Turning 13!

I am sure we all have some kind of memory of turning 13, becoming a "teenager..." Well, last night was the family party for our friends' daughter, who just turned 13. She is an adorable, sweet, outgoing, fun loving girl. It has long been known that she is also the Princess with 3 very protective older brothers (18, 21, 27), a dad in denial, and many uncles who will definitely be around to remind the boys that she is off limits! The poor girl will never get the chance to date with that lot around!!!

Anyway, Being the typical tween/teenager she is in to music, guitars, dancing and the like. So I had to use that in the wrappings of the gift we gave her.

Back to School Organization - 2

As I get ready for a new school year, I tend to collect ideas to be used at various times during the year. Many times I file them in my computer and then forget about them. This year I decided to take it one step further. I printed the best of the ideas and started a binder with my long term plans. I always create the plans, but don't collect the idea pages, student worksheets... ahead of time. This year, they will all be in the same place!

I pulled out a binder, adding ideas in sections. The pages to be copied for students I have stuck in page protectors so I wouldn't have to worry about holes being punched through text. Apparently office supply stores don't carry as many office supplies as they used to. I went to 3 different stores/brands and could not find the binder tabs made for use with the page protectors. They are slightly wider so that the tab is visable past the protectors.

What to do? Make my own of course. I found fun cardstock and cut to 11.25" x 8.75". Then I cut tabs, using From My Kitchen cart, at 3". I adhered the tabs to the side of my cardstock using an ATG.

Then to make them even sturdier, I pulled out my YourStory and laminated the binder tabs using Legal sized laminating pouches. I trimmed the excess length to use for small classroom items later. I used a few of the trimmed pieces to layer inside the larger pouch around the tabs.

Back to School Organization

I am slowly working my way through a huge stack of things to organize, create, or toss. I bring home part of my files each summer hoping to whitle down the paper in my classroom. For years I have been creating my lesson plan book on the computer and then putting the pages in a binder. This is great most of the time. Now that I have more technology on my teaching station (Document Camera, Laptop, and Projector) I have less room for a whole binder sitting around.

My solution? I altered a legal sized clipboard. I started by tracing the top piece of the clip that connects to the board. This was a bit awkward since I could not really get paper up there. But I finally got it to work by cutting a piece down the middle so that I could get it up around the top. Then using that template I trimmed a  piece of fun school themed cardstock I found at my LSS.

Vinyl, Gotta Love it!

My project Sunday, was to do something I have had in the back of my mind for about 5 months. LABEL things with my Cricut, vinyl.....

I have several small plastic drawer sets, will hold 9 x 12 paper, that now house many of my embellishments. They were in desperate need of some type of labels so that I don't have to open 1/2 the drawers every time I need something. (I am sure you know the feeling). So I broke out Cricut Craftroom, some pieces of vinyl, and a list of the drawers contents.

I used Grape, Aqua and Bright Green vinyl, and Making the Grade Cartridge for the lettering. Here are some of the drawer sets... I think they came out fine, and love how quick it was.

Then I pulled out some black vinyl Mickey and Friend Font, Billionaire Font, and oops, can't remember the third. With these I labeled the Container Store Drawers, that I purchased for holding my Cricut cartridges (when I did not have so many).

Since I just purchased three of the ArtBin Electronic Cartridge cases I took many of the carts that had been in these drawers out. I like the ArtBin boxes, especially for organizing specific themes or sets of cartridges. I chose to do my Fonts - most of the carts are in one ArtBin box. Specialty Fonts like Mickey and Friends... are in a second box. All of my Holiday Specific carts are in the third one. So, naturally I had to label these too.

I used Don Juan for these labels.

Tips for cutting vinyl:
1. Make sure your blade is on 2 or 3 (depth on the housing)
2. Make sure cut pressure is at 2
3. Make sure speed is on 3 so that the blade doesn't get caught up in intricate cuts....

Have fun!

Sew What's for Sale?

I enjoy collecting fun fabrics for small projects. One of my favorite smaller sewing project is making lunch bags. These are insulated,  all cotton fabric bags that will easily carry your lunch to the office or school. The bags are large enough to carry a typical frozen lunch, a bottle of water, snacks and utensils. There are plenty of pockets running around the lining of the bag, and everything is kept together with stylish ties. Each bag also includes a cloth napkin to match. Bags measure 8.5" x 5.5" at the bottom, sides are 8" tall.

ONLY 1 of each bag is available.


Retro Kitchen



Night Owl



Dr. Seuss print

 I am offering these bags for sale, $40 each. No tax or shipping will be charged if ordered within the 48 contiguous states. Please contact me if you need a shipping quote to Hawaii, Alaska or outside the US of A.

Caution: Scrapbooking Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!

Yes, I said it - scrapbooking can be hazardous to your health, or at least mine anyway. My story starts about 2 weeks ago. I went to hang out at my friend's LLS and crop for the day with a few other friends. No biggie. We have all done all day crops right?

So I set to work, getting up occasionally to wander through the store. Mostly I just sat in my comfy office chair working on getting classroom photos finally on to pages. I was enjoying myself. I got 26 pages done. Not a lot of fancy stuff on the pages, very old school - mats and boarders, and maybe a journal box or two. My goal was to get rid of these pictures so that I can move on.

Nothing hazardous so far you say? How about just sitting for 10 hours? Yep, that did it! muscles between my shoulder blades began to spasm and the rest is history. I spent most of the next week, flat on my back. Oh well, at least it was during summer vacation when I can "afford" to lay around.

Here are some of the layouts I accomplished that day:



Gyotaku - Fish Prints





Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner in our classroom.





Dinosaur dig.





Create a machine to pop a balloon - science fair projects.

I have to say, ignoring the pain, I really had fun going through these pictures. They are from 1996-97. There are several projects I forgot about until I unearthed these pictures. I am feeling a bit rejuvenated on the teaching side of things. Now to keep working on my back, a bit of exercise and taking breaks in the middle of a project is definitely what I need to do!