School Bulletin Board

Here is the bulletin board I did for the end of the school year.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.

 

I used the Stampin' Up! In Color 12 x 12 paper pack 12-14 for this project.  All the colors went nicely with the background paper and color of the frame, I think.

 

I cut the crabs out at 3" from Create a Critter.  I think the shells were cut at 3" as well, but since they are an accessory they cut out just right for the crab to hold.

 

 

I used my Gypsy, and I have many fonts.  I can't remember which one I used right at the moment, but I'll look it up when I get back from New Orleans and let you know.  :)

 

 

On one side of the sea shells was the number of days left of school.  On the other, is a yellow layer that makes it look pretty.  As each day ends, I removed a sea shell from a crab, turned it over and stapled it at the bottom with the sea weed.

 

 

You'll never know how happy I was to take that last number down!  lol  I loved my students this year for sure, but it will be so nice not to have to be "on" all day 5 days a week (and when I see them outside of school in the afternoons and weekends).  I can relax a little and not have thoughts of lesson plans, tests/quizzes, missing homework, etc.  Oh yeah, and I can clean my house and bake something yummy.  I have time for Pinterest again!  Wow!  This is getting exciting thinking about it all.  lol

I'm including this on D.L.ART's page for the SPLASH Challenge.  The challenge implies anything "wet" so I think my bulletin board fits since the crabs are under the water.  :) 

End of Year Cards for my Students

Just wanted to post really quick to share the ADORABLE cards I made for my students for the end of the year.  I decided to dust off the ol' Cricut Expression for this project.  I have decided that I don't use it enough and need to start exploring my cartridges to see what I can make from them.

The cards are 3.5 x 3.5 using white cardstock from Walmart.  The paper is from my stash of "ugly" papers (the papers that get set aside because no one can think of anything to do with them).  These particular papers, I am embarrassed to share, have been in the back of my van for over a year, where they were placed in a box and left there.  That box is kind of an island of misfit scrapbook papers for me.  Although, I must admit, ugly paper isn't so ugly when you find the right project for it.  :)

The hippos were cut at 2".  I used the accessories as well (puddle and grass).  The inside of the card said, "Hippo Hooray!  We've had a great year.  Have an awesome summer!"  All solid colors came from Walmart textured paper packs.  The bling is from Stampin' Up!.

 

The monkeys were also cut at 2".  The green and black are from Walmart.  The brown was from Michael's (Recollections), and the tan is Creamy Caramel (retired) from Stampin' Up!.  The inside said, "It was fun hanging out with you this year.  Have a great summer!"  

 

The only thing missing is a stamp or printed sentiment of some kind.  I didn't have a stamp that would work and didn't have time for printing this time around.  I'll keep that in mind for next time.  

By the way, speaking of time, one thing I learned is that when making cards with layered designs, Xyron is the way to go.  I used 2 way glue for the monkeys and it took FOREVER.  I used my 5" Xyron for the hippos and saved tons of time.

The cartridge is Create a Critter.  I love how they turned out so much that I just bought Create a Critter 2 to play with as well.  By the way, keep on the look out for my next post, which was a bulletin board for the end of the year using the Create a Critter cartridge as well.  I'm going out of town-to see Wicked in New Orleans with my best friend-but I will try to post while I'm there if we have some downtime.

I'm linking this to Use it Tuesday for their Anything Goes Challenge.  Head on over there now to see other fun projects!  :) 

Thank You Cards for my Nieces

I'm so far behind in my posting.  I'm so sorry for that.  That last 9 weeks of school was a killer!  We did two major projects and then the end of the year crunch is always time consuming.  I'm going to be working on my crafting and blogging steadily over the summer, though, so that I can get into a routine that can carry over into the next school year.  I have been making some things and then saving them as drafts to post later so I'll have a lot of posts this week for you.  :)

My sister and I recently did the Expedition Everest Challenge 5K and Scavenger Hunt down at Animal Kingdom.  It was a blast!  We're both working on getting healthy and improving our lifestyles and doing fun runs like that turns out to be a great way to get motivated to do that.  Plus the sister bonding has been great.  :)  Anyway, she lives about an hour and a half away so we don't get together often to train together.  The first time we got together for training, my daughter came with me to watch the little girls and we stayed the night before the practice run so we would already be there the next morning and wouldn't have to get up and drive.  I am so not a morning person.  The little girls said we were having a royal sleepover and thought it was all about them, which was totally adorable, and partly right.  lol

These are the thank you cards I made for them for letting us come and have a royal sleepover with them.  The oldest one's nickname is Lilybug and the little one is the "Silly Little Monkey."  

I used a variety of Stampin' Up! paper and Walmart patterned paper.  The red is Cherry Cobbler from Stampin up!  The red polka dotted paper is from one of their Christmas collections.  I don't think they carry that one any more, though.  The black and white patterned paper is from Walmart's black and white 8.5 x 11 pack.  The black textured and white textured papers are both from Walmart.

  

The lavender and yellow papers are both from Stampin' Up!  The green polka dots are from Hobby Lobby and the patterned paper at the bottom is some I had in my stash from forever ago.  I probably got it from Michael's, because that's the only craft store I got patterened paper from back then.  

 

The lady bug and monkey are both blingy stickers I found at Hobby Lobby.  It was so perfect that they had something there for both girls at the same time that I just had to get them.  The cards were made around the stickers. 

I was hoping they would love them!  Look how happy they are!  My sister said she is going to frame them and make them part of their room decor.  Great idea!  I'll get pictures and add them when I go see them in a couple of weeks for our next practice run.  We're doing the Happy Haunted 5K in October.  Woot woot! 

She Did it Again!

The bestie has been busy again!  Just look at what she came up with.  What a heifer!  Now I've got to really pull it together to come up with something to compare to these gorgeous cards.  (Can you tell we're a little competitive?  Okay.  Maybe a lot competitive.  lol)  

She's starting her own blog, by the way, so I'll just give you the general down-low here and then add her link when she gets it up and running so you can get more detailed information on them.  I'm pretty sure all the colors are from the Brights collection from Stampin' Up!  The patterned paper is from the last catalog, but you could do these with the new patterns just as well.  The new paper is really great.  The stamp is also from Stampin' Up! and was carried over to the new catalog.  I loved these so much that I'm getting that stamp set this month at our monthly hostess party.  (You can order it here.)  Then I'll post what I come up with as well.

 

 

Mother's Day 2013