School

Back to School – Part deux

Posted by Sarah Martina on Aug 18, 2011 in Crate Paper, Kiddos, School | 1 comment

Hey guys!

I’m back to quickly share the other projects that I created for my kids’ teachers in celebration of going “Back to School.”

This time we’re focusing on my little man Sie, or Supey as you’ll notice me calling him. He never really “left” school this summer since he’s still in daycare. He goes to the same pre-school that Sydney went to, and we love it there. Anyway, he never really stopped going over the summer, but what did happen is he (and his buddies) moved into a new classroom and got new teachers! So, we still have something to celebrate!

I made this card for his teacher, and gave her a decorated vase with fresh flowers, just as I did for Sydney’s teacher here. Here’s another peek at the vase…

**I posted a tutorial on how I created the “pencil vase” down below.**

And I also created something sweet to say “Thank You” to Supey’s former teachers. I did this for Sydney back in May, but I forgot to take pics of it – woops!

So, years ago… in a land far, far away- no I’m just kidding, but seriously a looong time ago, I purchased a bunch of these frames. I can’t even remember where from, but anyhow, I had a couple left, and I thought they’d work out wonderfully for this.

I pulled a photo that I snapped during A Week In The Life, which has Sie and a few of his best buddies from his class in it, and slipped it into these frames. The little pencil embellishment was already there, all I added was the red bow and some buttons. Bam. Done. Easy. (and cheap!)

And then I made some quick mini cards to tuck in with the gift. Nothing fancy, but just enough to share how appreciative we are of Supey’s teachers… they spend many hours of each day with him, and they do such an amazing job helping him grow up to be a strong, smart, loving young boy.

Thank God for wonderful teachers!

All of the cards featured goodies from Crate Paper’s School Spirit line (available at 2P’s’ here)… Can’t tell you how handy this collection was for these projects… perfection! Love it! I also used a sentiment from Celebrating You by The Craft’s Meow (one of my favorite sets from TCM!).

And here are a couple of shots I got of Supey playing with some puzzles with his buds…

Ok, that’s it for today folks!… Remember, if you want to see a quick tutorial on how to create the Pencil Vase like you see above, just scroll down or click here.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a project for the new Embellish Color Trends Challenge!

Tutorial – Back to School Pencil Vase

Posted by Sarah Martina on Aug 18, 2011 in School, Tutorial | 3 comments

Though I’d share a quick step-by-step of how I created the pencil vase that I made for my kids’ teachers for back to school week. I “discovered” this project on Pinterest, with photo credit given to this site. But she didn’t really provide any explanation or tips on how to make it, so I winged it, and I’m happy with how they turned out!

You can embellish these vases as much or as little as you want… I kept it pretty simple this go ’round.

Ok, so let’s get started…

You’ll need:

Vase (make sure it’s not too much taller than the height of your pencils, and not too wide)
Card stock (for stability, if your vase is concave like mine)
Glue gun & lots of glue sticks
Pencils (I only used 2 packs of 24, but that could change depending on your vase’s width.)
Ribbon, buttons, twine, etc to embellish

1. Gather your supplies (listed above) ahead of time. You may want to take your pencils out of the box so they’re easy to get to when you’re hot gluing them down.

2. If you have a concave vase, you’ll need to wrap it in card stock to give your pencils something to stick to. Cut your card stock to a height appropriate for your vase, and wrap it completely around your vase. It may take multiple sheet of card stock to cover your vase – I used 2 sheets cut at 6″x12″.

3. From here it’s downhill. Begin gluing your pencils to the side of your vase (or the card stock covering your vase). Make sure to do this with the vase standing on a flat surface, as opposed to laying it down on its side. This helps ensure your pencils are standing completely straight and upright.

4. After you get a few of them glued down, step back and assess your progress. This is when I noticed that I should’ve made my card stock piece a little taller so that the “hole” at the top of it would be wider. Since I didn’t do this, my pencils sort of sloped inward at the top of the vase, leaving more space between them toward the bottom of the vase. This type of imperfection bugs me to pieces, but I’m learning to let things go. It doesn’t look that bad, especially from far away…and who’s really going to inspect the spacing of my pencils in a classroom full of 3 yr olds anyway, right? lol…

5. So here we have the fully covered vase. Minor spacing issues and all, lol… Easy right?!

6. And then I just wrapped the vase in some twill and twine that I had on hand. A simple bow does the trick here.

7. You’ll want to be sure to secure your bow and embellishments to the vase, so that they don’t slip around when being transported and used.

8. Top your bow off with a cute button and you’re good to go!

This is such a quick and easy project, and I can’t say that enough! The kids played and colored as I was doing this, and it took all of 20 minutes, maybe. I can’t make a card that quickly! Lol…

Thanks again for letting me share with you!

Have a good one!

Back to School

Posted by Sarah Martina on Aug 12, 2011 in Crate Paper, School | 14 comments

Hey guys!

Happy Friday! I wanted to share something crafty that I made for Sydney and her teacher for her 1st day of 3rd grade.

I knew that I wanted to use the School Spirit collection by Crate Paper. It’s one of my favorite school lines out there because of all of the awesome coordinating chipboard and stickers.

You can check out the School Spirit collection (including the 6×6 pads!) here at Two Peas in a Bucket right now, too.

**Disclaimer… if my photos look wonky, they were all taken with my cell phone, with the exception of the ones of Sydney down below.**

I printed the star and note using some good ol’ clip art, and then matted it on some coordinating card stock. In the interest of time (and exhaustion) I kept things pretty simple. *whispering* And it’s not too hard to impress my 7 yr old who thinks I’m the queen of crafts, lol! If she only knew!…

And because I like the chipboard so much, I sneaked another little embellishment inside of the card…

After writing her a note of encouragement inside from “Momma & Daddy,” I left her treat on the kitchen table for her to discover when she came to eat breakfast. She loved it… and it helped to take the nervous edge off a bit.

And along with her little gift…

I had Sydney’s teacher’s gift on the table with a blank card for her to write a sweet note to her teacher in. I probably should’ve filled the vase with some more flowers, but hind sight is always 20-20, right?

This is a cute and SUPER easy gift to make… Find a vase, glue on some pencils, and decorate. Bing. Bang. Boom.

I got the idea from Pinterest, and it was originally shared on the Deck the Halls blog. You can check out more Back to School inspiration on my “Back to School” board on Pinterest.

And here’s the card for her teacher…

Lots of cute buttons… and a simple layout to allow that pretty patterned paper to shine…

I loved that Sydney got to include a personal note to her teacher, because her teacher made it clear that a personal connection is something she values highly. And her teacher obviously likes handwritten notes… check out what Sydney received in the mail the day before school started:

Yep… I heart her teacher already. Ms. Fos is totally “Fos-ome”, lol! (Syd loves saying that!)

And here are a few photos that I snapped of Sydney on her 1st day…

That darn sun flair messed my photos up! Oh well… We had fun anyhow. And here she is carrying her teacher’s gift into her classroom, and then settling in to her new desk…

I didn’t get one with her teacher because she was running around doing teacher stuff, but we have all year for that.

Alrighty…. thanks for letting me share with y’all! See ya Monday!

Xoxo,

p.s.,

I will have to have my Week In The Life album for y’all next week!

Back to School

Posted by Sarah Martina on Aug 13, 2009 in Altered, Kiddos, School, Tags, Teacher | 8 comments

Hey y’all!

Teacher Tins

How’s it going? Well, I thought I’d share this quick project I did for Syd’s 3 teachers. Yesterdat was her first day of 1st grade, and I think I’m still in shock. I didn’t cry, or even feel sad. I’m more so excited and curious to see what she’ll learn at the stage. She is SO smart, and so I can’t wait to hear her stories about what she learned on the ride home everyday.

Teacher Tins a

I got the idea for this project from my dear friend Tiffany. Next time I’ll follow her suggestion and use some floral foam (?) at the bottom of the cans to hold the pencils in place…. and maybe even start early enough to make cards to match (duh!). The tins are filled with yummy mints. The cans smell SO good! lol… Well, I know I’m going to use this project again in the future. It’s so inexpensive, and fast, and easy! I got the watering cans for $3, and the pencils for a couple of bucks. The rest was from my stash. I think “twine-ing” all of those little buttons is what took the longest to finish! Lol…

The cherry on top for the day is that it was actually one of Syd’s teachers’ birthday! So this doubled as a Back to School gift, along with a Birthday gift! Syd came home with a sweet, sweet thank you card from her teachers… they just loved the gifts! Mission accomplished!

Here’s my big girl…

Dancin Into the 1st Grade

In my family, we tend to dance when we’re excited and celebrating something… hence the moves you see above. Please forgive all of the bad lighting on the photos… I had to snap some quick picks super early this morning. I didn’t want Syd to be late for school, so I just had to snap and go! And the leaves… yes the yard was sorely neglected while we were on vacation. Just pretend it’s pristine.

Well, are you as excited as I am that tomorrow is Friday?! Wooo Hoo!!! Chat with ya soon!

*Hugs & Love*