My daughter loves to craft, and although it’s totally not my thing, occasionally I’ll craft with her, especially when it’s to make something for the man we both love so much! Father’s Day is quickly approaching (how is it already June!?) so Malea and I put on our creative thinking caps and created this cute card for Matt.

I found this idea on Pinterest (of course) and since Malea loves to pretend that she knows how to do origami, she loved it.

It took us a little bit to figure out how to fold the tie, because the Pinterest image isn’t very helpful, but once we did Malea glued the tie in place.

I had to help her with the hot glue gun because it was her first time using one, but once the tie was attached to the shirt I let her go crazy with her creativity.

Things like stamps, glue and glitter give me anxiety because they’re so messy so I set a pack of my Huggies® wipes on the desk and let Malea make as much of a mess as she needed to because one thing I don’t want to do as a mom, is to let my crazy cleanliness, squelch her creativity.

The Huggies® wipes are thick so they are great for cleaning up creative messes, and turns out they’re great for cleaning the ink off stamps, hands and my desk!

Malea loved making this card for her daddy and I loved watching her come to life through her creativity. When she was done decorating the outside of the card I told her she could write whatever she wanted on the inside. When she’s older she’ll probably kill me for sharing this but it was so precious that I had to share. (Notice the picture story on the front of the card goes along with what she wrote on the inside – heart melt…)

Have you started working on your Father’s Day creations yet? It’s coming up quickly on June 19th! If your kids’ daddy wears a shirt and tie to work, like ours does, I bet he would love to get a custom shirt and tie card from your kiddos, and they will have a blast creating it.

And don’t forget, if your kids make a mess while they’re being creative, share your pictures of them, using the hashtag #HugTheMessSweepstakes on Twitter and Instagram for a chance to win one of four $2,500 prizes!!! Click HERE to enter.

Looking for more ways to surprise Dad on Father’s Day? Check out this Waffle Bar Station!

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Let’s see those creative Father’s Day Gift Ideas…

Free Father’s Day Printables  by Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom 

Photobook Gift Ideas by Find it Make It Love It

Free Father’s Day Printable Coupons by My Love for Words

Superhero Print for Father’s Day by Today’s Creative Blog 

DIY Photo Holder by Simply Designing 

Father’s Day Dad Mug by A Night Owl Blog

Father’s Day Gift Tags Free Printable by Uncommon Designs 

Wood Burned Father’s Day Card Idea by Cherished Bliss

Mod Podge Photo Canvas by Finding Home 

Father’s Day Photo Frame Craft by At the Picket Fence

Daddy Date Jar with Free Printable by While He Was Napping 

Monogrammed Necktie Coffee Cuff by Dukes and Duchesses

Toddler Activity: Tacky Tie for Father’s Day by Simple Home Blessing

The Stache Jar by Thoughts from Alice

Printable Tie Card from The Crafting Chicks

I know that you guys must have found something for Dad with these awesome ideas.  Enjoy every minute spent with that special guy in your life!

 Happy Father’s Day to all the amazing dads!

The post Creative & Mostly Free Father’s Day Gift Ideas appeared first on Ask Anna.

Hi again! This is Andrea from Cooking with a Wallflower. I’m back this week to share with you a recipe just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Who doesn’t love those gorgeous chocolate covered strawberries? Especially during Valentine’s Day. But I find that they don’t last too long. Sometimes the strawberries get soft underneath the chocolate. And if you receive a bouquet of chocolate covered strawberries, you probably should eat them soon.

So! Why not use freeze dried strawberries to resolve the problem?

Freeze dried strawberries are sweet and tart with no added sugar, just like fresh strawberries. But it also has an added crunch and lots of flavor.

I used freeze fried strawberries and added them to melted semi-sweet chocolate to create chocolate covered strawberry bark. They taste soo amazing with strawberries in every bite. The semi-sweet chocolate is rich and slightly bitter. If you prefer other chocolates, you’re welcome to use white chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate. It’s all about preference. You can also create a mixture of chocolate and white chocolate to create swirls. This recipe is super easy to make with very little ingredients and prep required. You’ll want to make this all the time.

Line a 9×5 inch baking pan with parchment paper as best as you can. It doesn’t quite stay, but don’t worry about it.

Crush freeze dried strawberries into small pieces and scatter some of the strawberries on the parchment paper.

Remove the chocolate from the packaging and break the bar into several pieces. Melt the chocolate according to the directions on the packaging. I microwaved my chocolate for 30 seconds and then in 10 seconds intervals, stirring in between until the chocolate has completely melted.

Pour the chocolate over the strawberries and spread the chocolate out in an even thin layer.

Sprinkle the rest of the crushed strawberries over the chocolate.

Refrigerate the bark in the fridge for at least an hour until the chocolate has hardened.

Break the chocolate into pieces, and serve as desired.

Enjoy!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Bark

 

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Semi-sweet chocolate with crushed freeze dried strawberries. Slightly sweet and tart, this chocolate covered strawberry bark is the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day.

Author: Andrea Giang

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 3-4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 – 4 ounce package semi sweet chocolate bar
• ⅛ cup + 1 tablespoon crushed freeze dried strawberries

Instructions

1. Line a 9x5 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Crush the freeze dried strawberries into small pieces. Place half of the freeze dried strawberries on the parchment paper. Make sure that the strawberries are spread out.
3. Remove the chocolate from the package, and break the bar into small pieces. Melt the chocolate according to the direction on the package.
4. Once the chocolate has melted, pour the chocolate over the crushed freeze dried strawberries. Use a spoon or a spatula to spread the chocolate into a thin even layer.
5. Sprinkle the rest of the freeze dried strawberries over the chocolate.
6. Place the baking pan into the refrigerator and allow the chocolate to harden for at least an hour.
7. Once the chocolate has hardened, break the chocolate into pieces, and serve as desired.

Notes

*You can use your favorite type of chocolate instead of the semi-sweet chocolate.
**It takes about ½ - 1 hour for the chocolate to harden

3.2.2885

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For the DIY husband

He’s sure to love this magnetized nail setter that will save him from smashing his thumb all the time! Every time he does a project, and saves a thumb, he’s sure to remember how much you love him.

Find it HERE.

Your DIY man would also love this multi-tool Guppie Knife which includes a knife, carabiner, screwdriver, bottle opener, bit carrier, hex bits and LED light! Actually I kind of want one too!

Find it HERE.

For the beer drinker

My husband and his friends love a good beer and if your man loves beer he will love this pint glass that shows all the different varietals of beer.

Find it HERE.

I guarantee he’d also love this Bottle Breacher bottle opener, made form a bullet shell. We saw these on Shark Tank recently and my husband thought they were the coolest!

Find it HERE.

If he’s looking for some new beers to try getting him a subscription to a beer club would be fun for both of you! They have a U.S. Microbrew subscription, a U.S. and International or International only subscription! What a fun way to discover new favorites!

Sign him up HERE.

For the Scotch drinker

My husband loves Scotch but a good bottle of Scotch can cost quite a bit so I love this sampler set that let’s you try 5 different varietals of Scotch to see which one you like the best!

Order it HERE.

For the business man

My husband is a banker and, I’m sure like many of your husbands, has to wear a collared shirt to work every day. How fun are these custom collar stays that will make him feel sexy when he’s getting ready for work in the morning?

Customize and order them HERE.

Is your man your Super Man? Show him with this fun, custom money clip.

Find it HERE.

Another great gift idea for your business man are these custom latitude and longitude cufflinks. He’ll wear them with pride when he looks down and remembers the places where you first kissed, where you were married, or where your first child was born.

Customize yours HERE.

For the jokester

Spend an evening in with your husband, a bottle of wine and these fun Mad Libs for lovers. You’re guaranteed some good laughs and a great date night!

Find it HERE.

This is another great gift for a man that loves a good laugh. I have so many friends with hilarious stories about squirrel attacks and I’m sure you’d get a good laugh the first time your husband drank out of this new mug!

Find it HERE.

For the man who loves getting mail

My husband loves getting the mail but he loves it even more when he gets a package from Trunk Club! Here are 12 companies that send out monthly boxes of cool stuff just for men!  From clothes, to razors, to food, he will love checking the mail now!

Sign him up HERE.

For the man of your dreams

These last two are gifts I think you should give your husband, even if you also get him something from the list above. The men in our lives work hard to provide for us, love us, cherish us and make our dreams come true. Tell him how much you love him with an “I love you because…” love letter.

You might not always feel sexy but I guarantee your husband thinks you are the sexiest thing that ever walked the earth! I did this for my husband a few years back and he still carries a couple of the picture around in his wallet (for his eyes only, of course) and he takes every opportunity he can to tell his friends what an amazing Valentine’s gift it was!

Photo credit Jamie Solorio Photography

Call a local photographer (one you know and trust) or get some girlfriends together and take pictures of each other, for all of your husbands. Trust me your husband will thank you for years to come, it will be his favorite gift until the end of time.

No matter what you end up getting your husband this Valentine’s Day remember to tell him how much you love him, how thankful you are for him and how he is truly the man of your dreams. We all know they know these things but sometimes they just need to be reminded of how much we truly love them. Happy Valentine’s Day!

This post contains some affiliate links, for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

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You’ve seen the “Open when…” letter ideas on pinterest, right?  The basic idea is to write several little notes to your sweetheart and seal them in envelopes.  You can tell your sweetie to open this note when they are feeling sad or have had a bad day or are mad at their mom (or boss or buddy or whomever).  Inside the envelop is a little note that commiserates and offers encouragement for that particular emotion (“Sorry for your bad day, but I think you are just awesome and tomorrow will be a better day.”  Or “Ask for a back rub and I’ll make you forget your rough day.” Or “You’re right, your mother doesn’t know everything.  But you still love her.  Now let’s eat cookies.”)  Sound familiar?  Well, I took the idea and put it to dating!

A YEAR OF DATES: “OPEN WHEN” DATES 

Materials:

• “Open When Dates” Printables (Get the PDF File if you want the templates as a single set for easy printing or get the ZIP Files if you want to be able to edit them, one image at a time, on your computer.  Basically, if you are just going to print them all, you want the PDF.  If you’re planning to edit them on the computer before you print, you want the ZIP files.)
• Scissors or Paper Cutter
• Markers or Alphabet stickers (or photo editing software, if you’re going to edit them before you print)
• Envelopes
• Tape or Glue
• Anything else you want to decorate your envelopes with (stickers, washi tape, and the like)

Directions:

* Because everyone has different ideas about what is a fun and enjoyable date, I have provided these printable templates in such a way as they can be modified to fit lots of different dating styles.  The photos shown are not the actual files, but how I have chosen to use them.  For example: if you don’t like “cuddle dates”, you can choose any kind of date you do enjoy instead and still be able to use these templates.  Because of the customizability (that’s a word right?), you will have to do a little bit of work for this project.  It’s not a print-and-paste project but it’s worth the little bit of work for some fun dates with your hubby!  Images of the actual download files are at the bottom of this post.

•  Download the “Open When Dates” printables and save them to your computer.  If you want to type all your info into the templates before you print them, open the files in a photo-editing software.  Anything with a text editor will work: photoshop, microsoft paint, picmonkey are all great choices.  Save the edited files to your computer.  If you want to match fonts, I used Honey Script and Frente H1 (the links will take you to their download pages).  You can also type out your info in a word processing program (like Word) and then just manually glue it on to the template pages (with actual glue, not computer “paste”) after everything is printed.
• Print out the templates or the edits you have made.  Cut them apart.
• Put the envelop labels on the front of the envelops with glue or tape.  Decorate the envelopes how ever your little heart fancies.

• Now you have a decision to make.  Do you want the more work for you, this is what we’re doing (The Don’t Surprise Me) kit or the less work for you, let your sweetie choose what you’re doing (The Bring on the Surprises) kit?

The Don’t Surprise Me Kit:  Fill out the templates with specific date information.  For the “When You Want to be Pampered” date, I chose an at-home spa night.  After the kids are in bed, or at grandma’s, we can fill the tub with bubbles and then exchange massages.  Choose a specific date for each “Open when…” and fill in the information.  If your sweetheart has a had time making decisions, or actually planning dates, this is probably the best option.  Mr. Napping’s idea of a thoughtful date is arranging babysitting so we can “go out”… The guy is a charmer, but I definitely bring the creative mojo to our relationship.  I tried to choose dates that were inexpensive, all-season friendly so that we won’t have to worry about

OR

The Bring on the Surprises Kit:  Last week, on While He Was Napping, I posted some printables (follow the link to get the printables) with date ideas in the 12 categories I chose to put in our “Open When Dates” Kit.  You can see an example in the photo above.  If you just want to include date ideas and then let your sweetie choose the date, you can print those and stick those in the envelopes instead.  Less work for you… but then you might end up snowshoeing for your adventure date.  Which could be good or bad.  If your sweetheart has a bucket list and can make and keep plans well, by all means, let them help with the date planning!

Once you have all your envelopes stuffed with awesome dates (or awesome date ideas), wrap them all up in a fun little package and they are all ready to gift.

Download the PDF File of the “Open When…” Date Nights Kit

Download the ZIP Files of the “Open When…” Date Nights Kit

 Krista

While He Was Napping

Check out these other fun date night posts over at Krista’s blog!

Date night jar with FREE printables

Pre-Planned and Pre-Paid Date Night Kit

20 (Practically Free) Date Night Ideas

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