How to Make Your Own School Name Labels

If you're in a pinch and you don't have time to buy school name labels, or you just want to save the money and make them yourself, here's a very easy way to do it!  (I'll also share a link at the end to a discount from a great company to buy them from if you'd rather not make your own!)
Talia got a new set of markers for school and was very excited about it. I wanted to label them, but didn't have any marker-sized name labels on hand.

So, I did something that anyone with a printer, some paper, and some tape could do ;)

Easy DIY School Name Labels

How to Make School Name Labels Yourself

I started by typing her name in a word processor and printing it to make sure my size estimation would fit on the marker. When that worked out, I copied & pasted her name a few more times than I had markers (I had a feeling I'd need extras) and printed.



Supplies:

- Markers
- Scissors
- Scotch Tape
- Printer & Paper

Next, all you do is trim each name into a little strip and pick it up with a piece of tape like this:



Then wrap the tape around your marker like so:



And repeat for each marker. So easy, so done!




So far the labels are lasting well, and I have a feeling they'll stay on for a long time.
Even if they start to wear out though, it wouldn't be hard to re-do these.

[2 Years later, and they are still going strong!]

Name Labels Discount Code

If you're just not interested in doing it yourself, I recommend Mabel's Labels! We like to use them for a lot of our products and they last great, even through the wash! This is an affiliate link for Mabel's Labels. Try this link for free shipping.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Homemade Happy Birthday Banner

For Ken's birthday this year, Talia & I got out one of her rolls of coloured paper (purple was her choice- she was sure he would like it ;) and a bunch of random craft supplies and went to work creating this Happy Birthday Banner for him.


We surprised him on his birthday by waking up before him, putting the banner up, blowing up balloons, and making him breakfast in bed. Talia also presented him with a present chosen by her (she knew for days that she wanted to give him a paddleball :)

It was so nice for her to feel included in celebrating his birthday, and how much more fun is it to see a banner on your birthday that was made especially for you, than a store bought one?

Bunny Bubbles

Here's an easy way to make Bunny Bubbles out of generic little wedding favour bubble containers!

We had bubbles at our wedding 6 years ago. We still have some of those bottles of bubbles today :) They come in very handy around here! You can get them at a dollar store too though, so no worries if you want to make these guys yourself ;)





The night before the Easter Bunny came, I got the idea to make bunny bubbles.

What You Need

1. Bubbles
2. Gluegun
3. pompom
4. googly eyes
5. marker
6. felt & scissors

How To Make Bunny Bubbles

1. Heat Gluegun
2. Cut Ears out of felt
3. Assemble
4. Voila! :)

Mini Banner for Mail

We made a mini banner to send to my brother who is serving a mission for our church, in California.


This idea came from giverslog (a cool blog that has all kinds of homemade gift ideas and has a side focus on finding lightweight things to mail- she once mailed a frisbee (with no packaging).. cool eh? :)

Oh, and Valerie over at Frugal Family Fun Blog is doing a great giveaway on her blog right now! I love her blog, so even if you aren't thinking about the giveaway, you ought to check her blog out!

Stuffed Snowman

You can find detailed instructions for this activity over at Filth Wizardry (that's where I got the idea from).

It's such a fun & cute thing to make!


It was fun to think about what we would use for each part together.
We used:
-an old baby sock for the hat (with a pom pom)
-tooth picks & pieces of the sock for the arms & mittens
-beads for buttons
-googly eyes for eyes
-pom pom for a nose
-marker to make ears, earrings, and mouth
-ribbon for the scarf/bow

Here's Talia, stuffing her old tights with toilet paper (she loved it!)


p.s. This post was featured on Totally Tots' Winter Crafty Corner!

Salt Dough Ornaments

Yesterday, we made salt dough ornaments & it was a lot of fun!
This morning, we started decorating them.
Here are a couple, on display:


I followed the recipe that Filth Wizardry posted for Salt Dough Ornaments, and we had a great time making a few of our own!
Talia loved the stirring & the kneading :)


We rolled the dough and cut it with cookie cutters. We made holes in them with a straw (for hanging, and for weaving- as seen in the first photo). Then we waited (too long- these things take a couple of hours! :) for them to bake.



p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123's Kid Made Holiday Decorations post!

Tissue Ghosts

This morning, Talia & I made ghosts out of tissues.

To make one of these you need:
2 tissues
1 marker
1 ribbon or pipe cleaner or string

You just crumple up one tissue, wrap the other around it (creating the head), and tie the ribbon (or string or pipe cleaner) around the neck, to hold it in place. Then add the face with a marker.

We made about 70 of them this morning (a whole box of tissues worth). We are using them for invitations to a Hallowe'en event, so we needed a lot of them :)

Observations:

Talia was able to do everything except tie the knot in the ribbon (pipe cleaner probably would've worked better for her).
She would do one 'job' for a while & then suggest that we switch jobs.
She went from crumpling the head, to cutting the ribbon, to putting the finished ghosts in the bag, to wrapping the ribbon (I got the knot ready, then she pulled the ends to make it tight).

Flyer Shopping

Another idea from Emily at Learning Vicariously, I got out the grocery flyers and a marker and had Talia circle the foods she liked and cross out the ones that she didn't.


Observations:

I was interested (& pleased) to find that after discussing her dislike for pickles, she didn't want to cross them out- she asked me if I liked pickles & when I said yes, she wanted to circle them for me, so that I could have them :)

This generosity continued as we came across shampoo that she recognized as the kind that Daddy uses, bodywash she has seen in the shower, etc.

I also observed that she was more interested in colouring them in than circling them- although she did circle them before completely blacking them out with marker :)