One Trick Pony

One trick pony here. LOL!  I'm trying to clean my way out of my studio for the big yard sale in a couple weeks.  I'm also trying to be good about sending cards to family & friends on their special days.  3 weeks into my self imposed card sending challenge and I'm already running low!!!

I used up some scraps to bang out these 2 cards.  I figure later I'll add a banner/sentiment to the front when I get closer to needing either a birthday or anniversary card.  Seems like I can get away with saying "zooming by to say" on the cover and then add a celebratory greeting on the inside. :)

The bling for the lights was a last minute inspiration (read I didn't want to get out of my chair to put away the rhinestones. Laziness pays off sometimes! hee-hee)

Have a fun evening everyone!

Autumn Sunset for a Birthday

My mojo has gone AWOL of late. :(  I decided the lift a couple of my previous creations that I really enjoyed. :)

The image is a favorite of mine from Memory Box and I decided to use a favorite technique to go with it.  I used a variety of Copics and blended them together after stamping the image with Tuxedo Black Memento ink.  This was so easy to make that I made something like more versions, but since I didn't have anymore of the orange ribbon or navy paper they each have different bottoms.  With 8 birthdays and 4 anniversaries coming up in the next 6 weeks these will be great to have in the stash!!

I'm in the process of cleaning out my studio for a garage sale happening at the end of the month at Ink About It in Westford MA.  Stop by for AMAZING deals- I'll be practically giving stamps and paper away.  Fingers crossed that the clean sweep of my space will help me find my inspiration again. :)

For a tutorial on this technique, pop over here.

My birdies and I have flown here to tweet greetings:
Moxie Fab Challenge: Tuesday Trigger Apache Tears in Shades of Autumn (I saw the image and thought of this card's colors)

"Star"ting Christmas Tags

How is it that a person who isn't a fan of blue can make soooooo many things with blue?!?  I guess it goes back to the idea that I'm willing to chop up the papers I have with blue rather than hoard them?  That's the theory I am going to run with for now. :)

I've been making tags to sell at work/a craft fair/Etsy and I am doing a pretty good job of plowing through my stash.  I figure if they don't sell I can always use them on some gifts, right. :)

I dunno why, but love that they have extra long strings!  They seem so extravagant with those strings like it is a treat to use them on packages.

Now the big decision is whether to wrap the packages in brown paper, red paper, or red/white chevron.  I like those kind of tough decisions. ;)

Have a lovely Monday!

Baking a Batch

I have a yummy set to share today. I made these ages ago, but I don't think I ever shared them. There were originally three sets of these baking beauties and this is the last one.

The other two sets went to the ladies who work in our cafeteria.  They were so helpful last fall when I missed lunch because of TONS of testing.  They were about to close for the day, but they cobbled together a goodie tray for me so I wouldn't pass out before the end of the day. :)

I think these baking beauties are making cupcakes.  Big fat double chocolate ones with vanilla flavored frosting, but in fun colors.  Roses- yup frosting roses are on these chocolate cupcakes.  Anyone else craving sweets right now? ;)

This batter babe is from My Favorite Things stamps, colored with Copics, and the papers are a mishmash of goods.

Have a sweet weekend, we are going to be celebrating my gram's 85th birthday!!!!

Acorn Stash

Today is the first day of school for the first graders in our building and what am I posting?  Apples?  Blackboards? Nope, acorns and Thanksgiving!

In my defense, the leaves started changing on some of the maples at the end of August, so I know before long it'll be full blown autumn.

I used my PTI stash for the acorns and the majority of the papers.  I love how these came out!  Clean, crisp, and classy all at the same time. :)  For a finishing touch, I added a mini acorn to the bottom corner of the envie.  Those little details make for big smiles from the recipients.

Happy Wednesday!

Back to School

Betcha' thought I had dropped off the planet huh? I wasn't planning to be gone so long from the blogosphere, but now I can show you why. :)

I was working on my teaching space!  It's about 95% done and I stopped there because until I know the students I'll have I want to wait to see if what needs tweaking.  This cabinet was gifted to me by my good friend Michele (the awesome hostess I visit on The Cape each year) when she retired.  I've had it a few years now and when we decided to redo the theme in our room (I share my classroom space with 4 others) I knew it needed a new paint job.  Little did I realize how long it would take!!!! I also added new hardware, fixed a busted hinge, and added a cute dragonfly hook to hang my coat.  LOVE IT!  The back of my neighbors file cabinet got a facelift too.  I use it for messages to the students, our agenda, and to store the magnet men they get to use to hold their folders on their chairs during our lessons.  I'm still trying to decide how to hide her stacks of magnetic letters.  I might get a frame to fill with DP and use it as a faux whiteboard with messages about RAZ and Lexia goals.

This is the view from the file cabinet.  I laminated scrapbook paper to use as placemats.  I swap them out each month to go with the holiday/season.  They work great as workspace delineation for the kiddos.  I often have word cards/ chunk cards specific to each student and this helps keep them from getting their cards lost in another students pile.  One of my classroom-mates found a framed whiteboard for $3, but couldn't use it so she gave it to me.  I love how it's going to make the work on it have more importance because of the framing. :)  Pinterest inspired me to make a Teacher Toolbox which will hopefully help me use the stuff I have more often. :)

All of my bookshelves, which is to say the 4 I can fit in my space, are still a work in progress, but I love how the shower curtains have transformed the ugly mauve dividers.  I can only hope these pass inspection by the new fore chief.  Fingers crossed!  My white drawers are where my students drop off their folders before heading to class each morning and where they can store other books & work.  Still haven't figured out what the nametags will look like, but I always have them write their names themselves, so I have time yet.

I'm between two of my classroom-mates and this is the view from the "entrance" to my space.  I'm loving my new low profile chair that I found on sale at Office Max.  My last chair that I've have for about 10 years was a road rescue, so it seemed like it was time to upgrade to a real chair.  The little black desk in the back is an old telephone table I found up in Maine for a steal!  It replaced my other roadkill rescue laptop table and the nice part is that I bought it from a retired teacher!  Please take a moment to admire my white shades in the background.  I only mention them because they took 3 HOURS to clean.  It was totally worth it though.  They are so much nicer looking now. :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour...and I hope when I start on Tuesday I don't have a note about having to remove anything!

Happy Labor Day!

 

PS.  Stay tuned, I have some samples coming soon of a new Christmas card class I will be teaching in October.