Happy Saturday! Here is my last Artisan card I have to share...looks like I'll have to start stamping again soon now! lol! This was my simplest card and it was inspired by a page in the West Elm catalog. The brown piece was a sideboard with a turquoise vase on it and it had a green picture hanging above it. The background wall was a neutral Sahara Sand card. I used the Eastern Accents rub-ons with the Kiwi Kiss cardstock to recreate the green picture in the catalog. The finished card size is 6 1/2" x 3 1/4". Well, the first week of school is over and I survived! Schwooo! I'll spare you the details on my Thursday night meltdown, it was not good! But after 13 hours of sleep last night, I'm feeling much better! The kids are darling and I have a really good class. Our school is using Power Teaching this year, which I'll mention for you teachers out there. Have you heard of it? I think they're calling it whole brain teaching now. It's kind of common sense, good teaching principles, but in a neat, interactive, catchy package. Anyway, I think it's pretty awesome and the kids are really into it!Okay, off to work on some lesson plans and then STAMP! The house is a disaster, but first things first, right?! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!
Happy Tuesday! Here's another Artisan card, only one left, don't know what I'm gonna do after that! lol! Guess I'll HAVE to make time to stamp! =)This card is 6 1/2" x 3 1/4" and designed to fit into those longer envelopes. I actually had the idea for the pieced background with stitching and made the base of the card a few months before deciding to enter the Artisan contest. I loved it so much, but I could never figure out what to put on "top" of the card to finish it off. I struggled for a long time and it was the last thing I finished. It's hard to see in the photo, but the little medallion part in Baja Breeze was made after the cardstock was distressed and taken apart, so you're seeing the "inside" of the cardstock for that rough look. I think everything else is pretty explanatory...just lots of cutting of little squares and then sewing with that fabulous Janome Mini!So, I survived the first day of school! Thank you for all your nice comments and well wishes! The kids are soooo cute and sweet (remind me of that later, okay?!), I really feel blessed. The day started with a tragedy when my diet coke fell out of my lunch bag and exploded in the parking lot at 6:30, yikes! That was my only one and we do NOT have a soda machine at school! The horror! You can bet I'm taking a six-pack with me today!The other killer part...the kids go to PE from 8:10 - 9:00, which is when I get my planning period, so it then makes a very LONG day from 9:00 - 3:30 with no break! But I'm trying to stay positive, it is helpful to have that extra hour in the morning to get stuff ready and I'm not a morning person, so that helps me wake up a bit more.Now for the cute stuff...here are my favorite things of the day. We were doing a "get to know eacher other" activity, decorating these leaves and answering questions about ourselves and finding friends with the same answers. With the question "Where were you born?" I got several "I wasn't born." answers. "Yeah, I've never been born." That was fun explaining without getting into the whole where do babies come from thing. And my other favorite: "I'm part Mexican and part Dallas." Love that!Here are a few of my "after" classroom photos, there's lots more on here on my flickr page with descriptions, especially for those teachers out there who want to see. I don't like things too busy or too much color and I like to cover the walls with things that the students make mostly. But here it is for now!Entry:
I made this calendar math time wall buy painting birch plywood boards from Home Depot with magnetic and chalk paint:
Front of the classroom:
Back of the classroom (they had to borrow a bunch of student chairs, for Monday morning, but they replaced them after school):
Word wall with those darling cards, attached with velcro to be interactive:
The best and cheapest window treatments, beach mats from Big Lots for $1.25!
Okay, gotta dash! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!
Happy Monday! Happy first day of school! This card seemed perfect to share today since it has a 'wise old owl'! Okay, I'm pushing it, but it's the best I can do! lol! This is a quick post as I have to dash, so excited for school to start! I could hardly sleep last night, guess I'm just like one of the kids! Thanks for all your comments recently, even the ones about my classroom! I meant to take my camera to school yesterday when I was finishing up, but forgot, so I'll try to get photos this morning so I can share later. It's not quite perfect...could it ever be?...but it'll do for now and I hope the kids like it!Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!
Happy Friday evening! Just popping in to show another Artisan Award card...this one is a gift card holder. If you peek behind the polka dot window sheet placed behind the 1 3/4" Circle Punch, you will spot an Anthropologie gift card...with a $0 balance on it, of course! At the Artisan dinner I asked Shelli if she was involved in the judging, because I used that gift card to subliminally influence her to pick me! lol! (She has admitted on her blog So Shelli to loving that store and shopping there frequently.) She laughed, but said, no, she was not involved in the judging. Well, even after working last Saturday and Sunday and late every night this week, looks like I'll still be heading back to my classroom tomorrow. It may have something to do with the fact that I'm partially obsessive-compulsive (is that possible? partially?) and that I spent too much time using the Big Shot for certain projects, but oh, did they ever turn out cute! Here are a couple of "before photos" and there are more on my flickr page here, if you want to check them out. It's a HUGE L-shaped room with lots of windows and light, I'm loving it! I'll take some "after pictures" when I'm done and share them too.
Okay, that's it for tonight! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!
Happy Thursday evening! I'm still going CRAZY with school stuff, but it's looking up...I should be ready for the kiddos on Monday! Really looking forward to that! In the meantime, here's a close-up of one of my Artisan Award cards. It's a 5 1/4" square, on Kraft, imagine that! lol!That's it, short and sweet! *wink* I hope you're having a great week! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!p.s. Don't forget tonight...9:00 p.m. CST...is the return of Project Runway...on Lifetime! Yahoo! Oh how I've missed Tim Gunn! It'll be the first time the tv has been on all week! lol!
Happy Sunday night! I spent most of the weekend at school trying to get my classroom ready, so much still to do, yikes! I just counted back on the calendar and I haven't stamped for 12 days!!! See what teaching does to you?! lol! I just cleaned off my desk, however, as I do have some projects that I must work on! For now, here are my Artisan Award scrapbook pages! The 8 1/2 x 11 page above is of my sister Karen at her wedding last March. I loved that photo of her in color and the background in black and white.
I love this next page below because of the beautiful photos of my friend Beverly's twins Emmalee and Brennan. Aren't they the CUTEST?! When I decided to enter the contest, I called Beverly in a panic asking if I could use some of her photos, so she really saved me! Thanks again, Beverly!
Finally, this last page also features Emmalee and Brennan on their first day of Kindergarten last year. Aren't they darling?! Beverly's photography is excellent too! Because the vintage flash cards are all the rage right now, I tried to make a modern day one using Stampin' Up! supplies. 
Okay, I better get moving, it's getting late and so much still to do...even though dh just came and said it's time to go to bed. Ugh! I feel like I'm ready to start my weekend now, where did it go?! Oh yeah, it went to a 2nd grade classroom! lol!Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!
Happy Tuesday night! Now that the Stampin' Up! Convention has passed and my winning Artisan Award projects have been displayed, I am so excited to share them here with you! Pictured above is my display board with my projects, and as you can see, the empty Velcro dots where one project had fallen to the floor, egads! Yes, I did crawl under the barrier and try to fix it, but to no avail! lol!Anywhoooo, I sometimes struggle with 3-D projects, but then I had these two ideas and that's what actually pushed me to go ahead and enter at the last minute. I took these photos super quickly (remember that "last minute part"?!) before racing to pack them up carefully and overnight them to Salt Lake City. Talk about schwooo! It was a close one! Here's the little fallen project...a cupcake box. Cupcakes have been so popular, so I started out with a plan to make a box to hold a cupcake with a transparent top. But then the cupcake was turning out so cute, I didn't want to hide it in the box, so I stuck it on top. Then it looked too short and little, so the bamboo skewer with little pennant was added. And that's how it evolved! lol!
My second 3-D project was a crown made from the SU Pennant Die and Big Shot. When Brent Steele called to tell me I had won, he said that he and others at the SU office wanted to be 30 again so they could wear this crown, and I knew just how he felt! I picked "30" because "42" just didn't seem as special! lol!
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my projects! I'll be sharing more these next few days...which works out well since I have been buried with back-to-school preparations and haven't stamped or made anything! I forgot how much work is involved in setting up a classroom! Yikes! I'm slowly catching up on my Google Reader and I promise I will be by to give *you* some love this weekend! Hugs and happy stamping!
