Teacher Gift Card Holder

Today I am featured at The Buckle Boutique!!

I decorated this tin box to use as a gift card holder for Tanner's teacher.

I like to spoil his teachers at the beginning of the year, middle of the year (Christmas) and end of the year (Teacher Appreciation Day)!

I found an apple on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge (Roly Poly function key) and used my Gypsy to size it to 2.05 x 2.18 to fit my tin.  

I used some red Dazzling Diamonds rhinestone sticker sheet.  It cuts in the Cricut Machine with a deep cut blade set at 6, speed 1 and sometimes it needs a multi cut.  The mat needs to be super sticky and to be sure I use packing tape to tape the edges of my sticker sheet down.  It cuts best face down so make sure you reverse your images before you cut them out! 

Here is the Cricut in action. 

You can see the cut.  This one was a single cut (no multi cut).

I just peeled the sticker sheet off the mat and popped out the apple. 

Very shiny!!  I love how you can cut through the diamonds as they are made out of a gel substance. 

I put the apple on the front of the tin window.  I used a black and white polka dot washi tape around the edge of the box. 

I used a scrap of black vinyl to cut Ms. Hunt's name and adhered it to the front.  This way she can re-use the box for some small trinkets or storage. 

I popped in the gift card and added a tulle ribbon.

You can find the red Dazzling Diamond Sticker Sheet HERE!

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Baby Gift (Vinyl)

A friend of mine just had a baby girl.  She is one of my daycare moms and I am so excited to have a girl coming!!!  We are boy heavy over here!  I have been wanting to make one of these Baby Subway Art Frames for a while now.

I found this float frame at Michaels on sale.  I removed the pictures and used goo gone to get rid of the sticky residue from the tape that held the pictures on the glass as well as the price tag.  I never understood why they put sticky labels on glass!!!

The dimension of this frame is 6" x 12", but the inner glass measures 5.5" x 11.5".

I put a rectangle on my mat sized to 5.5" x 11.5".

I opened a new Layer (while leaving the rectangle visible) and started putting some words and numbers on my mat.  I typically try out a couple of different fonts before I find what I want.

I ended up using Nursery Rhyme for: Mackenzie, Marie, and It's a Girl.

I used Plantin' Schoolbook for:  7pounds 9 oz and 21.5 inches.

I used Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art for:  October 9, 2013.

I used the settings 3-3-3 for a kiss cut for my vinyl (Speed 3, Pressure 3 and Blade Depth 3).

Here are my tips for creating you own Subway Art:

Play with several types and sizes of fonts

Look at Pinterest for different ideas

If you need a comma or period, sometimes you need to use the semi colan and hide the piece you don't need

If you don't have a float frame, hot glue the glass to the back of the frame

Cut with paper first - especially if you only have one piece of vinyl to work with!

I used Cricut Transfer Tape to transfer the vinyl onto the glass then assembled the frame.

I sometimes use clear contact paper from the dollar store instead of transfer tape as it is not as sticky as the regular contact paper.  If I used regular contact paper, I "dirty" it up first by sticking it on my jeans so it is not super sticky.

Teacher Appreciation Posters

Teacher Appreciation is coming up!  One of the things we do in our Elementary School is volunteer to make posters for the teachers and staff.  I had to stop myself at 4!!!  I only have 1 in elementary school, and in addition to my son's teacher, I picked the Librarian, SPED Teachers and a 6th grade teacher.

I used my Gypsy and a 12x24 mat to line up my letters and use the template (leftover piece) to adhere my letters perfectly!  All of my posters were inspired by Pinterest!!

First up is the poster for Tanner's teacher.  Tanner picked this one out.  I used Plantin' Schoolbook for the font and Hannah Montana for the butterflies.  I wrote each student's name on a butterfly and added some stickles.

For our SPED Teachers, I used this quote that I saw on Pinterest.  I used Hannah Montana for the font.  I  hid the circle inside the "a" and added a heart also from Hannah Montana.  I grouped the heart and the"a" together.

I added four hearts sized to 3.77 inches for the teachers.  I used Nate's ABC's for the teacher names.

Mr. Rodningen is one of our 6th grade teachers.  He loves rocks and displays them in the window sill of his classroom.  Every morning our children have the option to participate in walking club.  When it is cold, rainy or snowy, we walk inside the building.  Recently we walked inside and I noticed his rocks for the first time.  I saw this poster idea on Pinterest but did not think it was a good choice for the female teachers.....but it was perfect for Mr. R!!  No one had signed up to make his poster yet so I took it!!

I used Batman for the font.  I tore and inked paper to look like rocks.

I had soooo much fun making this one!!!  I realize that school librarians are now Media Specialists and they do so much more than read books, but I could NOT resist this design!!!  

I started out with  7 pieces of white cardstock and painted them red, green, lt. green, orange, purple and lt. purple.  I added some white and darker shades of each color to create a finger paint look.

I cut out the letters from Nate's ABCs and traced them on the back of the papers and cut them out.  The heart is hand drawn.

I traced part of the heart and sketched the caterpillar on the side.  I hand cut out the pieces of the caterpillar from the green and light green papers.

Most of you know that I have an in-home daycare.  I currently have 5 (of my 8) families who are teachers.  I love our teachers and truly believe they have the most important job - shaping our future leaders, managers, presidents, etc.  They work long after their day is done and are on several committees, mentor programs, morning/afternoon duties - they give so much!  This is the least I can do to give a little back!!

For all of you teachers reading this post - Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!!

I am linking up my posters at Pink By Deisgn!!

Peace, Love & Shamrocks!!

Hello and Welcome to the Beautiful Burlap Blog Hop!!

Burlap is hot right now and gives a project texture.  For this hop, we were challenged to use Burlap in our project.  I sure hope we inspire you!

You should have arroved from Robin's BLOG.  If you found me first, you should hop on over to Jessi's BLOG so you don't miss anything!

In case you get lost along the way, here is the entire line up.

Jessi -http://www.mylifeinartsncrafts.com

Jearise - http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com

Robin S. - http://scrapandchat.blogspot.com/

Miriam ~ http://miriamscreations.blogspot.com

Cicily - http://www.pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com

Lluvia- http://sweetbirdmemories.blogspot.com

Robin - http://cutonedesignsbyrobin.blogspot.com/

Lori - http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/****HERE

Zoe- http://www.craftyx.blogspot.com/***NEXT

We do have some fun Burlap Blog Candy:

1 yard of red 2" burlap ribbon

1 yard of white 2" burlap ribbon

1 yard of mint green 1" 

1 yard of 1.5" jute ribbon in natural 

1 yard of your choice of colored 3/8" jute ribbon (see my etsy store)

And pick 2 colors of jute twine (see my etsy)

Please leave a comment on each blog to be entered in the giveaway!

Now on to my project:

I used a banner flag from Birthday Bash and sized it to 5.70 inches.  I put three on my mat.

I cut the banner flags out of watercolor paper so they would be sturdy enough to adhere the burlap to.

I use watercolor paper for banner flags and mini albums.  I find that it cuts well on my cricut.  If my blade is pretty new, I don't even change the settings.  If the blade is old, I multi cut it (2).

I used green glitter cardstock from Michaels.  When cutting with this paper, I flip my images and put the paper on my mat glitter side down.

The peace sign is from Cricut Stencil and is sized to 2.88 inches.

The heart is from Plantin Schoolbook and is sized to 2.76 inches.

The shamrock is from Paper Doll Dress Up and is sized to 3.12 inches.  I used Hide Contour to hide the inside cut at the stem of the shamrock.

Here are the shapes cut out.

Next I covered my banner flags with burlap.  When cutting burlap, it is easier to cut it after you pull out a strand.

I trimmed the burlap to fit my banner flag with some extra over the top.  This gave me a finished edge at the top.

I used my ATG gun to adhere the burlap to the watercolor paper.

Since I covered the holes, I grabbed my Crop-A-Dile.

I used green twine to string the banner together.

The final step was to tie green ribbons on the twine in between the flags.

I hope you enjoyed the banner!  What do you want to make out of burlap??

Your next stop on the hop is ZOE.

School Count Down (or up)

This week at Frosted Designs our challenge is to use chipboard in a project.  I saw this School Count Down project on Pinterest and wanted to make one for my son's teacher.  

Instead of counting DOWN, our children count UP to the 100th day of school.

I have a Bind-It-All and had to come up with my own measurements as the Pinterest project did not have a tutorial.  

I cut a 5" square out of cardstock and adhered a 5" square of paper to it.

I cut 23 rectangles 1.5" x 3" for my little pages.

I cut out 1" numbers from Nate's ABCs and adhered them to the pages.

I used 1" letters from Nate's ABCs and welded them into the word school.

I used 1" apples from Plantin Schoolbook.  I cut out half in red half in green.  I trimmed the top of the red apples off so the leaves would show through.

I cut one rectangle 4.75 x 1.5" and adhered the apple and word School.  I cut a piece of cardstock 1/8" larger to mount behind it and tied some twine around.

I did not take photos as I tried and re-tried to cut and punch the pieces as I had paper everywhere!!!

I tested where I would punch the papers and attach the wire with scrap paper a couple of times before I got it just right!

Be sure to join us at Frosted Designs with a cardstock project of your own!!  You could win a $20 Gift Certificate from Quick Quotes!

Tanner's Kindergarten Photo

Jinger Adams and The Scpabook Queen are starting a brand  new scrapbooking product line and are having a Design Team Call on Jinger's Blog.  I really love Jinger's enthusiasm and would be very honored to be on her team.  I love The Scrapbook Queen too and have been in some blog hops with her ~ she is super talented!  

I had one of Tanner's kindergarten photos printed in black and white and took this opportunity to scrapbook  it Boy Style!

I started out with my Gypsy and put a 4x6 rectangle on the mat to represent my photo.  I added my title on another layer, a photo frame on another layer and some gears on yet another layer.

This image came from Lacy Labels and is sized to 9.82 inches.  I put this on a new layer and kept enlarging it until it framed my 4x6 photo with enough room for my title on the side.

I cut it out in burgundy cardstock.

I found the gears from Paper Lace 2.  I welded two borders together and sized them to a WIDTH of 11.50 inches.  The single gear is sized to 3.55 inches ~ I cut two so I could layer them.  I found the screw tops from Robotz and sized them to 1.47 inches.

I cut them out of metallic silver cardstock.

I welded Tanner using Varsity Letter (sized to 1.19 inches) to kindergarten using Plantin Schoolbook (sized to 1.19 inches).  I copied the screw tops to this layer and used Hide Contour to hide the "+" in the center.

I am having some issues with my Expression :(  After three attempts to cut this out and some not so nice words, I unwelded the TANNE and cut out the letters separately. 

I grabbed these sign layers from Street Sign sized at 2.41.  I wanted to make a fun journaling tag.

I grabbed the arrow and School Zone from Graphically Speaking and sized them at 1.75 inches and 1.16 inches.

I cut them out of black, burgundy, cream and blue cardstock and put them together.  I trimmed the top of the blue piece to make my sign multicolored.

I used Glossy Accents to glue down my chain.  I used some Tim Holtz paper in the background - perfect for my little boy!

I pop-dotted my arrow and interstate sign/journaling tag over the chain.

I added some staples and pop-dotted the gears border.

I really like how this turned out, well except for my non-welding!  When scrapbooking AND mothering, sometimes you have to be flexible and make things work!!  Thanks for stopping by today!