Calendars, Calendars, Calendars

Hi!  So I guess the theme this year was calendars!  I made a whole bunch.  Last year I made a whole bunch of little notepads and note cards for Christmas gifts.  This took me a while to do.  I made some for teachers, friends and family.  Above is the CD insert using the PTI Calendar Basics set.

The teachers' ones looked like the one above.  I used PTI's Teacher's Apple stamp set.  The calendar pages are die cut with their calendar die and all the individual calendar pages are from PTI also.  A lot of cranking of the Big Shot.

This was the first teacher calendar I made.  It was also the last one to use patterned paper cause after doing all this I couldn't fit it into the CD case!  It was too thick.  So only a few pages will fit at a time in the CD case if you embellish too much.  That's why I decided to just stamp on the cardstock instead.

I made a couple of sets using PTI's All About You stamp set with fresh snow ink.  Some of my pages got globby with the white ink.  And the ink showed up much nicer are the darker paper of course.  I tried not to put too much ink on the stamp and to wipe off the excess with a paper towel every so often.  That helped a lot to just leave clean stamped lines.  Live and learn, I suppose.  But this was inspired from Nicole Heady's calendar.  If only I had the entire Year of Flowers collection with matching cardstock and ink too . . .

Isn't this one of the cutest papers ever??  This line of papers and the paper pad from Imaginisce is so cute.  I had to make a calendar with the papers.

You can click on the photo to see the papers closer.

This paper pad set is from Wild Rose Studio.  The papers were thin so much easier to fit into the CD cases plus I didn't need to do anything to decorate the pages.  Just cut and slide in the calendar pages.  And after so much cutting, I really wanted something simple.

Lastly, I made one using pictures of my kids.  I didn't die cut the pictures.  I just trimmed some 5 x 7 photos to fit into the CD cases and taped the individual calendar pages to each one.  I taped some patterned paper behind some of the photos that were too short.  If the calendar page was too big in some cases, I just trimmed it to fit better on the photo.  I wanted to try something like this after I had seen Heather Nichols' post.  But I didn't have much time to search for pictures that had enough space for me to die cut in the right area for the calendar page to slide into.  So I thought this would save me time and frustration.

The spine of some of the CD calendars I made. In total, I think I made about 15 CD calendars and a couple of easel calendars. 

Thanks for reading this long post about calendars!  Have a great day!

Apple Notecards for Teachers

Hi!  Made some notecards for my kids' teachers for Xmas.  Same idea as last year!  But the teachers receiving them are different.  I used each of the apple designs from PTI's Teacher's Apple stamp set on cream cardstock and envelopes.

Wrapped up 12 notecards and envelopes for each of the teachers. 

I stamped their names beneath the apples using Just Rite stampers tiny alphabet set.

I've had the above stamp for a few months now and I haven't used it yet so I'd like to give it away.  I don't think we have that many readers so I'll send this stamp to the first person that leaves a comment on this post (not including Cheryl, of course).  Sorry, but I think I have to limit this to the US only.  Hope someone can put this stamp to good use.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Teacher Gifts for Xmas 2010

If these look familiar it's because I made the same little desk caddies for my kids' teachers last year too.  See HERE.  These are made from Lauren Meader's template over at PTI.  See HERE.  And speaking of PTI, I can't wait until their November release!  I think I say that every month.  I can't believe all the cute sets and dies they come out with.  I think I've really gotten my monies worth with this template.

This one is for my son's kindergarten teacher who was also my daughter's kindergarten teacher so we couldn't be happier.  She is a great teacher and hopefully she will be there for our youngest one too.  Stamp is Teacher Anya from TGF and paper is from October Afternoon.  I used PTI's spiral note paper die and their School Time stamp set for the handwriting lines and the bus.  I lightly penciled in the teacher's name and my son traced over it just to make sure her whole name would fit.  You know how kids tend to squeeze the last letters in cause they run out of space.  I decided to blur out the teachers' names in the photos.

This one is for my daughter's GT teacher who is so supportive and loving.  My daughter really enjoys her class.  Paper is from Imaginisce. 

The last one is for my daughter's main teacher.  She is strict but my daughter learns a lot from her about responsibility.  I love this school paper from Crate Paper and really had to force myself to use it.  I have to tell myself to actually use the paper I buy, not just stare at it. 

I am still working on the gifts to place inside these little caddies.  So much to do before Xmas!

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

Gift card holder

Hi!  I made a little something for TGF's Which One Wednesday Sketch #10, Ribbon Carousel's Challenge 18 All Tied Up (use more than 1 spool item), and Some Odd Girl Challenge Paper Piecing.

When I saw the sketch, it reminded me of a Double Pocket Card.  See HERE for a tutorial.  But I didn't follow the tutorial.  I made the bottom boxes in the sketch into pockets.  One to hold a gift card and the other to hold a little card for a message.

I used TGF's Vivi.  She is popped up a bit on the first pocket.

Vivi is paper pieced and I found my stash of bells after searching all my crafting bins.  I tied one on to the end of her cap with some twine and added some flower soft too.

This is what the inserts look like.  The smaller one will hold the gift card.  I just used some removable tape and an old gift card I found for reference.  The larger one has a label (from PTI) so my son can scribble his name on it.  Both the inserts have some ribbon tied on with twine. 

I made this one for my younger son's preschool teacher who is a man.  It's the first time any of my kids have had a male teacher as their main teacher so I was kind of stumped on gifts.  I didn't think a stack of cutesy note cards would appeal to a young guy so figure I better go the gift card route.  I have to make one more for the aide in the classroom.  She seems young too so I'm thinking gift card as well. 

So I've started my Xmas crafts for teachers.  Now I've got 3 kids in school, I'm starting early.  Not to mention all their extracurricular activities.

Thanks for reading and have a great long weekend!

Back to School with TGF's FFF

Hello!!  I'm hosting The Greeting Farm's Farm Fresh Friday this week!!  I think I'm getting the hang of this -- can I do this, um, forever??  Haha!  Since tons of kiddies have gone back or are going back to school, I went with a Back to School theme.

I chose Do Si Do Anya!  She looks all ready for her first day of school!  Though by the end of the school day, her hair might be all wasted.  My daughter used to go to school with cute hair in the morning and come home a mess!  I finally got to used my school embellishments like the mini ruler and chalk cardstock.  I was gonna write a little more but my kids only had the super fat chalk and that was hard to write with so all I could scribble legibly was A+.   

Oh, surprise!  It's an easel card to hold a post it pad.  Okay, that little pencil looks cute but it's totally only decorative.  Next time, I will use velcro.  It's pretty stuck on with tape.  My kids have so many pencils that are too small to use now so I got some of my cute My Melody washi tape and covered the old looking pencil.  Click on photo if you want to see it larger.  Then I used of the same washi tape and looped it through the paper clip on top.

Here's a little side view.

Alrighty folks, please play along this week!  We love to see lots of people playing!  All the challenge details are on the TGF blog.  Go visit and see more cute TGF school cards!

Thanks for reading!

apples for teachers

Hi everyone!  Wow, tomorrow is the first day of school for my boys!  I can't believe how fast the summer went.  They are all packed and ready to go and boy, do they have a lot of supplies to take the first day.  I'm gonna have my daughter help me carry everything.

During one of my blog stalking days, I came across this cute tutorial on how to make an apple pin cushion.  I thought maybe I can't really make it cause I didn't think I could follow the curve of the apple nicely but it's really not too bad.  I thought they would also make cute gifts for the teachers.  So I spent most of yesterday making these apple pin cushions so my boys could take them on the first day of school.  I think they are cute even if the teachers might not sew or actually use them as pin cushions.  Maybe they could just sit nicely on the teachers' desks?

I'm giving the 2 larger ones to the teachers.  I made the smaller one first and didn't realize it would be so small but it's a cute size.  I think the larger ones are more real apple sized.  This is more of the Doodlebug Designs fabric from Riley Blake Designs.

Here's a close up.  The tutorial gives you the pattern so you can cut out each of the panels to sew up.  I used some felt for the stem and I had these fabric leaves in my stash for a while.  I trimmed the leaf for the smaller apple.

I added tags to the apples.  The tag, apple & Happy sentiment are from Lawn Fawn and the other sentiment is from PTI.  I think these turned out cute though my kids are thrown off by the purple color instead of the typical apple colors but purple is one of their school colors! 

I'm happy to have made yet another sewing project on my list.  I have one more project I'd like to try and think they would make nice gifts for teachers too.  Maybe for Christmas!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Teacher Gifts (Finally!)

Hi!  It's that time of the year again for teacher gifts.  I love making gifts for the teachers.  This year I wanted to package up some Bath & Body Works stuff.  We finally have one where we live.  I haven't gone into the store yet because it is so packed.  I bought these items online.

For my kids main teachers, I packed up all this stuff and a little hand gel holder too (which for some reason my photographer seems to have left out) into the basket in the back.  The basket, called Pack a Picnic is a Lauren Meader My Timeless Template available at Papertrey Ink.  The templates come in 2 sizes and the large one really is large.  I could fit everything into it even with that big poofy flower scrub.

This is a large basket and I used the papers from Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden.  The papers are so pretty.

Top view.  I lined the cardstock handles with some twill ribbon.

Group shot.  I made three large ones and 4 small ones. The small ones contain the mini hand gel and holder.  And they are super cute!

I do have a long winded story about why it took me so long to make these.  I really thought I wouldn't be able to finish and even thought about buying gift bags to put them in.  The horror, right?  Anyway, last night I decided to just buckle down and finish them.  I've stayed up pretty late the last 2-3 nights.  I did feel disappointed, frustrated and maybe even uninspired the past week because of how long it took me to get these templates from PTI in the first place.  I won't go into details because I know so many people love PTI and no one wants to hear negative experiences about their favorite companies.   I love their products a lot and they have wonderful ideas and designs.  I think I've been a pretty loyal customer these past couple years, but this experience has me thinking about laying off of PTI for a while. 

We'll also be taking a little blogging break the next few days.  My kids have their last day of school tomorrow and it's time to enjoy the summer.  Hopefully the weather is sunny for us.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!  

Last Set of Teacher Gifts

These are little boxes I made for my daughter and son's main teachers.  It's a little caddy box.  I was inspired by this picnic caddy.  See HERE.  Problem is I didn't have any nice 12x12 cardstock so I made mine a little different by using 2 pieces of 8.5x11 cardstock.  I scored each 8.5x11 cardstock at 3 inches all around, trimmed off the extra bits to be able to fold the ends into a rectangular box.  I glued the 2 finished rectangular boxes to make a square caddy. 

I didn't make my caddies with a handle like the picnic caddy tutorial.  I basically followed the tutorial to make the inserts except cut the paper to 3.5x7 and scored at 0.5, 3.25, 3.75, and 6.5 inches.  Hope that makes sense.  I made these some time ago and sometimes when I'm making stuff I don't always write things down because I think I'm going to remember but I don't. 

The labels are PTI's Fillable Frames stamp set and die and alphabet stamps are PTI's Simple Alphabet.  I filled the caddies with more Bath and Body Works hand gel.

This is the last one I made.  I thought the little ladybug Hello Kitty was cute.  Then of course I wrapped everything in cellophane. 

That's it for the teacher gifts.  I can't believe school is almost done and my kids will be moving on to another school year.  It goes by too quickly.  Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Mini Magazine Holders

Yay!  I'm finally all done with end of the school year teacher gifts.  I made 8 mini magazine holders for my daughter's Nihongo teachers and some of the teaching aides/former teachers at my son's preschool.  I found the template for the holders HERE.  Mine are just a little smaller cause I wanted to put little Bath & Body Works pocketbacs in them.  The great thing is that each holder only uses one piece of 8.5x11 cardstock. 

The stamps on the tags are from PTI.  I love the Fillable Frames stamps and die.  So cute and fun.  And the Hello Kittys are sizzlits.  And they are all wrapped in cellophane. 

I bought all those BBW pocketbacs while they were having a sale and special promotion online.  I even bought some of the holders (pink in photos) that you can attach to your bag.  But living in Hawaii, we always get the worse shipping deals.  I signed up for emails from BBW to be notified of their sales and they have some great sales if you live in the contiguous 48 states.  It's pretty irritating when they announce in their emails that there's $3 shipping or even free shipping but not valid for Hawaii folks.  I've already complained to them twice!  Yes, I'm a complainer.  Anyway, I bought these because they had a $10 off of $40 purchase so I figure that would take care of the $12.50 shipping that they charge to Hawaii.  The only good thing is that the package arrives fast.  They recently had a $10 off of $30 deal too so I ordered more cause they make cute little gifts.  Plus teachers can always use anitbacterial hand gels.

I have more teacher gifts to share later.  Thanks for reading & have a great weekend!

A+ Teachers

Hi!  It's been a while since I got to play in My Favorite Things weekly sketch.  They are now on sketch 20!  I think I missed a few weeks and I'm behind on my 2012 calendar!  Hopefully I'll catch up next month.  Here's this week's sketch.

I made 2 cards following the sketch and the card on the right was from way long ago following a different sketch but I wanted to show all three cards the kids will be giving to their teachers at the end of the school year.  I let them pick which ones they liked the best to give to their teachers.  They're all a little different.

I like this card a lot.  It's looks fun and bright and my daughter picked it for one of her teachers.  The background uses the graph stamp from Hero Arts.  I like these background stamps a lot too.  Then I used Pure Innocence Make the Grade stamp.  All the sentiments including the A+ is from the set. 

My son picked this one for his teacher.  I crossed out the word student in the circle and wrote teacher so it would read Teacher's Grade Card.  I like this card a lot too especially the papers. 

The third card is going to another one of my daughter's teachers.  I like that one too with the felt doily and ribbon.  Gee, I guess I like all of these cards and hopefully the teachers will too.

I'm still in the process of making something small (and I mean literally small) for my son's kindergarten class.  I have a lot of crafting to do still.  My daughter didn't want to make anything for her class so that lessens the load a bit.  I still have the teachers' gifts to package up.

Thanks for reading and have a great Friday!