Gift Card Holders

Wow!  Ok, so I know I haven't posted in forever, but working full time, having a toddler, and being pregnant is about all I can do at once!

I've got a week left before my maternity leave starts, so I figured I'd better get my room mom gift taken care of now.  I think it turned out great!  I recently got the Embossed Gift Card Holder Die and the Stitched Button Dies from My Creative Time and pictured this project ever since!  I just couldn't wait to make them!  I used the dies with my Cuttlebug, some papers, twine, and a button or two from my stash and tada - a set of six gift card holders, ready to go!  What do you think?

Won't these be so cute for my room mom to hand out with her next few gift cards?  I think they are so fun!  I hope she loves them as much as I do!

Thanks for stopping in!

Cynthia  :)

A Few School Projects

Alright - you'll have to give me a bit of a break on not posting the last month or two.  It is back to school time and I'm a teacher after all!  We have been back in school for a whole month now, and I think I can spare a moment to blog.  :)

Here are a few little projects I did for back to school:

This is a brownie points pan that I found on Pinterest (I think - where else do I find stuff?!).  I printed some cute little brownies on cardstock and then laminated them.  Once the kids get a full pan of brownies by getting complements from other faculty and staff, I will make them brownies and bring them in to share!  

This is the beginnings of my transportation display.  I took all three of these circles and mounted them on one long piece of super cute ribbon.  I wish I had taken a classroom shot of the finished product for you.  Then I have clothes pins with all the kids names on them.  I can keep track of who goes where - carpool, bus, or day care.  This one I know came from Pinterest - click here to see my inspiration.  

This one came from Pinterest, too.  Big surprise right?!  I used a pringles can, but I had to look hard and get the smaller one.  Now they are making them longer, which didn't work for what I wanted.  The gal on pinterest used them for teacher gifts - see that here - but I wanted to use mine to store pencils in the classroom.  The students lose tons of pencils and this is where I store the new ones!  It turned out cute!  The kids love it. :)  

Ok - well that is all for now!  I have one other project to post about, but it will have to be another day.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Cynthia

Summer is not long enough!

Ok, so normally summer is when I do the most posting!  Well, not so much this year.  My son only takes one nap now, I've got a new teaching partner for the school year that starts in less than a week, and right before summer I crafted myself out!  That envelope album I made was quite a lot of work and a friend asked me to help make her one very similar to it and I did it in less than two days.  Also, life has a way of changing the way you thought things would go, which very much happened this summer. Anyway...all that to say, I know I haven't posted anything!

Good news is, I have a few projects I've been working on in recent weeks and will hopefully be posting them soon.

Here is a little bit of another project I've been working on this summer - a blanket for my little boy.

You can bet I'll post pics of that when it is done!

Bye for now!

:)  Cynthia

Country Tags

Hi there!  Quick post today...

A few of the other teachers and I auctioned off a Day in the Country for a few students during our school's annual gala and auction.  The other gals asked me to make a few labels for each girl to attach to their finished projects.  The kids made flower arrangements, strawberry jam, and got eggs from the chickens.  I taught them to crochet, well...started them out anyway.  It was a bit tougher to teach them to hold the hook and string than I thought!  Anyway...here are the labels I made.  I made one for each girl of each type.

I ended up gluing the strawberry card together and punching a hol3 in the top to make it a label for the jars of fresh strawberry jam they made.  

All the shapes are from the Silhouette online store.  I used Silhouette Studio to design and do the print and cut.  

They turned out great!

The kids loved them.  Maybe my project next year will be making the labels with them instead of trying to crochet!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

:)  Cynthia

Envelope Album

Hello there, crafty friends!

I'm very sad that my friend and partner teacher won't be returning to our school next year.  I wanted her to have something to remember us all by and also to give her some encouragement when she needs it with the new journey she is headed for.  I started collecting notes and cards from our colleagues and did some crafty brainstorming.  My super creative SIL, Ruthie, thought of an envelope album.  Brilliant!  I didn't give people any parameters because I wasn't sure what I was making until after I called for the letters.  It was a bit tricky, but I got them all together and it actually turned out really nice!  The pictures don't quite do it justice, but here goes.  (I had to blur out the kids as I didn't get parental permission to post the pics.)

I put the person's name on the page where their letter or card was slipped in the envelope.  I also included some Bible verses and pictures of staff and students.   

Some of the cards were smaller so I could actually put them in pockets right on the pages.  This helped free up the envelopes themselves for other letters.  

With the envelope album, I could just slip the larger cards and full page letters into the envelopes.  It worked great!  I could fit 2 cards or letters in each if needed, but I tried to stick with one.  

I sealed each 6 x 9 envelope and cut off just a tiny bit on one side to open the end of the envelope.  Then I cut out pieces of paper to the right size and glued them on all the sides of the envelopes.  Once everything was glued onto the pages, I used Ruthie's Cinch to cut the holes and put on the binding.  

All the patterned paper is from the DCWV stack called The Blossom Song.  It is so pretty!  I did run into the issue that some of the pages have a hard glitter glue type surface, and although it looks really pretty, adhesive doesn't like to stick to it.  I had to use a combination of liquid adhesive and photo splits to get it to stay put.  

All the cuts are from the online Silhouette store and I cut everything on my Silhouette SD.

She loved it and the whole rest of the staff loved to look through it as well.  I'm glad it turned out so nice.  I wasn't so sure there for a while.  It was a TON of work, but was well worth it in the end.  

Thanks for stopping in!

:)  Cynthia

Flower Note Cards

Most of you know I'm a teacher.  I wanted to give a little thank you gift to my room mom for the year.  She did so much work and I appreciate her very much!  I thought I'd make her some note cards.  I made a set of four.  I apologize for some of the pictures turning out poorly.  I finished the cards late last night and had to hand them out early this morning.  I took these shots with my phone as my students were coming in the door!

The scallop base is from a simple scallop rectangle from the Silhouette online store.  I just made two of them and welded them together.  The flower is a combination of two different cuts form the Silhouette online store.  The flower came from one set and the leaves from another.  I thought the button was a nice touch.  The paper is DCWV and KI Memories.  After it was all together I added some gel pen dots.  I really like how they add just the right touch to most any card!

I forgot to get pictures of this, but I finished the insides with a piece of white (for the pink) and cream (for the blue) so that it creates a nice writing surface.  I also added a strip of coordinating paper to the ones with the scallops to add a bit of color on the inside.

I really like how they turned out!

Thanks for stopping in!

:)  Cynthia

End of Year Gift

Well hello there, crafty friends!  I have been so busy the last few weeks wrapping up the school year with my students!  Tomorrow is the last day, and I finally have a few minutes to sit and update the blog.  I have a fun craft for you today.  It is the end of the year gift that I gave my students.

One of my friends, a 2nd grade teacher at my school, found a neat thing on Pinterest.  You can see it here if you want.  We wanted to eliminate the sugar portion of it and of course change it to be from the teacher to the students instead of from a student to the students.  After some creative planning...we came up with these.

Aren't they fun?!  I made 4 class sets, 3 sets of the happy faces and one set of the one with the beach ball.  The two shown are from the two second grade classes.  Both my partner teacher and I chose the happy faces for our two third grade classes, but I didn't get any shots of those.  They are the same as what you see here.

We loved them and the kids loved them too!  I ordered the balls from amazon.com and got 144 for $14 and some odd cents.  I ordered three sets.  The little plastic bags came from Michaels.  The super cute face on the green ones is from the Teacher Says! stamp set from Peachy Keen.  I added a little color to them and dotted the eyes with my gel pen.  The circle and scallops was from a scallop circle set in the Silhouette online store.  The beach ball is from the Lettering Delights Vacation Cut Its set.  I added a little gel pen to that one too.  The words I printed out on my computer.   I just LOVE how they turned out!!

Thanks for stopping in!

:) Cynthia