January Star Love Notes

The start of the new year is always such a party right!? I just had to make some Love Notes to share the party and I couldn't stop thinking of stars!  I recently made a Cookies and Cream cake with black details and also pops of bright colors.  That was my inspiration for this cute prints.

First is the cute little goal banner!  So easy to make and then hang up where you can see every day!  I packaged one up to give to one of my adorable ministering sisters, with a cute little tag.

I love that you can double up these little tags to make an extra adorable pop to your little gift.

I also made this cute little print out that's very similar to the one above but with a sweet little message.

These tags can be with any New Years decor, party supplies, Star candy like Starburst, etc.

I loved this Happy New Year balloon banner that you can reuse year after year.

I also made a batch of Rice Krispie Treats (find my recipe HERE) and let them cool on a cookie sheet, so they were thinner then average.  Then I cut them out using a star cookie cutter.  And drizzled or dipped them with melted white chocolate, and quickly put on some sparkly gold or white sprinkles.  THIS is actually the exact sprinkle set I used.  I let them harden and then put a star krispie (or a few) with some individually wrapped Starbursts.

Heck even give them a star cookie cutter so they can make their own star treats! haha 

THIS set is so fun!

So many tags in this little bundle that can be used interchangeably or all together.  My cute mom always wants a whole set to display around her house or in her craft room.

I also made a few pages of star prints that are just black and white so you can save on ink!  Just print  on some bright cardstock paper!

I have LOADS of clear bags and I'm so grateful I do!  If you need to stock up on some too THESE are similar to the ones I have.

As always don't feel like you have to attach a gift or something to these tags.  They can totally be given alone!

With a little treat is just the cherry on top! ;)

I forgot to include one of the prints in this shot but BOY aren't they so cute and bright! 

Happy New Year!  Let's start it off right by giving the people we love, care and think about some treats!  The best way to let people know you care about them is to SHOW and TELL them! These little Love Notes can help you do just that!

Find all the Star Love Notes HERE!

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

January Love Notes

New year, new Love Notes!  If you're new here I love to share simple, and FREE printable gift/note tags that can totally be used alone or with a simple or elaborate gift idea for friends, family, neighbors, teachers, visiting/ministering teachers, just because gifts, etc.  The list seriously could go on and on.  I've found that more often than not I want to have a cute customized tag to go with my equally cute gift.  It's all in the details for me!  So with this month being January and the start of a new year I am all about planning, organizing and writing.  Which means you need new planners, calendars, good pens/pencils, sticky notes, etc.  

Here's the round up of tags for this month.  I'm hoping to stream line Love Notes and make it a little easier for all of us.  One maybe 2 posts with different tag and gift options per month but the post will all have similar or coordinating colors and the same theme to be used interchangeably and can always go with multiple gift options.  You could even make a little basket or bag and attach several tags to each item or give a couple.  No matter if you give one or a few the recipient is sure to love it!

I scored most of these cute finds in the Target Dollar Bins for only a few dollars each.  

I'm such a lover of any kind of stationary or office supplies.  I am always in need of new pens, calendars, list pads, notebooks, and so on!  It goes so well with the theme I chose for this month of planning for the new year, sticking to your goals and setting goals for the new year.

I absolutely love these jumbo calendars.  I hang mine on my fridge where I put all of our family events for the month.  It makes it so nice to remember and see everything all in one place.  HERE is the one I usually get but they were out of.  THIS is the one pictured below.

Those calendars are less than $10 but if you want to give multiple people gifts that can add up quickly.  Wouldn't it be cute to give 1 new pen with a new notebook or list pad.  You can get them each in a package then open them up and distribute them as needed.  

I love this STICK tag because it can be used with sticky notes, planner stickers, regular stickers, stick on/press on nails, or a cute cactus.

I am loving the black and colorful option.  It makes the colors really pop!

Love THESE pens and scored THIS new planner for myself!  Even though I use my big calendar on my fridge and calendar on my phone I love to write things out and look back on them with planners like this.

Can you tell how creative you can get with these tags.  Even with the ribbons.  I love to add a few different ribbons of different colors, textures and see how I can make it look even cuter.  

I love that any of these tags can go with SO many different options.  

I even found a few things at Dollar Tree like this calendar!

And a pack of these cute little note pads!  

Like I always say it doesn't matter what you pair with the tag as long as you're showing appreciation to those around you.  You never know how something as little as a sticky note pad or pen pack and little note could make someones day!

Find ALL the free printable January Love Notes HERE!

This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.  

I'm grateful to share what I love with you!

Winter Wonderland Family Party

We were in charge of Dallin's family party this last Christmas at his parents house.  It was a little tricky because I'm use to either ginormous parties or smaller parties with fewer guests.  And having a party at a different location then your home always brings some challenges.  I hoped what I planned would still be fun and flow nicely and I hope everyone had a good time!  I learned a lot from this party-like usual, I learn something from each party I plan!  One thing I learned was making sure to check for apostrophes like in it's on chalkboards! haha

I love behind the scenes pictures and tips so I thought I'd include a few before I get to the party.  I love to set up what I can the night before the event.  This can be hard sometimes, but there is always something you can do ahead of time to make it easier the day of the actual event.  For this party I decided to decorate trees, decorate 1 table and set up the hot chocolate bar.

Since I didn't want the marshmallows or food to go stale in the hot chocolate bar I kept everything in its package until right before we were ready to have hot chocolate.  It also kept the kids from snacking on it all night long at the party!

We went to Zurchers to find some table cloths last minute and found all of their Holiday things 50% off.  We had our Christmas party after Christmas so this was a total treat!  We were able to get the cups, napkins and plates for a great deal!  Planning ahead is such a great thing to do with parties! We've been on the look out for over a year planning and prepping this party so we knew exactly what would work when we saw it.

To welcome the family in to the party guests were able to guess how many candies were in each jar. Mixing up candy sizes definitely makes it trickier for older guests!  How perfect are these galvanized containers to catch the guesses!?  And this cute toboggan from my mom to hold the jars!

When in doubt always add ribbon!  haha Funny story I bought WAY too much ribbon for my wedding because I seriously wanted it everywhere.  Turns out its the ribbon that never ends and keeps on giving because it is always there for me when I need pink, white or gray ribbon! haha

We had a traditional Christmas dinner with turkey/ham and all the great sides.  Dallin and I provided the turkey and ham and his siblings brought 1 (or 2) side and an extra item if needed.  His parents were so sweet to cook the turkey and ham there so we didn't have to transport  and worry about them.

Our first activity after dinner was Grandma's Christmas cookies!  The Strongs have a tradition to make these cookies on Christmas eve for Santa every year.  All of the Strong kids are married and moved out with kids of their own now so I thought it would be fun to revisit this family tradition.  My mother in law did everything but it seemed pretty easy if you plan ahead!  She made two different doughs, a regular chocolate chip cookie dough with out the chocolate chips and a chocolate dough, then bought a few different kinds of M&M's.  She got regular, mint, and hazelnut, but you could even get more or just stick with regular M&M's.

She rolled out the dough balls while the kids placed the M&M's on.  Livy loved this!  We had one tray per family, we wrote the names on the parchment paper to remember then each family got a plate of cookies to take home and enjoy!  My favorite was the mint M&M's with the chocolate dough! So good!

Trays and trays of cookies it was a wonderful sight!

While the cookies were baking the family could choose to do crafts or play minute to win it games.

I think we were all surprised how many kids chose the craft table instead of minute to win it games.  My sweet sister made extra of a few crafts from a different family party so I didn't need to worry about this at all!  Just had to collect crayons, glue (this is my all time favorite craft glue and check out those reviews!) and a hole punch!

My favorite was the snowman bunting my sister made.  But she also had a coloring book, a little snowman they could color, and a snow man ornament.  My mother in law had some nativity ornament/crafts that people experimented with too!

Meanwhile Dallin was playing the Minute to Win It games.  I loved how little kids liked the games and even adults.  Grandpa Strong even got in on them!  I seriously loved it!  I linked the list of games that I planned on for the night.  It just took minimal preparation and everything can be found at the dollar store or Amazon!

This was by far the favorite game of few we did.  They had a minute to bounce the ping pong ball on the table and try to get it in a different cup each time.  If they got 2 in 1 cup it didn't count.  

After that the kids opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Strong and we opened up the Hot Chocolate Bar! I love to create "snow" with batting and twinkling lights.

I used pinecones and small trees for fillers.  I loved the idea of having a variety of marshmallows on one tray and the guests could choose which ones they wanted.  The new Frozen marshmallows went perfectly for our Winter Wonderland theme. 

I also had mini candy canes, chopped Andes Mints, Peppermint Sticks and Pirouline cookies.

Hot chocolate bars can be as simple or as elaborate as you'd like them.  We opted to have milk hot chocolate already prepared in a drink warmer, and have only a few options because there were so many kids.  I also had my sweet sister in law take the kids orders and supervise this while we were getting hot chocolate so it didn't become a total disaster.

The kids loved having hot chocolate and cookies for dessert and to end the party.  

Pretty sure Livy had the best night of her young life because she was mostly running wild and doing and eating whatever she wanted.  One time I found her on top of the coffee table and the next I saw her eating starburst by the handful.  Oh well! haha

The after party was of course a dance party! Livy absolutely loved it! 

We gave each sibling and Dallin's parents a bag of my favorite white chocolate popcorn.  I tied a cute glittery snowflake ornament and a sweet little tag (I'll link below) to finish off the little favor/christmas gift.

I used some extra snowflakes to decorate the trees my mother in law already had up in her home.

Here's some helps I mentioned in this post:

Minute to Win It Winter Games Printable

Thank you SNOW much for coming! tag Printable