Arm-Knitting

I love the look of infinity scarves, but don't really consider myself a scarf-kind-of-gal. I get the Michael's updates in my inbox and saw a tutorial for them--a 30-Minute Infinity Scarf (using your arms to do the knitting!) and thought maybe I wouldn't delete that e-mail just in case I want to try it later. After seeing a friend post a picture of her finished project, I figured I would give it a try (and I had no school to prepare for and a quiet evening with all the kiddos in bed and hubby sick. . .). The video I used is found here--and it is GOOD!

 

See me in front of my computer? Used this tutorial to a T (well, except for using the same yarn. . .I'm not sure the # of how bulky my yarn was, but it was bulky!)! Casted on 12 on my arm and went from there. . .

 My first few rows. . .

 Mid project.. .and my yarn bag. . .

 My backside. . .ready to "sew" it together.

 And then my finished project. It took me an hour as I followed along with a tutorial video.

And I decided it was TOO bulky. I'm not experiencing a HUGE winter storm or severe cold weather, so. . .the next day I took it all apart (took me 15 minutes) and made it again (in a half hour this time!) with only 8 casted on my arm. 

And here is finished project  deux!

I think I might try again using 12 cast-ons, but not such bulky yarn to see how that will turn out. . .

Use the link above to go learn to make your own!

The Star--raffia and ruffles

Some friends and I get together and do craft nights every now and then. Working full-time and trying to be a full-time mom doesn't often allow me to "plan" some great crafts to do on these evenings. But I did run across a cute craft idea on a rare "study-break" on Pinterest, where I found a Pottery Barn copycat ornament (here). Now on her post, she used dowels and made them larger. Being a scavenger to get a quick craft ready for an evening with the girls, I thought I would try it using chopsticks, as that is the closest thing I had to dowels on hand. She has all the directions, so I'm not going to repeat. Pop on over there if you want to give it a try. They are kind of time consuming, but look great. . .in my humble opinion!

Here are mine. . .I put them on a string where we hand our Christmas cards:

 Then because I got so good at them {wink, wink}, I figured I'd make them into ornaments too! Here are two that I made for ornaments:

Merry Crafting. . .and Merry Christmas!

Picture frame hair clip holder

I know these are all over blogs right now, but I just had to try one of my own for my daughter! Not only was our bathroom looking a little pink (when it is supposed to be quite blue and espresso!) and scattered with hair accessories (very hard to clean between the  clips and head bands!), but I needed a "cute" Christmas present. Seeing that I am posting this on Christmas Eve means that it was just finished last night! Right on time! Here is how I made mine. . .

 

Step1: Buy old frame from the thrift store. Use spray paint. When it sticks to the newspaper, peel excess off! I also added some white hooks to the bottom. (Left-overs from a jewelry holder project I did a while back).

 Step 2: Add ribbon. I decided to keep the "back" on it--I wanted the glass part so she could use it as a message board if wanted (or that I could write bible verse on it as the years go on. . .always thinking of the future!) So I used those little foam scrapbook squares to make sure the ribbon pops out a bit from the glass. I cut scrapbooking paper down to size (scrapbooking paper from the ActivityVillage website), and mounted that on the cardboard backing of the frame.

Step 3: Glue ribbon down to backing--I used double sided tape and then went over it with packing tape. Hopefully that holds the test of time and craziness of "accessory-choosing!"

Step 4: Turn it over and evaluate if it will work or not. . .

Step 5: Add a few decorations (wooden flowers at the top--from Michael's--they match a clothes/sweater hook I made for her room a few years back). And Voila--Christmas present done!

Can't wait for her to open it and spend time "organizing" her stuff! I guess I'll have to post a picture of it handing on her wall and full of the barrettes, headbands, elastics and flowers! Merry Christmas, Princess!

Advent Calendar Idea

Last year, for school, I was looking for an advent calendar type of idea that would be more on the "educational" and Bible side of things. I stumbled upon this blog/post, and LOVED it!!! I knew her idea would work better in my home, and didn't have the time to do all the searching, so here is how I changed it up a bit to work for my little school kiddos:

 

Here is my Christmas tree:

(star tutorial found here; the rest is just cut paper for the tree)

I used the Christmas collection of scrapbook paper from the ActivityVillage website, and mounted those on "library card" envelopes. Then I copied and reformatted the "meaning of Christmas" readings and glued them on cards to fit in the pockets.

I used some of the printable for the numbers from here and here. They worked beautifully--very talented people to make them for me to use!!! Thank you!

I popped the inserts in. . .

Then instead of having tangible things to display or put in drawers as shown in the first link, my Sped aide and I got together to collect pictures to hang on the bulletin board.

As seen in the first picture, as each day was read, the picture got to be hung up. The special helper of the day got to search for the right picture, the class got to guess what the pictures might be about, and the "high" readers got to practice reading scriptures. The students really looked forward to doing devotions and Bible in this way! I used it again this past year. . .although we never got it done as a snow day cancelled our last day of school!

If you need yet another way to do advent and teaching the "real" meaning of Christmas, here is what I did. . .

Teacher Appreciation Week: Merci Beaucoup!

Our PAC did it again!

They pulled off an absolutely amazing and beautiful Teacher Appreciation week!

The theme this year was French. . ."Merci Beaucoup!"

Here is their Staff Room Pendant. . .

their foyer bulletin board

their staff room table décor

and some of the daily gift baskets to be won.

And I actually won one this year! Woot woot! (Mine isn't pictured though. . .it was made by a mom of one of my students, and contained handmade rustic-ish décor. . .so now I have to re-paint our ensuite to match, of course!) I NEVER win these things, so I was thrilled! (And that the one I was eying hadn't been scooped up yet by another lucky winner before me!)

 

Students brought in adorable little notes and encouragements for us teachers and all who work at the school. They are so sweet!

 

The PAC--they spoiled us!

Monday--an invite to the staff luncheon on Friday, a visit from some French servers gearing up the students and serving a bubbly fruity treat

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday--treats in the staff room every day! These were wonderful, and ranged from things like brie and baguettes to crepes to fill.

They also treated us to mini candles, chocolates, and verse to encourage us each day. Some included:

Ruth 2:12: "May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done." (NLT)

Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord you God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing."

1 Corinthians 9:8: "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."

Friday--and of course, Friday included a wonderful and delicious lunch of croissants, quiches, fruit and pies/torte for dessert. . .complete with the PAC taking over outdoor duty responsibilities!

They spoiled us!

 

Our families own little gifties to the teachers . . .

bath bombs (bath fizzies) with adorable printables and homemade cards.

As a mom, I appreciate what the teachers of my kids do, and as a teacher, I LOVED the encouragement and appreciation I felt by the parents and students of our school. Thank you!

Mittens

Some great women hosted a Ladies Ornament Exchange evening at our church. I thought that sounded like a fun evening. . .but I REALLY wanted to make an ornament! My original idea was a stocking, but then one day I just started doodling and changed my mind to making matching country mittens. So. . .here they are:

There is my pattern--a free hand mitten and long heart. Add a button and coloured embroidery floss. . .

Then stitch like crazy!

And I got them done on time! I loved how they turned out!

After that, I made a few more in blue with brown buttons and looped the hanging string just on one side. (No pictures. . .what was I thinking???) Most of those disappeared to my co-workers and prayer partner at school.

I love crafting during the holidays!

Christmas in July. . .a little late!

I just realized I still have this post in my file. . .and it has never surfaced into the blogosphere!

So. . .ignore the title, and here was my "Christmas in August" ideas.

Yes, you read that right. I have learned from the past. There is no time to create Christmas cards prior to the Christmas season, and I had a wave of creativity one lovely day in August, so this is what I did: I made Christmas cards.

Maybe you can guess. . .it was a Pinterest idea. Well, I should say it was based on a pinterest idea. I saw cards made out of paint chips (similar to the ones at the bottom of this post) and decided I should search the web for some tree ideas. I found a gift tag (blog here) that looked similar to the tree I made, but decided to make mine as a whole card, thinking I could put a family photo on the back. Which never happened.

But here it is:

Here are the cards--done on the right, works in progress on the left.

(Stamps from Michael's clearance, ink was Staz-On, ribbon from my left-overs stash, paper from Activity Village website and my stash)

 

And below are some other cards I tried to make.

They are very, very pink. Cute, but VERY pink. Sparkle too, but VERY pink!

(stamps from Stampin Up)

(stamps from Michael's clearance bin)

 

Thank you to my many trips to Home Depot, where I was {seriously} considering painting the guest room one of various shades of green, but never did, and then considered painting a hallway pink, but never did--and didn't want to waste the chips so I crafted instead. (Am I justified in this?!?!)

Star of Wonder. . .

This past week we had a snow day, which would have been perfect, except that my princess also decided to come down with a nasty flu bug that same day! Lucky for us, it was only one of those 24 hour things and so far no one else has caught it. Not a pleasant way to start a blog entry, I know, but I needed to give you background for this one. The day I stayed home with her was supposed to be a Christmas craft day with my students. The snow day was supposed to be a day that we would do some art for a Christmas Pageant Chapel my primary cuties were doing. So, suddenly I had two days of art activities that I had to cram into a day that I wasn't able to be there!

The sub plans were all there--crazy art explanations and all--but of course, there were those projects that I knew just could not happen! I've been on the TOC list before so I know what a TOC needs to put up with, and I just wanted to be kind to her--and I wanted a star ornament that would be all that I envisioned it to be! So I ditched the old idea and came up with something new.

And then, not even knowing if it would work for little kids or not, the princess (and her partner in crime) and I gave it a try at home. If you say the words art or craft, the princess perks up pretty quickly!

So. . .first we made a Star of David out of Popsicle sticks. You can Google how to do it, or you can glue together two triangles and then place those on top of each other with more glue.

Once that was dry, we painted. (Unfortunately for the Royal Sick-o, all my glitter was at school, so hers was straight paint--maybe we will add some sparkles soon). Her little follower thought black was a pretty cool star colour. I tried, but how do you argue with someone who says, "Shh-shh. Mommy, I do good" ? You don't--you let the star be black. Maybe we need to add some glitter to his too!

While that dried, we traced a 5 point star pattern on scrapbooking paper (mine here came from the ActivityVillage website). The other side has musical notes on it that the princess and Mr. Black-star traced in yellow and orange for star colours.

Then a hole-punch, some raffia ribbon and a loop to hang it on the tree.

Easy enough?

The finished star craft

So, here it is: hanging alongside out mudded walls--not my best photo op. Oh well.

The cute creators

And here are my cute little sick kids, proudly showing off their creativity!

 

The good news: when I went back to school on Christmas Chapel day, the stars were already hung behind our stage for ALL the moms, dads, grandparents, family, and friends to see. . .

and they looked great!

Hooray for easy, last-minute crafts!

Pretty clothespins

Here is a quick and easy thing I did a few nights ago.

Pretty clothespins!

No, I'm not so crazy that I need this for hanging my laundry (I don't know how durable they would be if used for that reason). I was thinking more on the lines of hanging up student art. I used the clothespins last year, but I just wanted to spruce it up a little, make it "cutesy," like a good primary teacher would. :) Using clothespins was so-o-o handy--no pushpins=so much quicker to put up and down! An easy student art wall!

 Here is how easy it is: Cut strips of scrapbooking paper--really thin! Measure your clothespins and cut away. Glue the strips on. Wait for them to dry. Then modge-podge, or whatever brand you have of that glue-ish-y paint. Wait for it all to dry again--really good this time, and there you go.

 So, now I have done my first "get-ready-for-the-new-school-year" project.

And I'm wondering where is my summer disappearing to???

a little garden fixing. . .

I selvaged this little garden sign from my MIL yard garbage pile, probably about 5+ years ago. It has been in my garage that long, waiting to be fixed up and painted as the thing was almost wood again, no colour. Last week, I finally gave it a try.

Added some wire. . .I was going to hang it on my tree or fence and take the stake off.

But it didn't look too bad like this, so here it stays for now.

And here is my previous ivy patch, all dug out (well mostly in this photo). Why is it that every spring/summer I want to change around all my gardens? I'm not a great gardener--just learning as I go, listening to others, and looking at what they have done (and of course using the good ole computer!). Hopefully I will fill this spot with a variety of hostas instead. But for now, I am busy weeding and cutting down overgrown gardens!

Happy gardening!

felt flowers for her hair

It was my daughter's birthday a bit ago and she knows all about parties because of her older brother.

So whenever her birthday comes along, she had a long LIST of things to do!

But we keep it small--and crafty! Here is what we did:

felt flowers on headbands or barrettes.

My sister and I had made some cute rosettes out of felt to put on headbands or barrettes once, and I thought they were cute, so I kinda went off of that idea and made these layered felt flowers.

(supplies above)

First I found all the different colours of felt I had in the house.

Then I found some flower patterns on google. These ones were great! I also found more "daisy" type ones with pointed petals as well. I sided them differently and then started tracing and cutting!

 Then I chose a few to try--pink and grey for now. I layered them up. Now, you can just layer them and glue them--some of my daughter's friends did that. These flowers were bigger, so I put one tiny "x" stitch in the middle (see the yellow?) to gather them just a bit.

 Next went the rhinestone. . .

Oh the girls were in heaven with those things!!!

 And then finally the little circle patch to help glue it onto the headband.

I gave the girls a choice--so here is how it is if they wanted to use a barrette instead.

I wish I had taken pictures of the ones they had finished/made. Some of them were so cute! I had also cut out some tulle flowers and circles to add in and little leaves if they wanted to add those as well. They just stacked flowers and started gluing! (and then I used the glue gun to finish them all off!)

It was a cute and easy party idea!



Heart Garland

So. . . just to prove to you that Pinterest is not just a time-wasting activity, but results in some creativity (as simple as it may be!), here was a "craft" I did for Valentines Day as a decoration for the classroom.

First I took a whole bunch of paint chips (thank you very much local Behr supplier!) and my Super heart punch (by Recollections) and started punching away.

Next, I took a needle and embroidery floss and strung them all together (I made two garlands of 17 each), leaving about an inch between hearts. And yes, I did a pattern of light pink, dark link, medium pink as I strung them.

Then I took your regular cheap pink ribbon (again--light, dark and medium), cut it into strips, and made ties between the paint chip hearts.

And here it is!

Easy little project.

A nice bit of decoration for the classroom. . .or home. We don't really decorate for Valentine's Day at our house (although my daughter really wanted me to after making this!) Maybe next year. . .

I also made some strands of stars in this same way, only they hung down.

I used blues and yellows for that one--made 6 strands, so that there were 100 stars all together (That is a lot of punching and stringing!). I hung them in the doorway of my classroom on 100 Day. I made 5 different patters in these strands. If over the course of the day, my students could guess which one broke the pattern, they would get to pick one of my 100 treats of that day.

My frugal nature: these star strands are going to be great to decorate alongside of our "Starry Night" art projects (when studying VanGogh)

A little teacher giftie

Last week was a Teacher Appreciation Week at my son's school. This was our clever idea. Although, I have to admit, there was nothing clever I can take credit for, except for making it with my son! The idea came from this blog. It links to the printable and everything. All you do is print out the printable (small hint: leave the extra white space that goes to the edge of the paper--these labels are a hair too short!), wrap it around the water bottle, attach a crystal light-type of tea packet with a fancy ribbon, and add a tag. So-o-o simple!

Here is how they turned out for us:

And a close up. . .

It was very inexpensive, but very cute. Enough to say thanks, and useful enough, too.

Here is another way of doing it. . .although, I kinda like the first way better.