you can. We’re still working through the avalanche of Christmas treats that live in what my kids call “the basket.” Ugh.

I’m going rogue here and avoiding the candy almost entirely. Alas, when I spotted these adorably large heart suckers in the dollar bin at Target, I could not resist. You can make even the most commonplace of V-Day goodies festive with a cute tag and a playful message. These gift enclosures were made with a grosgrain tie and a rounded corner option.

Last year, I dug these little mailboxes (also from the hallowed bins of dollar goodness at Target). Imagine my delight when I spotted them again this year. My kiddos are both fairly into mail. Getting it, sending it, making it, checking it. So I figure that most kids are. Ages ago I bought some inexpensive blank white cards and envelopes at Michael’s Arts and Crafts and let my oldest make his own cards to send to friends and family for various occasions. I was back at Michael’s the other day and spotted an assorted pack of Valentine’s Card Stock Paper. They come 25 sheets to a pack and were on sale two pack for $5. I thought it would be cute to do some Make Your Own Valentine’s kits this year to include with the mailboxes. I just scored each page the long way and cut them in half to make folding cards. I think I’ll throw in a few envelopes just because my son LOVES that part and because of Pink Peppermint Paper, I happen to buy them in boxes of 250, but you could always just include some stickers to seal the Valentines.

Here are the mailboxes. Aren’t they sweet? I think they would also be charming as decorations for a Valentine’s Day Party. Don’t you agree?

And here are the cards I made for the kids to make their own Valentine’s.  These are for my daughter’s class of two-year-old pals. They are really into trying to peel and place stickers and are starting to color so will probably include some of those things to make it more fun for them.

Or if you want to include individual stickers or other lose frills, you can enclose your kits in zip-top bags. This also works nicely because as with most things like this, no plan is perfect. The mailboxes have a lid on each end and the cards at this standard size are too long, so you can just throw the extra lid in the bag for later use and let the mail just hang out like it’s too stuffed to close!

And finally a slightly more random idea. I got off on a tangent thinking about things that make your heart race. You know really get it pumping. I found some Disney jump ropes at a local discount store and decided that would be a fun alternative to candy for my son’s class of three- and four-year old buds.

Ahhh…the jump rope. Great for learning coordination. Great exercise. If you haven’t picked one up in a while, give it a try. Talk about wearing yourself out. More importantly, it will wear the kids out. My son is already begging for the race car rope he saw in my hand. And hey, if he can’t quite get the hang of jumping it yet, I’m sure he’ll find alternate uses. I’m fully anticipating that he will convert his little sister’s Cozy Coupe into a tow truck in no time compliments of that Max and Ruby episode we’ve seen 50 times.

Hope you’ve seen something that makes your heart flutter. If you like what you’re seeing, please leave a comment at the top of this or any of our posts. Funny thing about a blog is that it’s hard to know if anyone is reading it if no one comments!

And if you are in the market for some cutie V-Day cupcake toppers, check out these freebies  from Creative Party Place. Enjoy!