Teacher-y Stuff

College Girl's "Big" in her sorority is graduating in just a few short days and the girls all get together and give the graduates a gift basket to send them on their way. It's a wonderful send off and I like that they ask the Seniors for a "Wish List" so they can truly get things they need or want. College Girl's Big is an Education Major and is all ready to find a job teaching little ones (early elementary) and she wanted a basket full of classroom items. College Girl was in charge of her Big's basket and this is not the kind of "stuff" she knows about so she called and said, " Help. We need teacher-y stuff!" Well, not a problem here. Right up my alley. I was on it!! So fun to make and find "teacher-y stuff" for this enthusiastic future teacher.

We started off with this fun sign for the classroom ( you may remember it from before) and set the theme with the colors and polka dots - we were aiming for "instant classroom" and tried to be fairly cohesive and find things that the future teacher would love and could use for a long time. Polka dots and a chalkboard-look on black seemed fun and classic and easy to match when she goes to find more items for her classroom.

Next came the "basket" to hold all the other goodies...

 We went with a large galvanized bucket with a handle. So versatile and useful and I'm all about the galvanized bucket. This is actually the small trash can size from Home Depot and it is only $14.99 and has a handle and lid. She can use it for a zillion things in a classroom. It came plain, of course, and we went to town making it match our theme. And we personalized it. A little strange to thinkof "Big" as Ms. Petry!! :) Was it really three years ago that I met her for the first time at our first Chi O Family Day??

I painted the alphabet and more polka dots on the back. I went with the rainbow/spectrum for our polka dot colors so she can pull out her favorites and these gifts will work with whatever she decides to do in her classroom. I tied a rainbow of polka dot ribbons on the handle and made a name sign for her door.

A little Mod Podge and some cute polka dotted papers in a rainbow of colors ( plus owls since that is the Chi O symbol) and we have a cute clipboard and clipboards are an important part of every teacher's day! It might as well be cute!

A huge burlap pencil for fun and then we filled the bucket up with all kinds of goodies from the "teacher store" near us - Sharpies, notepads, post-it notes, bulletin board borders and a huge owl set for the bulletin board, owl bathroom passes, chore charts, stickers and more. It was overflowing with goodies!!!

Hooray for teachers! Hooray for Ms. Petry!!

The 11th Hour....

Well, practically.
 I'm sure everyone else is beyond ready for Easter and this is of no help but the idea does have possibilities for future holidays and events.
As I said on Facebook, I threw a puffy burlap carrot on the front door and called it good this year. March was full of deadlines for free lance work and speaking at a major conference was also on the calendar  and Easter was early this year. 
 Cute got lost in the shuffle.
 So that's how we rolled this year. Also, College Girl went home with her boyfriend to my old stomping grounds, Athens, so a little less motivation to roll out major Easter decor.

We hosted* last year so we I am invited out for Easter dinner this year. I wanted to take a little something to my peeps and since they are all beyond the age of cute stuffed bunnies and more into gift cards I wanted to package the gift card creatively.
I bought "fancy" all natural lemonade in swanky real glass bottles. Lemonade is Spring-y. And I picked up Chi-Fil-A gift cards cause, well, it's the South and we are addicted.
So now I needed to put them together .... somehow...



Scrounging in the studio I came across these clear plastic name tag holders like you get when you go to a meeting or conference. They are super inexpensive and crystal clear. They are made to hold a single thickness name tag so they are "snug" if you follow. That means that when you stuff things in them they stay. Perfect.
 

 

I love the crisp, clear look. I just put some Easter grass, a little business card sized note and the CFA gift card in the pouch. There are holes in the back of the pouch that are meant for the neck string if you are using it for it's real purpose but they work perfectly to string curling ribbon through. Just tie it on the bottle and you are good to go.
You could combine all kinds of treats and gift card in the pouches.

* We did host Easter for friends who are like family last year. The kids have all grown up but I haven't so I still made cutesy Easter treats and put bunny tails and ears on the real Coke and Orange Crush glass bottles - you know the drill. But I really wanted the kids to participate in an Easter Egg Hunt and not just sit around on their iphones :) So I thought about how to motivate them... what motivates teenagers and college students?... well, money and gift cards, of course. So I filled the eggs with quarters or slips of paper with numbers that corresponded with numbered gift cards to places like Starbucks, Chic-Fil-A and to itunes. I announced that it was time to do the Easter Egg Hunt , there were some moans and a mention or two about the heat but not from College Girl who jumped up and announced that she was hunting eggs. Then she announced that I had filled them with money and gift cards and we had an Easter Egg Scramble! Everyone was all in for this hunt!! They acted like little kids running around looking for eggs.
 It was worth every penny quarter :)

My Scrap Bin and a Board....

turned in to this:
A 6 foot long ABC picture.

I can't even figure out how to photograph the whole thing!

It's longer than my work table in the studio!

I've been seeing all the cute ABC signs and walls on Pinterest and I love anything with the ABC's, typography, fonts, etc. I didn't have any reason to make one until.... I decided to make one to donate to a Silent Auction at Georgia Preschool Association's Training Event  this weekend at the Cobb Galleria! Yeah - an excuse to go for it.
( wow - time to clean in the studio! and yes - phone still smashed.
 It's upgrade month! I just need to make time to go!!!)

I figured out that if I wanted the squares to be about 3 inches, which is about as small as I felt I could go and it could still be big enough to do letters and images and not be too small to see, that I would need a board 6 feet long.
That's 24 squares 3 inches wide which works by combining XYZ.

Seemed reasonable and didn't even seem that crazy until I got the whole thing done
and it is one big ABC board!!!

Of course, the "O" is an owl!!

 
So, here are my ABC's

 

 

 

 

 

.... won't you say them, please, with me?

 And hopefully it goes home with someone (who likes loooonnnnng art)
and is a good fundraiser for GPA!!!

I kind of want to make another one. True story.

Update : it sold and is going home with a very happy school director!!

Linking Up:

Lotsa dots....

I was asked to make a BIG painting for our Confirmation Retreat. So I went BIG!
I bought a large piece of luan paneling, primed it and went crazy with the spouncer.
Since I am in a gray phase and have cans of gray paint underfoot from the  bathroom paint job I decided to go tone on tone with it.

 

 

A squiggly white border that will be black and white in the end.
 

Laying out the images and text...

Micah 6:8 was the verse for the 24 hour retreat.

It's getting colorful and more pattern going on....

I love it when you start pulling the painters tape off the stripes.... so fun...

And GLITTER!!!!!

And here is a terrible, blurry iphone picture of it in place at the retreat. In the art area because all 90 plus of the attendees made their own Micah 6:8 canvas! With their own handprints and footprints. They loved it ( except for the one preteen boy who told me "That's not happening" when I told him he was supposed to paint his foot and print on a canvas!) Getting messy was a nice break from all the study and made us giggle.

 

Some of us were ticklish so we really giggled!!

Some of us got help painting our feet and some of us figured out how to do it ourselves!!

 

But all of them turned out great and they loved taking home a finished painting at the end of the retreat.
One girl told us that her feet were still a little bit blue ( after 2 showers)  on Sunday morning at Sunday School :)

Life Is Like ...

... a pinball machine!
I know I'm supposed to say " a box of chocolates"
since it is Valentine's Day ( Happy Valentine's Day, BTW)

 But I'm all over the place so pinball machine is more on target.

I said in an earlier post that I had forgotten to take any more pictures of this sign I did take a few more after all. But still a fail because none of the finished product with its beaded wire hanger and ribbons galore. Oh well. It has already gone to cheer up a little friend who had surgery yesterday. We met at Starbucks on Saturday to "catch up." Since when do 10 year olds instigate Starbucks dates??

Anyway, I substituted a glittery heart for the "O" :)

I used a mix of pink and red glitter. It's awesome.

I'm working on a big painting right now. Kitchen table big. Lots of dots. Lots.

I showed you the other day how Chloe helps me blog. Well, Biscuit is the art dog.

Wherever I am painting his furry self is right there!
Still dealing with the cone! He destroyed the $40.00 cone so he is in the plastic kind now.
A big dog in a cone is a dangerous thing. He bumps in to everything and has tried to chew it off ... hence the bulldog clips on it.

... and pinging right along like a pinball... this wall mounted light was ostracized from College Girl's room when we purged and painted stripes. It was laying in the guest bedroom waiting for a new home or a trip to the attic or something... the shade was disgusting so I tossed it and then today cleaning up the guest bedroom I had a thought....

It would work great to replace a tall table lamp that was on my work table in the studio with the wall lamp! So I hung it right next to the wonderful chippy shelf, that we rescued a zillion years ago from a demo on a construction site, which holds my ribbon tubs.

Note to self. Roll ribbon. Soon.
... and I tossed the shade and I want to hang it now. I made the lamp shade on the other table lamp from a small fair trade  basket woven from recycled plastic bags. I wanted an unique shade that didn't block light so I turned it upside down and put a crystal clear bulb in the lamp. I love it and it has little specks of every color in it. Matches my Sharpies on the shelf behind it.
 

I might need to talk to someone about the Sharpie obsession. Really.

I love it and I wanted something unique acroos the room on the new wall lamp and I wanted to do it now. So I looked around and this wire mesh hanging veggie basket thing was in plain sight.
Waiting to be a lampshade.

I took pliers and pulled the 3 baskets and chains apart and grabbed the middle one.

I painted the brass wire lamp shade part white with spray paint.

I let it dry. Almost.
 

And then I put it all together. I love it. The feel of a shade but nothing to block the light.

It's funky. Free. And it's all finished in 5 minutes! 

 

I think I need a clear bulb here too but I still love it.

I Forgot all About...

... these pictures on my phone.
These go waaaaay back. I donated a "Ladies Art Night Out" at the Silent Auction at church last Spring. We finally got a date to mesh with everyone's crazy schedules and had a fun night last October. The winner set up tables in her kitchen/dining room and we got busy crafting, eating and laughing. It was a ton of fun.

 

 

We had mothers and daughters (College Girl was in town and came along), someone dealing with a serious health issue and a variety of other things going on in people's lives, and while the projects turned out great, the whole night ended up being therapeutic :)
We laughed so much. All night long!


 These are a few shots of a Make and Take Workshop I did for a back-to-school teacher's training  waaaay back in August that ended up more like a teacher's retreat.  The school director wanted the staff to be motivated and inspired at the day long workshop so I created  centers to go with the themes/units and books I was teaching on.
 Teachers have different learning styles too!

There were about 100 teachers in the workshop and we had a blast. If you do it you will remember it - my mantra, anyway. So we made "stuff "with all kinds of "stuff." and talked about teaching creatively with unexpected supplies and activities. Trying to get out of any teaching "ruts" we  sometimes have.
 

 

 

We went crazy with every day and free items and created support materials for a great year in the classroom. We were gluing, and laughing and taking pictures and they had Chic-Fil-A tea for me :)  They remembered from my last workshop, so it was a good day for all!