free printables for gifts

Printable Garden Planner

02.28.13

DIY garden notebook plannerI am a sucker for graph paper. Few things make me happier than a whole notebook of graph paper just waiting for me to plan something in it.

Which is why I like to make sure I always have one of these on hand
moleskineThe square (graph) moleskine is a favorite. Particularly this size, the large. It is just big enough to fit some serious graphing or calendaring or planning and just small enough for tucking in a purse.

In fact, just linking to it I had to go buy another set of 3. I think I might have a compulsive graph paper problem.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been taking a moment at the beginning of the spring to draw out, on graph paper, the layout of my little garden. Very little, but still a garden.

garden notebookI’ve done only an herb garden for a couple of years, but would like to branch out a bit more this year.

(branch. ha. I totally didn’t even plan that.)

As I contemplated my new garden plans, I got to thinking I really needed a pretty place to dream out my garden.

And I got to thinking I really needed all of my years of garden plans in one place.

And I needed one place to keep all the great tips and plant favorites I hear from friends.

So I put together a printable label to make my own official garden planner, and am sharing it here so you can have a place for all your garden dreaming if you like.

:: GARDEN PLANNER  ::
GARDEN PLANNER :: Click to download here from Dropbox
Ore click to here: Garden Planner (427)
(depending on your browser, after you click you may need to right click and Save Image As)

garden markers and printablePick up a couple square moleskines if graph paper is your thing. Or if you are more of a blank paper person (my other favorite) moleskine has something for you too. Or ruled. Or upcycle something pretty out of a cereal box. Stick on your label, and start drawing.
garden care package
printable spring labelgarden quotegarden plannerHappy garden dreaming.

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Silly Putty is 13 Ounces or Less (+ Printable Label)

03.03.11

It has been a while since I’ve done a post about happy mail. I am brimming with all kinds of new ideas, so I think you’ll be seeing more happy mail around here. (If you’re new here, you can see more happy mail ideas at the end of this post.)

Did you ever do this with silly putty as a kid? It was my favorite. I also liked to make bubbles in the putty and pop em.
This week I put together a package to mail that was nice and simple. I used an empty plastic spice canister, tucked in a roll of newspaper and couple eggs of silly putty, and mailed it off.

One little canister, hours of fun.

I’m including the label, incase you’d like to use it. I originally made this to send out with my Christmas cards this year, but now I use it for everything. Do you like it?
(I like to print on this full-sheet label paper,which is a complete steal, 100 sheets for ten bucks.)

Either Download from DropBox by clicking here: Mailing Label
or download here: Printable Fold-over Labels (3917)

and incase you’d like to see a little more, here is my favorite fun mail inspiration from the archives (or see it all right here):

A Great Big Sponge | A Tube of Bert’s Bees | A Wreath and Twinkly Lights | A Disguise | School Supplies | A Pair of Flip Flops | A Big Ball | Plastic Eggs 1 and 2 | Silly Putty |Shovel & a Bucket | Ribbon Sticks | Bubblewrap Hopscotch | Fan Mail | Waterbottle Care Package | Bouncy Balls | Sticky Notes | Jr Mints | Frisbee | Mini Banner and Mini m&ms

find postage rates for happy mail right here along with other mailing details

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Printable, Colorable Thank Yous

01.07.11


I finished up a set of new thank you cards for the year, printed off a few, and tucked them in our family thank-you-binder.

This year’s version has a front and back, to make a proper post card. And they are waiting to be colored and doodled in. Just download, print on both sides, trim, color, and send them off for 28 cents. They’re ready to deliver any message, so you could use them for birthdays too.

Either download from DropBox by clicking here: Printable Thank You Notes

or download here: Printable Thank You Post Cards (3066)

I believe I saw the thank you binder idea first in Family Fun, and I know Anna and probably a few others of you have one of your own (Anna’s even includes thank you note examples, isn’t that handy?) Ours is stocked with stickers, glittery scraps, and the only set of skinny markers in the house. My kids love when we pull it out.

You can see a few of our thank you/birthday cards from last year peeking out of the binder too. You can download those here.

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Printable Holiday Tag

12.14.10

How are your holidays coming? I hope holiday prep is coming along and leaving you plenty of time to eat cookies and look at twinkley lights. To help you in your prep, I worked up this printable tag for you, as a little gift from me to you. I wish I could share one of the cookies too.

I hope your holidays are very merry. Thank you for being a part of this blog of mine. Your comments and notes have made my day so many times this year.
xo.

Either download from DropBox by clicking here: Printable Holiday Tag
or Printable Holiday Gift Tag (7400)
Print on cardstock or this full-sheet label paper,which I use and love and which is a complete steal, 100 sheets for ten bucks (!!) Pick up a roll of the pretty Divine Twine pictured right here.
(p.s. get last year’s tag here, see all my free printables here)

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In The Works, Printable Gift Tag

12.07.10

Remember last year’s printable gift tags? If you missed them, you download them here. Well I am working on a fresh batch for this year. So stay tuned. I’ll try to have them for you in plenty of time to attach to lots of loving gifts for everyone on your list. In the meantime, happy holiday prepping!

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Sticky Note Advent

11.17.10

I mentioned I’m up visiting the fam? Well my dad has been spoiling me with early Christmas food. For us that is lots of yummy Venezuelan dinners, and we even gave in and spent one day listening to Christmas tunes. I am in the spirit.

So I am back with this year’s edition of the sticky note advent. You can see last year’s version here. This year’s has a new light appear on the string for each day Christmas gets nearer.

Either download from DropBox by clicking here: Printable Advent Calendar

or download here: Free Printable: Sticky Note Advent Calendar (2641)

Here is what you need to do to have your own sticky note advent.
1. Download.
2. Print on regular paper.
3. Stick a note to each square. Attach the loose side of the sticky note with a teeny piece of double sided tape.
4. Print again, this time with notes attached.
That’s it, you’re done. Stack them up to peel off one by one, line them up around your computer monitor, put one in your kiddos’ lunch each day, or stick each one to a piece of chocolate, which is my favorite option.

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Handmade Holiday Organizer 2012 (updated!)

10.18.10

 

Are you ready for it? Your December is going to thank you.

Here is this year’s updated

Handmade Holiday Organizer for 2012.

And a blank version too.

I’m excited you’re planning along with me. If you come up with any favorite recipes, handmade gifts, or celebrating inspiration, I’d love hear all about it. I’ll also be starting a Handmade Holiday pinboard right here. I’ll be pinning favorites to go with each week of the organizer, incase you’d like to follow along.

{ 45 comments }

Printable Swim Teacher Thank You

07.06.10

We are off to our second week of swim lessons. If you’re like us, and have a swim teacher deserving of a big thank you for patiently coaxing your child away from the wall and into the water, don’t miss last year’s free printable.

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Rootbeer Tour for Dad

06.11.10

We have this great supplier here in Sac that collects vintage soda from everywhere. They’re called Blue Dog Beverages and they’re fantastic. I had a chat yesterday with Bob Lake, one of the owners,  about what he might recommend for a good soda sampler. He put together a little tour of root beers for me (a little bit like this one, from Erin), starting with River City Rootbeer, which is brewed here locally. I thought I’d share Bob’s recommendations with you, incase you’d like to put something together for dad for next Sunday.

After I hung up with Bob I headed right over to a Nugget to pick up my loot, but Bob mentioned that you could probably find most of these at BevMo too. I’ve also put together some tags to add to the overall effect, and I’m posting a few blanks labels incase you want to write your own message. You can download them here.

Rootbeer Tour Labels (1594)
Stripey Tags, blank (1528)

(helpful hints: You might have to right click and choose “save link as” or “download linked file.” Also, you can resize these once downloaded by inserting them as a picture into a Word document. And finally, if you need printable label paper, I bought this kind and have been very happy with it.)

River City, from here is Sacramento, California. Bold and hearty, like Dad.

Dad’s, originally from Chicago, Illinois

Abita, from Louisiana

Olde Rhode Island Molasses Root Beer, I’ll let you guess where this one’s from

Capt’n Eli’s, from Maine

Waialua, from Hawaii (note, this one was not on Bob’s list, but I had to throw it in after reading reviews)

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Printable Teacher Thank You Notes

05.27.10

I was up early this morning putting together some thank you cards for my daughter’s class to color for her teacher. I thought these might come in handy for you too, so I’ll include them here. You can download each by clicking on the link below the image. Then put your kids to work coloring and doodling. (I tried to give you the easy job.)

Either click here to download from DropBox:
Printable Teacher Thank You Note, Cake
Printable Teacher Thank You Note, Crown
Printable Teacher Thank You Note, Ribbon

Or click here to go to Scribd and download all the images as a pdf file.

(helpful downloading hints: You  might have to right click and choose “save link as” or “download linked file.”)

Download from Dropbox: Printable Teacher Thank You Note, Cake
or download here: Printable Teacher Thank You, cake (4436)

Download from DropBox: Printable Teacher Thank You Note, Crown
or download here: Printable Teacher Thank You, crown (2730)

Download from Dropbox: Printable Teacher Thank You Note, Ribbon
or download here: Printable Teacher Thank You, ribbon (2500)

For more teacher appreciation gifts kids can make, visit here.
For more teacher gift ideas, visit here.

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Amazing Homemade Pesto, Recipe + Printable

05.24.10

I have to tell you that I am pretty excited that picnic season is here. As you may have noticed, I really really like picnics. Which is why I’m so excited to share with you the most amazing pesto you will ever taste.

A friend of ours makes this pesto from her own basil and gives it away every Christmas. Every year we devour it and rave about how good it is. I finally decided life is too short to have amazing pesto only in December. So this year I asked, and this friend of ours was good enough to pass on her recipe. (Thanks, Jaime!) We’ve been making it nonstop since. Several dinners have revolved around this pesto. And I expect several summer picnics yet to come will revolve around it too.

The recipe is so impossibly easy. I wish I’d started making it years ago. There’s no special process. There is, however, one secret ingredient: butter. Basil and butter? How can you go wrong?

I included a free printable label for you. I thought pesto might be a good addition to my list of DIY wedding favors. Plus this will make a great hostess gift. Just sneak it in the fridge with a little thank you note while no one is looking. When your hostess discovers it she will love you, and when she tastes it she will love you even more. I’ve included a blank label too. Just in case you’d like to use it for some other treat.

Download from DropBox by clicking here: Printable Pesto Label, Printable Label Blank

Or download here: Pesto Label, printable (2918)
Leafy Label, blank (3402)

(Printing tip: You can open these files as they are, or, if you’d like to change their size, insert them into a Word document as a picture. Then you can resize as you like.)

Jamie’s Amazing Homemade Pesto

Ingredients
4 cups packed basil leaves
5 cloves garlic
½ cup butter
2 cups parmesan cheese
olive oil
a handful of pine nuts or walnuts

Put first four ingredients into bowl of food processor in order given: mash as many basil leaves in as you can, just as long as you leave a few inches of space at the top of the bowl, then add garlic (the Trader Joe’s pre-peeled stuff is great), slice up the butter on top, and dump the cheese on top of that. Pulse and gradually add olive oil until mixture is the consistency of thick paste. (Taste at this point and see if it needs more of anything.) Add nuts and continue to blend. Once done, spoon into jars and keep in fridge until ready to enjoy. Yields about two cups.

I’m sorry to tell you that my basil is store-bought. But I am tending to my herb garden dutifully, and I’m hopeful that I’ll get to use my own basil very soon.

Did you know you can use walnuts in pesto? Pine nuts are great too, but I like that with walnuts you can occasionally bite into a big chunk of nut. Yum. In fact, I threw in most of my walnuts and processed the pesto for a while, then threw in a few extra and gave everything just a few whirls so I’d be guaranteed a few big chunks.

I love how bright springie green it is.


Happy picnicking!

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Printable Butterfly Valentine

02.08.10

I put this Valentine together for my daughter to give with pencils (12 pencils in a pack at the dollar store, why don’t I go there more often?) and thought I’d post it here in case you’d like to use it too.

Download from DropBox by clicking here: Printable Butterfly Valentine

or download here: Printable Butterfly Valentine (3227)

If you get a chance, stop by a little later this morning. I’ll be posting my big giveaway, and I know you’ll want to see it.

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Free Printable Valentine Tag & Airplane Valentine

02.04.10

I put together this tag for you to add to your Valentine sweets and tokens of love. I hope you find something lovey-dovey to attach it to.

Download from DropBox by clicking here: Printable Valentine Tag
or download here: Printable Valentine Tag (7526)

--classroom valentine--homemade valentine--airplane valentineDo you like the airplane valentines? We put these together with a roll of smarties, a rubber band, and a pair of lifesavers (you can leave them in their individual packaging and just poke a hole through the center if you are making them to hand out to friends.)

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Printable Labels (address-label size)

01.19.10

Hello. How is your week going? Ours has been a nice, slow kind of week. Brent spent the weekend in Idaho doing a film shoot, so I spent the weekend feeding the cow (we’ve had a mouse move into our corn bags, eek!), stoking the fire, and introducing the kids to shrink-ie-dinks. Perfect for the rainy days we’ve had.

I decided recently that I should reorganize my entire wrapping and gift closet. You know, to be ready for a year of birthdays and happy occasions. It’s been a project. I’m hoping to share soon.

As part of my closet makeover, I’m printing sheets of labels for quick and pretty gift wrap. I often print on full sheets of labels (thisis the best deal I’ve found for full-sheet label paper), but when I don’t have time to pull out the paper cutter, I like to have a short cut. I always have something I can print off on address labels.So here for download are two sheets of labels that will fit on a standard, 1 by 2 5/8–inch address label (Avery label template 5160).

Download from DropBox by clicking here: Printable Address-Labels

Or download here: Free Printable Labels, pillows and dots (9102)
Printable Labels, hand drawn (6861)

On a side note, I’m hoping to find a good place I can donate to the relief efforts in Haiti. I’ve been looking at this list. Does anyone have a charity they recommend?

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