Teacher Gifts

So Chris says he thinks teacher gifts are silly, but I think they are a nice little way of saying "Thank you for making sure my kid gets an education and sorry if they are a bit spastic during the day." I taught at our MDO, trust me a nice little cup filled with chocolate goes a long way!

Anyhow, to end our summer and start our new year at MDO, I put together some garden themed (get it, planting seeds to help them grow) baskets and signs for the teachers. And the most "expensive" basket, filled, was only $10. It's just that I spent some extra time making everything match and look cute together.


I was able to score the cute garden basket including the tools for only $3 on clearance at Hobby Lobby. Most of the other items I picked up in the $1 spot at Target.

So I have to finish the package off with the little tag that says "Pom Poms - Because everyone needs their own cheering squad." I have googly eyes, foam letters, seeds, and some stickers that I covered with the same paper for a topper.
The idea below is from one of the CKC classes I took. You cover a post it note pad with cute paper, use a hair band to hold it all together and then tie some extra ribbon to finish it off. Super simple and I think it came out cute. Make sure to use double sided paper.


I'm proud of this one because I did not steal the idea from anyone, it was all my own this time. Anyway I picked up these mini cork boards up at The Container Store, there were 6 in the box. Then today I picked out one of my flower stamps, put paint on a paper plate, and stamped the corkboard. It just dresses it up a little, which I like.


Anyhow, these are the ideas I have for the beginning of the school year. I got some great ideas at CKC that I intend to use too - mummy wrapped Hershey's bars at Halloween, a picture frame calendar for the new year and more. I hope the teachers enjoy the extras!

CKC 2010

CKC was a whole new experience this year because it was moved to the Galleria. There were positive and negatives for this location change. A big plus was that the hotel and the convention area were all together, no lugging our supplies across blocks of the downtown area. However there was a disadvantage in that we did have to lug our stuff from across the garage, through the lobby, up the elevator, into our room, then back out of the room, down the elevator, across part of the mall, and then into the crop room. I really felt like I moved my stuff back and forth more this time, I'm not sure why.


Above is one of the layouts we did in the "I Dare You" class. I enjoyed this particular layout because I got to use Glimmer Mist for the first time. On white paper, we put down cardboard cut out stars and then sprayed the paper to a point where we added color and dimension with splatters. Then removed the cardboard pieces and let it dry. So the effect lets the white paper show thru in a star shape. Nifty stuff!


Here is my first completed project from the "Gifts Galore" class. I signed up for this class with the intent that I get new ideas for teacher's gifts for the year. I was pleased with most of the ideas, however the teacher did lack some of her own creativity (the ideas were lifted off the internet). I really prefer when the teacher takes the time to throw in her own flair to a project, not just regurgitate something she read somewhere.

Finally I'm super excited about this new book I won during one of the classes (sorry I didn't get it rotated right). Anyhow, retreat ladies watch out, I'm using this book to guide our BINGO! It's gonna be good!

Disney Ideas

With our Disney vacation coming up, Chris & I have been brainstorming on how to make some cool stuff for the kids to enjoy on our trip. He was able to find me an applique program for my machine of Minnie and Mickey to put on a few items.

Applique is not something I've tried before and I've learned over the weekend that it is something the requires quite a bit of precision. I should add, I'm not a precision person so it has really been a test of patience for me to try to figure this all out.

First idea, take a t-shirt and turn it into a dress (don't you remember mom doing that for you when you were a kid?). I did okay, however the shirt is huge on Maggie, so I'm going to have to make some adjustments to the width, and add a ribbon along the bottom to kind of finish it out. Below is a rough mock up of what we are going towards on the dress. Cam's shirt will be simple because I won't have to make any alterations, it'll just have the Mickey head and then I'll be done.

I decided to test Minnie on something less important, so I took a scrap piece of fabric, and appliqued Minnie. I was so flustered after applying Minnie that when I embroidered Maggie's name I totally forgot to use stabilizer. Then I took sewed here and there to turn the scrap fabric into a pillow case that is the perfect size for the plane ride.

The applique is not perfect, but I did not figure my first attempt would be. I learned quite a bit in that 5 hour process. And although I think the kids will like having their custom shirts, and I will be proud to have made the items for them, I will NOT be appliqueing in the future.

We are also working on new tie-dye shirts with a red, white and blue theme since we'll be in California right before the 4th of July. We'll make enough so we can all wear those.

Finally, for whatever reason, I've had trouble finding something cute for Maggie to wear when we are at Legoland. All the Lego shirts are too boyish. I wish I could find a Toy Story 3 Lego Jessie shirt for the girl. Not totally certain what I'm going to do about that one yet, so if you have ideas send them my way.

Obviously we are excited about this trip.

Mickey Shirts for the Lisa

Here are some of the new shirts I've been working on for our friend Lisa.

Scrapbook Swap

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to attend a scrapbook retreat down in Galveston at The Red Victorian (www.galvestonsredvictorian.com). It was so much fun to see what everyone else was working on and gather some new ideas off of them. I worked on a page for Maggie, and 2 other scrappers liked it so much they did their own take on the page (see below). So I have an idea that a few of my friends are doing with me a scrapbook page swap. Only a few of us are doing it this time, and I'll post the results when they are completed.

Jeanne's diagonal layout.

My diagonal layout.

Kim's diagonal layout.

How to Reuse a Starbucks glass bottle

I've been keeping my Starbucks glass bottles and recycling them for my craft area. I'll post those pics soon too. However the other day we had a small friend over and to keep the kids entertained I had them help me make the dogs some treats from scratch (great way to use up that peanut butter at the bottom of the jar that no one wants to eat). Well, of course, we had to have something cute to put the treats in, so I took one of the jars and we made it a treat jar. Check out the "transformation."

I also have to say that the overall idea was not mine. Jennifer, Heather, Sarah, Lisa and Cindy all gave me various ideas and direction in changes the bottles up for my needs. Thanks ladies!

4th of July