Before You Speak Think & You Must Be Present to Win

 One of my oldest daughters teachers wanted a couple signs for her classroom.  I was so excited when she asked me to help make them for her!  I had seen the Think saying floating around on pintrest and it was so much fun to turn it into a sign.  And I had a great time designing the You must be Present to Win sign as well.  Super fun ideas for the classroom and I may have to just reproduce them next year for teacher appreciation week!

Both signs are made on pine boards.  The Think sign is 12 x18" and the Present to Win it sign is 6x18"  I used white vinyl for both and Avocado paint by Americana for both.

Menu Chalkboard

 It was one of my great friends birthdays last week and I wanted to make her something fun!  I saw this idea for a framed chalk board on the Michaels website.  They had used Martha Stewart's paints and things for the frame and her chalkboard paint for the canvas board in the center.  I thought it was so bright and cheery, so I gave it a whirl.  On their directions, they said to use 3 different colors for the frame.  I didn't think it was necessary, so I just used the Marmalade color and mixed it with whatever white I had at home.  I did use her blue chalkboard  paint.  In the past I only did a couple coats of the chalkboard paint and wasn't super impressed with it.  It didn't erase well.  This time I did 3 coats and then actually followed the directions of rubbing chalk all over the surface after it was completely dry for 24 hours....it works so much better!  So lesson learned, I need to follow directions!  

I thought it would be a fun menu board for my friends kitchen, it turned out fun!  I hope she finds lots of use for it!

Teacher Appreciation Ideas

It sure has been a fun filled week of making gifts, I'm a little sad to see it go.  The school year is almost done too and that is so bitter sweet to me.  For many reasons.  I love my kids and love being around them, but sometimes summers are hard when the boredom starts for them.  It is hard to find things to entertain them that all 5 would enjoy.

We've also decided next year to send our kids to a charter school.  We've loved DFT so much and I'm quite attached to many of the teachers there, so are my kids.  The main deciding factor was for our oldest daughter.  She is starting junior high in the fall and just didn't want to go and be away from her siblings yet.  At the charter school she can be with them all the way through 12th if she so chooses.  Hehehe.  Anyway, I'm sure going to miss the school they are at now.  So sad.  We are looking forward to a new adventure though and the kids already have friends in place there which helps tons too.  :)

 I made the teacher name stackers that I've done for the past 2 or 3 years again.  Many of the teachers have these in DFT now.  Hehehe.  They are just done on 2x4's and you cut them to each specific teachers name.  I always do the top one at 5 inches though.  Then paint them, hot glue them together so they don't fall apart every time the desk is bumped too.  I love matching flowers to the vinyl and paint.  It's just a simple fun little craft, but I sure enjoy making them.

 I also made each of the teachers a Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub.  I had found the recipe for it online at Under the Table and Dreaming.  I had all the ingredients already and so the girls and I mixed it up and tried it out for ourselves too.  We all loved it!  It's worth trying.  :)

Teacher Appreciation {Cupcake Themes}

 We've really had so much fun this week with Teacher Appreciation.  The kids look forward each day to things they are going to take to school to spoil their teachers.

 My oldest daughter's teacher just LOVES cupcakes and all things hot pink.  So we combined the two and made a sign for her home.  She's a newlywed too.  ;)

 Then on another day we did a grouping of cupcake chargers for birthdays in different colors.  I think it's something fun for their home and kids.

 And on another day we did the tie-dyed cupcakes in a jar.  That was really fun for the kids to put together.

I found some cute labels online that were free and just photoshopped a little message on top.  Two more days of Teacher Appreciation to go, the kids are already asking what we are going to put together tonight to go to school in the morning.  I love this week!

Teacher Appreciation - Classroom Rules Subway Art

 Next week is Teacher Appreciation week at school and I've been working so hard for 2 weeks on projects for all my kids teachers.  We have 5 this year.  Well, 5 academic teachers and on top of that 6 specials teachers (art, music, pe).

 I've been wanting to make them something that they could use in the class, that was both fun and practical.  And so I decided to do a Classroom Rules Subway Art.  It turned out so fun and I am quite proud of it!

I used MDF, and cut them 12x24 and routered the edges.  My kids each painted their own boards for their teachers and then helped me put the vinyl on that I cut.  I enjoyed playing with the fonts, there are some super fun ones out there!

The Grandparents Wall

 When my husband and I got married 12 years ago, we had something amazing happen.  We were able to have all 4 sets of our grandparents there with us.  It was so special that they were all still alive, and all still married to one another too.  I've lost one grandpa to death now, and my husband has lost one grandma to death.  We are close to our grandparents and our kids all love their "Greats" and want to go spend time with them all the time.  So I decided to do a Grandparents Wall.

 When I was a little girl, my Grandma Hatch used to sing this song to me all the time.  Only she changed the words.  Instead of "You bet your pretty neck I do, love you!"  She would sing it "You betch yer dirty neck I do, love you!"  She has a real strong Woodruff, AZ accent and I love it!  It is such a great song, if you've never heard it before, give it a listen here!

 On my other side, my Grandma Karges sang You are my Sunshine to me often.  She has a beautiful singing voice.  I love both of those songs and wanted to make boards of those memories to go with my pictures I hung of them.

 I am so pleased with it.  It's been something I've wanted to do for awhile.

 I got the rod they are hanging on at Rod Works in Utah, 8 years ago.  I love that store!  They are selling their things online now, I love their merchandise and I also love most of their prices.

 It was so fun designing out the boards and making them exactly how I wanted them.

They are done on 1x12 pine boards and are both 18" long.  I'm thinking about using the designs to make both of my grandmother's mothers day cards this year.  It took me so long to do, that I need to find as many uses for them as I can!  Hehe.

The Grass is Greener...

 A buddy of mine found this sign on the I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar blog.  Love her blog!  I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it because it was just perfect for our yard right now.  Texas was hit with a nasty drought this past year and nearly everyone's yard is suffering in one way or another.  We were put on strict water restrictions.  We finally have some grass starting to shoot up here and there.

I love how she told how to make the board.  I really liked how she talked about what failed and what worked.  Saved me tons of time reproducing it!  It was a pain trying to find similar fonts to hers, but just this week she posted links to a few of them...I had already designed it and cut it, darn it, but now I have those fonts for future use.

I used a 1x12x3 foot pine board.  I cut the vinyl and used it as a stencil, painted just a plain white on it.  Then pulled off the vinyl, and went over the board with a super super super watered down black craft paint.  Then I wiped over the board with a paper towel a couple times, and holy cow it looks antiqued. Project time from start to finish with dry time and all was about a hour and a half.  That includes sealing it with a clear coat after too.