Birthday Bulletin Board

Here is my version of the birthday bulletin board I saw on Pinterest. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I have a teal, magenta, and black and white zebra theme in my classroom. It is definitely still needing some work, but coming slowly along. 

I used my "George and Basic Shapes" Cricut cartridge to cut out the letters. I wanted them to match the letters on my clipboard holder. I used the regular, shadow, and shadow blackout functions to create the layered look on the letters.

As I said in my last post, I am obsessed with Pinterest. This is one of the adorable ideas I found on the website. When I saw it, I knew I had to have one in my classroom. 

http://ericabohrersclassroom.shutterfly.com/63#83

 

boring gift card to Most Memorable Gift

My problem...

what do you buy a 2 year old 

who has every cute girly thing possible....because

her mama and Aunt Fancy own the cutest

GIFTIQUE in TEXAS!!!

(google or facebook Bless Your Heart Giftique if you want to know what I am talking about)

Answer... a gift card!!

How boring right!!!

Not if you get a cute butterfly gift card and do this....

 First gather your supplies...

1 jar

1 tag

1 fake leaf

1 fake flower

some glitter

some sparkles

butterfly or other bug shaped gift card

and ribbon...lots of ribbon

and tool (is that spelled right)

you know that meshy stuff tutus are made of

and 1 pony tail holder

oh and a loaded glue gun

 yes I am doing this on my stove
best place for my hot glue
and since I like to to make a mess with hot glue I can peel it right off of this :)
and any flakes you see are glitter :) NOT food
I made this and then took it apart because I thought
OH I can POST this
so when I dumped the glitter I made a mess!!!
ooops

glue the gift card to the leaf

 while your jar is empty measure your ribbon around the top and get that ready

go ahead and tie it around the top of the empty jar and slide it off

trust me it will help you!!!

TRUST ME on this one!!!

 fill the jar with sparkles

 lots of sparkles

 push and shove your leaf

around until it looks good

 add your fake flower and sprinkle some glitter

 i use the tool ribbon so I cut 3 sections and laid them on top of the jar

each one in a different direction

 use your hair tie to hold the tool in place and put a dab or blob of glue

on the side where you want all of the ribbons to fall

so it will be hidden

 slide your already knotted ribbon

from earlier over the

top and make sure

to cover the hair tie

 add a few more dabs of glue

to keep the ribbons in place

 add your gift tag

so they know who this cuteness is from

 and

TADA

you are done!!!

it really takes a

blah gift card to a

more personal and thoughtful gift

and SUPER EASY!!!

it was a hit at the party too!!!

Memory Pictures

I have been seeing these pictures all over Pinterest where the child's "favorites" or "memories" from that particular time are documented on the picture. Since I never have time to scrapbook, I thought I could start doing these for Wyatt once a month or so...then framing them as I make them. I even had the idea to print them all in a book at the end of the year on Shutterfly or something. It was so simple...I use the free download from Picasa to edit my pictures normally. So I just clicked on the TYPE link on the editing page and added some "memories" to the photo, changed the font(all the fonts from my computer were available when using Picasa), and I was done!

Here is Wyatt's Memory picture for 13 months.

 

Clipboard Holder

I have become addicted to Pinterest! The other day I came across a cute way to organize and hold all the clipboards in your classroom. The original idea came from: http://web.me.com/ashleynichols1/The_Polka_Dot_Patch/My_Classroom.html

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In my classroom, I am kind of going with the black, white, and teal colors (along with zebra and polk-a-dot). I bought my container at Target, during the summer (it is actually an ice bucket). Then, I added zebra and teal and white polk-a-dot ribbon on the handles (from Michael's). I used my "George and Basic Shapes" Cricut cartridge to cut out the letters with vinyl. Even though it is kind of plain, I think it is an adorable way to keep all your classroom clipboards in one place!

Autumn is Coming.....time to put out that Wreath!

Today (in less that an hour) I made a fall wreath.  I have never made one of these, but my friend made this beautiful table arrangement and posted it to facebook:

 

She said all the stuff she got was at Hobby Lobby, so I headed there yesterday morning and bought all this:

Which was all 50% off!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!   Expect the grapevine wreath... it was $5.99, but I also had a coupon for 40% any single full priced item!!!  Yes I had a smile glued to my face when I walked out of Hobby Lobby spending about $25 for all my goodies.  The letters... F  A  L... were supposed to go on my wreath, but I decided no after I put it all together. Here is how I did it: 

The only supplies I used were floral wire (24 gauge which I already had) and a wire cutter.

First I wrapped my fall leaf garland around the wreath.

Then I used my floral wire and attached some areas with it.   Now it was time to BEDAZZLE it with all the fun goodies!  I just crammed all these guys in there, and got my design the way I wanted it.

I had to keep it propped up so I could assess where I needed to add more.  Then I just used my floral wire and wrapped the attachments to the wreath.  I had to go around and pull on them to make sure I had attached them all.  Now it is hanging on my front door.

The funny thing is, I saw some of these listed at Hobby Lobby for over $100!!!  Can you believe that!?!?!  Even with 50% off that $50 which is still twice what I spent and it only took me an hour!!!

I hope I didn't offend anyone who went out and bought it.... yikes....sorry....

Autumn is coming... even to Texas...eventually!

Hope y'all have fun crafting!!!

D.I.Y. Felt Car Play Mat

I saw some adorable felt play mats on Pinterest and just had to make one for Wyatt.  He loves playing with little cars and pretty much anything with wheels. Now I am just trying to decide if I should give it to him tomorrow when he wakes up...or buy some new cars and things for it and give it to him as a Christmas gift?? What do you think??

I started with a 5' x 3' foot piece of green felt, fairly cheap at the fabric store. For everything else I used the 8.5" x 11" pieces of felt from Michael's...they are less than a dollar each. They even have some cute textured ones I used for the stone pathways at the park.

I used my rotary cutter for the first time to cut all my straight lines, but everything else I cut by hand. I don't have a lot of free time, so I just went for it.  My mother-in-law gave me a huge cutting mat...I asked her to borrow hers for this project and she said she had a brand new one that she hadn't even taken out of the box, because it was to big for her table...SCORE!!! It worked great. 

I put the whole board together with a glue gun, because I don't know how to sew very well...and glue gun seemed easier, until I really badly burned four of my fingers last night...not fun.

Here is a close up look at the different sections of the board.

 Airport/Runway

 Construction Zone

 School/Hospital

 River/Lake/Trees

 Park

 Parking Lot/ Shopping Center...and Target too!

Zoo...after burning my finger there was no way I could make felt animals...these were I think 59 cents at Michael's.

House/Farm

Seashell Wire Pendant

Hey all....before I went back to school to be a teacher and was blessed enough to stay home with my babies, I dabbled in the jewelry business a while.  I'm hoping I can share several things that you can do yourself:)  The first is a seashell wire pendant.  I love working with wire and have made several things with it. So today I am sharing this.

Items you will need:

wire cutters

round needle nose pliers

20 gauge silver plate wire (Michaels has all kinds and in other colors)

a seashell

suede lace

a round pencil

Step 1. Cut about a 2 foot piece of wire and starting with the middle, wrap it in a spiral around the pencil until you have about an inch of wire wrapped.

Step 2.  Now you have the 2 ends of the wire "hanging".  Take your shell and put it between the 2 ends and up fairly close to the spiral.  One of the wire ends should be on top of the shell, the other should be behind the shell.

 

Step 3.  Now is the tricky but fun part.  Holding the shell in place with one hand, take your other hand and start wrapping the shell with the 2 ends of the wire.  One end will wrap from the front, one end will wrap from the back.  The more you wrap (and space it out), the more secure the shell will become.

 

Step 4.  When you wrap until there is no more wire to go around again, you need to loop the wire end onto another wire on the back of the shell.  Always finish your ends on the back.

 

Step 5.  At this time the shell should be pretty secure and you can cut another piece of wire.  Loop it around another wire on the back to secure it and start wrapping again.  How much wire you use is your choice.  You have to have enough to make the shell secure but can add more for detail.

Step 6.  Once you have all the wire wraps you want use your round needle nose pliers and carefully make small bends on the front of the shell.  This will add detail and tighten the wire to secure the shell even more.  Make sure you are always keeping the wire flush to the shell.

Step 7.  That's it:)  You're done!  Just slide the pendant off the pencil and put it on the suede lace or leather cord.  They also look great on the silver collars.

And here is the final product modeled by my baby girl who is home from college for the weekend:D

I hope to be posting some more of my wire creations soon.  I do want to finish though by sayin, be patient, it might take a few tries to get it right and most of all, have fun!!!

Happy Craftin':)