This is a fun way to gift your teacher at Christmas time! Give them a punch out countdown calendar for the days leading up to Christmas break. Place goodies inside each cup, cover with tissue paper and add a number. It's easy, adorable and will definitely get the teacher excited!

You will need: 
- foam board
- tissue paper
- paper cups
- small gifts

How to Make it:
1. Hot glue cups onto foam board with opening facing out. I placed mine in a tree shape and decorated it to look like a tree but you could make it look like anything.
2. Add gifts to cups.
3. Use a rubber band to hold a small square of tissue paper on top of the cup opening.
4. Decorate as you like.

I love gifting my co-workers at Christmas time but the struggle is finding something simple enough and inexpensive enough to gift to 50 people. This year I made simmer pot's in a bag and they turned out so cute! You can watch the full how to on my TikTok: @rennaissance.rachel and go ahead and follow me while your there! You can download the free tag by clicking the image below!

To make it all you will need are:
- oranges
- cinnamon sticks
- evergreen branches or rosemary
- cloves
- ribbon
- clear plastic bags
- free printable tag (below)

This year my daughter decided a sleepover with just a few friends was her idea of a good time for her birthday so I got to work planning the best sleepover I could imagine. Note, she is very anti girlie things like pink and sparkles so that ups the difficulty level here.

I started with a vision board as always (click the image below to get the plan and shopping list). She originally mentioned sleeping on the trampoline and making it a big tent but I successfully talked her out of that so we decided to set up a huge tent thing over the basement sofa pull-out.

No party of mine would be complete without ample craft activities so we really embodied a classic sleepover and did face masks, nail painting and made our own lipgloss. We also decorated picture frames for an instant photo we took for each girl and made our own flip flop slippers that they named "trash flops". For food we started by making our own mini pizzas. Then we had a popcorn bar stocked with all the sweets for movie time. We also had fizzy juice in fancy cups. For party favors, each girl got a custom sleepover tshirt, sleepover bag and a bunch of beauty goodies like a nail kit, mirror, nail polish, the homemade lip balm, sleep mask, the diy flip flops and the picture frames with photos that we decorated.

Making lip balm is super easy. All you need is vaseline and kool aid. You mix them together an put them in cute little containers from the travel section at Walmart.

For the flip flops I purchased dollar store flip flops and pre-cut fabric from the quilting section at Walmart. Then you just knot the strips onto the flip flop. Done! We got the frames from the dollar store too and used glitter glue and a ton of decorative items to make them our own. We used my daughters polaroid instamax to take photos of the girls for each of them to put in the frames.

To set up the tent I just used white curtains I had in storage (we didn't need them in our new house when we moved) and used push pins to pin them to the ceiling over the sofa. I also added some curtain string lights that I purchased on amazon to light it.

Between all of the crafts I planned, a basement full of sweets and a trampoline in the backyard, the girls had a fabulous sleepover. Now I just need to plan one of these for myself and my girlfriends! The pictures of the tent really don't do it justice. It was magical!

Back to school is a crazy, busy time! I did manage to pull it together (by staying up until 1am) and craft custom t-shirts for my crew's first day back as well as gifts for my teacher peeps! Check it out!

I used my silhouette machine to make stencils for the tshirts. I used the same stencil for all of the shirts but took out the middle and added the different grades. I love making stencils because I can reuse them unlike vinyl which is definitely a time saver. Once the stencil is made you just need the tshirt, (I get mine from Wal-Mart and Target), and acrylic paint in your choice of color.

I used the same stencil technique for my teacher bags. One stencil made ALL of the bags! I grabbed the totes at Wal-Mart for 3 for $6. Many of my friends were trying to improve their health and weight so I honored their efforts and made low carb chocolate zucchinni muffins. They were AMAZING and no one could believe they were diet friendly! I paired that with a low calorie frap and voila! Adorable gifts to let my friends know I care!

I lucked out and got a huge furniture upgrade for my room this year which called for a total re-do on decor. So, I made a bitmoji door greeting, used my silhouette to create a custom door sign and "hola" greeting, added curtains and many more things to make my room it's best version of itself. I love my new class and am definitely ready to kick-off the greatest school year ever!

My son just turned one month old and I new I wanted a different kind of monthly photo from what I did with my first son. He's already going to get all of his hand-me-downs, I can at least give him an original monthly photo. So, I headed to pinterest to get some inspiration and found this adorable idea. It's a blanket you can buy the monthly milestone blanket for $33 at Etsy here. But, I thought, "I can definitely make that for waaaaaaaay cheaper.", and set about planning how to make that happen.

I decided to use a canvas drop cloth as my "blanket". The smallest one I found at my local Harbor Freight was 4x12 so I had to cut it down a bit to make it a more appropriate size. It was easy to just use the fold lines and I wasn't too particular on measuring. 

After cutting it down I laid out my numbers. To make the numbers I was going to buy some number stencils but then couldn't find any. Instead, I used some chipboard numbers I found for $2.99 and traced around them. It was probably better anyway because it was way easier to see how everything laid out on my drop cloth. Once I figured out my spacing, I got a sharpie and traced around the edges of each number.

After I had traced around each number, I grabbed some black acrylic paint and a paintbrush and filled in the tracings. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect you won't be able to tell when you take the photo. For the "months" I ended up printing out the word using a microsoft powerpoint slide and then cut it out and stenciled around it and filled it in with black paint as well. Voila! Done!

My son turned one month on Thanksgiving Day so I decided to put a few pumpkins next to him on the canvas and placed a pumpkin hat on his head. When I took the picture I stood on top of an ottoman and took it from a direct downward angle. My husband helped with keeping him somewhat happy and I just snapped away. Once I had a decent one I cropped and enhanced it and then ran it through my favorite photo editor Rookie Cam to lighten it up a bit. I intend to iron the fold lines out before the next photo I take because I didn't love having them in the photo. I also added a digital circle to the number one to indicate the month. You can do it digitally like me or you can find a picture frame and remove the glass and back to frame the number each month. The digital was easier for me since I was editing it anyway. I used the app "Phonto" to add the circle.

I plan on doing other adorable things for the theme of each month similar to the idea that inspired this DIY. So, for about $15 (more than half the price to buy the inspiration) I ended up with this adorable milestone "blanket" and will get to give my son some really great photos to look back on. I hope it inspires you to make your own for either yourself or a friend. It would make a great gift!

Since I could have a baby any day now I went ahead and made some doctor and nurse goody bags for all of the people who are going to help me bring a new life into the world. I did this for the birth of my son over 2 years ago and it went over really well. Everyone likes to be feel appreciated! It only took me about 30 minutes and probably the same in dollars to create something that shows those helping me through a pretty momentous event in my life that I appreciate them and what they do. 

What you will need:
- small plastic gift bags
- ribbon
- hole punch
- bag filler/confetti stuff
- assorted items for the bags
    For example, I put a granola bar, chapstick, hand lotion and gum in my bags

I cut out the tags and hole punched one corner. Then filled each bag with some bag filler (I used gold leftover from my daughters mermaid party.) and tossed in the items. Then I strung some ribbon through my hole punched tag and tied it onto the bag. Done! It was easy and fast and will hopefully brighten up their day!

You can download the gift tags below. They don't include the  "-The Johnson Family" section at the bottom and instead have a blank space where you could write in your family's name instead. Enjoy!

I am almost 39 weeks pregnant and could have my baby any day. So, I've been finishing up with the few things that needed to be done. Since we aren't finding out the gender until the baby is born the number of things on my to-do list is not much. I washed the one load of laundry I had, stocked my changing station with diapers and wipes, pulled out a few baby items from my previous two kids that might come in handy and set-up my new halo bassinet which I am super excited about.

With my other pregnancies, I decorated the nursery and had an entire wardrobe plus made a few other personalized items for the new baby. However, not knowing the gender really puts a wrench in that plan. The one thing I have managed to do is create two different going home outfits using a few clothing items from Old Navy, a headband from Hobby Lobby, a hat from my son when he was a newborn and my silhouette machine. 

I designed the silhouette cut myself and chose gold glitter for the girl and navy for the boy. I think the outfits turned out pretty adorable and make me feel like I did SOME special preparation for this child.

I also made big brother and big sister shirts for my other kids that kind of match. So, my daughter has a glitter gold vinyl on a white shirt and my son has a navy vinyl on a baseball tee. I also created big sister and big brother goody bags that include a few gifts, activities and snacks to keep them entertained.

For my son, who's 2.5, I got a boy baby stella doll with a magnetic pacifier and threw in a few other toys we already had for pretend play with a doll. When my son was born my daughter also received a new baby doll and care items so she could pretend to take care of the baby. I think my son will really enjoy it and it is his first baby doll. I also got him a crayola color wonder activity set and a color blast set so he can be creative without coloring everything around him. He's a bit messy. I also got him his first backpack to carry all of his swag. He's a major dinosaur fan so I felt like the dino backpack was appropriate. He is also getting a book about being a big brother. I got the same book for my daughter about being a big sister when Arthur was born. I finished off the bag with some of his favorite snacks and treats.

My daughter's bag was a bit more difficult because she has already gone through this once. But, I managed to find her an adorable book about being a big sister that is geared for a slightly older crowd called "How to be a Baby by Me the Big Sister". It's adorable and perfect for her bossy big sister personality. I also got her two "It's Fun to Draw..." books. She already has one of this series and loves it! To help her with the drawing I got her a set of glitter gel pens. I don't know about you but when I was a little girl these things were all the rage and coveted by any girl who had them. I hope she'll like them as much as I did. Since she didn't need another baby doll I decided to go with another craft project and chose a jewelry making kit. This one has a bunch of different beads including alphabet beads so, she can make a big sister bracelet if she wants. It's definitely something have fun with and will keep her entertained for a good long while. I finished off her bag with a small monogram necklace I picked up at Hobby Lobby, her Leap Pad and games and a few of her favorite snacks. I put them all in the same bag she received when Arthur was born which I custom ordered from Etsy. 

Even though I know  big brother and sister bags are not necessary I feel like letting them know that I am thinking about them and making them feel special is important with such a big life-changing event. Plus, it makes my in-laws lives a bit easier since both kids will have new toys, snacks and activities to keep them entertained while they wait. When I had Arthur I was in labor for 27 unmedicated hours. So...it could be a while.

I know kids love to play dress-up so, I always incorporate an element of that when I throw a birthday party. For my daughter's mermaid/shark themed party this year I created mermaid tails and shark fins for each party guest to take home and wear for the party. They were a big hit with everyone, including the adults and only took about 2 hours and $20 to make!

DIY Shark Fin
You will need:
- gray craft foam (I was able to fit three shark fins on one piece for .88 and I made 12 just to be safe.)
- hot glue and glue gun
- free template (courtesy of itsthelife.typepad.com)
​- large safety pins

DIY Mermaid Tails
You will need:
- about 4 yards cheap, stiff material (I cannot remember what this stuff is called but it is only $4 per yard and has a stiffness to it. I believe it is used for putting under things and at hobby lobby they have it displayed being used to make a pretend cape.)
- about 3 yards iridescent sheer material (This stuff is a bit more at $6 per yard but it is important.)
- 1 30ft. spool of ribbon (I chose a sheer turquoise.)

I always like to do a small gift for my children's teachers at the end of the year. This year my daughter helped pick out some soaps and lotions from Bath & Body Works and I created a cute tag to go with them. You can download the tags by clicking on the photo. I 100% forgot to snap a photo of the end result as I made them at the very last minute but, it was really cute. Trust me.  Enjoy!

These cheap and easy to create party poppers will be a big hit with my daughter’s classmates. All you need to do is gather your materials and get started!
You will need:
– toilet paper rolls
– candy and small toys/trinkets
– tape
– scissors
– wrapping paper (as thin as you can get; don’t get the expensive stuff)
– ribbon
​First, you cut each toilet paper roll in half.

Third, tape the roll together (very little tape; you want it to be easy to pop open) and wrap it with your paper.​