Monday, May 28, 2012

Midnight Masquerade

Good morning everyone and Happy Memorial Day! I am happy to be back to crafting after a few week absence to close up the school year. My 8th graders graduate tomorrow evening and I am all done with the school year on Wednesday afternoon. It has been a busy couple of weeks with all the end of the year activities: testing, trips, dances and more. I look forward to being home for the summer and have many many crafting ideas in my head.
Two weeks ago was the 8th grade dance: Midnight Masquerade. Every year the teachers set up a few photo areas and take the kids pictures as they enter the dance We buy cute frames and print the photos off for them. This year's theme was a great one.

I found this great mask set in the Silhouette store (creates 3 different masks) and used that to cut out masks in Mardi Gras colors. Next I pieced them together and added Stickles and stick on gems to make them sparkle.
For the second area (which was on "my wall") I cut out a huge banner using Jubilee and pieced it together. Next, I used DCWV 12x24 glitter paper, which has an adhesive back, to cut out the letters using Calligraphy Collection. I have learned when using paper for the first time to do a test cut to make sure you get the right results.  It turned out wonderful and was so easy to place on my banner.
I added more stick on gems and the beautiful fleur de lis cut with French Manor, a cartridge I think I have only used 1 time before, back when I first got it.
When the kids walked in we got some great photos. Here are some I took of my coworkers.
So happy to be back in my craft space and look forward to sharing my projects with you all summer long!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Short Blog Break

Good morning all.  I just wanted to stop by and say that I will be taking a short blog break for the end of the school year. I hope to be back in 2 weeks with some wonderful projects: the last wall display at school, some dance decorations and hopefully some other cards and gifts to share.


This is my busiest time of year as I am in charge of the 8th grade slide show and it is an hour long show that I put my heart into. I also work with the 3 graduation speakers to get them ready for our graduation. This on top of being a Mom and closing my classroom for the year are really taking their toll.  


I do hope to be able to stop and visit all the wonderful blogs I normally visit and will see you soon again. 

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Have a Magical Day

It was an amazing weekend!!  On Friday my wonderful daughter turned 6-years-old and it was just such a fun day. Her Uncle came in from Minnesota and surprised her and yesterday we all went downtown to American Girl Place to select her first doll and have lunch. She was so excited and a bit overwhelmed, but it was fun.
My mom made two dresses; one for my daughter and the other for her new doll. They both looked adorable if I do say so myself. This cute blue dress inspired her birthday card as well.
I knew I wanted to use Everyday Paperdolls to make her card seeing as she was getting a new doll, but the idea for the blue look alike dress came late in the evening as I was getting  ready to put this all together. With wonderful Peachy Keen faces (Simple Simons 1 1/8) and a Pink By Design sentiment (Inner Princess)  it all came together just right.
I hope everyone is having a Magical Day! To all the wonderful mothers in the world I hope you are being showered with love as I was this morning.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Student-Teacher Goodbye

Tomorrow I come to the end of an amazing experience. I never thought I would enjoy working with a student-teacher so much, but ow I feel like I have a life long connection to this amazing women. I shared the signature pages I made for her mini-scrapbook a few days  back, but I wanted to share a little of the inside as well. This is just a simple album I put together using lots of photos and not much embellishment or extra stuff. Here are some of the highlights.
Graphically Speaking words.
 Football is from Boys Will be Boys, Heart is my favorite off Designer's Calendar and the 4 is Varsity Letter.
Billionaire Font
I have been blessed to have this experience and will miss her dearly. Have a wonderful weekend.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Signature Pages

This week I am getting ready for my student-teacher's last day. I have been taking lots of pictures and am working hard to put a simple album together. I wanted to have a space for my students to write her some notes so each pages is having little boxes worked in, but for the overflow I created these signature pages (one for each of our classes) to let the kids sign on.

I cut the little tags in the corner using a letter tag off Dinosaur Tracks and removing the letter with the hide/contour button. I added the letters off Opposites Attract and was very pleased with the results. I put the pages all together and added a little bling to each mini tag.

Now tomorrow, while I send my student-teacher off to work with some other teachers, we can get these little notes in action. I plan on putting the photo pages together tomorrow or Thursday evening!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Treats for Teacher

It is Teacher Appreciation week and also the last week of working with my wonderful student teacher. I am so sad to see her leave us, as our my students, but I know she is going to make an excellent teacher when she joins a lucky staff next fall. I am working on a basket full of  teacher goodies for her and so far have worked up the following treats:

This water cup is such a great blue and all I did was add this fun vinyl cut-out using Makin' the Grade. (The stars are form George and Basic Shapes).

Next, I bought a fun treat jar and m filling it with a bunch of basic teacher supplies, like post-its, stickers, push-pins and more. I wanted it to have a fun live so I cut this little topper for the jar:


Teacher is cut with A Child's Year
Treats is cut with Cursive 101
I am having a great time filling up her basket (and thinking of making the same treats for my daughter's teachers this week) and the students will be helping me out this week on a special album for her.  I hope to share those pages later this week. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

National Scrapbook Day!!!

OH what a day for those of us who love love love to create with paper (layouts cards, whatever really!) I am so hoping to get some time in my space this afternoon, but first I am going to pamper myself at the hair salon and relax after this hectic week. I have some projects I know I need to get done...actually I have a large list to really focus on:
1. My daughter's birthday is next Friday!
2. Mother's Day projects for a Mom and Mother-in-law
3. Some parting gifts for my student teacher who leaves me on Friday!
4. A welcome banner (thanks for this fantastic idea With Glittering Eyes) for the new American Girl Doll we will bring home next Saturday.

Hopefully by the end of the day I will be able to share something with you, but for now here are some of my favorite layouts.

Home Sweet Home HERE
More Here
Queen Sophie Here

Friday, May 4, 2012

Disney Countdown

I may not be getting to go to Disney this summer, but I have several people in my life who are getting to  make the trip to the Magic Kingdom, all for the first time! I wanted to do something special for them to help build the excitement and help pass the time while waiting.

I know how much my daughter enjoyed our countdown before our first trip & thought it would be fun for these families as well. I started by finding the colors I wanted to use.

Next, I used George and Basic Shapes and Mickey Font to cut out these 10 x 1 inch Mickey strips to make my chain with. Due to the Mickey heads I cut into the strips, my chain links were not as round as I would have liked, but they still look so cute so no worries. I decided that each countdown would be for 30 days and I divided my chains in half because I am not sure what kind of space these will be hanging in.
Once my chains were done and sitting on the side, I finished up the signs with Mickey Font words and more Mickey Heads - the leftover pieces from when I cut my chains. I was not satisfied with the plain old paper so I got out my Stickles and made them pop (I had all 4 colors to match my papers).
Once everything was dry I selected some ribbon from my stash and put it all together. I even added a fun tag using my Walt Disney Font that I was able to download for free HERE.
It was so fun handing these over to the parents and I have already been told how excited the whole house was just to hang it up and get ready to use!  My daughter has also requested this type of countdown for our next trip so I guess I have a winner. Hope everyone has had a good week and is looking forward to a wonderful weekend.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Super State Wall Display

The band at the middle school I work  at has been selected to attend Super State this year. Each year about 12 schools from the whole state are selected to attend so this is a big deal for the whole group. I wanted to make sure they knew we were proud of them and the best way  I can do that is by putting up a display in our main hallway.
To make this display I...
- Used Lovely Floral to cut the banner piece on my 12x24 mat
- Cut the instruments and music symbols out using Quarter Note
- Cut the letters for the banner using Copperplate Gothic Font on my Silhouette machine.

I hope the band has a great trip this week to celebrate their success and that everyone else is having a wonderful week. We are in the last month of school and time is really flying for us teachers (and students too!)