"You guessed it!" - bag tag printable

Can you believe that THREE people guessed where Matt would serve?  His little brother Connor, and two others that weren't able to come over for the 'Grand Opening.'  (You can read about Matt's 'Grand Opening' here.)

 

I had a gift bag of candy already put together for anyone winning at our house and thought I'd share what I sent in the mail to the other winners - one of which had just entered the MTC. 

 

Hey there

SMARTIE...

You guessed it,

Congratulations!

 

Purchase a bag of Smartie candies - very inexpensive and just about every store carries them - and put in a cellophane bag.  Attach the bag tag and tie with a ribbon.  I was mailing mine so I lined a small Flat Rate Box with colored tissue, folded the tissue over and put the gift card on top (after jotting a few lines on the back of course 'cause who doesn't like a letter?).  Good to go.  Easy.  Inexpensive.  Fast.  My kind'a package.

 

I've made a few color choices for you...

click on your color choice to download.

 

YELLOW

GREEN

PINK

BLUE



Looking for packing material? Easter Grass!

Popcorn?  Ghost Poop a.k.a. packing peanuts?  Newspaper?  Grocery bags?  Bubble Wrap?  I've heard of lots of different materials that can be used to make sure your care package contents arrive safely and while they all have their place my favorite by far is Easter grass.  Not the shredded plastic kind but the crinkly shredded paper kind.  Not only does it help keep your items safe but it looks adorable!  You can find crinkly shredded paper at any craft store and often in the gift wrap section of your local store but right now it's Easter and it's everywhere and CHEAP!!  I picked up lots today and found it for $1.37 a bag at Walmart - they had yellow, green, orange, fuchsia, light pink, light blue, purple and white. You could wait until the weekend or maybe even pick some up on clearance the day after Easter...but I was worried they would be out and like I said, I need lots. Jeff hates the shredded plastic kind that has static cling in it and sticks to everything and won't come off your hand when you try to throw it away (maybe it's just my magnetic personality?) so I haven't bought any of that kind for a very long time.  After the kids are finished opening their baskets this weekend you'll find me bagging up their shredded paper to use in an upcoming package. 

 

What's your favorite packing material?

Hire a Photographer? Genius!

We don't own a video camera.  I know, we're probably the only family on the planet (or at least in Utah) that doesn't own one but we don't and here's why.  Once upon a time my brother-in-law got a new video camera and asked us if we'd like to have his old one.  Mind you, this was a LONG time ago.  My twenty year old daughter was like six or seven and the video camera was a monster.  You had to sit it on your shoulder it was so big - and look in and eye piece and then view it on a little tiny black and white screen.  Remember the days?  The one and only time that we ever used it was to my daughter's one and only dance recital.  We're sitting in the gym, on the bleachers, and she's dancing her heart out, and Jeff is recording away and the whole performance lasts all of two minutes and when it's over Jeff looks at me and says, "Why would I want to watch Bek's performance through a little viewfinder in black and white when I can watch the real thing in full and living color?"  So we donated the video camera and that was that because I too don't want to watch life happen while behind a viewfinder. 

 

Last spring I had a burst of pure inspiration.  Mason would be coming home from his mission in July and I wanted a million photos and while I have a pretty decent camera it is not a high speed digital one so my action shots tend to have bits of blur in them and it's not like you can tell him to back up and come off the airplane again and I wanted to be IN the moment and not worrying about the perfect shot...(whew, breath girlfriend!)...so...I got this thought...inspiration...why not hire a photographer?  I'm tellin' ya - it was genius!  I wished that I had a friend that I could beg to come take photos and though I do have a cousin that takes amazing photos (J.Taylor Photography), she was already doing a wedding that day so I just grabbed the phone book then went to each photographer's website to view what their pictures look like and started making calls.  Calls?  Not really - one call, that's all.  First local photographer that I called (Shootz Photography) was thrilled with the idea and charged me the same price that she charges to do birth photography - $100.  With that I got the photographer, all the photos on a disk AND a slide show.  Totally worth it and all of us - the whole family - got to be IN the moment.  It was wonderful and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

So here's Mason's homecoming slideshow but not the one that the photographer did 'cause I couldn't get it to upload but they are all her photos.  Lucky that I have that awesome software that I told you about here...

 

  

 

(...any ideas why YouTube seems blurry? Maybe it's just my old age...)

St. Patrick's Day - something not so sweet

Not every package needs to be full of things to eat does it?  Bek received an awesome coupon from Bath & Body Works and while we were browsing my cute little Maren found these darling little hand sanitizer holders that can be hung from your purse or backpack.  They had lots of different styles but Maren thought these frog princes would be perfect to put in a little package for St. Patrick's Day.  We just tossed them in with a Bag of Gold Nuggets, some tissue, shredded paper and topped it off with a St. Patrick's Day printable.  Everything fit perfectly into the small Flat Rate Box from the post office - you just can't beat $5 to mail a package.  Don't forget the companions!

 

Bags O' Gold Nuggets

You can whip this little project up in a jiffy.  I got this idea from my sister-in-law Cindy.  She is planning a trip to Scotland, Ireland and England and for our first little "get excited for this trip" meeting (like we're not psyched already!) she gave us cute little bags of gold nuggets.  I totally copied her idea for some of our St. Patrick's Day gift packages this year.

 

 

Project Supplies:

cellophane bags

gold ribbon

Hershey's Nugget candy

 

 

 



St. Patrick's Day - subway art

I wrote a note on the back and topped off my St. Patrick's Day packages this year with this 5 x 7 subway art printable.  I got the original idea here and thought it would be easy to tweak and use for my second ever Photoshop project.  Just Googled St. Patrick's Day and found words that I liked.  Man...hope Photoshop gets faster eventually!  Your missionary can hang it on their bulliton board...or wall...or fridge...or use it as a bookmark...or stick it in an inexpensive frame to help make their apartment more festive.  This frame came from Ikea for $1.99 and comes in white or black and suits my boys just fine.  However should my daughter decide to go...I may splurge and go with this little beauty for all of $4.99.  Gorgeous!  I'm sure that you could find something around the house or at one of the many dollar stores in your area.  Download by clicking here.

 

Where in the World?

I whipped* these up for Matt's "Grand Opening" of his mission call and thought I'd share.  When people came to our home we just had them jot down their guess for where Matt would get called to serve.  Some of his friends posted their guess on Facebook or texted him and we entered their guess for them.  You can click here to make copies for your own "Grand Opening" celebration.

 

*Disclaimer:  I shouldn't actually say "whipped these up"...my daughter Rebekah helped me create them on Photoshop and this is my first project ever and it took a good portion of the morning.  The credit goes to Bek...she was very patient with me.  Thanks Bek!

 

So did we have a winner?  Yes!  Actually we had three winners...Connorton, Matt's brother was the only one present.  The other's had their prizes mailed to them.  Pretty amazing evening!