Thursday, January 22, 2009

A New Year, an Organized ME!

What a busy week this has been!!! Busy is good, busy makes me focus. I don't usually talk about my New Years resolutions because they are more like goals for me, not really resolutions. This way I keep them; goals make me work harder, and they seem more attainable to me. I have learned over 36 years that if I make resolutions per se, I just forget 'em! :-) So, one of my goals this year is to get me and my family more organized. I bought one of those "Mommy Calendars" with columns for each person and a block for each day of the month - LOVE IT! I organized my kitchen drawers this week, called Habitat for Humanity to come pick up some furniture we were planning to get rid of in the future (the future is now!), and cleaned out my bathroom cabinets (it is amazing how much make-up and hair stuff I buy and never use). The good news is that today I learned more about a free-market place that might actually take these toiletries that I don't use and give them (yes give them!) to people who would love to have them. How great is that!!! I know what I'll be doing next week :-)

Well, in a long, round-about way that leads me to finally sharing the teacher gifts that I made for my sons teachers at Christmas. The reason I am linking the two... I just hope they don't throw these away or give them to the free-market :-)

I think I mentioned before that my son has a total of seven teachers in preschool, the kids actually rotate from room to room for each "subject." My son loves it, he really enjoys the variety, and of course each teacher has a different style and personality, which is good for the kids to be exposed to. But boy, when it comes to gift-giving, it sure made for a lot of work!





Anyway, they were fairly easy once I figured out a design. For simplicity, I kept them pretty much the same, just different papers and colors. The quote is the same on each and it reads:

Kind words from a teacher can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless.








Sorry for the dark pics; I took them at about 2-3 AM the morning of their Christmas party. Now do you see why I am trying to get myself more organized???!!!

First I painted each frame to match the paper choice. After adhering the paper (with Mod Podge) I sprayed them with Plaid Acrylic Sealer. I used Spcriptina font for the quote and printed them on vellum which I then cut using my Labels 1 dies. I stamped another sheet of vellum with white ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder. For the butterflies, I did a base butterfly in a solid color and a vellum butterfly in the same shape and used versamark and Pebbles Chalk Inks to shimmer them up. Added some bling, dew drops and flowers here and there and wallah! My full list of supplies is below.

I have some fun cards to share in a few days. We are off tomorrow for a trip to visit the family (I hope!). My dad had his final surgery today, so if he is feeling up to it I really want to get up there to see him and the rest of the family.

Hope you all have fabulous weekend! As always, thanks for visiting!

*HUGS*



Supplies Used:
Stamps: Fancy Pants Pollen Dust (flowers), Autumn Leaves Elegant Flourishes, Inkadinkado Floral Flourishes
Paper: Vellum, variety of My Mind's Eye Patterns and DCWV
Ink: White Craft SU!, Versamark
Miscellaneous: White EP, heat tool, various ribbons, Mod Podge, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Labels 1, Martha Stewart Butterfly punches, Pebbles Inc. Shimmer Chalks, Acrylic Sealant, Dew Drops, Acrylic paints in various colors, wood frames from Michaels, flowers Prima, and rhinestone brads are MM.

3 comments:

The Patterson 5 said...

May you be more organized this year! What a great resolution! Sounds like you are off to a fabulous start! I love the gifts you gave the teachers! I know they treasured them!

Keri Lee Sereika said...

I hear you on being organized...I am naturally an organizer, but the past few months were brutal to try and keep up with the clutter...but now that I am on top of it again life is good and I am less mentally drained...

Loved the frames! Each is so pretty and unique!

Unknown said...

Hope '09 is great for you all - and the frames are outstanding!!!