You’re back from vacation with a thousand and one seashells. Now, what do you do with them? I found these adorable little birds in a local thrift shop and thought they’d make a fantastic craft project for all of those seashells.

You thought that artificial tree would be easy to set up and maintain and it was, for the first few years. Now it is balding and looks small and shabby. Even worse, it is shedding almost as much as a real pine tree would. It has gone from a nice festive touch for your business to an embarrassment that doesn’t reflect well on your company. It is time to look for a new model. A trip to the local stores only yields smallish trees that would look at home in a living room, but are lost in an office building. One great solution for Christmas trees for businesses? Santa’s Quarters. I’ve been looking through their giant artificial Christmas trees section and am pretty impressed.

These artificial trees go from a respectable 14 feet to an astonishing height of over 50 feet. Since lighting a tree this big could take a long time, they come pre-lit. However, if you love to spend time setting up the tree each year, you’ll be happy to know there is still plenty for you to decorate. A handy ornament calculator on the site can help you figure out exactly how many little balls, stars and figurines you will need to make the tree look nice and full. This feature is really helpful when you are making a purchase order for boxes of Christmas tree ornaments.

A few other features I liked:
* There are ways to contact the store all over the place. I don’t know how many times I’ve had questions when I was shopping at online stores and couldn’t find a way to ask them. That isn’t a problem here.
* The Better Business logo and a secure site logo are prominently displayed to build consumer confidence. I’d feel safe ordering a giant artificial Christmas tree for my business from Santa’s Quarters.
* Additional help is provided – tips on decorating, information on different types of artificial trees and photos of decorated trees are all very useful.

This post sponsored by Santa’s Quarters

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it is time to start thinking about Halloween party planning. What on earth happened to our long lazy summer? Well, I put together a printable pumpkin shapes sheet to get you started. There are a ton of Halloween crafts and party games you can make for kids using something as simple as this pumpkin coloring sheet.

This simple Halloween party game should be a hit for preschoolers: try drawing pairs of faces on the pumpkins, cutting them out and having them do a matching game. Older kids will want to draw their own faces before they do any matching.

Another great game for older kids is to hunt for the big pumpkin. Use the small pumpkins from the coloring sheet to write clues about where the big pumpkin is hidden. The clues will lead to a large artificial pumpkin filled with Halloween treats.

If you have fun foam or felt, use the printable pumpkin sheet as a template to cut out a ton of shapes to decorate. Put the decorated pumpkins in your windows and on your front door or use them to make a long pumpkin banner to decorate the room.

Do you have a great idea for using the pumpkin coloring sheet to make Halloween party games for children? Please share them in the comments!
Pumpkin Shape Coloring Sheet