Anyway, how incredibly easy, cheap and FUN would it be to have a different Subway Art for each holiday and season during the year!? Then you could just use the same frame and rotate out the different themed prints. So easy, cheap and fun that it’s totally doable for anyone, even the craft challenged. Besides, I’ve done most of the work for you so get to it.

For my own subway art I found some white spray paint in my cupboard and painted an old 8×10 black frame for a fresh clean look. Practically any old frame will look amazing with a fresh coat of paint.

First up is St. Patrick’s Day Subway Art. All you have to do is click the links, print out one of these babies, and slip it into your frame.

Go to That’s What {Che} Said to download

Go to Funky Polkadot Giraffe to download

Here are some  green food ideas for an all green St. Paddy’s Day feast…

Green Dinner

Another Green Dinner

Green Breakfast

Have a great day, folks, and enjoy your Coffee Break.

Valentine’s Day is almost here. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that. You’ve probably been stewing over what to do for days.  If you’re still looking for that perfect idea to make that certain special someone feel loved and appreciated, look no more because I have just the thing for you.  Personalized Fortune Cookies! And let me tell you, someone’s gonna be super impressed with this  fun, unique, and easy Valentine’s Day idea.

Personalized Fortune Cookies

It’s surprisingly simple and uses store bought fortune cookies. You just take out the lame-o fortunes that are already inside, and replace them with your own unique messages. It’s a great idea for your spouse, your kids, your significant other, your best friend, or whomever you’d like to make feel special.

How to make personalized fortune cookies

1) Buy a package of pre-made fortune cookies and unwrap cookies. I usually get the La Choy brand.

2) Prepare your messages either by handwriting them on small strips of pretty paper, or by printing them out on a  computer printer and cutting them into small strips (about 1/2″ x 2″ at the largest)

3) Take a damp paper towel (not dripping, just damp) and wrap it around one of the fortune cookies so that it completely covers the cookie. Do this one at a time.

4) Microwave the wrapped cookie for about 15-40 seconds (time will vary, depending on microwave and dampness of the paper towel… experiment with it. I would start with 15 seconds and then increase the time in small increments if necessary.)

5) After microwaving, the cookie will become flexible a for about 20 seconds or so…  QUICKLY  take the paper towel from the cookie. Gently  open up the cookie and remove the old  message,  and put your new message in.  Fold the cookie back up. It will naturally fold back into the original fortune cookie shape.  Then let the cookie sit to cool and harden.

6) If you’d like, you can then dip the cooled fortune cookie half-way into melted chocolate and add fun sprinkles to the chocolate before it hardens. Let cool on waxed paper.

Put personalized fortune cookies in a fun, cute container. It’s a great way to show someone special that you love them.

See, easy peasy and sure to impress. Enjoy your Valentine’s Day.

~Kate…Enjoy your Coffee Break!

I made a game for you to play using photos from Kate’s Adventures. Go ahead and try it out.

Kate’s Match the Memory Adventure Game

See if you like it, then sign up for your own free account and start creating a game.

Also…

I also found two cute Valentine’s Day card ideas, courtesy of Family Fun Magazine

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Materials

• Scrapbooking paper or card stock
• Scissors
• Lollipops
• Tape

Directions

1. For each Valentine Flower, cut three heart-shaped petals, two leaves, and two flower centers from scrapbooking paper or card stock.
2. Poke a small hole in each heart petal, leaves and flower center. Crease the petals and slide onto lollipop stem in this order, flower centers, heart petals, leaves.
3. Tape the bottom to secure. Write messages on leaves.

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mMaterials

• Sticks of gum
• Licorice strings
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Heart stickers
• Tape

Directions

1. Place two pieces of string licorice between two sticks of gum, taping the top and bottom closed to secure the antennae in place.
2. Next, cut two heart-shaped wings from construction paper, write your valentine message on them, and secure them to the top stick of gum with a heart sticker. Add other stickers to give personality to your butterfly.

Related articles

• Easy, Personalized Valentine’s Day Crafts for Kids (apartmentguide.com)
• Valentine’s Day Etiquette: Dos and Don’ts (education.com)
• DIY Valentine’s Day Gift: Candy Jars (fitnessandfeta.com)

When I pulled out our box of rice bags, I could see that they were looking a little bit warn and ragged. A trip to the fabric store for some cotton flannel, and a few quick seams on the sewing machine and we’re all set for a warm and cozy winter.

Want to make some for yourself? It’s super easy. Give it a try.

How to make Rice Bag Heating Pads

SUPPLIES:

1/4 yard Cotton flannel fabric

Long grain rice (not instant) – About 7 cups per bag

Sewing machine

Cut  fabric in half, giving you two long pieces 9 inches wide. Then take one piece and fold in half, right sides facing in. Sew two sides completely, and the third side 2/3 of the way leaving an opening of a few inches.

Turn bag so the right side is facing out.

I’ve found that making a funnel out of a paper plate rolled into a cone shape works better than a regular funnel because the opening can be adjusted to the size of the opening in the bag.

Slowly pour about 7 cups of rice into bag.

Once the rice has been poured into the bag, fold the opening edges inward.

Sew seam closed.

Warm bag in the microwave for 1 – 2 minutes. My microwave gets them perfect in 1:30. Make sure to shake the rice bag after heating to insure even distribution of heat.

Put rice bag on feet and enjoy!

Cookie Cutter Wreath

Supplies:

• metal cookie cutters, about 16 – 20. (I used 18, which came in a little tub from Walmart.)
• glue gun and glue sticks
• a ribbon or bow to put on top

Directions:

Arrange the cookie cutters into the general size of circle you’d like your finished wreath to be.

You will have to spend a little time re-arranging the cookie cutters to get them to fit together like a puzzle.

I discovered as I started to glue the cookie cutters together, the pieces would shift and need to be re-positioned constantly. Solution: Trace an outline on the inside of the wreath onto a piece of posterboard or large paper. (I pulled the cookie cutters away from the outline so I could take a picture to show you.)

Notice where the cookie cutters touch each other and apply hot glue to those spots.

Work quickly to attach cookie cutters before glue cools and set. Continue gluing until wreath is complete.

Let glue dry completely and attach a bow to the top.

Hang and enjoy!

How filled with fear do you people get when I start crafting? Pretty fearful, I bet .

Anywho, this week, I wanted to bring you super simple project to adorn the Thanksgiving table. Not sure what else to call them, so we’ll just call them Veggie Candles.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Desired number of candles Green beans (about a half-pound per candle)
One bunch asparagus (that will do one candle, as well)
Rubber bands
Ribbon of choice

Making the candles:

• Wrap rubber band around candle
• Slip the veggies under the band. You can cut the veggies to same height for uniformity if you want.
• Tie with ribbon

And we’re done. Talk about an easy way to bring the harvest to the table! Not to mention a sure fire way to serve waxed green beans I’m JOKING!

Happy crafting!

~Liz

I love Halloween. Today for you Coffee Break readers, I  have two fun Halloween recipe ideas using refrigerated crescent roll dough  and refrigerated breadstick dough.  Couldn’t be simpler. And oh so cute!  Impress your family with these simple and fun ideas.

If you missed last week’s recipe for  Creepy Eyeball Treats, check them out.

Witches Hats

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Separate dough.  Shape each piece into a long triangle.Place 1 salami stick piece along base of each dough triangle.  Partially roll up dough to cover salami and create brim of hat.
3. Place 4 pepperoni halves on top part of each hat.
4. Place on ungreased nonstick baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown at edges.
5. Warm sauce in microwave.  Serve witches hats with warm sauce for dipping.

Breadstick Broomsticks

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Unroll dough and divide along perforations. For each broomstick, shape breadstick into 8X1-1/2-inch strip; twist one end for handle. Cut 5 or 6 slits (2 inches long) into opposite end; separate dough at slits for straw.
2. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets and bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown.

Be sure to check out these other Liz and Kate Halloween ideas:

• Halloween Month: Creepy Eyeball Treats & Monster Mash
• Halloween Month: Disgusting Deviled Egg Eyeballs & Toads in a Blanket
• Disgusting Worm Salad
• How to make Disneyland Gourmet Caramel Apples

~Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

This is what I’m doing this year. It is so cute I can’t even stand it!

This idea comes from Kristine McKay at BlogHer. Click here for directions and to print the labels.

The next idea comes from none other than Martha Stewart. (I usually try to avoid Miss Martha because she’s too perfect and complicated, however, this one is easy enough, even for me.)

• Pick up some of your dad’s favorite treats
• Print out these labels here and attach them to the treats
• Put them all in a cute basket

And last, but certainly not least, there’s a whole collection of cute Father’s Day candy wrapper ideas over at The Red Polka Dot.

***Here’s an update…I made the 6-pack soda gift and I thought I should add my 2 cents worth.

• First of all, there is no need to spray paint the inside of  the drink carton. The cardboard inside looks just as good as the spray painted inside.
• Also, I decided to keep three of the bottles as soda, after all, dad’s going to need a drink with all those yummy snacks.

Make this Father’s Day a great one!

~Kate

Anyway, how incredibly easy, cheap and FUN would it be to have a different Subway Art for each holiday and season during the year!? Then you could just use the same frame and rotate out the different themed prints. So easy, cheap and fun that it’s totally doable for anyone, even the craft challenged. Besides, I’ve done most of the work for you so get to it.

For my own subway art I found some white spray paint in my cupboard and painted an old 8×10 black frame for a fresh clean look. Practically any old frame will look amazing with a fresh coat of paint.

Here are some bright and happy Subway Art choices for Easter…

Go to Easter from Curds and Whey to download

Go to A Matter of Memories to download

Go to Eye Candy to download

Other subway art…

St. Patrick’s Day Subway Art

Happy decorating and enjoy your Coffee Break!

It’s really a great craft for kids – and requires a relatively short list of supplies.  Chances are,  you already have everything you need on hand.

What you’ll need:

• One paper grocery bag
• One small paper bag
• Old newspaper for stuffing bags
• Duct tape or other wide tape
• Glue (whatever you have on hand)
• Scissors
• Construction paper in colors of choice

Instructions:

1. Begin by stuffing the large (body) and small (head) grocery bags with wadded up newspaper. You can gather the bag as you stuff to get a feel of how full you’d like the turkey.

2. Once the turkey is “stuffed” to your likings, insert the open end of the small bag into the open end of the large bag. Using duct tape or other wide tape, secure the two bags together.

3. Now that the body and head are ready, get out the scissors and construction paper, and cut out feathers (as many as you’d like), eyes (I used a large yellow circle and a small black circle), bow tie, feet, beak, and gobbler (not pictured as I forgot it until I began assembly

4. Assemble the feathers onto the back side of the body. As I was creating this, I realized the easiest way to do this is by gluing the feathers onto an oval-shaped piece of paper. Then you can glue the oval onto the bag. Trust me on this one.  Allow glue to dry a bit if using white glue, and attach feathers to back of turkey. In the future, I may be tempted to use a hot glue gun for this project – watch out for the little ones if you go this route!

5. Lay turkey on its backside. Glue on eyes, beak, gobbler and bow tie. Once these parts have dried, turn right side up. Tilt turkey-lurkey back and glue on feet.

6. Done! Ours now holds a special spot on the fireplace hearth. Trust me, it’s an attention-getter!

I think you’ll really like this project. And start to finish is less than an hour! So what are you waiting for?!? Go make a turkey!!

-Liz