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.

No Where Near Needing This...

Like I said last week, although my blog took a little time off, I unfortunately did not. We had a showcase day at my MOPS group a few weeks ago to show off our home businesses. Now I don't really have a home business per se, but since people had been encouraging me to show others what I can do, I thought this might be a good opportunity to do that. So, this is one of the projects I did for that showcase.

I am in Love with Cosmo Cricket's Sugar line! It is so girly, yet it's classic too. I have decided that is what my daughter's room will be decorated with. I am going to cover her name letters with it too. I just love the colors and the patterns! Gotta stock up now before they yank it from the shelves to make room for the new stuff, which I have to tell ya does not make my heart go pitter patter :-( like this does.

Guessing by now everyone knows how to make one of these! I used Maya Road rub-ons for her name and the flower is from MM. I did cover the inside with paper too, and attached an organza pull ribbon bag to keep the tooth and money in.

I actually got three orders for these in their choice of color scheme. Not bad!

So, what do you think?

OK, well off to clean and hopefully stamp tonight. I have a lot of painting to do to - you'll see that next. I miss my stamps! :-(

Have a fabulous Sunday!
Thanks so much for stopping by!

What I Used:

Paper: Cosmo Cricket Sugar Collection

Accessories: Maya Road rub-on letters, MM rub-on flower, Ofray cream satin ribbon, organza bag (inside), MM Copper Flower Brads, Tin

A Little Something...

I wanted to share this project because this was very special to me. A while back in this post I wrote about my cousin, Tricia, who was going to be starting chemo for ovarian cancer. Anyone who knows Tricia (or as she calls herself these days *wink* Patty) knows how much she loves to play waitress. She takes coffee orders at every family get together. She never makes the coffee, just likes to take the orders :-) So, when she finished her last chemo treatment, we went up to visit and celebrate with her and her family. She was too busy on the phone with her boyfriend to really notice we were even around :-) but she did enjoy this little gift I made for her - her very own personalized notebook. My 11 year old cousin was there and she loved the polka dots, apparently they are big right now among the tweens :-) She had polka dot socks on and a bandana to boot, so I know my notebook was cool (is it still cool to say cool?) LOL!

The notebook was actually pretty before I covered it, but I did it anyway. I covered the notebook with Mod Podge and adhered the paper, and added the rub-ons (American Crafts) for her name. The P and the heart chipboard are painted with Making Memories Specialty Glaze in Ruby, see the close-up it's pretty shimmery (love it!). I sprayed the cover with an acrylic sealant before I attached the ribbon.

The sentiment obviously has special meaning for her now more so than ever; I know it does for me.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend! We will be very busy again, starting with my son's t-ball game at 8:30 am - UGH! We are test driving cars this weekend for my hubby, I'm praying that goes well because me and car salesmen don't go well together :-(

What I used:

Stamps: PTI Out On A Limb

Paper: MME patterned (I think), Pink is Carnation from Martha Stewart, PTI White

Ink: Staz On Black

Accessories: Ribbon Michaels Basic Basic Collection, American Crafts rub-ons, Mod Podge, Acrylic Sealant, Scallop scissors, Making Memories Specialty Glaze paint Ruby, Black brads MM, Flowers Prima, Chipboard letter Colorbok and heart MM