Monday Made It #3

I am so glad that I've joined up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics to get so classroom projects completed this summer!  I am back with my third week.  I actually completed more projects that I'm showing you this week, but this is all I've had time to photograph.  I guess I save the rest of my goodies for next week's fun!!

I have had this chair floating around the house for years and I decided it was time for a makeover.  I spent less than $5 on this project.  I only had to purchase the fabric because everything else I had on hand.

Here is the Before---->

I found the really cute owl fabric at Hobby Lobby.  I did injure myself in the making of this project! :(  I know the owls on the bottom are facing the wrong way, but after all those staples, I was NOT about to pull them all out again!!!  Maybe next year!! LOL  It will still look great behind my group table!

Here is the After------> 

On to the next project.......

My mom found this owl chalkboard on one of our summer Michael adventures.  It was too plain so I decided to dress it up a bit!

Here is the Before----------->

I added some vinyl that I had on hand, took a couple of paint pens to the eyes, and added some ribbon!!  What do you think?

Here is the After------> 

Thanks for looking!! Let me know if you have any questions!!

Birthday Card Swaps

So school is going to start soon and before I know it, I'll be back to work with no time on my hands.  I decided now was a great time to build up my swap supply of cards for the next few months.  FYI swaps are cards that I make for a monthly stamp group that I attend.  We each make 12 of the same card and bring it to our meeting.  We then "swap" cards so we will all come home with 12 cards that are different.  I use these cards as ideas or to send out when needed.

                                                 
I was browsing Splitcoast Stampers the other day looking for a bit of inspiration.  I haven't pulled out my Crazy for Cupcakes Stampin' Up! set in quite some time, so I decided it would make a perfect swap card.  I found several cards that were lovely, but this one caught my eye.  I, however, did not want to hand cut all of the images so I decided to use this lovely invention to help me out!!

Well, I'm falling in LOVE with my Silhouette even more!!!  So the silhouette has this great Trace feature on it.  (Don't get me wrong!  I still love my Cricut too, but this is something that my Cricut cannot do!)  Here's what I did:
     * I stamped the images from this Crazy for Cupcakes Stampin' Up! set onto plain, white copy paper.
     * I then scanned the page into my computer and created a .jpeg file.
     *I then used the fabulous 'trace' feature in the silhouette software and traced the outer edges of each image.
     *I also used the 'offset' feature and created a little "border" around the stamp lines.
     *I went back and deleted the original traced image, copied the offset image about 12 times, lined up all 12 images onto my paper, then cut the images out.

I LOVED that I did not have to "fussy cut" around all of the cupcakes and balloons that I used on these cards.  I am NOT a very patient fussy cutter, nor am I very good at it, so this was AWESOME!!!!

After all of the stamping fun, I colored in the images with my Pink Pirouette, Cool Caribbean, Smoky Slate, So Saffron, and Only Orange SU! markers.  I also coated the sprinkles, the flame, and the balloon with SU! glitter glue.  I used an embossing folder to emboss the pink paper on the one side, stamped the greeting at the bottom of the other with smoky slate ink and called it done!!!

If you have any questions, please let me know!  Thanks for looking!!!

Friend Card

Well, my BFF is moving. :(  But luckily, she's only moving an hour and a half away.  While I'm still sad that she doesn't live 2 minutes from me, she is moving to a place that I can drive to and spend the weekend when I want!!

I decided to make her a card to go with a little "send off gift" I picked up for her.  I have a closet full of stamps and I couldn't decide what I wanted to use.  I remembered that this odie but goodie Loads of Love & Loads of Love Accessories Stampin' Up! stamp sets have a "moving" option and a cute phrase to go with it.

I purchased the Tim Holtz distress marker set a couple of months back thanks to an amazing Blitsy sale (link in the side bar).  I have been dying to play with them.  I also picked up some of the Tim Holtz watercolor paper that I've been seeing some fabulous bloggers use recently.  I pulled out all my supplies, inked up the stamp set, and got to coloring.

It's been so long since I've watercolored anything and I realized how much I missed it.  I need to jump on the watercolor bandwagon that has been going on and do more of it!  I added the image to some Stampin' Up! solid cardstock and then pulled out a MME paper pad from Hobby Lobby for the background paper.

In true AmyR fashion, I stamped the image that's in the back of the truck multiple times onto the bottom edge of the inside of the card.  Before watching her videos, I never decorated the inside of my cards.  I did, however, forget to take a picture of that part.  :(

So, I have a little *review* of the Tim Holtz distress watercolor paper.  I have seen many designers use this paper and several have wet it before using it. They did this mostly when they were adding a large amount of color to the background.  It might work to wet the paper first and then add the color, but I did not like this technique when using the markers to color in the images.  When I got the paper wet before coloring on the paper with the marker, I had a LOT of pilling.  The marker seemed to grab bits of the paper as I colored and then it would show up on my image.  So, in the future, I will color directly onto the paper with the marker and then add the water when using this paper.  I do love that it is a true white and not a vanilla/off-white color like most watercolor paper.



If you have any questions, please let me know.  Thanks!

Monday Made It #2

Hey!!  I'm back with another Monday Made It post!  I'm linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics with a project for school.

For the last five years, I have used these bins from Lakeshore for my daily papers.  I would take time on Friday afternoon and get everything ready for the week and put them in the corresponding bin for each weekday.  That way, if I was out for whatever reason, everything was ready for the sub.  Well, fast forward to this upcoming school year.  I'm moving to another school and since the bins were part of the school's property, I couldn't take them with me. :(  I was going to just purchase them for my new classroom because they worked so well for me in the past, UNTIL I saw the price!!! Seriously!!!! $60 for bins-I think not!!!

That led me on a search for another solution.  I've seen examples of these drawers floating all over the internet and I decided that I would give them a try in place of the ones for $60.  I have an owl theme in my classroom so I went to TPT in search of an owl themed set.  I found this one and I fell in love!  I liked that she gave you a file that you could edit and make work for you however you needed it to!

I found these sterilite drawers at Walmart for just under $10 a piece.  I picked up three sets and I now have a drawer for each day as well as a set of file, copy, and grade for my desk.  The best part-they were HALF the price of the ones from Lakeshore.

I do, however, have a little tip for you.  I printed mine out on white card stock and laminated them with my Scotch thermal laminator that I purchased at Walmart a couple of years ago.  I do NOT recommend doing that.  My thinking was that I wanted them on the outside and I wanted them sturdy.  I did not think about the drawers being curved.  If I ever have to redo them, I will print them on regular paper and then laminate them.  I ended up having to hot glue them to the front of the drawer with quite a bit of hot glue.  I tried double sided tape and they ALL popped off overnight.

Thanks for looking!  If you have any questions, please let me know!

My First Monday Made It

So if you aren't familiar with Monday Made It, you should visit Tara at 4th Grade Frolics. I've browsed other's Monday Made It projects for a couple of years, but this is my first tine to actually participate.

So a couple years ago burlap door hangings were the "rage."(They are still popular) I pinned a couple of similar projects then but never made anything. Well since I'm moving to another school/grade I thought now was as good a time as ever.

I started by finding an owl image on my Gypsy and cut out the layers of the owl with my Cricut. I found this owl on Noah's ABC's cartridge.  I then used the layers to create my template and I traced the layers with a sharpie onto the burlap.  I cut out two body layers-one for the front and one for the back.

Then came the paint!  I started by painting the entire front piece with brown paint that matched the color of the burlap.  I let this layer dry overnight, but the acrylic paint dries fairly quickly.  I found that it was easier to add other paint layers on top of a painted surface.  The burlap absorbs a ton of paint on the initial layer. It was easier to paint the base brown so that when I added the lighter colors on top, it didn't take as much paint.

I also used various cricut and svg files to create the chevron backdrop and the name.  I cut these out of plain paper and sprayed adhesive on them.  I let them "dry" so that they were tacky and had a temporary bond when using them as stencils.

When all the paint layers were dry, I used a fine paintbrush and black paint to draw the outline lines.  I also used a white paint pen to add the "highlight details."  I added the wire, bow, and a bunch of spray glitter!

If you have any questions, please let me know.  I'm entered into the #cricut #imadeit contest with this also! Thanks for looking!!!

Lego Birthday Card

Well, my nephew turned 7 this year!  I can't believe it.  As usual, I made a birthday card for him.  I must say this is not my best work.  I have been very busy this end of school year.  I have had to pack up my entire classroom.  I did not realize how much stuff I have collected in the last 5 years of teaching.

Anyway--my nephew is into Legos.  I have seen several of these cards floating around Pinterest so I decided to make my own version-a quick about to go out the door for the party version.

All supplies are Stampin' Up!  If you have any questions, please let me know!  Thanks for looking!!

Baby Thank You cards

Well, today will officially be my first day back to work after maternity leave.  I will miss my little man greatly today.  I wanted to share a thank you card that I put together for my baby shower gifts.  I made two versions of this card, a green and a blue, but I used up all the cards before I realized that I hadn't taken a picture for my blog!!  This is all I had left.

I started by using Stampin Up Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue card stock which are both now retired.  :(  I then embossed each with the Stampin Up Cloud embossing folder which you can currently get on the clearance rack on Stampin Up!'s website.

I then cut the baby on page 43 from the Cricut Baby Steps cartridge.  I did not cut out the face.  I used Peachy Keen Stamps baby faces for the face of the baby.  I also colored in the eyes with a white gel pen.  I added a little pink chalk to the cheeks too that you can't see in the photo because I took a picture with my iphone and I'm not realizing they aren't that great!  I embossed the baby's outfit with the swiss dots folder. The sentiment is a retired SU! set punched with the word window and modern label punches.

I made almost 50 of these and I used all but this one!  Hopefully my day will go well and I'll be home before I know it!  Thanks for looking!

Easter Peeps Cards

Happy Spring everyone!! This has been a busy 2014 for me so far. I finally got some inspiration for my Easter card swaps. I wanted to do a "peeps" theme.

I got onto the silhouette store and found some cuts that would work!! I cut out the bunny silhouettes in three colors to resemble the Easter peeps candy! I then ran them face down through my Xyron sticker maker and  made them sticky on the front side. I then applied Martha Stewart flocking powder to make them appear sugary. I added black enamel accents for the eyes and nose. This spread a little after it dried so if I did it again I would apply a smaller amount so it would look right when finished.

I found a Jillibean label in the silhouette online store for the sentiment and used the print and cut feature. That machine is awesome!!

Thanks for looking!!!

Card Sets

I had several ladies host one of my baby showers.  I wanted to give them a token of my appreciation.  The only thing I could think to do was to put together a set of cards for them to use.  I started with a package of the pre-scored cards and envelopes that you can buy at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.  They are a little smaller than a standard A2 card, but it was ok.  I copied some of my favorite past card creations as well as played with some new to me stamp sets for the others.

There were four cards in each set.  Each card had a different sentiment.  I thought about doing a similar style and then changing the sentiments to the cards would "match" but I wanted to do so many different techniques and use different stamp sets that I decided to make them all different.

And here they are all stamped and ready to package up!

And here they are all packaged up and ready to give out.  The thank U sentiment is from a very old Stampin' Up! set that I love and could never get rid of.  Thanks for looking!! :)

Painted Pillowcases

In our family, we have eleven nieces and nephews that we still do Christmas gifts for (plus a couple).  That's alot!!!  It's hard to buy them toys because kids are into and out of stuff so quickly.  You know me, I love to make gifts.  This year I decided to make pillowcases with each child's name on it.  These are great to bring to sleep-overs and to use everyday also.  I wrapped a few other items inside but this was the "main" gift.

I used a technique that I haven't used in a couple of years--Tulip fabric soft paint and freezer paper.  Since discovering Heat Transfer Vinyl  I don't use the paint/freezer paper technique for making shirts.  I have noticed that the HTV doesn't always do well in the dryer and I knew that pillowcases would need to be washed frequently so I decided to go the "old school" route.  I have a few shirts that I've made with the paint/freezer paper that have washed and dried several times without any problems so I knew that would be ok.

Sock Monkey Card

Some friends of our are expecting their first baby.  I wanted to send a little card in with the package I'll be mailing to them.  The invitations for the shower were in the these colors and had a sock monkey on them.  I thought it was the cutest and that is where I got the inspiration for the card.  I used the cricut B is for Boy cartridge for the monkey and the Base Camp cartridge for the name letters.  I embossed the monkey with the SU sizzix lattice embossing folder and a cuttlebug polka dot folder for the white layer.  Thanks for looking!

Shaker Card

My best friend's little girl turned 5 a couple of months ago and I wanted to make her a fun card for her birthday.  What's more fun than a shaker card?  I used a couple of cricut cartridges to cut the number and the candles.  I used a Stampin' Up! stamp and die for the happy birthday banner.  It was lots of fun to make and she enjoyed it!  Thanks for looking.

Halloween Treats

I needed some crafting therapy this weekend after a very long week at school so I decided to put together some treat bags for my team teachers.  With this being Halloween and Red Ribbon week, the kids are  extra hyper.  We may need a couple bites of something sweet to help us "survive"!!!!!

I used the Stampin' Up! treat cups for the pumpkins and I filled them with the orange starburst candy corn.  I used the Cricut cartridge Create a Critter to cut out the pumpkins and a Tim Holtz embossing folder for the texture.

I used the Stampin' Up! thin cello bags along with the candy corn M&M's (which by the way are really good!)  For the candy corn image, I used an old Stampin' Up! set Tasty Sweet (retired).

I had so much left over candy corn and I decided that it wasn't a good idea to keep them in the house so I bagged them up in the Stampin' Up! small cello bags. *Not sure if they still sell these or not. I used an older set called Got Treats (retired) for the phrase and the candy image is also from the Tasty Sweet set.

And here they are all bagged up!!  I haven't made teacher gifts in a while and I really enjoyed putting these together.  If you have any questions, please let me know!  Happy crafting!

**all paper from Stampin' Up!

Superhero Gifts

We are invited to a birthday party for two brothers who are 4 and 2.  They both love superheros.  Their mom always does such great parties for boys so I love seeing everything that she comes up with each year.  This year I decided to make their gifts using my new silhouette cameo machine.

I first found a .png image for each logo online by doing a google search.  I then put it into my silhouette designer edition software and created a cut file by tracing the image.  (This is probably my favorite part of the cameo.  I could NEVER do this with my cricut!)  I then make the file and cut it from black paper.  I attached it to the yellow background and placed the red 'S' into the superman frame and viola!  Framed names!!

I decided to make a matching birthday card for each boy using the same cut file just modified a little to fit on a standard A2 size card.

If you have any questions, please let me know!  Thanks for looking!!!

Summer Re-Cap

Oh WOW!!!  It's been forever!!  I won't bore you with all the details about what has been going on.  A LOT has happened since this summer and I hope to be sharing some projects with you really soon!  I have been crafting, just not as much as I would like.  Here is a recap of my summer.....

In late May I got this in the mail!

I got a great deal here and I couldn't resist.  I purchased the designer edition when it was half off this summer and I'm still learning all the quirks but so far I'm in love.  I still have my cricuts and gypsy and I don't plan on getting rid of them.  I will still use both machines.  I made this purchase mostly because I want to use all my true type fonts from my computer instead of having to purchase new cartridges and still not have the exact font that I want.



June was the annual CKC Houston with my besties.  Here is a pic of my goodies.

We had a great weekend (as usual!) and made lots of memories!!!

July was pretty quiet.  I took lots of naps and organized my scrapbooks.  I've been so busy of the last couple of years with showers and other projects that my scrapbooking was neglected.  I purchased the above page protectors a couple of years ago (not sure if they are still available but I know several companies are now making similar ones).  I decided that the pages didn't have to be perfectly pretty and done just so.  I wanted to get the pictures out of the boxes and into albums so that I could share the memories.  I placed the photos in the pockets by event and added a little journaling spot to note the date/location of the pictures.  If I ever have time to go back I can make pretty pages with them.  For now, I'm calling them done and officially saying that "I'm caught up!"  I no longer feel overwhelmed and uninspired because I am "so far behind."

August was back to school time.  I didn't make too much for my classroom other than a few teacher math manipulatives to use in the classroom.  Poster sized ten frames to use with my students since my white board is not magnetic and a set of numbers and math symbols that have magnetic tape on the back that I use with a small hanging magnetic board over my math board.  The "counters" have a red side and a yellow side and each side has a Velcro dot in the middle.  (I store the numbers in the blue and red pockets below the ten frames and the counters in the alphabet pocket under the frames as well)  Everything on my math board is attached to the flannel fabric behind it with Velcro.

Stay tuned for more news later.  I'm trying to get back on track of posting projects.

Thanks for looking and happy scrapping!!!