Christmas

Here's a few quick projects I did for Christmas:

This was the delivery men and teachers' gifts. There was a label that said "Warm wishes" (get it, it's full of warm colors).  The teachers' were a little more personal with my kids picking out specific gifts for their teachers that fit the theme, including nail polish for the the girl teachers and Carmex and hand warmers for the male teacher that also serves as a crossing guard. The basic fillings were a few packets of apple cider mix (in place of the normal cocoa packets), hand warmers for the delivery men, some Juicy Fruit gum, yellow and orange Starburst (my husband was so excited a bought a big bag and planned on getting rid of all the yellows and orange so he was left with his favorites), and fruit flavored Melt-Away mints. After we got the the big stuff in we just packed the candy in to fill it.

Here are the bows I made this year for my nieces- presents, gingerbread men, and Christmas trees.
It's almost becoming tradition for me to add to their bow collections on every occasion.

I apparently forgot to take a photo of my neighbor gift.
It was nothing too fancy because I forgot about them until about the 12th. I had been saving bottle caps to spray paint green and make a tree for the girls anyway, so we glued them to a canvas instead of paper and one went to each family. The decorated their trees with some simple jewel-like stickers that I bought marked down from Wal-Mart and topped it off with a foam star (from the same pack as the ones used for the Christmas tree bows).
I also made a more adult craft for them. I took some cubed glass ornaments (left over from last years teacher gifts) and filled them with green and red crinkle cut paper that they make for gift bags. Then I added their initials to personalize them. I used glittery alphabet stickers I thought were cute. Both of these came together pretty easily, and went over well with the neighbors.

Now here's just a few cute photos from Christmas break so far.
A round (or 2) of Reindeer Ring Toss (KK is too old to get her picture taken while wearing the ears) :

 And a few enjoying their Christmas gifts:

That's all for now,
Jo!

New Bag

I've been pretty busy lately with school and baby, but I promise I'm not completely forgotten how to craft... just mostly.

My most recent is a clothes pin bag.

I love my clothes line, I'm pretty sure I can thank the cloth diapers for that. But, a few months ago, when I wasn't using it because it was too humid and I was too pregnant, I was outside watching the girls play and wishing I wasn't the size of a whale so I could take care of the overgrown weeds around my house and I realized there was a whole in my store-bought clothes pin bag. Upon further investigation it was actually completely falling apart and I had forgotten it outside and there was a spider egg sack on the rim too. Yuck!! I'm not really afraid of spiders but I do prefer them outside instead of in- so I grabbed a gallon sized Ziploc and brought in the clothes pins and left the torn and infested bag in the garbage can outside.

And then I scoured Pinterest and found this tutorial.

I found this duck fabric in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby (my favorite place to browse and then grabbed the closest (although not perfect) bias tape they had.

Altogether I spent less than $5 because the bias tape was 50% that day. AWESOME!! I'm pretty sure my store bought clothes pin bag was more than that and didn't leave me with left over fabric to play with.

It came together pretty quickly and soon I was here:

I have a TON of clothes pins and I was worried it wouldn't fit them all, but they're all in there and it's holding just great. (The laundry room isn't completely finished and a task we haven't gotten around to yet, because when company is over we can just close the door.)

Other than that the only thing new on my camera memory card is my beginning of the year teacher gifts.

Every year at Parent-Teacher conferences I give the teachers a bottle of Pumpkin Spice coffee syrup but the ribbon and bottle occasionally change, this was this year's packaging.

I do have a few things planned coming up. My brother's girlfriend is expecting a little girl, so I have a few little circle skirts planned. That's probably the only project you'll see because everything else on my list is repairs.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Post It Clip Boards

This is what I decided on for the SLP for Teacher Appreciation. (If you only knew the amount of progress my KL has made in 2 years with her you would be buying her gifts too.)

They are cute little clip boards for Post It notes, and even a little bigger- they're about 5 inch squares, I don't remember the exact measurement.

Anyway, I saw the idea on Pinterest and thought it was too cute. The original idea used cardboard coasters but I was scared that they wouldn't hold up to frequent classroom use, so I set out for other ideas. I first I looked at the coasters still just to see if there was another option- maybe a sturdier plastic but at Walmart all I could find was round coasters- no go! I found 5x7 wooden plaques for $1 a piece (a little more than I wanted to spend) and picked them up in case I couldn't find anything else, and I didn't at Walmart, so I brought them home and tried to put a clip on them, but they were too thick- no go! So I headed to Michael's to see what they had- I was thinking wooden again, because I really wasn't sold on thin cardboard, but I wandered for a bit first and found the chipboard section of the scrapbook area. I found a pack of 6 chipboard squares, meant to be used as a base for a small scrapbook, held together by the metal rings you see in the picture. I still looked at the wooden crafts and found coasters, but they would've been a little more expensive and I like the idea of the bigger squares in case the kids are using scratch paper after the Post Its run out, or because they just need a bigger area.

So here's what I used besides the chipboard:

I also used Mod Podge, scrapbook paper, and washi tape- most of which you'll see as it's used.

So I started by putting a good coat of Mod Podge on the chipboard and then attached the scrapbook paper. I added a little weight as it dried so it didn't warp.

Then I trimmed the edges off with an exacto knife. I found that I had 4 (well 5 technically, because I have the blue in yellow also) cute gingham patterned colors so they could be similar but not the same.

After the base was all set I moved on to the clips- they are just blinder clips, I'm assuming they are "large" sized because there are 2 sizes smaller and 1 larger in most office supply stores, or even Walmart's office section. I looked to my washi tape collection and found coordinating colors.

And then I simply added a piece to both sides of each clip and tucked the extra under (I wanted to make sure it wasn't pulled off by a kid the first time they were used, so I intentionally left overhang).

Then I simply clipped them to the top of the board.

Since the chipboard already had holes, I figured they could be used to keep them together so I punched one of the 2 holes and used a ring that came with it to keep them together. Then I added the Post Its and they were ready to go.

I think they turned out pretty cute and here's hoping she can get plenty of use out of them.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Some Finished Projects

Here's a few things I've finished over this week.

First, I finished a cross stitch kit this week. It's from Bucilla and it was called "Fall Flowers". I picked it up from Hobby Lobby on sale (for like $12, but months ago).

I absolutely love the colors in this piece. The vibrant blues and orange/reds just look gorgeous.

Second, I realized earlier this week that next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So I went ahead and threw together a few more coffee cozies, like I did last year.
The school colors are red and black and both of my Big Ks have coaches for teachers, so I went ahead and used school colors for theirs. Also, you can probably tell by looking that there was only one female teacher this year, and honestly I'm not crazy about the way that hers turned out, but KK liked it and it's for her teacher. The last one is for a student teacher in KK's room, but he's been there since the middle of the year so I figured he earned it.

I picked up some Starbucks gift cards to go with them, also like last year. Lord knows I need coffee to get through the day and I only have my 4, not a full classroom.

I have an idea of what to do for the SLP, since she got a cozie last year but I haven't gotten anything to make them yet. I'll show you when I do though.

That's all for now,
Jo!

A Few Christmas Gifts (Already Handed Out)

Here's a few things I've gotten finished for Christmas.

First off, here's the gifts we made for the teachers.

I'm sure you've seen the pin with hot cocoa in ornaments, that's what we did. And I wrapped them up in another popular Facebook pass-around of a paper plate gift box.

Here's a side shot of the ornaments:

In order, it was dark chocolate, caramel hot chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate mixes.
All the mixes were store bought, along with peppermint chips, caramel bits, coconut flakes, and mini marshmallows- and I used the collection of Christmas sprinkles I already had. The kids chose what sprinkles went with which teacher (with the exception of the caramel because it was a last minute addition) so no two teachers got the exact same gift.

For the gift box I cut a 10" circle of wrapping paper (because the paper plates are 9") and glued it to the bottom of the plate so when folded up you could still see the paper.

Top it all of with tags for descriptions and instructions, since some call for 6 oz of water/milk and others for 8 oz and then a ribbon to secure it all- BAM! Done! After finally getting everything all together and cleaning the ornaments (making sure they were dry was one of the longest parts of the process) they came together pretty quickly. I used a funnel to help fill- how else would you expect, and I had a skewer handy for when it slowed/stopped.

Next, here's the delivery men gift:

Growing up my dad was a UPS man (he's retired now, and this year is the first year he isn't delivering Christmas gifts- he's quite happy about that). Long story short- I know how hard those folks work in the month of December. I remember my dad leaving before I got up, because there were so many packages they had to help load their own trucks, and not coming home until after I was in bed, because he had that many packages to deliver. And most of those memories are from before online shopping became popular and packages became more numerous.

So I always get a gift for UPS, FedEx, and the mail man (because they work hard for you all year long- lets face it, they're at your house at least 5 days a week). This year, I ordered from 3 stores online for Christmas, I did one site-to-store, and one store passes to USPS from the shipping company so they never made it to my door, so I only had FedEx and the mail man. (In case you didn't know, FedEx and UPS both have 2 people on the truck during December to make things move faster.)

Anyways- this year I did a reusable coffee cup, filled with hot cocoa packets, hand warmers, and a few candies (Reese's, Caramel Kisses, and Melt-Away Mints this year) and added a felt scarf cup cozy. Last minute I decided to add a skewer flag with a "Merry Christmas" on one side and "Thank You" on the other. It's made of Christmas themed washi tape.

Neighbor Gift...
I don't have a picture to show you, because I was so excited to finish my first Christmas gifts that I wrapped them up before I got a photo, but here is the idea I used. I made a snow man, a Santa, and an elf for each set.
The candles I found were shorter so they took a minor tweaking, but not too much. And then I wrapped them up in a wine box, because they fit perfectly with tissue paper wrapped around each candle.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Teacher's Gifts Pt. 2

Here are the finished products for the teachers.

I plan on adding a Starbucks gift certificate to go with them. I hope they enjoy them, I read a blog post recently (after finishing) that was a list of what to get and what not to get teachers. Thankfully, the list of things to get included gift cards and monogrammed items.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Teacher Gifts

My Big Ks brought home their A to Z Countdown this week, which starts on Wednesday, which means there's 28 days of school left... yikes! This school year seems to have flown by!
I decided this a good cue to start on year end teacher's gifts. I had already decided to make coffee cozies (and I'll probably put a $10 Starbucks gift card too) but hadn't started.

(There are 4 teachers I'm making them for, so there are times when you see 4 different sets, but while typing this up there is only 1 finished, I may post the others after they're all done on a day when I have nothing else to post.)

First I found a template online. (Disney's Spoonful has instructions for felt cozies, I used that, but if all else fails head to Starbucks, grab a hot coffee with a cozy and disassemble it once you get home).
Next cut them out of your fabric.

I decided I was going to put their initials on them so I grabbed some scrap fabric to match. Here's my combos:

Next, I added some Heat N' Bond to the back of the scraps for the letters.

Next I cut 4 pieces of scrap quilt batting to help contain heat, and protect hands from it - that is the point after all right?

Then I cut the letters for each teacher. I tried using Word to print fun fonts off but they just seemed really hard, and more trouble than it was worth. I ended up just free handing them. Next I secured them in place with the last step of the Heat N' Bond.

Next I secured the letters but stitching them on. I used several different methods for different looks. (You can see another one later in the finished product picture.)

Then I layered them to sew together. First the outside layers, right sides together. And then the quilt batting. Also, you need to add an elastic cord (I actually used an elastic hair tie but in half) between the outside layers, pointing inwards. Like so:

I think it's easiest to trace the template onto the batting so there are clear lines to follow when sewing.

Then sew it all together, leaving a gap (about 2-3 inches) to turn.
Turn it. I snipped the corners to make them easier to push out.
Next I ironed it and then stitched around the edge to close up the open area. (I took a couple picture but apparently none of them really turned out that great so I choose a finished product picture so feel free to ignore the button that's attached, sorry.)

Next to position the button by lining up the edges and marking how far the elastic reaches, unstretched, and make a mark. Then sew the button on the mark.

And you're done!

That's all for now,
Jo!