How to Create Treat Bags from Ordinary, Every Day Supplies (no fancy cutting machines or expensive tools required!)

Be Warned: I am feeling chatty this morning, so please excuse my wordy post!  Some of what I say is important though, so please read through it!

I know I have said this in my last several posts, but can you believe how close it is to Christmas?  Wow, it really snuck up on me this year.  I can't wait to just relax and enjoy time with my family.

But first, I wanted to show you a little something that I made for some of my husband's students at school.  For his helpers and kids that are in his work out group after school, he wanted to have a little treat to celebrate Christmas break.  He said it was perfectly fine to simply throw the puppy chow into a ziplock bag and be on his way... come on crafters, you know this is not how it went at all!  I decided to make a nice little top piece for the bag to give it just a little extra something that a clear plastic bag cannot offer.

The only problem was that I decided to do this later in the evening, away from mom's Silhouette machine (which I am always borrowing!), away from most of my scrapbook papers, fancy scissors, anything!  But after I started working on this, I thought it might be important to share how projects like this CAN be done without all those fancy scrapbooking and crafting supplies.  Many times, blogs will share their projects that are done with tools that a beginning crafter may not have (I know that I do) and that might be discouraging.  Today, I am here to show you all that no matter what level of crafter you are, you can create some really cute projects!

{But First: A few important things I need to tell you}

{1} I will NOT be posting at all next week.  That means that Monday (Dec. 24) and Thursday (Dec. 27) there will be no new updates on this blog.  I hate doing that for fear that some of you may get out of routine and forget about me, but this time is about family and I plan to use any time off as time for them.  My next post then will be on Tuesday, January 1.

{2} You might have just noticed that I said my next post would be Tuesday, January 1 and not Monday (my normal posting day).  That is because I will be participating in a BLOG HOP with Every Day is an Occasion, Ribbons & Glue, The Hunny Pot, A Mermaid's Crafts, A Piece of Life's Pie, Quick Chick Designs, Court's Craft Corner and My Paper Love!  It is going to be an awesome start to the new year with so many talented people. PLEASE stop by to not only visit me but to visit these other blogs as well.  We are each making a craft with something new we got for Christmas.  The variety is endless, so you are bound to find something that you love!

{Now onto the real reason you are here}
Sorry to take care of business first, but it had to be done. 

These treat bags are easy to make, even with the simplest of crafting tools. All I used was:

-Paper
-Regular Scissors
-Baker's Twine
-Hole Punch
-Glue
-Pen or Marker

First, cut the background paper into rectangles large enough to fold in half over the top of the ziplock bag.  Next, find a contrasting paper to use for the round piece.  Using items around your house, find a circle shape that will fit nicely on your rectangle (I traced the bottom of a toothpick holder!)

To get the designed edges on my circle, I simply drew it out on the back of the paper then {very carefully} cut it out.

    
Write your message on the small paper and glue the paper pieces together.  Then, align the paper over the bag so that it is positioned where you want it to be.  Punch 2 holes into the folded paper and the plastic bag.  I could not even find a regular hole punch so I used our 3-hole punch (hey, it worked!).

Finish it off by running some baker's twine through the holes from the back to front of the bag.  I like this look better than stapling, but it is up to you.

  {Your Turn}
What a simple way to turn a nice gesture into something extra special.  The best part is, this can be done with ordinary, every day items.  I love that because it really does mean that anyone can be creative (something I truly believe) without having to go out and buy all new supplies.

Wishing you all the best for the Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) season and the upcoming New Year.  Enjoy this time with your family and friends and I will see you again soon!

Happy Crafting,
Kelsie Ann

LINK LOVE! Linked up to: Every Day is an Occasion

Guest Blogging + 5 Halloween Party Ideas + Free Printables!

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today I have TONS of stuff for you!  First things first:  I am guest blogging over at U-Create (my first EVER guest post!) and I would love for you to go check it out.  Then, stay a while and look around.  The girls over there are just too sweet and have a slew of awesome craft ideas.  You will just love them, I'm sure of it.

Secondly, I have another craft for you on here.  Actually it's over FIVE crafts!  I told you today was a biggie.  Still wondering what to do for your upcoming Halloween party?  Or, do you just want some fun ideas for your own family?  Check out these five easy and totally fun ideas for your Halloween gathering:

{"You'll DIE Laughing"}
An easy-to-make treat container that you can "unwrap" to expose a string of Halloween jokes!

This mummy is too cute to be spooky, plus he tells jokes!  Oh, and don't forget the treats hidden inside- it's almost too good to be true!  He's easy to make too:

-Take an old Oatmeal container and cover it with fabric.
-Cut strips of the same fabric and pull at the edges to fray them.
-Write jokes along the strips for people to "unwrap".  Example:  What is a mummy's favorite kind of music? WRAP!  Cheesy yes, but admit it: it's funny!
-Attach the strips together and glue to the container at the beginning.  Wrap the mummy up.
-Fill with candy and share!


{Messy Fun for Everyone}
Individual pumpkins for everyone with treats hidden inside.  Can be done clean or messy style!

For all the kids out there who were anything like me, this activity is fun and best of all.. MESSY!  Don't worry mom, it can be done mess-free as well!

-Get a small pumpkin.  This is a great way to give something personalized to each child without buying several large pumpkins.
-Carve it out and remove the insides just as you would normally.
-Fill it with Halloween treats (inside of ziplock bags)
-For messier fun, put the "goop" back inside on top of the treat bags so that kids have to dig through it to receive their candy.


{Pin the Head on the Skeleton}
A new spin on an old game, this magnetic "pin the head on the skeleton" is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

This game seems to always be fun for any age... and, it's easy to make!

-Draw (or sketch) a skeleton onto a large sheet on paper.
-Cut a head out of magnetic paper.
-Hang the large sheet of paper up on the fridge using magnets.
-Laugh at all the silly places the head ends up!


{Food for Thought}
What event is complete without food?  Here are a few dinner ideas to really spook your guests!

There are three separate things shown here, but they are all very easy to make.

Brain Pasta
-Make spaghetti and add a light coating of sauce (too dark will look less 'real').
-Put half of the desired amount into a ziplock bag, shaping it to look like half a brain.  Do the same with the other half.
-Freeze the pasta until the shape is formed.
-Before eating, remove from freezer and either thaw or microwave to eat.

Spider Web Utensils
-Get plastic forks, spoons and knives (if you will be using them).
-Paint the handles with black non-toxic paint.
-Using a hot glue gun, quickly run back and forth across the utensils.  Let the ends get stuck to the newspaper a little bit.  Give it a second to start drying and then lift off of the paper.  This will cause the strings to bunch up and look like spooky webs.

Creepy Crawly Jello
-Make Jello as instructed.
-Fill a container half way and let it stand in the fridge.
-Place a plastic spider (or other creepy crawly) on top of the layer.
-Top the spider with the remaining Jello.



{What's Your Poison?}
What is scarier than going to choose your drink and finding that your options are "poison" "truth serum" "blood" and "monster guts"?

I made all of these printables myself and would be happy to share them with you:

1. Monster Guts
2. Poison
3. Truth Serum
4. Happy Halloween
5. Blood

{Your Turn!}
I hope you have enjoyed today's post and I hope you went to check out my guest post on U-Create as well!
I am so tickled that they allowed me to guest blog for them and I am also excited to share all these fun and easy Halloween ideas with you over here.  Let me know what you think and if you plan to use any of these ideas at your house.  I love Halloween and I love sharing the "holiday spirit"!  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Crafting,
Kelsie Ann

Link Love! Linked up to: Every Day is an Occasion and D.L Art

Homemade Doggie Treats & Treat Bag!

Happy Monday! How is everyone today?  I can feel a productive week coming on, so that always makes me happy.  To start off this power-week I wanted to share with you my latest craft.  Remember me telling you about us taking our puppy to dog training class?  (If not, here is another dog related post that you might enjoy)  Well, on Thursday we had our final class and we got to proudly watch as our sweet puppy walked across the stage to get his diploma.  Okay... that's not true, but he did get a diploma!

I wanted to give the rest of the dogs in the class a "goodbye and good job" present, so I made homemade doggie treats.  This was my first time making animal food, but it turned out pretty well.  Then I finished it off with cute packaging.

{I went with a Halloween theme since it's coming up, plus I thought the "trick or treat" sort of went with the idea that the dogs are doing tricks, so they get a treat!  Too bad I didn't have a trick FOR treat stamp}

If you are interested in the recipes, check out PART 1 of this post.  If you only want to see how to make the packaging, go ahead and skip to PART 2.

(Part 1) Recipes:

I'll start off by giving the recipes for the THREE kinds of treats that I made:

{1} Bacon Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon instant beef bouillon
1/2 cup hot water
2 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 jar (about 3 1/4 ounces) bacon-flavored pieces
1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  In a medium bowl, dissolve bouillon in water.  Add remaining ingredients, stirring until well blended.  On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness.  Use a 2-inch heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out dough.  Transfer to a greased baking sheet.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until firm.  Transfer to a greased wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.  Yields about 6 dozen doggie biscuits.

DISCLAIMER:  This is NOT my recipe.  It came from a saved photocopy from an old recipe book that my mother had.  If anyone knows of the book's title and author, please let me know so that I can give appropriate credit.  Wording and Recipe are identical to the original book recipe titled "Yummy Dog Treats".

My experience: First off, I used a larger bone shaped cutter, so my recipe yielded about 2 dozen.  I also had trouble rolling the dough with a rolling pin- so I just molded it with my hands.  I think this was because I put in too many bacon bits (oops!).  Lastly, I would suggest testing the cook time with a biscuit or two beforehand.  My oven cooks hot, so I expected it to be less time- but even at 25 minutes, my bones were burnt!

{I tested Ernie to see if he would go for the burnt piece (on our right) or the non-burnt piece (on our left).  Turns out he likes burnt food, just like me.  Or... he just doesn't care as long as it's food.  He went for the burnt first, but within a second took the other one too!}

{2} Peanut Butter Paw Prints

 {Please excuse the ugly baking sheet, I baked these treats back to back so there was previous cookie left over!}

This 4 ingredient recipe can be found at allrecipes.com

My experience: This dough was my favorite to work with and it smelled so good (if you like peanut butter that is!)  I used a small round cookie cutter (actually I used a piece from my blender that was the size I wanted) and then made the paw prints using my thumb and pinky fingers.  The only problem was that this dough expands more than the bacon one- so my paw prints came out less defined than they were in the dough.  (Dough is pictured above).  One last note- I tasted these treats and as a human I should say, they weren't bad!  I felt so wrong doing it, but it's all "people ingredients" so I had to!

{3} Blueberry Banana Bites

{Don't you just LOVE the colors in this one?  Natural coloring is amazing}

This recipe can be found at thehydrantblog.com ...isn't that a darling name for a dog blog?

My experience: This one can only be made into spoon dropped bites, so if you're looking for a treat you can shape- this isn't it.  That being said, they cook up very well and are soft yet stay together.  I love that the fruit gets used here and my dog loved it too!

After a long day of baking...

{Let's just say there was plenty left over for my dog Ernie to have}

********************************************************************************************

(Part 2) Packaging:

Let's be honest here:  I had the packaging planned out before I had the treats figured out.  That is the crafter in me.  Here is the best part- it's easy to do!

Let's Begin:

From a package of party treat bags, I cut off the end so that I would have two pieces to work with.  To close up the open edge on the long piece, I used hot glue.  This way the bags could be stacked on top of each other for that layered effect.

Next, I printed off the list of ingredients and information linking to this post onto a sheet of colored cardstock paper.  I made all of this in Word; it will just take some adjusting to get it how you would like it.  Then I cut it into rectangles and folded it in half.

For the "Trick or Treat" I cut out the shape using my Silhouette,  then I just stamped on the wording.  Simple as that!  Can you believe it's that easy?

Lastly, I filled the bags with treats and lined them up on top of each other so that they would lay nicely and that the cardstock would reach both bags.

I finished it off by stapling the cardstock in place.  For an added touch I used purple staples!  Very festive, don't you think?

Each bag had 1 Bacon Biscuit, 2 Peanut Butter Paw prints and 3 Blueberry Banana Bites.  It was a good thing I made extra because my dog was more than happy to taste test a few for me!

This project was something entirely new for me and it was fun to try.  The packaging was simple and easy and could be used for birthday parties, teacher's gifts or to put candy in for real trick or treaters!

Your Turn!

Congratulations, you  made it to the end of this very long post!  I wanted to include the recipes on here so that the people in my dog class could make more for their pets if they wanted.  How would you use these treat bags?  Is anyone going to try making the dog treats themselves?

With Love,
Kelsie Ann 

Link Love!  Linking up with Every Day is an Occasion! 

  

Treat Container From an Old Coffee Can

Woof, woof!  That's hello in "dog"... I think.  How many of you are pet owners or know someone who is?  The likelihood of one of those statements being true is pretty high.  As a matter of fact, statistics from the humanesociety.org say that thirty-nine percent of households own at least one dog and that thirty-three percent own at least one cat.  These statistics are just in the United States alone!

For those of you who own a dog, cat, ferret, gerbil, even a snake or just want to make something cute for a pet-loving friend, this post is for you.

First, want to see my little guy?  He is a 9 month old Rottweiler mix:

{His name is Ernie and don't let that sweet face fool you, he is ornery!}

That's why we have him (and us) enrolled in a dog training class.  Because this small container travels with us to class, I thought it would be nice to dress it up a little.

  {Every animal has some sort of treat or at the very least food!  Why not store it in a totally cute container?}

Check out the top:

 {It is even personalized just for Ernie.  I don't think it will stop the other dogs from trying to steal a treat, but hey I like it!}

Backside:

 {Want to know a little secret?  I only added this part because my paper did not reach all the way around the container.  Shhh don't tell!}

It is easy to make! 
All I used was some paper, ribbon, glue, beads and my Silhouette cutting machine!  How great is that?  I also finished it off by covering it with mod podge to help secure the pieces and to give it a crisper look. 
 
Before Mod Podge                                                                                   After Mod Podge

 













Your turn!
Have you made any crafts for your pet?  If so, what were they? I would love to hear about them, so comment or link up your projects to this post.

In a few weeks I will be posting homemade dog treats as a gift to all the dogs who went through the class with us, so keep watching the blog for that!

With Love,
Kelsie Ann


Link Love! This project is linked up to: Every Day is an Occasion.com