Another Back to School Post

So, it's been a year since I was here last. It's been a crazy year. I got bumped up to PTO president, started substitute teaching and a whole lot of other stuff. So here's my back-to-school post. I've been blowing up Pinterest lately, I'm sure you have as well. Gotten a ton of wonderful ideas for Back to school gifts for my daughter's teacher, my top five are:  #1- Days of the Week Pill Box: Each day hold a special treat and message for your child's teacher, by Skip to my Lou #2- Burlap wall art: A cute wall art piece hand painted onto burlap with the teacher's name, by Rowdy in Room 300 #3- Teacher's Back 2 School Survival Kit: A box filled with needed supplies to get a teacher through those first few weeks of school, by Triple Nap #4- School Supplies Cake: A "cake" made out of needed school supplies, by Come Together Kids #5- Cool Teacher Stool- A hand painted stool for the teacher during reading or circle time, by LaurieColeDesigns So are you doing anything for your child's teacher? If so what?  And don't forget to plan out those First Day photos so you can scrap them later! And if you have or know any kids in a K-12 school go vote for them at Give With Target. Every 25 votes a school gets means a $25 gift card for that school! You can vote once a week. Happy Scrapping!

Back-To-School

It's that time again to get ready for school! Emma is starting 1st grade and I've applied to become a substitute teacher at her school (county) on top of volunteering to tutor math and PTO. We've just gotten done making our Back-To-School bags for the teachers, all 34 of them. We hand painted the apple from our School Collab kit then stuck a few school supplies we've gotten inexpensively thru all the sales going on and added a cute card. Any one of these items matched with the cute phrase would make wonderful appreciation gifts for your child's teacher! Feel free to grab the idea and run with it. Here's what the card says: Here's a bag of goodies to get the year started and show how much we appreciate all that you do: Pencils because you have the WRITE stuff. (Pencils) Stickies for the role you play is NOTE-able. (Sticky notes: aka Post-Its) Highlighters to show you are the HIGHLIGHT of the school day. (Highlighter markers) Note cards because we're glad you're a part of our PACK. (Pack of note cards) Sanitizer so HAND-IN-HAND we can work togehter to make a difference for our students. (Hand Sanitizer) I've also made a few items this week at Vistaprint.com with their Back $2 School Basics sale. Tote bags, t-shirt, notebooks and magnets were ordered for very little cost. Some will be used as teacher appreciation gifts others we'll use as BTFE prizes. Below are the two graphics I used most. And last but never least I've discovered a wonderful internet based company, that just happens to be local, called Spoonflower.com. They custom print fabric with any digital image you have. I've been entereing their weekly fabric contests but have future plans to make a cheater quilt using scanned in artwork from my daughter... it's going to be awesome! I can also see heirloom photos turning into quilts, pillows or clothes. Make the perfect pattern for drapes in your living room that will EXACTLY match hwat you already have in decor. To me the possibilities are endless and I keep thinking up more. What about scraping a skirt design covered with your cuties? Anywho, check out Spoonflower for yourself! And stop by my Spoonflower shop to see what fabrics I've designed! Fabric designs: What are you doing to get ready for the new school year? Do you collect Box Tops? Happy Scrapping!

Oscars!

That's the theme for IC-9! Move stars, glamor, films, etc. For my submission I combined my digi skills with some volunteer work... it's the template for a project we'll be doing (I hope) for teacher appreciation week at Emma's school. This is the hallway to the teacher's lounge. I had tried to explain what I was thinking about and the comittee just didn't get it, so created this lovely image for them. I made my elements in Photoshop for some and other I grabbed from my Tickets Please kit. You can still grab my Tickets Please kit from My Nuthouse-Scraps Shop to scrap those memories of your Oscar party or even a school play! National Teacher Appreciation Day is May 3rd, or week May 2-6. Have you planned anything for your child's teacher/school yet? Any ideas running through your head that we could use? We just found out that we have to add an extra day for ours as the staff luncheon that was supposed to be on Friday has been moved to a different date. Help with ideas would be grand! *World Teacher's Day is Oct 5th. Which works out well to do two appreciation activities each year one in the fall and one in the spring! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hometown Love!

I sadly missed a week of Iron Craft because the real world got away from me somehow and I had to catch up. Whew! Now, this week's Iron Craft challenge is Hometown! My hometown is Rohnert Park, California in the middle of the beautiful wine country! Emers & I will be visiting there this spring (So excited -Thanks Daddoo!) I realised I don't have too many photos of good old RP so I just made a tribute scrapbook page rather than filling it with actual photos of my life... they're mostly still at mom & Daddoo's house. I recreated the old RP welcome sign and photo copied the map, along with some photos offline. Add some cardstock & glue, and viola! Ah, memories. Here's a quick munchkin catch up. In her Blue Fairy dance outfit (Yes, she wears this almost every week to dance practice.) And here she is goofing off on the slide at the park last week. That's all she wrote folks! Check in next week for the next Iron Craft challenge! Oh and there's a CT contest going on at Nuthouse Scraps! Come join us crazy bunch of scrappers and get free kits to work with!

That Winter Feeling

The week 6 challenge for Iron Craft was a "Winter" theme. I decided to try out some fun Christmas ice candles I saw on DollarStoreCrafts.com but with a winter spin to them. First, I made the ice candle using crushed ice, a candle taper, a few blue crayons and 1/2 lb of parafin. Next, for the decorations! I took another 1/4 lb of parafin an after melting it I beat it to a froth with my electric mixer. Spooned it on and stuck in some decorations. I made two using some pieces off a christmas garland, a couple of white glitter ornament balls and a few plastic scatter flakes. I think they turned out pretty well for my first try. I can't wait to see how the light flickering through the ice candle will look! I wonder if I threw some gree crayons into the parafin before I beat it if it would look like grass? Then I could make some spring candles! Well, I hope you enjoyed the craft for step-by-step instruction check out the DollarStoreCraft.com. And if you're looking for some scrapping, the new Mega Kit from Nuthouse Scraps, Lover's Sky is in the store now! It's SO pretty!

Getting Crafty for Valentines

Well, I joined in on the Iron Craft this week! Don't know what it is? It's a weekly craft challenge that is full of fun and inspiration! This week, #5, the challenge was "Be Mine" to make a Valentine. So I headed to the Dollar Tree and Target Dollar Spot to get some supplies. I ended up finding some cute small mailboxes at Target and I used one of those for this craft. I then decoupaged some newspaper strips and shapes on. Did some painting with acrylic & nail polish (for a translucent effect). Finally I printed out some words on the computer and decoupaged them on as well. I think I need to still add some embellishments but I'm happy with how it turned out. See that side below the bubble wand needs something and I think I need to add a 3-d key onto the end. Next, here are Emma's nails that we painted for valentine's day. I snapped this shot on my phone this morning so the detail isn't the best. But we did a layer of red, a layer of iridecent sparkles and the white hearts. Too cute! I've bought all my supplies for making the candy cane heart pops next week, but I was unable to find a cheap supply of the 6 in rulers so we've switched Emma's Valentines to these cute and affodable bubbles by Care at Dollar Store Crafts. What are you making for Valentines Day? Happy Scrapping!

Valentines Day is almost here! Inspiration time!

We're getting closer to the big day of LOVE and there's so many resources and projects you could do for this special day. First off I have several kits that are perfect for making cards or scrapping the love. A couple of old freebies: Touch of Love mini kit (Click image for download link) Mr. Fancy Pants mini kit (Click image for download link) And there's two huge wonderful kits in my shop: Chocolate Dipped - This one is really big but I only put a few things in the preview, click on the image to go to the shop and see the additional previews to see the full contents. Emma- the kit - Again this one is really big but I only put a few things in the preview, click on the image to go to the shop and see the additional previews to see the full contents. There's also some other free downloads for you to grab like this wonderful set of free cards from Florabella, so pretty! You could also repost this link for a chance to win a giftcard to her shop. Also there are some super fun crafts you could do for Valentines Day! Emma and I are going to try this one out with some mini candy canes we got at 90% off! Candy Cane Valentine Treats And here's a similar one done without the chocolate & sprinkles: Candy Cane Hearts This is one for making Valentine Heart Marshmellos! For her Class Emma and I are looking for some small rulers to make these cards Valentine You Rule! And here's a slew more of cards from Disney's Family Fun that you & the kids can make. Hope that these help you spark your imagination for this upcomming holiday. Join Emma & I in making this come truly from the heart by making your own Valentines this year. Happy Scrapping Everyone!