Elf on the Shelf in my Classroom (and other Christmas stuff)!!! :)

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas (well, almost)!  I am so excited to be posting on my blog again!  It's been far too long...  But, I have been super busy and having a great time!  Haven't been in my craft room AT ALL lately, however I have been making some things for my classroom.  This summer, my parents and I went on an Alaskan cruise!  It was AMAZING!!!!!  I will post more about the cruise and classroom projects later...  For now, I wanted to show you some cute things that my Elf on the Shelf was up to in my classroom.  I had been seeing a lot about the Elf on the Shelf, and it intrigued me...  I wanted to get an Elf and have it pulling fun little shenanigans, but I don't have kids at home.  Then I started seeing the idea of using the Elf in the classroom and I just had to have one!  Here's what mine did over the two weeks leading up to Christmas break...

 

My classroom tree!

  The elf makes his first appearance.  The kids were so excited!  Oh, and we named him Buddy...

Buddy drew on our white board!

Buddy built himself a chair and Christmas tree out of linking cubes.

 Hanging in the Christmas tree.

Climbed into the tissue box and tucked himself in.  It was pretty cold in the classroom!

Ate some of our Sour Patch candies!  I told the kids that elves love sugar, so it does make sense...

Made a snow angel on our reading table.

Buddy brought us a candy cane growing kit from the North Pole.  So, we planted the seeds and...

The seeds grew into candy canes!!!!!!  We couldn't believe that this happened while we were at lunch!

 

He colored a picture of himself.

 He sharpened some pencils.

He brought us some brand new pencils!

He read a story to our "Furry Friends" (we have Build a Bear animals in our room).

He sat in our marble jar.

He brought us hot cocoa to drink on the last day before vacation.  There was also a note from Santa telling us to watch The Polar Express while we drank it!

Hanging from our flag pole.

Santa came and filled up our bags with presents!!!!

Buddy's farewell.  He watched guard over our gifts from Santa, and he left us a goodbye note.  The kids were sad to see him go back to the North Pole, and so was I!

 

This was just too cute!  My boyfriend came to help me in my classroom on the last day, and he brought me these flowers!  He said that Buddy had called him and told him to bring these to the teacher...  Awww...  Needless to say, I melted like a snowman on a hot summer's day!  :)

These are the ornaments my kids made for their gift to take home.  I let them choose what colors they wanted for the pipe cleaners and fuzzies, and I had to hot glue them on.  The inside is filled with fake snow, and they drew on the eyes, nose, and mouth with Sharpie paint pens.  Saw this idea on Pinterest!  Worked out awesome!

At home my niece and I made homemade Gak!  The directions are right here.  I added dry grape Kool-Aid mix to my Gak.  It gave it color (without staining our hands) AND it made it smell amazing!

We also made homemade Butterfingers.  These were so delicious!  Recipe is here.  They are dairy free, so I had to make them for my little Chloe!  She really enjoyed them, and so did everyone else!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you are all doing great, and I hope to be back soon with another post.  See you soon!  :)

Cold Hands, Warm Heart Tag

Hello!!!!!  I am so shy about my post today!  For the Joy's Life DT we are supposed to share a tip or technique with our project...  Well...  I am not the best at giving tutorials/tips...  I find that a little sad, seeing that I am a teacher!!!!  I also couldn't think of what I could possibly give a tip about, but then it clicked...  Fuzzy Fun Flock!  I'm going to show you how I use this awesome stuff...  Okay...  here it goes...

Tags, Bags, Boxes & More- tag cut at 4.06"
Winter Frolic- snowman cut at 3.24"
Hoot 'n' Holler- heart cut at 1.24"
Joy's Life Stamps- Oh Christmas Puns
Fuzzy Fun Flock- envious green & chili pepper red

Okay, here's my "tip"...

These are the supplies you'll need to make something "fuzzy" (a.k.a. super adorable).  I use my Xyron sticker maker, with permanent adhesive. 

You'll want to choose a cardstock color that is similar to the color of the Fuzzy Fun Flock you want to use.  White cardstock with a colored flock just doesn't look as nice...  I'll show you an example in a bit....

Run the pieces that you want to flock through the sticker maker, upside down.  Once that is done, I make sure to rub the back of the pieces with something hard (I used the fun flock bottle) to make sure that all of the adhesive is sticking to the other side. 

Peel the pieces off of the adhesive paper and just "dump" on the fun flock (like my technical term there?!?).  Then I rub the entire piece with my finger to make sure the flock is sticking to the image and is completely covering all of the adhesive.  Then you just tap off the excess (just like using glitter).  VOILA!  You're done, you have made something fuzzy!  Just use the pieces on your project any way you want!!!!

This is an example of why you want to use a colored cardstock, not white.  The left was done with white cardstock, and the right was done with the red cardstock.  To me, it just looks so much better with the colored cardstock...  :)

That's all there is to it!  I hope you found that somewhat helpful...  Thanks for stopping by!!!  :)

Treat Box & Caramel Recipe!!!

Hello!!!  I'm telling you that it is a dangerous thing for me to have sweets in the house!  I made cookies for yesterday's post and caramels for today's post, so I am surrounded by delicious things and my will-power is weak!  :)  I am taking the leftovers to work tomorrow, and hopefully they will be completely devoured so I don't have to bring them back home!  I froze some of the shortbread cookies, and they are so yummy out of the freezer...  Anywho, for today's Joy's Life DT project, we were asked to make a food project.  I love making sweets, so I decided to make a little treat box and fill it with homemade caramels!  Let me tell you folks, I do not like caramels from the store, but these little beauties are so delicious!!!!!  At the bottom of this post I will share the recipe with you!!!!  YUM!

 

Winter Frolic- Santa cut at 2.88", tree cut at 3.71"
Sweet Tooth Boxes- treat box/lid cut at 6.41"
Cuttlebug- snowflakes
Joy's Life Stamps- Oh Christmas Puns
Transparency film
Caramels

Okay, here's the recipe....  Soooooo good!  Thanks for stopping by!!!  :)

Chewy Caramels

Recipe from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1 pound light brown sugar (about 2 1/2 cups)
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (112 to 116 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from the water and placed on a flat surface. Cook for 2 minutes at that temperature. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla.
2. Meanwhile, butter a 9x13 inch baking pan. When the caramel is ready, pour into the buttered pan. Allow to cool completely at room temperature. Remove from the pan and cut into squares using scissors. Wrap individual pieces in waxed paper or cellophane.

Happy Holidays Blog Hop!!!!

 

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Joy's Life DT Happy Holidays Blog Hop!!!!  If you just hopped here from the very talented Staci, you're in the right place.  To start from the beginning click HERE.

Oh, I am so excited that the holidays are here, and that Christmas is right around the corner!  One thing that I love to do around Christmas is bake!  The cookies that I used in this project are soooo delicious, and I will share the recipe for them at the bottom of this post!  I thought it would be cute to stack the cookies in a jar to give as a gift.  I love using jars!  On this project I used both of Joy's Christmas stamp sets:  Wintery Puns & Oh Christmas Puns!

Storybook- label cut at 1.82", 2.29"

Joy's of the Season- holly branch cut at 2.53"

Joy's Life Stamps- Wintery Puns on label, Oh Christmas Puns on the lid

1.5" circle punch

Ribbon

Jar

You're next stop on this awesome hop is Laura!  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays!  :)

Here's the recipe for the cookies I used in this project!  YUMMO!  :)

White-Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained and finely chopped
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup cold butter
• 12 ounces white chocolate baking squares with cocoa butter, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 drops red food coloring (optional)
• 2 teaspoons shortening
• White nonpareils and/or red edible glitter (optional)

Directions:
 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spread cherries on paper towels to drain well.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in drained cherries and 4 ounces (2/3 cup) of the chopped chocolate. Stir in almond extract and, if desired, food coloring. Knead mixture until it forms a smooth ball.

3. Shape dough into 3/4-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar, flatten balls to 1-1/2-inch rounds.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until centers are set. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

5. In a small saucepan, combine remaining 8 ounces white chocolate and the shortening. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Dip half of each cookie into chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. If desired, roll dipped edge in nonpareils and/or edible glitter. Place cookies on waxed paper until chocolate is set. Makes about 60.

Joy: http://joyslife.com
Stacey: http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com
Jennie: http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com
Lori: http://got2bcrafting.blogspot.com
Debbie: http://bugjuiced.blogspot.com
Sarabeth: http://www.chroniclesofsarita.blogspot.com
Jenny: http://jennyplace26.blogspot.ca
Patty: http://craftykitten1.blogspot.com
Kimberly: http://hellocutiecrafts.blogspot.com
Megan: http://thoughtsoftraveling.blogspot.com
June: http://simplyelegantpapercrafts.blogspot.com      
Staci: http://preciousmem.blogspot.com
Amy: http://redheadedcrafter.blogspot.com  
Laura: http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com
Cyndy: http://arcyscraps.blogspot.com           

 Maria: http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com

Holiday Treats Box

Hey everyone!!!!  I am so excited that I finally fixed the problem I was having with Blogger!!!!  This post was originally supposed to go up yesterday, but my photos wouldn't upload because apparently I have reached my storage limit...  I've been hearing that this has been happening to a lot of people lately, so not really sure what's going on with that...  It wouldn't let me upgrade my storage space because I was using Internet Explorer, so when I switched to using Firefox as my browser, it let me!  YAHOO!!!!  Okay, here is the project that was supposed to be posted yesterday for Joy's Life!  Our theme was to make a gift box/bag...

Sweet Tooth Boxes- box and lid cut at 10.5"
Tags, Bags, Boxes & More- tag cut at 3.12"
Christmas cartridge- snowflakes cut at 3.59", 2.29", 1.59"
Joy's Life Stamps- Wintery Puns
MS crystal fine glitter
Rhinestones

Okay, there it is!  I'm so glad I resolved my Blogger issue!!!!  :)  Thanks for stopping by!

Joy's Life Tags & Bags Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to the Joy's Life Tags & Bags Blog Hop!!!!  If you just hopped here from the very talented Sarabeth, you're in the right place.  To start from the beginning click HERE.

I love Christmas!!!  This is such a fun time of year, and I am looking forward to making homemade hot chocolate, decorating the tree, looking at lights, singing Christmas songs, etc., etc., etc.!!!!  I also like to give a little something to my co-workers, and I think some Post-It's, hand sanitizer, yummy treats, etc. would fit perfectly into this little bag!  :)  This bag is also featuring Joy's BRAND NEW stamp set: Oh Christmas Puns!  I love this set, it's full of amazing puns and it has some cute images on it!

Tags, Bags, Boxes & More- bag cut at 6.06", tag cut at 2.88"

Winter Frolic- snow angel cut at 3.24"

Doodlecharms- snowflakes on bag cut at 1.94"

Doodletype- snowflake on tag cut at 1.12"

Joy's Life Stamps- Oh Christmas Puns (on bag), Wintery Puns (on tag)

Peachy Keen Stamps- Everyday Character Face Assortment

Stickles- star dust

Twine



Okay, that's my Christmas bag!  Hope we have been able to get you in the Christmas mood!  :)  Have a great Thanksgiving next week...  Your next stop on this hop is the awesome June.  Thanks for stopping by!

Joy: http://joyslife.com/
Maria: http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/
Cyndy: http://arcyscraps.blogspot.com/
Stacey: http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com/
Laura: http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com
Jennie: http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/
Megan: http://thoughtsoftraveling.blogspot.com
Lori: http://got2bcrafting.blogspot.com
Sarabeth: http://www.chroniclesofsarita.blogspot.com/
Amy: http://redheadedcrafter.blogspot.com/
June: http://simplyelegantpapercrafts.blogspot.com/
Patty: http://craftykitten1.blogspot.com