2-1123 November How-To Holiday 2023 - Fun Silly Games and Desk Sitters... a Visual Sneaky Peek

Hi there! It's me again! :D

This post seems sort of "unnecessary" until you realize that sometimes it takes an idea to have an idea! I wanted to share silly fun little bits and pieces that might just sit on a desk or in a pocket, or might be used the moment they are received and so I'm sharing some of those here with you now.

Flying Pigs Game - This one is really ALL in the packaging, much like the gag gift below. I was thinking of how people say things like "when pigs fly" to mean "not gonna happen" and it occurred to me that pigs have flown MANY times - not of their own intent to fly, perhaps... and between storms, tornados and acts of God as well as people transporting them where they prefer the pigs to be, pigs fly all the time! So... why not make a silly game out of this? And I found ridiculously cute squeaky pig toys relatively cheap on Amazon, popped 3 in a clear bag with a hand-drawn tag that I printed on my printer and a silly note and WOOT! Now my friends and family are reminded to make pigs fly - and find hilarious ways to score how many stay in the air for how long or how did they land (remember Makin' Bacon, the fun pig dice game? yeah... like THAT! LOL. And yeah, I made a few for my dice friends.) 

Spare Marbles Gag Gift - I've seen these for years and just HAD to go here this year with boxes full of fun and silly and also meaningful cute little things. I DID include a note on the little tag that they're NOT gumballs (the marbles were SO pretty and colorful that they really DO look like candy!) I went out to AveryLabel.com and made stickers I could print on my printer to put on little plastic bags and cut some colorful cardstock as a "background" and they're just what you see. Perfect. Silly. Funny. 

Ducks In A Row Desk Sitter - Have I mentioned that I have a sort of a "thing" for kitschy resin and plastic kid toys turned into other things? Well, if you'd missed it before now, here's your introduction to the world that RUTH lives in all the time! LOL I happened to have kid building toy parts in a box upstairs and saw fun little glow in the dark resin ducks that I wanted 3 of for charms for a project I was doing for a friend with a real love of ducks - but there were SO MANY MORE IN THE BAG so I asked myself what the heck else could I DO with that many glow in the dark mini plastic ducks?! I made a few into more charms so I have them on hand later, just in case (because Just In Case is probably my life mantra as a crafter aka hoarder of cute things) And a silly cute little thing for my own desk as well as my friends' desks was born... because we ALL need our ducks in a row. I mean, that meme that goes around from time to time about having no ducks but squirrels with ADHD and thinking maybe one might actually be a chicken? Yeah, that's my REAL life... so... why not at least smile when I see it here on my desk and FEEL like someone believed I'd eventually find only cute ducks and actually coerce them to stand in a row on a building toy that looks like a knobby brick or old log house building supplies? (sorry, both companies are litigious as HELL and I'm not poking THAT bear. You can look and tell what toys they are... I'm not giving them the searchable text to find them.) Head out to AveryLabel.com and make some stickers to go on the cute makeup boxes I used to package the Cheering Squads below and WOOT... another ridiculous and somehow still really fun little gift for friends and family in a few hours of playing with toys and glue!

Personal Cheering Squad Desk Sitters - these cute little guys were featured on my Instagram as well as on Patreon a few months ago and are super simple to put together using fluffy pompoms from Amazon or a craft store, some google eyes, some glue and some felt. I got a whole kit on Amazon so that I only needed felt to make their feet and some antennae that I made using faux plant stamen, which I also found on Amazon super cheap. I packaged them in cute lipstick boxes I found on Amazon and went out to AveryLabel.com and made stickers I could print here for them and WOOT. Right now I'm hoping to find the little adhesive dots I THOUGHT I had on hand because they'd be a nifty tuck-in to go WITH super light fluffy little dudes, but if I can't find them until after I've mailed them on December 1st then also no biggie deal. It was just a little second-hand thought after the fact! LOL

Hair Ties - This project was actually covered earlier and the post can be found HERE on this blog already. Not the crochet sort? Fold Over Elastic (sometimes just called FOE on Etsy and Amazon) can be purchased in tons of places and is still a wonderful and pretty way to make hair ties with special themes, colorways or messages on them. Cut a 9" piece of 5/8" wide FOE, fold it in half with the pretty side OUT and carefully knot it very near the ends. Trim to make the ends pretty and VOILA... instant hair tie! On Etsy you can even find lots of 12" pieces in TONS of patterns for as little as $5!

ALL of these make fabulous stocking stuffers, Secret Santa office gifts and, as I'll be using them, package fillers in friend gifts.

Please... if you come up with a spin-off idea, share it with me @12SquaredCreations on Instagram or tag me #12SquaredCreationsPatreon so I can see! (and likely also MAKE it... because I just eat this stuff up like candy!) And if you DO choose to make one or some of these ideas, pleasepleaseplease show me! I love to see!