Easter Mice - March 2007

I made a ton of these... 600 or so... for my husband to pass out to his Schwan's customers. It will be the last time I make treat bags for him to pass out that require coloring. He complained the whole time even after promising not to when he talked me into it.

I love these as nice little goody bags for parties and such... I just don't think they're a very good idea for mass quantities anymore. I guess they could be depending on how many you need and what supplies you're using. I wouldn't recommend them though if your stamped image for the front is one that needs to be colored in. My husband has already started to check out the House-Mouse Halloween designs, but it's not going to happen. If I make these again at Halloween I'm going to use a roller to put the design on the 4x4 paper and some other stamp on the front that doesn't require coloring, so all I have to do is cut, punch, stamp and attach everything together.

There were 2 House-Mouse Easter Mice designs stamped on White paper. Then I took those stamped mice and attached them to 3 different colors of paper (purple, green, & yellow). I stamped the Easter eggs from the SU set Tag Time onto 4x4 squares in the 3 same colors as the mice were attached to, and folded them in half. Once all the bags were filled with pastel/Easter M&M's I put the pieces of paper that were folded in half over the top and stapled them close. The mice were then attached over the rough side of the staple.

RECIPE:

Stamps: House-Mouse, Tag Time
Paper: White, Green, Purple, Yellow (all Non-SU)
Ink: Basic Black, Marigold Morning, Certainly Celery, Almost Amethyst
Accessories: Markers & Colored Pencils
Techniques: Bag Topper
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 1

Birthday Gifts for Rebecca's Kids - Feb 2007

I made all of the following items quickly for Rebecca's kids. They have birthdays near Christmas so they don't celebrate until the end of February. I was able to get these made just in time to send out and get them to her before the birthday party. I made 8 bags and 8 bags and then individual birthday cards of the kids. I believe I missed on birthday card but was able to just send a pre-made one that I got with my house-mouse order. Next year I'll be prepared and will come up with a hand-made design for all of the individual birthday cards. I'm only going to post 2 of the big bags because posting all 8 when they're basically the same would just be a waste of room in the blog and would take alot of time and since I have so many more things to post I don't want to take the time to do that.

Valentine's Day Baggies - Feb 2007

Since my hubby liked the Christmas treat baggies so very much he decided I should make some for valentine's day too. I said okay and asked if 50 or so would be enough... yeah.... I wish that was all he needed... I ended up making just over 500 of these cute little mice baggies filled with 2 shades of pink, red, and white M&M's. Thank god they were on sale or else it would have cost me a small fortune. I think it still did but it has been well worth it the cost and headaches, which I'm not going to get into. Regardless, now he wants me to make him some for Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, etc. I must have been crazy when I agreed to do these but now he thinks because he's given candies to 1 of the 2 weeks on his Schwan's route that he should give them to the other week now for Easter. I'm not so sure but I can tell you one thing I'll start working on them and if he complains even one little bit about coloring the darn mice in that's it, I'm not finishing them and I'm sure as heck not going to agree to make any more in the future. He's already picked out 2 different Easter House-Mouse Designs to use on them, and I've agreed that while at my parents this weekend I'll work on getting some of them stamped and more cut out so he can start coloring now for instead of the last minute like last time. I think if this goes well and he thinks he's wanting to do this for Halloween or any other holiday that I'll get a container and start putting the cut and stamped pieces in there in advance for now one. It sounds like a wonderful idea. I know it will be worth it because when we did it for valentine's day his Schwan's sales went up and when you're paid solely on commission as he and every other Schwan's man is any increase in sales is a good thing. Keep this in mind the next time a Schwan's man comes to your door and tries to sell you some of their delicious food. Also... just because you're on some sort of diet doesn't mean you can't eat their food. It is really easy to figure up the point values on the sides of the boxes, if you're doing flex plan through weight watchers. It's probably a little trickier if you're on core plan or some other diet but even then there is something in the book you can order. Just keep this in mind next time, I know I appreciate it because without buying customers it becomes really hard to pay our bills. They always get paid because I too hold a full-time job but it's still very difficult.