Primary Teacher Bookmark

Had a primary teacher inservice meeting. They are always so much fun. We asked for substitutes to sit in with their classes during sharing time while we pulled them into another room (all we have available in our building is the kitchen! so fun!) and talked about some training stuff. First we had some advice on how to deal with behavior issues and talked about WHY the kids might be having issues. It was a relief to see how much the teachers were already incorporating into their lessons and class time.

The behavior portion started with a short role playing where all the teachers were given a new name and a personality that they had to play out while we were trying to teach our lesson. We had 2 BFF's girls that were sitting in the back talking incessantly. We had the "Good Girl" that wanted to answer all the questions. We had a boy that liked another girl and kept poking her because he didn't know how else to show it. The girl was extremely shy and felt very uncomfortable from his advances. There was a boy with ADHD. There was a boy that was always trying to misbehave so he would get kicked out. It was a great way to start the class and to get the teachers talking and involved.

To transition from one topic to the next we showed this video.... Click here.

The second half of the class consisted of talking about spiritual preparation and making sure we love the kids we are teaching. Most of the information related to that part of the class came from the book "Teaching, No Greater Call." GREAT BOOK.

Made a bookmark with references to things that we talking about so they could refer themselves to the book as needed. There is a front and a back. I cut them about 2 1/2 inches wide by 8 inches long. I glued the paper onto colored cardstock & then laminated them. After they were laminated... I added a hole punch at the top, and a ribbon.

The front of the bookmark has a quote from President James E. Faust.

"The Lord has a great work for each of us to do. You may wonder how this can be. You may feel that there is nothing special or superior about you or our ability.... The Lord can do remarkable miracles with a person of ordinary ability who is humble, faithful, and diligent in serving hte Lord and seeks to improve themselves. This is because God is the ultimate source of power."

 

Here is the printable portion of the bookmark if you wanted to download it and make your own. 

And no church lesson is complete without a treat to go with it.... We think our teachers are DYNAMITE! We told them this... by giving them this little treat.



To make this... take a package of Rolo candy and wrap it up with a piece of red scrapbooking or construction paper. Before sealing the red paper, add a piece of brown embroidery floss or hemp to be the fuse of the dynamite. Then seal it up using some tape, glue or the best option would be the Sticky Strip. Finally add a word strip that says, "Thanks for being a DYNAMITE teacher!"

Click here for the tags to download and print.

This would be a great and simple gift to give to a school teacher as well. I was thinking about making a bunch of wrapped Rolos and putting them all together to make the gift a little more grandeur. Something like this.....

Cheetos Carrots Snack Bag

Fun non-candy treats for kids.

Take a cake decorating bag and fill it up some Cheetos or some other orange snack (Cheez-its, GoldFish, cheese balls, etc.). Add a green ribbon and leaf tag cutout at the top. Done! Cute little snack idea to give kids that isn't candy!

Orange You Glad... Birthday Gift

I made this little gift to give away... I've seen tons of variations on Pinterest. I had to mail this gift so I opted for less chocolate and more mailable items.

Super easy and versatile gift that can be made to fit any person. Basically you just have to collect "orange" colored items.

Here's some orange suggestions:

• Orange notebook 
• Orange pen
• Orange tube of Mini M&M's
• Trident gum (Tropical Flavor- with an orange package)
• Orange Crystal Light
• Burt Bees Chapstick
• Orange Nail Polish
• Orange Slices Candy
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or Reese's Pieces
• Kit Kat Candy
• Soda/Drinks (Orange Crush)
• Orange Tic Tacs
• Goldfish
• Cheetos
• An actual real orange
• Orange cup
• Orange Ribbon
• Orange Stickers
• Anything Orange! Walk around and see what Orange things you find.

Then you add a little tag and it's done! Ta dah!

Here's a free printable of the orange tag for a Birthday gift.

And another tag for other gifts... Teacher Gift, Visiting Teacher gift, neighbor gift, just because gift! You can make the gift big or small depending on how much stuff you put into the collection.

 Right click on the image that you want and save it to your computer, then you can print out, cut out and attach it to your gift.

Here's another idea...

It's a plastic mason jar straw cup with a lid (and it even has an orange on the glass itself). I filled it up with a bunch of Orange candy, gum, Tic Tac's & Burt Bee's chapstick. I bought the cup at Wal-mart and after filling it with the orange treasures, I wrapped a ribbon and attached the tag.

Trick Or Treating Buckets

These are our Trick or Treat Buckets.

I made these a few years ago and they have been fantastic, so I wanted to share. Here's what I did:

• I took some clean, brand new, empty gallon paint cans and decorated them. I used a white wrapping paper to cover the paint can first. The paint can is about 7 1/2 inches tall and it is pretty long (21 inches), so the wrapping paper enabled it to be only one piece of paper that wrapped around the can. If you want to piece paper then you could use any size or type of paper. 
• I attached the paper to the can using Stampin' Up Sticky Strip cause it is super strong and holds everything together so very well. 
• Before attaching the paper, I stamped some pumpkins to the bottom edge of the paper. You could use stickers or other images to embellish the can. 
• I made some words that said TRICK or TREAT, backed them with some cardstock and then attached them to the can with the sticky strip. 
• I used the sticky strip again to add a strip of 3/16" grosgrain ribbon at the top edge. 
• The paint can handle was a little sharp on the kids little hands, so we added some large wooden beads that would fit over the handle. It really helps to make it easy to carry the bucket around, even when it is loaded full of candy. 
• You can also decorate a coordinating paint lid (not pictured). 

***Now I have to let you in on the best part of these cans... after all the candy has been collected in these adorable paint cans... you can pound the lid on top and it makes it much harder for the little kiddos to sneak their candy away. You can leave their cute little buckets out for decoration and then pop them open when you're ready to enjoy a treat.

This year I had this blank plastic pumpkin that had paper eyes and mouth. It was the cheap kind you get at the store. We decided to spruce it up a bit. I took off all the paper decorations for the eyes and then we drew in the outline of eyes, nose and mouth with some black puffy paints. Then we added some sparkles to the eyes, some white sparkly teeth and a pink bow to the cute little pumpkin's face.

And of course when you are three... you always want your name on everything, so we added it to the back. I took off the plastic handle that the pumpkin came with and added some large grosgrain ribbon. Then it was ready for her to use to collect all her valuable candy loot.

Pumpkin Candle Gift

This super sweet gift is perfect for this time of year. Use as a visiting teaching gift and add a lesson to go with it. Teach about how important it is to be a Christian and how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Or give as a neighbor gift/teacher gift. Everyone loves to receive a sweet smelling candle. And any gift is better when there is a sweet thought behind it. One that makes us feel better about who we are.

Here's a close up of the quote.

Here's the printable... Click on the image and then save it. Print it out on a 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper and cut it up. Embellish it with a pumpkin sticker or something. You can laminate it and add a magnet to the back so that the recipient of the gift can remember the saying by putting it on their fridge or magnet board.

Add the candle into a cellophane bag, add the magnet quote and tie up the gift with a ribbon.

Church Quiet Book... ready in 5 minutes!

This was a quick and easy quiet book that I made in about 5 minutes.....

I actually made it right before church.... Using 4 simple items...

1- plastic badge holders (this particular set was purchased at Office Max, 10 for $4.99, but you can buy them cheaper at Wal-mart for around $1.69, however the plastic is lighter-weight).

2- Circle Binder Clips (Purchased a variety pack of 8 silver rings at Target for around $2)

3- Ribbon... any size, color, texture, etc.

4- Pictures (I used a variety pack of pictures that measured 3x4 inches)

I inserted the picture into the badge holder (the picture was the exact size of the badge holder and since there was a saying on the back, I didn't mount the picture or add any embellishments. I simply slipped the picture in).

Next I put the pictures onto the binder ring and closed it.

I tied on a bunch of ribbons to embellish the quiet book and VOILA!!! It was done!

Quick... easy... and the kids enjoyed looking at the pictures and the older kids enjoyed reading the sayings.

5 minutes... done!

Simply Scrappin' Cards

Here are some easy cards that you can make using a Stampin' Up Simply Scrappin' kit. The kit is usually used for scrapbooking. The kits comes with cardstock, patterned papers, die cut stickers and images. Instead of making a scrapbook page from the kit you can make cards, lots of cards. Add some ribbons, brads or other embellishments and you have beautiful cards that are easy, quick and simple.

Lotion Bottle

Took a lotion bottle and stripped off the original label, added some strips of patterned paper and then glued it on with sticky strip. I wanted it to be in the guest bathroom so I wanted to make sure it was waterproof. I added a strip of packing tape over the top of it! Ta Dah! Add some ribbon at the top and it was ready to go!
Here is the before and after shot...

Mini Paint Can

Only measure about 2 1/2 inches tall but it is so darn cute and fun. I took some patterned paper and wrapped only a single layer around the can since there wasn't much room for a lot of embellisments. Then on the top I cut two circles, one in black and the other in the same patterned paper. I punched out three flowers, 2 pink and one green from a coordinating paper that came in the same patterned paper pack. Layer the flowers on top of each other and pierce the center with a piercing too. This makes it easier to push the jeweled brad through the top. The brad goes through the center of all three flowers and the two different circle layers. Pull up on the flowers to add some dimension. Finish the can off with some adorable ribbon, fill the can with some candy or a piece of jewelry and then it is done! It took less than 10 minutes to decorate this small paint can.

Mother's Day Cards

Here are the mother's day cards that I made this year for my dear sweet mother, and mother in laws. I wanted to have some sparkle so I added some glitter to both the flowers and the butterfly. They are essentially the same card, only differnt color scheme.

Ribbon Wreath

A fun ribbon wreath that is quick and easy to make. Great way to use up ribbon.

Click here for the link to the instructions to make one of these.

Basically you will start with a foam wreath form and many strips of ribbon. You can do a mono-color wreath like pictured here or you can do many colors of ribbons. Basically you will tie the ribbon onto the wreath form using a square knot (right over left, left over right). The square knot will keep the ribbon from unraveling. As you go around try to keep all the knots in a row on the front. Let the edges hang freely. The longer the ribbon, the more they will hang. If you use shorter ribbon, obviously it will produce a less full wreath. My ribbons all measured about 8-10 inches each, and I probably used about 100 ribbons.

Have fun tying all your ribbon.... If you have several coordinating ribbons, it would be a great way to use up some of your ribbon stash.

Think... red, green & white for Christmas.
Red, white and pink for Valentines day.
Black, purple, orange, and green for Halloween.
Orange, brown, tan, etc, for Thanksgiving.

Add in some rafia or some colored tulle.

There are so many possibilities... Have fun making some decor for your door!

Framed Pictures

I made these picture frames for my husband to take to work so he could put them on his desk and always remember what a FABULOUS family he has and how much we love him!



This silver frame is one that I had bought a long time ago from Target and it came with a white mat with all of the 8 different openings cut out in the mat. First I randomly rubbed my Versamark pad all over the mat. Then sprinkled a red distressing embossing powder on that and heated it. It has a nice effect that is different from a normal embossing powder, not as thick. Then I put the pictures in, and embellished the mat with ribbon and some metal flowers and metal words.







Here is the second frame that I made. It is a picture that David really liked so I decorated it. I antiqued the mat with a Stampin Up background word stamp En Francais and used Close to Cocoa ink so it was a subtle color. Added some brown grosgrain and a word tile. Voila! It was done!

Hair Clips and Bows

These are some clips and bows that I made for my daughter... I think she is going to like them. I used a variety of items from Stampin' Up, such as their Felt Flowers, their Pretties kit that has the white flowers and the pearls, plus some of their brads that are gems. The other large flowers, are layered with a monochromatic theme and a matching pearl inside.

Most of the flowers on on alligator clips, but a few of them I decided to put on large bobby pins. So much fun!

Clip Boards

Here are some clip boards that the kids are getting for Christmas. We are driving to CA right after Christmas and I wanted them to have something fun to write on and play on for the long drive there. We will be spending lots of time in the car once we leave our home on Dec. 26 until we return on January 8th or so. Road Trip! Yay!

This is the front...


This is the back...

I used a normal clipboard that I had picked up on sale. Then I used a variety of papers, tore them into pieces and glued them on with Mod Podge. Then added a layer to the top of the paper. It gives the clipboard a less than smooth surface, but with a pad of paper it works well. It is mostly for a solid surface for the kids to color on. Plus they look great.


Hopefully they like them. I added their names to the bottom. Then I put flowers on Samantha's with gem brad centers, and a variety of ribbon tied onto the top of the clipboard. The papers on Samantha's are bigger pieces, while the pieces on Jared's are smaller. It worked fine either way. Samantha's was probably done quicker though with larger pieces.


On Jared's I added stars and put brads that have the head of a screw. It needed a little boyish charm other than the blue color. These were a really easy project and didn't really take very long. The longest part was waiting for part of it to dry before moving on.

Jar...

Here is a glass jar that I got from Ikea. I used rub ons from Stampin Up. There is a large flower, with the saying "Life is Beautiful" and then around the top of the jar I used a strip of small flowers. Then of course I used some modge podge over the top of the rub-ons to keep them more securely in place. Tied some burgundy grosgrain ribbon around the top and the jar was done. Quick and easy, especially since I had everything on hand.