Pen Favor Valentine Cards

February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 / ProjectMom / Leave a comment

This year, my kids all wanted to have pens for their classroom Valentine favors. I love how each pen choice is reflective of their personality.

An a-MAZING-ing choice by my puzzle-loving middle child. I purchased these Maze Pens on Amazon, but this Valentine would be great with just about any other pen/pencil or simply by itself!…

[CLICK HERE to purchase from my Etsy Shop]

My daughter’s choice, adorable as ever. I mean, what kid doesn’t love a Squishy? Would also work well with any other stress ball or squishy toy…

[CLICK HERE to purchase from my Etsy Shop]

And my oldest, engineer-brained son with his resourceful choice – a multi-tool pen with includes a touch screen stylus, ruler, level and mini screwdriver. These Valentine’s would also work well with a ruler favor..

[CLICK HERE to purchase from my Etsy Shop]

I ordered all of the pens online (links below!), printed the valentines on white card stock, and used washi tape to attach the pens to the back of each Valentine.

Happy Valentine’s Day! May it be filled with love, giggles and scribbles!

Teacher Appreciation Coloring Page

March 15, 2022 / ProjectMom / Leave a comment

Time to celebrate our wonderful teachers! Teacher Appreciation Week is May 2nd – 6th this year (2022) and I’ve created two new printable coloring pages. As a simple DIY teacher gift – Simply download, print and color these Teacher Appreciation “Thank You” cards.

Whether it’s a school teacher, sports coach, piano instructor, or even a caretaker – these real life superheroes cannot be thanked enough for taking the time to help us learn and grow!

A simple coloring page that’s easy for even the littlest of ages to provide a gift to their teachers with their own personal touch. The perfect way for your child to show their gratitude and make their teacher’s day extra special!

Click on the images below or HERE to download the printable coloring pages from my Etsy Page.

Looking to give your teacher a little something extra? Below are some fun ideas:

Colorful Pencil Personalized Notepads:

Flower Pot Amazon Gift Card:

Thank you to all the hard-working teachers!

“It takes a big heart to shape little minds”

St. Patrick’s Day Joke Teller

March 15, 2022 / ProjectMom / Leave a comment

I’ve been on a roll with my holiday-themed joke tellers, so decided to create one for St. Patrick’s Day as well. Sometimes called “fortune tellers”, “chatter boxes” or “salt cellars”, these simple paper crafts have been popular for decades. My twist on them is to insert jokes instead of fortunes – a fun way to connect with friends (without screens) and spread a few laughs this St. Patrick’s Day 🙂

Click HER E to download the St. Patrick’s Day Joke Teller from my Etsy Shop.

Stained Glass Shamrock

March 14, 2020March 15, 2022 / ProjectMom / Leave a comment

As of today, schools in the state of Illinois are officially closed as a precautionary measure to slow the spread COVID-19 Coronavirus. In order to make this unprecedented time with the kids at home less stressful and more enjoyable, I definitely plan on coming up with projects to keep them occupied. For me, projects like this are not only bonding time to create fun memories with the kids, but I find them especially helpful when their abundance of energy needs to be diverted to something other than going out of their way to annoy their siblings.

For starters – With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, I created the below Faux Stained Glass Shamrock Printable Template.

>>>Download FREE Printable Stained Glass Shamrock Template HERE.

For a 3-D effect, we started off by tracing the lines using School Glue dyed with black acrylic paint.

Note: This step is optional, as you can use the Printable as a coloring page as well.

Glue

After the glue dried, we used water colors to paint the image. This gave it a beautiful, uneven, glass-like effect.

Sticking with the Irish theme and in context with current world events, I also created the below Sláinte Coloring Page. As a standard way of saying “cheers” in Irish, “sláinte” [SLAHN-chə] translates to ‘Good Health’ in English – an Irish expression that derives from the Old Irish word slán, meaning “healthy” or “safe”.

Cheers to you and your family during this time of social distancing…. or should I say, “Sláinte!”

“Good luck be with you wherever you go & may your blessings outnumber the shamrocks you grow.”

Halloween Party Games

October 30, 2019September 1, 2020 / ProjectMom / Leave a comment

I volunteered as Room Parent for the first time this year and found out I’ll be rolling solo. At first I got nervous, realizing a seasoned Room Parent wasn’t going to take me under their wing and show me how to throw a class party. Then I realized it’s probably a great thing because it allows me to get creative and come up with new and fresh ideas!

Since Halloween is my favorite holiday, I couldn’t be happier it’s my first class party to plan. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, mummies and witches – what’s not to love?? In the *spirit* of coming up with unique ideas, I created these spooktacularly fun and simple DIY games…

Zombie Ball

Rules: 2+ players race to knock down a row of zombie-themed water bottles, using only a ball dangling from a stocking on their head.

Preparation: Using these FREE Printable Plants vs. Zombies inspired labels – I wrapped them around the water bottles (sized to Ice Mountain), adhered them over the existing labels using double sided tape, and sealed the two ends together with packaging tape (which happened to be the perfect width for the seam). To knock down the zombies, I used these black stockings stuffed with an old tennis ball.

CLICK HERE for FREE Printable Zombie Water Bottle Labels.

Frankenstein Fishing

Rules: Players take turns catching Frankenstein Fish. Each fish has a letter on the back, which the players use to work together and come up with as many Halloween themed words as possible.

Preparation: I used this Frankenstein Fishing Printable, cut out the rows of fish and attached a paperclip to each tail. I then used contact paper to laminate them for extra durability, and cut out the shape of each fish. For catching the fish, I used a magnetic fishing pole I happened to have.

CLICK HERE for FREE Printable Frankenstein Fishing Word Scramble.

Skull Toss

Rules: Players toss mini skulls into 3 black jack-‘o-lantern buckets, each containing a prize. I used spider rings in the 1st, vampire fangs in the 2nd, and glow in the dark bouncy balls in the 3rd (each player receives only one from each bucket).

Halloween How-to-Draw

This will be a drawing station where each student receives a pumpkin drawing pad and skeleton pens (Thank you Target Dollar Spot!) along with a packet of Halloween themed How-to-Draw sheets – like this easy to follow Haunted House from Art Projects for Kids. Google and Pinterest are great for more resources!

Now that my planning and game creation is complete – I have 2 days till the Halloween Party… Wish me luck!

“Zombies – They love you for what’s on the inside.”

Build a Robot Papercraft Valentine

January 16, 2019January 11, 2020 / ProjectMom / 2 Comments

Jacob has been into origamis lately, so for Valentine’s Day this year I purchased these fun Papercraft Robot Cards. The thick, plastic-like cards are pre-cut and creased, which makes them durable and easy for little hands to work with. No cutting or sticking is required – just pop-out and fold! UPDATE: The product I originally used has sold out, however another company, Box Buddies, offers a similar product.

To go along with them, I created this simple Robot Valentine. We stuffed both of them into fun blue envelopes I had leftover from the boys’ birthday (similar ones available on Amazon), but they could easily be attached by simply using a paperclip. Now Jacob is just “a bot” ready for his Valentine’s Day party at school!

To create your own Robot Valentine, download the FREE printable here.

If you would like smaller Valentines, click here for a PDF with 4 per page.

Other favor ideas for this DIY Robot Valentine:
– Make Your Own Robot Stickers
– Robot Erasers
– Robot Fidget Toy

“Are you a robot – or do you think for yourself?”

Projects In Parenting

Fun ideas for kid's crafts, activities and DIY projects – including free printables

elementary

Pen Favor Valentine Cards

Teacher Appreciation Coloring Page

St. Patrick’s Day Joke Teller

Stained Glass Shamrock

Halloween Party Games

Zombie Ball

Frankenstein Fishing

Skull Toss

Halloween How-to-Draw

Build a Robot Papercraft Valentine