Butterflies and Bookmarks

Almost every holiday I try to have some little goodie bag for my kids classmates.  This year a friend posted on facebook a list of crafts from this website and I saw these butterflies and just had to take a swing at them.  I did not use the template that was given, I decided to use my Cricut Expression  I have to say, this is the single MOST loved electronic I own.  (Hard to believe since we have a lot of gadgets and I am married to a total geek.)   I used the Elegant Edges Cartridge and made my machine do the work for me.  :)  I used 4" on my machine and managed to get 4 per page.  I found a stack of Valentine paper at Michael's for 40% off.  (Does anyone pay full price?)  I was quite excited by it.  I got the suckers from Target.  Sadly they were not on sale, but I got 4 bags.  Here is a bit of information for you.  The bag says 'about 16 servings' per bag, but in reality there are only 15 per bag.  So, when you need 64 and you only get 60, you have to go back to the store and get another bag.  That was the most expensive part of this project at a whopping $12.50.

Here is the butterfly, thanks to my Cricut. (I am so glad I didn't have to cut out 64 by hand.)

Here are a couple with the suckers.

I thought they were pretty cute as is and I hummed and hawwed debating on eyes or no eyes, stickers or no stickers.  I got these stickers at Target for a buck each in the dollar bin.  Now, lets see 64 x 4 = aw, heck I am not doing math in the dollar bin at Target, get 5 the kids can play with the rest.

                                                                I then said 'yes' to eyeballs.

I ran through the store and picked them up.  It was a quick run in and out.  Lucky me, Michael's is on the way to and from the kids school, we drive right past it.  The debate then was 6mm or 7mm, I went with 7.  I am not sure everyone would put as much thought into the size of the eyeballs as I did, I am still not sure if I picked the right ones, but, I just had to make a decision.  So, do I want the smaller ones with the smaller iris part of the eye, or did I want a bigger surface to work with for the glue.  I know, I know,  I over think things, but I like efficiency more than anything I can think of at this moment. So, I went with the larger gluing surface.

                                                        So, here is the finished product.

                                                      And here is what 64 of them look like.

Then I saw these bookmarks and I wanted to make those too.  The bookmarks were easy, I already had a big stash of Red Paper and Animal Pattern Paper. I didn't want to do toy animals (pricey - I did make 64 of these), so I went with the foam animal and heart stickers.  (From Micheal's I paid $8.00 for all of them put together.)  The kids helped me put a lot of the animal stickers on.  Then instead of the animal Valentine sayings, I wanted to kinda put the 'love' of reading into this craft.  I just used my Elegant Edges Cartridge made 64 little phrase cut outs.  Then and I planned to run them through my Xyron machine.  I must say I love this thing.  I did not get it from Amazon, I got it from Michael's with either a 40% or 50% off coupon and I have had it for awhile now.  (Always wait for your coupons before buying refill carts.)  But, then I decided to lower the cost and just use glue.   Here is the finished product.  I think they are pretty cute and that they will get used and not just tossed or lost with other chachki type junk that I may otherwise send.  That and I am sure they have a million pencils and erasers from us by now.