New Toy...Cricut Explore

For years I have had a Cricut. I bought it off of Ebay back in 2009. This is exactly like mine:

In all honesty, I have not used it all that much. I quickly found that having to buy cartridges and having a cutting surface only 9" wide where limitations. In the end, I only ever bought three cartridges. I just couldn't convince myself to spend $30-$50 dollars buying images I wasn't even sure how often I would use.

The main use for my cricut was for party decorations. My last cartridge was for my son's dinosaur birthday. I made these to decorate his cake. They turned out so cute, my sister still has one of these saved.

For my son's Pooh party, I used my cricut to cut letters for a banner.

With Mother's Day around the corner...I ordered this:

I am SO HAPPY with my new machine. I WISH I had upgraded a long time ago. I can't stop looking for projects to make. So far:

I am having a love affair with vinyl. The tumblers are for my childrens' teachers. Sorry for the poor lighting in the pictures, it was late when I finished them.

I am so glad that you no longer have to buy cartridges for the new cricuts. There is a whole database you can use from with both free and membership images.

My old cricut sat in it's box until I needed it. Now I want to find a place for my new cricut where I can use it all the time...like my printer.

Now to find a great online vinyl store so I don't go broke at the hobby store. We all know that while they hobby stores are great for getting items quickly, they don't always have the lowest prices.

Happy cutting!!!

Classroom Decorations

 

One of my favorite things about having a classroom is changing and adding decorations on a whim.

The school theme is Snoopy.

 I enlarged a Snoopy and Woodstock on my home computer and made a poster board decoration for our classroom wall. They sit right inside our door. I know that you can go buy almost any decoration you can imagine, but we are a small school. We are located at a church so you can imagine our budget is tight. If I spent all my money buying decorations, well, there would be no point in working.

I am a self professed craft junkie. I have all kinds of craft materials in my house. I have a ton of 12x12 scrapbook paper so making paper decorations is cheap!!

I guess you could say decorating my classroom falls right in line with my love for party decorating!!

Check out my Snoopy fun below:

Thanksgiving

Ready for Christmas: see the paper lights?



Ready for February

Heart garland

3d layered  heart

Valentine's Day Snoopy with 3D hearts.

Snowflakes 2

Once I got started with the Peanut's snowflakes, I couldn't stop. I was trying very hard to come up with a Linus, but couldn't make it work. So for now I will share Sally and Lucy.

These where so much fun, I may have to see how I can finish the whole gang!!

Snowflakes

Right after graduating high school, I attended a junior college. I was fortunate enough to get a job in the testing center, proctoring exams for the online classes. The set up of the room was such that it had two doors. The space between the doors became my own personal canvas.

In the spring I would cut out flowers and butterflies to put up. The butterflies where such a hit that they would get taken by people walking by. I can't even explain how odd I found it that someone would steal a paper decoration off our wall.

In the winter time, I would make snowflakes. These where my favorite. While one butterfly would take me a long time, snowflakes could be cranked out quickly. I made so many that they ended up decorating more than just my little section of wall. I think this was where my love of decorating for parties comes from.

This year I began a job as a preschool teacher. I have really enjoyed having a classroom to decorate, but since we didn't have a chance to really put a personal touch on our room before class started...it has been a slow process.

The theme for the school this year is Snoopy (or Peanuts). I printed off a Snoopy and Woodstock to enlarge and make for our wall. Now I use them to "decorate." For Halloween I dressed them up. Now for Christmas, I have made them costumes to change things up.

What does this have to do with snowflakes you ask? Well, I was cutting some snowflakes for our classroom when I got an idea: Can I make Peanuts snowflakes? You tell me...

 Thanks for stopping by!! Sorry I haven't had posts lately, I have been really busy.

3rd Dino Party Done!

The dino party is done and it was a success.

The decorating consisted of leaves, vines and even some flowers. I hand cut most and then used my Cricut for others. The store bought decorations that I used where picked up on clearance at Target. I love to score decorations for a dollar or less.

On Pintrest I noticed all the dino eggs and could not resist making them. I am so glad my sister came to help me make the goody bag...dino eggs. Here is a little something I learned: flour paper mache takes a long time to dry. I only had a few days to make the eggs so we used Modge Podge. While this may be an expensive avenue, the drying time between coats is 20 minutes. We could not have made 20 if we where waiting hours for things to dry. We used brown and tan tissue paper as the final layer to give them a uniform finish.

Amazon was my dino headquarters. I found dino masks, bubbles, stamps, temporary tattoos, small figures and piñata. I also ordered a silicone dinosaur mold. I was really worried that the mold would not arrive in time. The mold came all the way from China. I used our favorite brand of dipping chocolate and made some candies we all loved.

Here are some pictures of the party.

The goodie bag EGGS. They where a huge hit.

Paper towel roll tree. Made two of these.

Cricut cut dinos for the cake.

Palm trees.

Looking at the room.

3rd Birthday Party Time

I have stated before how much I love birthday parties. Well, in a couple of weeks my little guy turns 3. I went back and forth between a Mickey party or a dinosaur party. I asked him again last week and he said dinosaur. So the theme is set!! (Yes, I did have to send out invites on short notice. His birthday snuck up on me.)

Of course my first stop is ALWAYS Pintrest. I loved the parties where they used their plants from all over the house to decorate one room. Too bad for me I have a black thumb. Plants just DIE around me. What this leaves me with is making my own plants.

I picked up packaging paper at the dollar store and made vines to hang. (You just scrunch and twist.) Thanks for my stash of scrapbook paper, I have leaves. I used a Cricut to cut some of the leaves and then just free handed others. I made large leaves and small leaves. I also made flowers. If you google prehistoric flowers, there are some really pretty ones.

I have made a couple of trees for the table. My local dollar tree had some 2 oz Mod Podge. I picked up a couple. This allows me to do small projects without having to open my big 16 oz bottle.

Inspiration hit this morning and I made the door decoration. I also sketched a dino on a poster board. I will paint it later or maybe tomorrow when all the kids are in school.

I can't wait to finish up the decorations. I just have to wait out Halloween. 

Here are some pictures of my progress. Keep an eye out for an update on the party.

 

 Thanks for stopping by! 

Butterfly Hole Punch Has Broken

I have loved my butterfly hole punch. I have a box full of beautiful butterflies I have punched from magazines. Now that I won't be using my hole punch again, I guess it's time to do something with all my butterflies.

I was at a thrift store last week and found a couple of cooling racks. I am going to make some butterfly mobiles. These have always been my plans for the butterflies, but I always put other projects first.
In honor of my broken hole punch, I am going to make one.

I didn't realize how much loosing my hole punch would bum me out. I receive various magazines and I always automatically look at the color combinations I could use my butterfly punch on. Now I flip through my magazines and think "what if."

So if you have an extra butterfly hole punch...or if it is sitting in a drawer somewhere gathering dust...I would LOVE to have it.

Birthday Parties and Pintrest

I love birthday parties. I am the kind of person who will stay up all night to decorate. I start planning the birthday theme months in advance so I can keep an eye out for things to pick up when they are on sale. I make as much of the decorations as I can. For the goodie bags, I try to include as much as I can but spend as little as possible.

I have friends who do not like parties as much as me.  Being the great friend I am, I have told them "look on Pintrest." Yeah, that's not really helpful when you are not a crafty person and don't like parties.

Here are some simple things that you can do to make your party great, without having to be crafty.

1. Use streamers. Streamers are inexpensive and make for a quick party place dress up. If you don't want to hang streamers from the ceiling, just drape them on the wall, or put them up the wall.

I like to bring the streamers down the wall a little.

I removed a picture to cover the wall in streamers.

Streamer flowers

2. Make a birthday sign. You do not have to buy the "Happy Birthday" sign in the store. Use colored paper or book pages to make a unique sign.

The name banner is pages from a winnie the pooh book.

I took pages from a winnie the pooh book that had pictures on them and made a banner for the food table.

3. Cover the tables and surfaces with table clothes. Use solid colors, use the ones from the dollar store, use them on lots of surfaces. If you buy one from the store that has characters, use it on the table that will be the center of attention. Use accent colors for the area where the presents will go or if you have a table on the side with the goody bags. If your character table cloth is not big enough for the table you have, place solid color ones under it and then use it in the center of the table. Don't be afraid to layer them.

The table cloth made this table with the goody bags a part of the decor.

4. Balloons. Balloons. Balloons. We all know that nothing says party like balloons. I use them on the mailbox by the curb to make the party guest feel festive as soon as they pull up. The balloons don't have to be helium filled. I like to blow them up and tape them to the walls. (See picture above.)

5. Have fun. If you do nothing more than the above, the party will look great. The most important thing is that you set the tone for the kids. If the kids think you are unhappy with the party, they will be as well. Remember parties are a celebration. Don't stress if everything is not perfect or PINTREST worthy.

Which brings me back to Pintrest. I think as moms we tend to compare ourselves to other moms. We look at what they do and feel like we are inadequate. Don't fall into that trap. Use Pintrest to gather ideas not to get down on yourself. Use Pintrest as a tool to help you, not as a tool to make you spend more money.

I hope I have helped a little to make that next party less stressful.

Thanks for stopping by,

Butterfly Hole Punch 2

My daughter and I go to the dollar store at least once a week. On our weekly trip I ran across some long frames that I thought would be perfect for a project I had in mind.  A while ago I saw this (butterflies in a frame) project featured on the blog One Pretty Thing. (Which I check on almost a daily basis.)

One more thing: Whenever I go to Home Depot, I always have to go by the paint section. I am not really sure why, but it is my favorite. On one of my trips I brought home a booklet with paint ideas for different rooms. I loved the ideas...then I got one more.

I began to punch out butterfies using the paint idea book. There where some beautiful textures and color combinations. The resulting butterflies are stunning. I LOVE them.

The mat in the frame needed to have the dividers removed. I then cut wrapping paper to fit the frame.

Finally, I used small glue dots to place the butterflies. Of course, I am a bit of a freak about them being equidistant. I printed off a table from my word processing software and used it as a guide to punch the holes I needed.

I will  take a picture when I put it up and add it here. I also need to finish the second frame. So, keep an eye out for new pictures.

Thanks!!

Butterfly Hole Punch!

I found a Martha Stewart butterfly punch while I was at either Ross or Marshall's. The price was about $4.00. I picked it up not really knowing what would come of it, but seeing lots of fun in my future.

I had attempted to make a light canvas, but it did not come out like I wanted...so there will be no pictures here. Of course, I had make holes in the canvas to push the lights through. This left a "ruined" canvas. I did not have the heart to throw it away and thought maybe I could just cover the whole canvas in paper once inspiration hit.

Well, call the butterfly hole punch inspiration!! I found it really hard to take a picture of it on the wall. The only time that room gets full light it early morning, and I always forget to take a picture then.

I have some really pretty scrapbook paper. Some of the flowers have glitter on them. I punched out butterflies from a solid color sheet as well. I then just used some hot glue to put butterflies over the holes left from the lights.
Here are some close-ups.

I have a few more ideas brewing...stay tuned!!

Thanks for coming by,

Wall Art

I found this great site called Wordle. I have seen images like these before, but had no idea how they where made. Yesterday I played on this site for over an hour. Then inspiration hit - I should make one of these for my kids.

They came out WONDERFUL so I have to share.

(I am going to paint the frame pink.)


Materials:
paper (resume paper I had laying around)
8x10 picture frame (dollar store)
computer & printer

On wordle I entered each child's name in all capital letters, about 7 times. A word detected more often will be enlarged. I then entered lots of descriptive words for my kids in lower case. For example, my little girl was "sweet, diva, smile, princess." You get the idea.

Once you enter the words, the next stage has to do with the way the final product will look. You can change the font, the orientation of the words, and the color scheme. I found I could not select what color specific words where. (If you find this out, let me know.) Also, there are set color schemes you can use or you can customize your own. I wanted all pink tones for my daughter so I had to find a website that would give me the code for the colors I wanted. In comes this Hex Color Code Generator. I selected the pink tones on the spectrum, found the color scheme suggested, and entered them into wordle.

Once you have the image how you like it, you only have two options: print or save to gallery. I printed mine on some nice resume paper I had left over from my other life.

I purchased an 8x10 picture frame from the dollar store. I took the stand off the back so that I could place it on the wall without the bulk.

Now all you have to do is trim the printed image, reassemble the frame and hang it up. YOU ARE DONE!

I hung mine on their doors using Command Picture Hanging Strips.

As I was falling asleep last night I realized this would make a great wedding gift for a friend. I am going to put in their names with words to describe them and marriage. I also have one made for our family. I have a feeling this site will be on my "go to" list for quick, inexpensive gifts!

I hope you have an much fun as I did.

Thanks for coming by!!