Happy 8th Birthday Chloe!

Hello everyone!  I'm excited to be here with another project today!  This one is for my niece, Chloe.  Her birthday was actually on Sunday, but her party is today.  When I asked her what she wanted, she said she wants "spending money".  She's going to be going on a trip to Disneyland, so she wants some moolah to take with her!  :)  I saw this idea for a jar with a hidden "compartment" on Pinterest.  I didn't want to give my 8 year old niece a jar full of candy, so I decided to give her one of those mason jar cups instead.  Now the jar will have a function for her once she's eaten the candy.  I also wanted to add her name to the side, so I pulled out my vinyl, and voila!  Hope you enjoy...

Alphalicious- "Chloe" cut at 1"
Vinyl
Mason jar/mason jar cup
Tag made on my computer- "Happy Birthday" Captain Howdy font size 26, "sweet girl" Honey Bunches font size 48
Twine
Candy
Cardstock

To make the middle compartment, I just cut a piece of cardstock, rolled it up into a tube shape, stapled it, and then stood it up in the middle of the cup.  I then filled it with layers of Chloe's favorite, dairy free candies.  Bottom layer to top layer: Twizzler's bites, gummy worms, Sour Patch kids, Skittles, Happy Cola gummies.  I'm really excited to give this to her today!  Hope she likes it...  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

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!  :)

School Stuff & Crafts My Sister Made

Hi everyone!  Long time, no see...  again...  I have not actually made any kind of cards/crafts in over a month!  It's about time that I start setting aside some time to do that...  I don't have a card to share today, but I do have some school projects that I thought were cute & fun, so I decided to post them for ya!  I'm also going to show you some cute projects that my sister has been working on (she's very talented, but she doesn't think so)...  :)  I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time, I'm going to try and be better... 

This was a super simple project that my sister made using some of the scrapbook paper from my stash.  We just found a cute patterned paper, chose solid colored cardstock to match, and then she traced their hands and stacked them...  VOILA!    I think it came out really adorable!

Here's a "no soliciting" sign that she made.  She just picked up a frame, some scrapbook paper & stickers, and some ribbon and put this little beauty together!

My sister also made this Cat in the Hat poster that goes along with the new common core standards in Kindergarten.  When she showed me this, my jaw dropped!  Super cute!

We had our annual Family Literature Night last week and my booth was featuring the author/illustrator, Mo Willems.  I LOVE HIS BOOKS (and so do the kids)!  To make this poster, I just sketched out the characters, colored them with chalk, and traced them with black Sharpie.  The idea for coloring with chalk is a technique I stole borrowed from my sister.  :)

Saw the idea for these balloons on Pinterest (a website I feel I may be addicted to).  These were extremely easy to make; just a balloon and a Sharpie...

Here's a shot of the entire booth all put together!  Here I am with my friend, Shelly...  We aren't too cool to wear a pigeon headband!  The headbands were really easy to make and the kids LOVED them!  It's literally just a blue circle, white circle, black circle, and yellow triangle.  The kids glued them together, then we attached them to a sentence strip and put them on their little noggins.  It was really cute to see all of the little "pigeons" walking around the auditorium!  :)

Well, there's a little snapshot of what I've been up to...  I hope to be back soon with some sort of card!  :)  Thanks for stopping by!!!!!

Retirement Cards & A Cute School Project

Hello!  I am sooo excited that I have a 3-day weekend!  I haven't done much crafting since my Christmas vacation ended, but I wanted to share some cards that I made.  My mom and our family friend, Robin both retired recently, and neither one of them were given a proper party at work, so....  we had a surprise party for both of them last night!  It was so fun, and these are the cards I ended up making for them.  Oh, and at the bottom of this post I just have to share an art project that my students did for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...

4" square card

Cuttlebug- In Bloom impression plate (Papertrey Ink)
Joy's Life Stamps- Joyful Hearts & Everyday Occasions
Twine

Okay, now here is the cutest Martin Luther King, Jr. project!  I found this idea on Pinterest, and I just couldn't resist making it...  My class LOVED making this project, and they loved talking about Martin Luther King.  I showed them a video of his "I Have a Dream" speech and they were mesmerized!  First graders are just too adorable!  :)  The project in the picture is the one that my niece made...

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you all have a great weekend!  :)

Pie Love You Card & A House Built by my Niece!!!! :)

Hello and Happy Friday!!!!  To be honest, I have lost track of the days of the week, but the school year is quickly approaching!  Soon, I will not be sleeping in, acting as if every day is Saturday, etc...  One good thing about this new school year is that I will be teaching my niece!!!!  I am so excited!  She is such a brilliant, funny kid and I am excited to be her first grade teacher!  :)  At the bottom of this post you will find a special project that my niece created!  But first, here is a card that I made for the Joy's Life DT...

A2 sized card

Country Life- pie/rolling pin cut at 3.82"

Joy's Life Stamps- Yummy Puns

The Paper Studio- Farm Fresh Paper Pack

OKAY!  My niece is a very creative and crafty kid...  She made this house ALL BY HERSELF!  She is 6 years old, and this just blew me away!  When she finished this project, she asked my sister "Mommy, do you think Aunt Amy would put this on her blog?  It is about crafting."  HOW CUTE!  How could I resist?!?!?  Without further ado, here is the cute little house that Chloe built!  :)

Here is the arteest with her creation!

Front view.  She even put smoke in the chimney, added a sun, and the door opens!  The address is her birth date! 

The interior.  Love the textured walls!  The TV is on the "Antarctica Channel".

Back view.  You can really see the sun on the straw here...

Love the flag and the shingled roof! 

I had to get a close up of the window...  That's Mommy, Daddy, Chloe, and little Sophie (who will be born in November)!  She's already a proud big sister...  :)  You can see that my sister is a redhead too!   Hee hee..

Hope you enjoy and, as always, thank you so much for stopping by!!!!  :)