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.....

Easter Candy Gift Wrapping

Here are two different ways to dress up some Easter Candy so they can be given away as a gift. I made the little bowls to give out to some kids and the bigger "Sour Cream containers" were used for a teacher gift, but they both utilized the same tag.

The little cups were bought at the Dollar Store (specifically the Dollar Tree). It is a package of 8 or 10 little cups for only a dollar! Great deal. I've used these to organize paper clips and tacks and other small items in Pens/Pencil drawers.

After printing out the little flowers (found below), I punched them out using my Stampin' Up flower punch. Then using a little piece of Gumball Green 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon to make some "leaves" I glued them down with some mini glue dots. Finally the whole flower was glued down on the little container. I added a little rhinestone embellishment on there as well... cause we all like a little glitz and glamour. Fill it with candy and give it away!

Here is the second little treat container... this is the classic sour cream container. There is a tutorial over on Splitcoast, click here if you've never made one before. They are super simple to make and so fun to give away.

I started with orange patterned paper and cut it into 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches. (You can make 4 of these for every 8.5x11 piece of paper.) After rolling up the paper into a tube, and then sealing the bottom edge with Sticky Strip, I took some strips of green paper and scored it using the Stampin' Up simple scored tool then folded it up. There are three strips at the top of each carrot. I filled the tube with candy and then sealed the top edge the opposite direction as the bottom so that it resembles those little sour cream containers.

Finally, a punched out tag, attached with some jute or twine and it is done! Ready to give away.

Here are the flower labels that can be printed and punched out for an easy Spring or Easter tag.

Stampin Up Items can be purchasd on line by clicking here.

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.

St. Patrick's Day Chalkboard

For my St. Patricks Day Chalkboard I wanted a large oval as a border. I didn't trust my free hand skills so I found a large platter that fit onto the board and then used the chalk marker to draw around it. 

 

After the main outside circle was drawn I erased a small part at the top and added a few embellishments and then a larger section at the bottom... added some shamrocks and more swirlies. I had intended to put more words in the circle. I started with the word blessed and had it hugging tightly to the shamrocks so that it would fit all the words, "We are not Lucky, We Are Blessed." Well after many attempts at the whole saying inside my circle I realized it wouldn't fit the way I wanted it to. I reduced the saying just to "We Are Blessed" and that meant that my spacing was a bit off. I almost started completely over, but the kids were gonna be home fro school soon and I had other things to get done... so it stayed.

 

Here's the link on how I made my chalkboard....Click here. 

Chocolate Dipped Cinnamon Bears

Yummy treat... cinnamon bears. Their chewy cinnamonny sweetness! Awesome!
What could make them better? Ummm... duh! Chocolate! That brown gooey goodness makes everything better. The kids and I spent an hour or so making these little gifts for their school teacher.

Start with melted chocolate and a bag of cinnamon bears. You can melt the chocolate in a double boiler or an easier way is to do it in the microwave. Chocolate can burn easily so it is best to reduce the power of the microwave. Of course all microwaves are a little bit different so keep a close eye on the chocolate if it's the first time. I will microwave the chocolate for about a minute at a time at 60-70% power, stirring in between each interval. Then when most of chocolate is melted, I like to pull it out and stir it until the last few lumps melt so that the chocolate doesn't get tooo hot. When it's all ready, toss one of the bears into the melted chocolate bath.

Cover the bear up with a fork. Pick it up and tap it on the edge of the bowl and let the excess chococlate drip off back into the bowl.

Slide the bear off the fork onto a piece of parchment paper. Check to make sure that on the side where the bear slid off the fork it is covered up with chocolate.

The proceed to cover each little bear, one after another...

After all the bears had been dipped, for some fun I put the leftover chocolate into a pastry bag and drizzled it onto some of the bears. You could use a contrasting colored chocolate, white or some Wilton melts in any color to suit the holiday. This was just an easy way to add more chocolate to the bears.

I thought about only doing half the bear... but that was just crazy. Every part of the bear wants to be covered in the silky warm chocolate. It wouldn't be fair to leave out half of the bear.

After the bears take their warm chocolatly bath, it was time to let the bears cool off in a cool place (such as a refrigerator).... and then when the chocolate gets hard and set... you now it is time for the party in your mouth to begin! Mmmm.....

I put some chocolate covered cinnamon bears into the bag and then mixed them up with some plain cinnamon bears. I wasn't sure the teachers position on cinnamon bears. I thought... this way they'd have a choice... some with chocolate and some without.

I made a hand written tag using the Sale A Bration Stampin' Up set, which included the cellophane bags, the long striped tags the hexagon tags and the glittery heart stickers.

Valentine Boxes

Our School Valentine boxes this year... Jared picked making a purple minion and Samantha decided to make her own Olaf box. The openings for the valentines & treats to enter the box is the mouth on both boxes.

Making the boxes...

It was pretty simple to make the boxes. We just used an empty 12 can soda box. We put packing tape over the openings (the one to carry the box & also the corner one where the soda comes out) so the box would be flat and easier to cover with paper. It took about 4 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 inch papers to cover the box & they overlapped on the sides. We just used hot glue to hold the paper onto the box because it would dry quickly and hold strong. Once the boxes were covered, we were ready to embellish them.

Embellishing the boxes...

For the Purple Minion, we started by covering the bottom with some black to make the overalls. Two one-inch strips were put in the front and around to the back for the straps of the overalls. Next we moved to the top of the Minion. I cut strips of paper 3/4 to 1 inch wide, from 3 different shades of purple. Then we crimped the strips quickly and randomly by hand and covered the top of the box with the folded strips to make the Minions crazy hair.

Next it was time to add the eye. A stripe of black paper around the top that was about 2 1/2 inches big. I used a silver mason jar rim as the goggle. Then we put a circle piece of clear window sheets (from Stampin' Up). Punched a white circle that would fit the eye goggle and that was the back of the eye, followed by a black pupil and a purple half circle for the eyelid.

Last it was time to make the mouth. Using a craft knife, we cut the half circle for the mouth and then used white paper and cut out crooked teeth and glued those on.

Done! Ready to fill with many treats!

Olaf: Samantha basically made this on her own. After I covered the box, she used white cardstock to cut out pieces of Olaf's body. Black paper for the buttons and mouth. Brown paper for the stick arms, eyebrows, and crazy hair on top. She used a sharpie to draw on the face and a piece of orange paper for the carrot nose. After the face was drawn on, her Daddy cut out the mouth spot so that her Valentines would make it safely into the box. She put a square piece of paper into the mouth and glued it to the inside of the box, only on the top edge. This was to make sure the mouth was dark. She did an amazing job on it.

Turkey Magnet

Want to make a cute little paper turkey to put on your fridge. Or without a magnet, you could attach it to a small gift. They're just so cute. Everyone loves them.

I just use the simple flat magnets. I've even saved the flat advertisement magnets that come in the mail and then will tear the paper off of them, cut them up and glue them on the back of paper crafts I've made so they can stick to the fridge.

Here's a larger Turkey. It uses the scallop circle punch that is 2 3/8 inches to make all the feathers of the turkey. Punch out a variety of scallop circles from a variety of orange, yellow, red, brown, tan, etc paper/cardstock. Paper will be more flimsy and the cardstock will make a more sturdy turkey. But either way they are adorable. The body of the turkey is a 1 3/4 circle punch. The head of the turkey is the 1 3/8 inch circle punch. The buttons on the body of the turkey are made using a 1/4 inch circle punch. The hat is from a black piece of scrap cardstock.  The beak is just a simple triangle cut from orange. You can punch a small square and cut it in half, if you wanted to make sure they are all consistent. Finally the feet, you can punch out the large flower from the Boho Blossoms flower punch. Then cut out a piece that only utilizes the 3 little toes. Eyes are googly eyes.

Here's a slightly smaller Turkey. It uses the scallop circle punch that is 1 3/4 inches to make all the feathers of the turkey. Punch out a variety of scallop circles from a variety of orange, yellow, red, brown, tan, etc paper/cardstock. Paper will be more flimsy and the cardstock will make a more sturdy turkey. But either way they are adorable. The body of the turkey is a 1 3/8 circle punch. The head of the turkey is the 1 inch circle punch. The buttons on the body of the turkey are made using a 1/4 inch circle punch. Use the 1/8 inch circle punch in black to make the little eyes. The hat is from a black piece of scrap cardstock.  The beak is just a simple triangle cut from orange. You can punch a small square and cut it in half, if you wanted to make sure they are all consistent. Finally the feet, you can punch out the large flower from the Boho Blossoms flower punch. Then cut out a piece that only utilizes the 3 little toes.  

1.  Gather your supplies for the turkey and punch out the pieces. Begin to assemble.
2. Using the scallop circle put 5 together and over lap them slightly. This is the back layer of feathers.
3. The second layer of feather is 3 scallops. 
4. Put them on top of the previous 5. 
5. The third layer of feathers is optional depending on how many layers you want. Take one scallop circle and cut it into 4 pieces. 
6. Put them on top of the 3 previous scallop circles
7. Attach the body, head, eyes, beak, hat, buttons, and feet.
8. Add a magnet to the back and you are Done!

Because you are using punches. They really are super simple to make. You can make a bunch in a small amount of time. Gather your supplies and start punching & gluing away. With Thanksgiving only a few days away, these are a great last minute paper craft to add a cute little touch to any Thanksgiving day get together. 

Thanksgiving Chalkboard

Here's my Thanksgiving Chalkboard Art for the month. It's a simple one... but sometimes the best ones are!

I started by writing the "Thanks!" then I drew on the pumpkin. Next I added the word "Give". Finally, I added some little swirly lines. I was thinking of adding some leaves instead, but there wasn't much room so I went with swirly's instead. 

I've been having fun changing up the art in this little frame. It's nice to have something that's easy to change up for the holidays or just on a whim!

Click here to see how I made it and what I'm using.

Click here to buy the chalk marker. 

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.

Halloween Chalkboard

Here's the framed chalkboard that I have in my kitchen. I think chalkboards are so cute. I love all the styles and designs and sayings that I keep seeing. Here's a bunch of ideas for chalkboards.

I've been changing the quote and pictures to inspire the kids and for the holidays.

Here's what I did to make it...

I took a large, white frame that I bought at IKEA.
It is the Virserum Frame that measures 11 ¾x15 ¾".

Next I bought the Chalkboard Contact Paper. It is available on Amazon. 

I took this and covered the wood backing board that came inside the frame. I measure the size that I needed and the pulled off the white grid paper and applied the contact paper. It's kinda like putting vinyl on things... especially when using a large piece. Start in one area and move out slowly to prevent bubbles.

You could also cover the glass if you wanted to, or something else so that you have something to fit inside the frame. The board was right there in the frame, so I used just that and it will make it easy to still use this as a frame if I decide I want to use the mat board and glass at some future point.

Then I reassembled the frame and it was ready to decorate.

I used this chalkboard paint pen from Stampin' Up. These work so well. They go on more smoothly than actual chalk and it is bolder look. Plus if you make a mistake... you just wipe it off with some water and start again.You can buy this pen by clicking here...

Ta Dah! It was done.

Here's another design I did previously.

 

It's been fun playing around with this framed chalkboard!