Gift Ideas - A Pumpkin And A Princess

Gift Ideas For Men & A Giveaway!

December 12, 2012 1 Comment

I don’t know about you but I think men are the hardest to shop for. My husband has no idea what he wants for Christmas this year. My oldest is trying really hard to get everyone a gift with his own money this year and keeps asking his dad what he should get him. My husbands response has been “save your money, I don’t need anything.” My poor little guy is struggling with this because he REALLY wants to give him a gift but wants to make sure its the perfect gift.

I still don’t have a gift for my husband but I started a pinterest board called Smart Gifts for the Men in Your Life to compile ideas. This year I want to give him something practical that he wants and needs. Below are a few really awesome gift ideas for men that I found online.

gift ideas for men

Anthropologie- driftwood iPhone charger

Mod Podge Rocks- baseball bookends

Monogram Mugs -Design Mom

composition notebook iPad cover- Lil Blue Boo

Lowes-Shop Vac

On my board I added the perfect, practical gift for the teach savvy men in your life..the Fellowes 63Cb shredder.

Fellowes Shredder

We recently tried the Fellowes 63Cb shredder and let me just say its the best shredder we’ve ever used. The design alone is impressive and so stylish that I don’t mind having it out in plain site. This is one durable shredder that I’m not worried will break from daily use. Here are some great highlights about the Fellowes shredder:

Jam Blocker^TM technology features an electronic sensor that measures paper and prevents overfeeding
Proprietary Energy Savings System functions whether the machine is in use or not
Cross-Cut blades cut a single sheet of paper into 399 particles, making it nearly impossible to piece back together
Easily shreds credit cards, paper clips and staples for added convenience
SafeSense® technology automatically disables the shredder when hands touch the paper opening through an advanced electronic safety sensor making it safe for kids
The 63Cb is available at Amazon, OfficeDepot.com, and OfficeMax.com

My husband will definitely get the most use out of the shredder since his work requires him to shred confidential paperwork work.

Fellowes Shredder

Are you ready for the giveaway?

Today Fellowes wants to give one A Pumpkin & A Princess reader their own Fellowes 63Cb shredder. To enter use the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received product from Fellowes, Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in this program. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.

S’mores Gift Idea

July 17, 2012 36 Comments

CHA is currently in full swing in Illinois and I so wish I was there! In case you aren’t familiar with CHA it’s the Craft and Hobby Association conference & trade show. It’s where hundreds of companies go to display (and sell) their new craft products. While I hope to attend one in the future I did get to try out new dies from the Lifestyle Crafts Fall Core Collection that they just released at CHA. I know I say this every time, but honestly I think I fall in love with every Lifestyle Crafts die I use. I’m especially giddy over the Treat Carrier die…

Eeeek! Isn’t it adorable? As soon as I got a sneak peak at the release I knew I wanted to try this die to make a s’mores gift. I love all the s’mores gift ideas, especially to use as teacher gifts so this was the perfect die for that.

I also got to try out the ticket punches and nesting pennants dies. I used the pennant die to create the ABC banner for the school supply cake I made last week. You get 6 different pennant sizes and the best part is it makes slits for you to thread your twine or ribbon through.

A tutorial on the tickets punches will be coming up in about a week. One of my bloggy bff’s Ginger and I were talking about the ticket punches and I told her my son thought I should make a chore incentive for him with the tickets. It turns out she’s trying the same thing with her kids! So her and I have decided to post our tutorials on the same day and I’m going to put a link so you can check out her awesome project as well! If you don’t already follow her you should, she’s incredibly creative and one of the sweetest blogger’s out there!

If you decide to purchase any dies from Lifestyle Crafts you can save 20% off using the discount code PUMPKIN.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to these parties, TCB

Disclosure: I received Lifestyle Crafts dies to review. All opinions are my own and I really do love Lifestyle Crafts products.

Filed Under: Lifestyle Crafts, Paper Crafts, Parties, School Crafts, Summer Crafts Tagged With: Gift Ideas, Lifestyle Crafts, paper crafts

Pretty Gift Boxes

May 1, 2012 38 Comments

I know you’re waiting on pins and needles to hear all about my trip to New York and how I spent the day with Sandra Lee, don’t worry the post will be up tomorrow. ;) But first let me start off by saying iPhoto is officially back on my computer..yay!! As a blogger my life is so much easier now because of it (thank you for your kind words of encouragement, I’m really glad I didn’t lose all those pictures). I’m now ready to get back to sharing tutorials with you and show you all the pictures I took in NYC. I’ll start off the craftiness by showing you a cute and easy gift box idea.

A few weeks ago I came across these cute little favor boxes at the Target dollar section (are you surprised? I tell ya..it’s a problem). At first I walked past them since I technically didn’t have a use for them at the time. But as I walked around the store I kept thinking about them and I knew I had to go back for a few packs. I’ve thought of a few uses for them and I’m actually hoping I can find more next time I’m at Target. There are three in a pack and are easy to assemble. These can be used as Mother’s Day gifts, party favors, teacher gifts, thank you gifts, really for any occasion you’d like.

I’m making these as thank you gifts. I have a lot of people to thank lately and what better way to say it than with a pretty little box filled with chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies.

To embellished them I took a strip of scrapbook paper 1.25 inch wide. I adhered it to the box using an Elmer’s X-TREME glue stick (can you tell I love this stuff? If you haven’t tried it, do it I promise you’ll love it as well). I then cut a flower using my silhouette cameo and glued it on using an Elmer’s glue spot. The center is an adhesive pearl I found at Michaels. Pretty easy right? The possibilities are endless with these cute little boxes. I’m hoping to find more for my son’s first birthday (we’re undecided on the theme but so far it’s between a goldfish and cookie monster theme).

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow to see pictures from my trip to NYC!

Linking up to these parties, TCB, My Repurposed Life, Home Stories A2Z.

Filed Under: Gift Ideas, Paper Crafts, Silhouette Cameo Tagged With: Gift Ideas, paper crafts, Silhouette Cameo

Washi Tape Coasters

April 10, 2012 95 Comments

Let’s talk about Washi tape. Do you use it? Are you one of those people that ran to Target the second you heard it was available there? I’ll admit, I am one of those people! I’ve been eying it online since last Fall but couldn’t think of anything to do with it. Now I have all sorts of washi tape crafts planned. I’ll start off by sharing with you my new washi tape coasters. They were inspired by this pinterest find and this adorable washi tape bunny from My Sister’s Suitcase.
Like I said, I ran to Target a few weeks ago. Ok, I didn’t run but I strapped the kids into their car seats as fast as I could and headed to Target hoping there would be some washi tape left. We raced down to the office supply aisle only to find out my Target didn’t have it in stock yet. *tear*. There I was feeling silly that I drove all the way to Target during what should have been nap time for a craft product! I considered driving to Super Target in the next town over but decided I would chalk that quest up as a fail and check back in a few days. Luckily I go to Target more often than I care to admit and found it at my next visit. I even found some at Michael’s yesterday! I think it’s safe to say I have a slight addiction to washi tape right now.

In case you’re wondering, this is what you’re looking for at Michael’s. I found mine near the registers.

These were so incredibly easy to make. They took me maybe 20 minutes. I made them out of the same tiles I used in the last diy coaster tutorial I shared. They’re very inexpensive (16 cents a piece at Lowes) and make a great gift. Think Mother’s Day gift idea!

To make them I started on the top left corner so that my stripes would be diagonal. I wrapped the tape a little over the bottom then repeated until the entire tile was finished. I didn’t worry about a pattern and made them all a little different. I then finished them with a coat of Mod Podge. If you’re worryed about them sticking together you can use a varnish instead. I’ve never had a problem with the Mod Podge though. Once that dried I glued felt onto the bottom of each coaster.

I love how colorful they are. They’re my favorite coasters yet!

What’s are some of your favorite washi tape crafts?

Linking up to these parties, TCB, My Repurposed Life, Home Stories A2Z

Filed Under: DIY, Gift Ideas Tagged With: Gift Ideas, washi tape

Easter Treats With Smarties #IAmaSmartie

March 30, 2012 48 Comments

The kids and I have spent the last few weeks talking about Easter and what it means to our family. My daughter is starting to understand our religious beliefs and the concept of Easter a little more. We have also been talking about Spring in general. To me Spring and Easter mean new beginnings, beautiful flowers, and butterflies. I say butterflies because I have great memories of driving out to the country with my kids and watching butterflies flutter by.

We haven’t seen butterflies around just yet but plenty of flowers sprouting. The flowers in our garden inspired us to make these flower cupcakes using Smarties. Do you remember eating Smarties as a child? I remember sharing them with my sister, sorting the colors and picking our favorites. I love that my kids now do the same thing. Naturally Madi insist she gets all the purple Smarties and Jay is more than happy to hand them over. Last week we picked up a bag of Smarties along with a few other Easter finds, you can see more pictures on Google +.

The kids had a blast making the cupcakes. This is what happens when I let them decorate the cupcakes anyway they want.

After all the fun we did make a few that resembled flowers. To make them we used pink frosting, non perils, and 7 Smarties on each cupcake.

Since we had a lot of Smarties leftover I decided to make little treats for the kids to give to their friends. The butterflies I made for Madi to give to her friends at our play date next week. She’s is so excited to hand them out.

To make them I cut out 4 inch butterflies with my Cricut. I folded them in half to create a dimensional look. I then adhered the Smarties roll with glue spots. I love the way they came out. The colors remind me of the Easter Smarties colors.

My son thought they were too girly for him to hand out at school so I came up with this bag idea. I left a space for him to write Happy Easter on the bag topper. He wants me to change the pink but other than that he thinks it’s better than giving his friends pink and purple butterflies. I guess I can’t argue with him. :)

Would you like to create cute Easter treats using Smarties? Well guess what? Smarties want to give one of YOU a box full of Smarties packs in various flavors. Come back soon to enter this awesome giveaway! #IAmaSmartie

For more Smarties inspiration check out

Smarties on Pinterest

Smarties on facebook

Linking up to these parties, TCB, Home Stories A2Z

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All opinions are my own.

Filed Under: Easter, Paper Crafts, Spring Tagged With: Easter, Gift Ideas