Thursday, April 23, 2009

Appreciate Your Teachers!

Let's Appreciate Our Teachers!

It is getting close to teacher appreciation week~ 1st full week in May. My boys have 4 teachers between them. Their home room teacher, and the teacher who brings them out to me after school.
I love all 4 of these ladies! A lot of my friends are teachers, and I am so thankful for all they do and endure. I only have 2 little boys -I can't even imagine 15-20 kiddos! Teachers are truly angels on Earth.
So...for teacher appreciation week I decided to make them a little something. What I came up with (after hours of tutorial videos) was to make them:















beaded pen, coaster booklet, and a mini coaster clipboard
I think I will also make Ian's teacher a little something extra. I am the room mom for her class and take pictures of the class for her. I am thinking...maybe a photo book for the pictures. The wheels are turning. *note to self...find perfect paper and stamps for project*
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Ok. Here is the pen.
It was actually really easy. I have seen my sister make them before, but have never attempted to do it myself. But, I bit the bullet and did it myself and you know, it was really easy!

What you need:
















Pen (I prefer Pentel's RSVP)
Double sided tape
Tiny Glass Marbles
Crafters Heating Tool
Decorative Paper

What to do:
Tape the pen, with the double sided tape, where you want the beads to be.

Use your heat tool to heat the tape just a little.

Roll the pen in the Tiny Glass Marbles.

Once covered with beads, roll between your hands to press on the beads to the pen.

For a little extra something, you can also add decorative paper inside the pen.















Tie on a ribbon and you are done!

Now for the Coaster Post It note booklet...
I watched a couple of tutorials on http://www.chicnscratch.typepad.com/ She has the best website! I love everything she does- thanks for your help Angie!

What you need:















Coasters (of course)

Decorative Paper

Post Its

Zutters Bind It All and 1/2 inch Wires

First cut a straight edge on your coasters. Use your post it notes to make the measurements so that you don't cut off too much. Then cut the decorative paper with the coaster template.
















Next, just glue the decorative paper to the coasters. Just a little tip, if you are using paper that has a "top" and a "bottom"- make sure to put the paper in order to how you want your booklet to open. I am glad I double checked myself...nobody wants to see a book cover that is upside down. Use a fine sand paper to brush the edges so that they are smooth.

















To make sure the coasters look more finished and the paper is protected, brush coasters with Mod Podge. Let the coasters dry completely. What is Mod Podge? Well, it is basically a glue. It dries very quickly and adds a protective coating to your crafty creations.

Now the fun begins! You get to use the bind it all!























Ahhhh, the wonderful bind it all~ This is the first time I have used it, and it certainly won't be the last! This jewel of the crafting world does what it's name implies...it binds. The ideas are just buzzing around in my head! I should write these ideas down.

ok, ok...where was I? Oh, using the bind it all. Take the covered coasters and place them together in the order you want your book. Place the flat side down -centered-inside the bind it all and pull the lever. That's right, that is all there was too it!

After the holes are punched into the coasters, it is time to use the binding wire and assemble the book. I hope I explain this next part right... Take your coasters and put the wire through the holes. To put the binded section on the inside of the book, turn your book inside-out. Basically you do the reverse of how you want your book to look. Does that make sense? The bind it all website has all the instructions from professionals in their video library section...worth a check out! http://www.binditall.com/

After you bind the book, just decorate the front cover, tie with ribbon, insert post its, and add a little embellishment and you are set.















Finally, the coaster mini clipboard.

What you need:




















Decorative Paper

Coaster

Clip

Small Notebook-one that has the binding at the top

What to do:
First, using the coaster as a template, cut out two pieces of decorative paper.
As with the Post It booklet:
Glue the decorative paper to the coaster.
Decorate back cover of clipboard.
Brush with Mod Podge and let dry completely.


Gently tear about 15 - 20 pages from the top binded notebook. Using the coaster as a guide, cut some of the top portion of the paper so that it can be clipped onto the coaster. Finally clip paper to coaster and tie clip with ribbon. You can also put decorative paper on the clipboard- mine had an apple stamped onto it. And TaDa~ can you believe it was this easy?


Back of clipboard
Front of clipboard

Monday, April 13, 2009

Aarrghh! It’s a Pirate Party!

Aarrghh! It’s a Pirate Party!
I can’t believe my baby is turning 6! Where did the time go?
It seems like we just brought him home from the hospital yesterday.

















We asked him where he would like to have his party- and of course he picked Incredible Pizza. If you don’t have an Incredible Pizza near you – it’s a pretty cool place. Check them out at: http://www.incrediblepizza.com/. They have the usual pizza party place stuff- skee-ball, bumper cars, coin games and arcade games. The usual routine, play games-win ticket… get goodies. Incredible Pizza also has a mini bowling alley, race cars and mini golf! Our boys of course love it there!

Incredible Pizza is now having “theme parties”. Your choices are rock star, cheerleaders, cowboy/girl, soldier and pirate. Cody chose the pirate theme-Arrrgh.

I decided to decline the pizza invitations and make my own. Fortunately for me, my sister has some awesome pirate stamps.
I printed the invitation of decorative paper I purchased from my local Michael’s Craft Store. I decided to give it a rustic old map feel, so I roughly cut the invitations and stained the edges with Color Box’s Chestnut Roan. I stamped the card with a stamp from Stampin’ Ups Ahoy Matey set in Chalk Box’s Cocoa. The envelopes I stamped a ship stamp from Stampendous Changito Pirates set.
I also made goodie bags to match the invitations.
I took plain small paper bags, stamped a G Studio skull and crossbones stamp in the lower corner. I folded the bag over and punched two holes in the center and tied a black ribbon through it.

As luck would have it, while at Hobby Lobby the other day, I ran across pirate candies and cup cake liners! What a find! I just had to have them. So, now I will also be making the cupcakes for the party.


I love to surf the net for new cooking and baking websites. I found a cool candy mold site called Candy Mold Central - http://candymoldcentral.com/. They have a ton of candy and chocolate molds as well as pans and 3-D molds. I checked…and Eureka! There they were-- pirate molds! I can’t wait to try them out!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

It's Baby Shower Time!


It's A Boy!




Yea! I love babies. My girlfriend is having a baby, so my sister and I are throwing her a shower. She is having a boy, so we decided to do everything blue, yellow and green.

I haven't used my baby stamps in a long time, so I thought I would get them out and stamp on the napkins and the baby games I printed out. Plus I made goodie bags as Thank You gifts for all the girls. It was a lot of fun to plan such a special event.


Here are the napkins...

I used a sheep stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps, and the bottle, onsie and carriage from a couple of clear stamp sets from Jo Ann Fabrics.



the baby games I printed from http://www.babbee.com/

I used the same baby stamps to stamp on the top corner of the game pages.

Here are the goodie bags I made as Thank You gifts for all the guest.

I purchased yellow and green bags from my local Hobby Lobby and used my Spellbinders Nestabilitie Scallop Circle Die and clear baby stamps. I Stamped the carriage clear stamp in the center and put baby blue buttons for the wheels. I tied crochet thread through the buttons. It was such an easy project! I don't think I will buy a decorated gift bag again. This way I can match the bag and card for any and every occasion!

The treats...



I filled the bags with cookies- a lamb and a chick, chocolate candies, M&M's, chocolate covered marshmallows.

My girlfriend is such a sweet and loving person She has 3 very sweet boys and is now having her 4th boy. I know this new bundle of joy is being welcomed into a very loving family! He is a very lucky little boy. I wish the best for her- she deserves it!

I hope that everyone enjoys the shower and has a great time.