gift idea Archives - Cupcakes and Cutlery

Custom Tiny Prints Pillows

January 21, 2015 by Sharon Garofalow Leave a Comment

I’ll be sharing my son’s 6th birthday party soon but for now I have to share this custom Tiny Prints pillow. They were super generous to send it to me. The theme of the party was “monsters” but instead of using ready-made party goods, we used his custom drawings since this is what he is really in to drawing at the moment. This custom pillow was great for decor during the party but also makes a rad keepsake for him.

I mean, he drew a palm tree and a sun with sunglasses. I guess monsters need vacation too.

And after the party, it moved in to his bedroom. I wanted you to see it next a normal sized bed pillow for size. These are pretty big! They come in rectangle or square and you can use their ready-made templates for more decor friendly options. But I really love that you can upload your own artwork and get a custom-made item that you can cherish forever.

You can also follow this tutorial for making a pillow with your child’s own artwork!

Thank you, Tiny Prints, for sending me the pillow!

Filed Under: Family Life, Gift Ideas Tagged With: Custom Pillow, gift idea, kid's art, Tiny Prints

Decoupage Holiday Treat Plates

December 15, 2014 by Sharon Garofalow Leave a Comment

Christmas is the time for treats, am I right? And treats are made for sharing. These easy decoupage plates are the perfect thing to gift your holiday desserts on. I love Dishwasher Safe Mod Podge and when I saw that they have a dishwasher safe version I almost cried. How cool is that?!

These glass plates cost .99 cents at Ikea. Just grab some of your favorite fabric and some dishwasher safe Mod Podge.

Cut the fabric to fit the size of the plate. Leave a little overhang to make sure if covers the whole way.

Follow the directions on the Mod Podge bottle. Paint on the Mod Podge on to the plate. Then lay out the fabric on top. Smooth it out to make sure there aren’t any wrinkles. Paint on the Mod Podge on to the back of the fabric. Then let dry for an hour. Add more coats (up to 4) leaving each to dry an hour in between.

Once fully dry, trim the fabric as close to the edge of the plate as possible. Let cure for 24 days or whatever the bottle says. It seems like a really long time but if you want to really put these in the dishwasher then you will want to do it. If you are just doing these for one party then I’d just make sure that they are dried completely.

I fell in love with this holiday fabric. I know it doesn’t look very traditionally holiday, but I think it is perfect.

Wrap the plate and treats up with a little cellophane and tie with a cute bow and you’ve got the perfect neighbor gift. This is a perfect thing to make for kid’s birthday parties when you are trying have everything be cohesive and part of a theme. It also works with patterned papers, lace doilies, whatevs.

Filed Under: Craft / DIY, Holidays Tagged With: diy, Food Crafts, gift idea, Holiday Craft, Holiday Treat Plates

Homemade Woven Ornaments

December 12, 2014 by Sharon Garofalow Leave a Comment

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And this year I decided to make some ornaments. These homemade woven ornaments are a great gift idea for friends and family. It is also a good craft to do with your older kids. I thought my 6-year-old would like to do this but he had a hard time with the over under idea of the sewing. Either way it kept him busy while I finished mine. And I just love yarn crafts. Don’t you?

I had seen this plastic grid in the craft store and always wanted to do something with it. Then it dawned on me. Woven ornaments. I could have used yarn that I already owned but decided to pick up the craft yarn that is sold next to the plastic sheets. And I thought these plastic yarn needles would work but they ended up not fitting through the squares. Luckily I had smaller yarn needles at home to work with. You could also wrap the tip of the yarn with scotch tape to get it to fit through the hole but I much prefer a needle.

All you have to do is cut out your shapes from the plastic and start sewing, making whatever patterns you like. A lot of the plastic ends up showing through so I actually went back and spray painted the plastic shapes silver before starting to sew. I also picked up another sheet of plastic that they sell in hot pink. Because why not. They might be untraditional colors for Christmas but I love that.

I think they turned out really cute. They were my favorite kind of craft where you can do it while you watch tv. These will sit nicely on a tree or you can use a metal hook to hang them. You could even do this on a much larger scale and use each sheet for a single letter and create words for your mantle.

Ho.

And how awesome do they look on this white tree!!

I love lightning bolts. What can I say. I am sure Santa does too.

And of course my son wanted in on the action. I love that he is pretty much cross-eyed from looking at the ornament he’s holding. And isn’t his shirt great? It’s a Yoshirt. It cracks me up when he wears himself to school.

Filed Under: Craft / DIY, Holidays Tagged With: Christmas Crafts, DIY Ornaments, gift idea, Holiday Craft, Homemade Woven Ornaments, kid craft, Yarn Crafts

Sweet Treats Just Because

May 20, 2014 by Sharon Garofalow 15 Comments

*This post is sponsored by Rich’s Products as part of their Give Bakery Because program. A grocer’s bakery is the convenient and ideal location to purchase delicious baked goods that can be customized for any gift giving occasion. Rich’s and I encourage you to head to your local in-store bakery the next time you need delicious, sweet treats – or just because. But all these opinions are mine.
I totally lucked out in the mom-in-law department. My mother-in-law, Marie, is very good to me and my kids in so many ways and is always willing to go out of her way for us. A few months back I asked her for some help with watching the kids one day a week so I could really focus on things that needed to get done for the blog. She didn’t hesitate to commit and pretty much runs all over town for me taking care of the kids every Friday, so I can put together photo shoots, set up meetings or even just have a wonderful long lunch with a girlfriend. Because she already helps me that day, I often hesitate to ask her to watch the kids on other days if something else comes up. I never want to over step my bounds or take advantage of her and her generosity. But she often steps in to watch the kids more than just that one day a week. And I am forever grateful of her willingness to drop what she is doing to come help us out. So sometimes I like to leave her a little sweet treat, just because. Sure she gets extra love around her birthday and mother’s day, etc. But sometimes it is nice to just let her know we are appreciate her.

I’m actually typing this post from wifi on a plane. And if you do any sort of traveling without your family, you know that just to be able to get on the plane requires lots of planning ahead and prepping. So the last thing I wanted to add to that prep was a lot of crafting and fuss. I wanted to leave my Marie a little treat to thank her for picking up my slack while out of town. Since I had to make a grocery store stop anyway, I just made sure to swing by the bakery section before I checked out. I saw a variety pack of sweet rolls, that I knew my mom-in-law would like, and knew they would be perfect to leave for her to snack on while at my house with the kids. I didn’t have to bake it and I didn’t have to spend a lot of money. It proved to be the perfect base for a little flair and the message that I am thankful for her. I mean really, these picks took almost no time at all. But they’re pretty cute, right?

Since she wouldn’t be expecting treats I wanted to make sure she knew that we had ice cold milk in the fridge to go along with the rolls. Just a super quick note on the computer, printed out and strung on a straw is all you need to elevate the store-bought goods to a truly special moment. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Family Life, Food Finds, Gift Ideas, Party Inspiration Tagged With: bakery, gift idea, Party Food, sweet treats, thank you gift

Kid’s Birthday Banner DIY

April 29, 2014 by Sharon Garofalow 1 Comment

So here’s the deal. I know there is a typo in this banner. And no, I didn’t want to go back to the print store just to have them reprint it. I’m lazy and cheap. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, isn’t this kid’s birthday banner DIY SO cute! My oldest guy just turned 8, can you believe it! I decided that such a special occasion needed a super special card. So I took a photo of my son against a blank wall and then added the text in Illustrator. I saved the image to a file and took it to my local Kinko’s/Fed Ex store to have them print out a blueprint copy. This size is 4′ x 3′ and cost $9. They printed out some smaller sized ones for me as well (I think the 3′ x 2′ option was only $4 and still perfectly large enough to hang on a wall.)

We all signed the card and then I used Scotch tape to hang it on the wall. I found that super cute paper garland at Target to frame it with. Is it just me or is Target killing it lately with their Spritz line of party goods?!

Then we waited around for my son to get home from school and so he could see his big surprise. We were all pretty excited about this wall card.

He loved it!! But really who wouldn’t love seeing their face this large on a wall in their house? ;) We put this up a few days before his birthday but would also have been great to put up after he had gone to sleep the night before his actual big day. This would also be a really great way to acknowledge a big accomplishment for a kid like a great grade on a test or listening to their parents for the first time…Gosh dang it I love that sweet little face.