Category Archives: school

Artful Thanks

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I’m working on teacher projects again. This time for the local/current teachers. It is so nice to be back in a system that has music, art, and PE in the regular schedule with a dedicated and knowledgeable teacher!

I created this card for, can you guess? 😀 Yes, the art teacher. My girls both love doing art projects. And now they are getting real instruction.

The idea for this card is actually due to the current sketch at Waltzingmouse (wmsc48). I originally pulled out my Teeny Trees set (new to me – and loving it!!) to use the circle stamp as I’ve seen others do, but then the other tree tops caught my eye and this idea just popped right in my head. I had to go for it!

I hand drew and cut out the palette. Then I stamped a rainbow using 3 different tree tops. I finished it off with a sentiment from Say it Loudly which is probably one of my favorite sentiment sets now!

Thanks
Stamps: Teeny Trees, Say it Loudly (WMS);
Colors: Pure Poppy (PTI), Pumpkin Pie (SU); Daffodil Delight (SU); Landscape (Palette); Pacific Point (SU); Lovely Lilac (SU); True Black (PTI)
Other: Scissors 🙂

More Thanks

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This is my last card to share of the ones I sent back to the old school. I have a friend who, not only was a past teacher for my oldest, but lead the Lego League team that my kiddo participated in earlier this year. She’s also being very kind and forwarding the class pictures and yearbooks that I ordered before we knew we were leaving.

I sent her a gift too, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It is a pen container done with the same paper that I used on this card – and a matching pen, of course.

For this card I was inspired by a sketch from one of the Joy of Cardmaking books (sorry, don’t remember which one). I think my torn edge is the opposite side, but that just worked better for the paper I was using.

Thanks So Much
Stamps: Think Big #1 (PTI);
Colors: Teal (SU);
Other: Notebook DSP, Celery ribbon (SU);

Teacher Gifts

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So last week my blog was pretty quiet. The reason was I was working on teacher gifts – the ones I needed to get into the mail to send back to our old school….before school got out for the year!

In that school my girls switched classes for different subjects, so there were many teachers. For one group I did note cubes with matching pens. For the other set I did acrylic sticky-note holders with matching pens. I kept it simple and used the same design for all of them.

Then for the card that accompanied the gifts, I continued the same design. I did break out the felt to create the flowers and then used the vine stamp from Background Basics for the leaves (because at some point I lost the leaf stamp that I was using, but PTI, being an awesome company, is replacing that image – for just the cost of a stamp!).

Stamps: Beautiful Blooms 2, Background Basics, Think Big #2 (all PTI);
Colors: Royal Velvet, Harvest Gold, Raspberry Fizz, Blueberry Sky, Simply Chartreuse (all PTI);
Gifts: Acrylic picture frame, sticky-note pads, note cubes, Pentel RSVP pens;

PRO-crastinator

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Yep, I put the PRO in procrastinator! I’ve been thinking about teacher gifts since school started. But when did I actually start working on them? The night before the last day of Teacher Appreciation week (thanks to Furlough Friday, no school on Friday and so one day less to procrastinate). *sigh* This year I made gifts for 4 teachers. And thankfully all of them are wonderful teachers so I did want to make the gifts.

I made each teacher a set of 6 notecards. Because of the late hour I made all of the cards the same. Though, honestly, if I had thought it out I would not have designed a card that would result in 576 total impressions!

Next up I made covered notepads. I don’t have a lot of stock in my SU stash (because my stock is in Purcellville – hi mom! lol), so I pulled out my PTI Poppy cardstock. I was in luck I had 8 pieces left (I only needed 4)! Plenty to make these covers. I carefully cut the first one and lucky me made it perfectly the first time (never happens). But don’t worry, I made up for it by cutting the next 3 all at the same time – 1″ short!!! Thankfully I had those extra sheets – but now Poppy cardstock is on my next purchase list! I’m not overly happy with these notepads but that is because I designed as I went.

Finally I created these paper clip bookmarks. I was so happy I had dies that would work to do this, that I forgot the PTI dies are not symmetrical, so I wasted quite a few minutes lining up my pile of cut pieces to the die so I could mark them for easier stamping and assembly. Even still they didn’t line up nice. One day I’ll figure out how to do that! Or maybe PTI will see the error of their way and make them symmetrical (but I doubt it, lol). I do like them – but then I love bookmarks!

And no gift is complete without chocolate. I added a little box of macadamia nuts to each package which was simply stacked and tied with a piece of grosgrain. My kids made a thank you card that accompanied the gifts.

ETA: I should have mentioned this, as I think it is a good tip 🙂 I buy my kids’ shoes at discount places. The shoes are held together with little elastic strings. I keep those strings because elastic can be handy in crafting. I used those strings to hold the pens onto the notebooks!

Thanks for taking a peek!

I used PTI Teacher’s Apple and Take Note to create the cards and notebooks. The inks are StampinUp. If you want to know about anything else, just ask!

Teacher Gifts, part 2

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Altered Lunch BoxToday’s post is another Lunch Box gift ensemble for a teacher back home. Mrs. A is a wonderful teacher (first grade) and a wonderful person. Because she is such a star, I went with the ‘star’ theme. She also loves rainbows (no wonder I like her so much 😉 ). I didn’t have the paper I wanted to use, so it took me a few days to mourn that and move on. I ended up choosing a favorite paper of mine from Stampin’Up! – Cutie Pie – it is so bright and cheery…just makes me smile! I don’t have the new teacher set from PTI yet, so the sentiment for the box was done on the computer and cut out using a Spellbinder’s Label 2 die. The star stamps are from Verve and they fit wonderfully in the punches from SU!

Note cardsFor this gift ensemble I even got the cards to match, hee hee. I wanted the cards to be mailable in case she didn’t want to just use them for school, so I did a very simple design with no ribbon knots. Did I mention the Verve stars fit into the SU punches? {I love that!} To do the sentiment I used a couple different PTI sets to get just the words I wanted – and since they are clear stamps, lining it all up was a breeze.

Post-it Note Holder and SweetsFinally, the gifties for inside the lunch box. I did a acrylic Post-it Note holder and a bag of cookies (her favorite). I used the same paper so it would match the lunch box. Putting them together is pretty straight forward.

Altered Lunch Box
Stamps: Seeing Stars (Verve);
Ink: Certainly Celery (SU);
Paper: Cutie Pie DSP (SU), Certainly Celery (SU), So Saffron (SU);
Other: Label 1 (Spellbinders), star punch (SU), brads, chipboard, star punch (SU), ribbon (various), computer font;
Note Cards
Stamps: Seeing Stars (Verve), Star Light (Verve), words (various PTI);
Ink: Bashful Blue (SU); Certainly Celery (SU);
Paper: Cutie Pie DSP (SU), Bashful Blue (SU), So Saffron (SU);
Other: star punches (SU);
Notepad and Bag Topper
Stamps: Mixed Greetings (SU), Seeing Stars (Verve);
Ink: So Saffron (SU), Rose Red (SU);
Paper: Cutie Pie DSP (SU), Bashful Blue (SU), White (PTI), So Saffron (SU), Certainly Celery (SU);
Other: star punch (SU), oval nestie (Spellbinders), pen, beads, acrylic frame, celery grosgrain (SU);

Teacher Gifts, part 1

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I normally don’t do big Christmas gifts for teachers, I prefer to spoil them during Teacher Appreciation week. But this year I knew we wouldn’t be around during that time and we had such awesome teachers that I *had* to do something at Christmas time. We miss them something bad right now! *sniff*

Altered Lunch BoxOn to the projects. I’ll post in two pieces – some today, some tomorrow. First up is Mrs. B (third grade). She likes school/office stuff, so I made an altered Lunch Box using some old Stampin’Up! Notations paper. I too love office stuff, so making this box was pure fun for me 🙂 As soon as I saw the paper, I knew I had to use the ‘ruler’ part around the center. The ticket (from the Stamp of Authority set) was added because tickets are a big deal in Mrs. B’s class – you earn them and then can use them for fun stuff – like sitting at the teacher’s desk!

GiftsInside the lunchbox I included a matching post-it note holder, made from an acrylic frame, and a matching beaded pen. Of course for the pen I used the “number” paper….forgetting that once you bead it you can’t read the numbers any more…oh well! I also created a tea-bag book. For the tea-bag book, I used a template by CookieStamper that I found on SCS. The tea cup is from a BlockHead Stamps set.

Note CardsFinally, I also included a set of note cards. I knew I wanted to use the doggie image – my kiddo says Mrs. B. loves her dog. My attempt to make the cards (sorta) match the rest of the ensemble, I added the notepaper background. The dog is colored with Stampin’Up! markers, if you work fast enough, you can get it done without the marker lines.

Altered Lunch Box
Stamps: Office Accoutrement (SU), Stamp of Authenticity (SU);
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU), Cool Carribean (SU), Certainly Celery (SU);
Paper: Notations 2 DSP (SU), So Saffron (SU), white (PTI);
Other: ribbon (various), circle punch, silver brads, chipboard, Take Note? rubons (SU);
Notepad and Tea Bag Book
Stamps: Coffee & Tea (Blockhead Stamps);
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU);
Paper: Notations 2 DSP (SU), Certainly Celery (SU);
Other: pen, beads, acrylic frame, red sticky tape, Celery ribbon (SU);
Note Cards
Stamps: Ruff Day (SU), Crayon (Clear Dollar Stamp), sentiment (Rubber Stampede), Notebook Paper background (CHF);
Ink: Lovely Lilac (SU), Close to Cocoa(SU), Creamy Caramel (SU), Bashful Blue (SU), Noir (Palette);
Paper: white (PTI);
Other: purple ribbon;