Getting Ready to Head Back to School

It's that time of year again, when the temperatures drop 20 degrees in a day, the leaves start to change colors, and the little (and big) kiddos head back to school. Most of our teacher friends have already gone back to school or will this week. Luckily, we still have another week and a half before our new school year starts. In honor of the new year, I decided to make a banner to mark the occasion (because, why not?!)

I was inspired by another chalkboard banner I was working on and thought a school one would be perfect (of course!) To add some special touches, the heart has been glittered and I added some tissue paper fringe, since glitter and fringe make everything better- even the first-day-of-school jitters! I think it's pretty awesome, even if I've already gotten a complaint or two about it. It was totally understandable, though. He's just not quite ready for school to start and would much rather have it be summer all year!
*Also, FREE to any teacher or staff member who might want a banner to decorate their space this year!!*
Thanks for stopping by this morning! Have a fantastic day!

A New Chapter!

Good afternoon! I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! It has been an uber busy week around here. Between work (having to leave the apartment at 6:15, before the sun rises, is never fun. And on top of that, spending the week with rambunctious 7th graders...), crafting work (at least that's fun!) and party planning, I was definitely looking forward to last night, which was my first chance to relax a bit. And fall asleep at 10:00!
As you might have noticed, we have gone with a springy baby boy themed with the newest update to the blog and our other pages. We are right in the middle of baby season, and figured that there will be quite a few baby posts coming in the next month. To signal the start of baby season, we held the first of two showers for Sister last night. Fortunately, she has amazing coworkers who helped put it all together. Since it was her school shower, we decided to go with a storybook theme. Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but others did, so I'll post them when I can! I was put in charge of the decorations, or at least the paper ones, including the invitations. To set the mood, we went with baby Winnie the Pooh taking a bath in a tub, along with a Pooh quote. (I didn't get a picture of these. Yet. But there were a few comments on how cute they were!)
Two things I did take pictures of were the cupcake toppers and party favors. The menu matched storybooks, so we decided to make blue velvet cupcakes for dessert, which went with the book "The Velveteen Rabbit".

The toppers were kind of quickly thrown together, but feature both solid and polka dot paper, along with some circles punched from real story books. (The top one fittingly says 'Stork Laundry'!) And here are the party favors (I apologize for the poor picture):

The favors were chocolate chip cookies that go along with the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"! The bag toppers have the little mouse holding a pop-dotted chocolate chip cookie and reads: "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll say thanks for coming to our shower!"
I also created a banner for the shower that read "Welcome Baby". Since I took the pictures with my phone, and the position of the banner, I had to take a few to get all of it.

The first and last spaces have story books on them, and the middle one features the very hungry caterpillar, all pop-dotted, of course!

And it wouldn't be a party without the new momma opening her gifts:

Soo many cute things! I don't know who was more excited- mom or auntie!!Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

This Year Will Be A Hoot!

Good evening! We hope everyone had a fantastic week and we're sure everyone is looking forward to the long weekend. We are looking forward to enjoying our last weekend of summer (it's official, Fall has started here in western Washington- the pools have been emptied!! It's all good, though!) We'll be spending it working on some last-minute finishing touches in the classroom(s).
Today's post features some of the classroom decorations we've worked on this summer. These pictures are from Robyn's adorable wise owl-themed room. It is a little picture-heavy, sorry! The first picture is probably the cutest part of the classroom:

It is the AR chart for her classes. The tree is divided into sections, representing the students' reading progress. Each 25% increment has a cute little owl. Each student has their own leaf, which will get moved once they improve through the school year. Hopefully they'll all be at the top of the tree at the end of the year! (The desk was clean at one point!) The next picture is a set of two bulletin boards.

The first one will be for writing tips, to help the students become "wise writers". The other board is one of three student "brag" boards, that will hold some of the students' work. Each kid has their own labelled clothespin to hold their work. The tree is conveniently placed to cover up an unsightly gap between the two boards and pulls the design together. (And why wouldn't the Harry Potter collection make an appearance in a 6th grade classroom?!) The next two pictures are of the other two 'brag" boards:

You can also see the classroom set of star students (so much easier than cutting them all out by hand!) The picture also shows off the classroom library. You can't tell in the picture, but we spent a few days painting it teal and adding some sparkle to it. It's super cute! There is one more bulletin board, but it isn't quite finished. The last is a little banner we made to tie everything together:

The banner is surrounded by two more owls, ready to learn. We decided to not add close-ups of the banner (it would have been too many pictures), but the two end pieces also have little owls on them, sitting on a branch. We used quite a few pop-dots on them, and added some googly eyes! Then there is last year's apple wreath (which matches somewhat quite nicely!) (Also, side comment- the building was just power-washed and the windows look terribly dirty, but it's water-stained) We also made some matching owl name tags for each student, that will be put on their desks. Phew! Here's to a new school year!
We have a few more pictures we want to share from some other classrooms, but wanted to start off with this one! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great night!

We are entering these projects into a crafting challenge or two:
Fantabulous Cricut: Back to School (owls- Wild Card 2; Letters- Birthday Cakes, Nate's ABC's)

A Crafty Back to School Gift

Welcome to another week! We hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. We've been busy working on a ton of projects, mostly classroom decor. We have a few to share this week, but we'll start with our favorite!

Who wouldn't want to get this little gift for the first day of school?! There are a lot of teacher "survival kits" out there, with a range of things. This one is full of desk supplies that a teacher, and probably her students, would need for a successful year.

This is a picture of the paint can and top. These are a great way to use up all of your ribbon (and have an excuse to get more!!) And you can't give a gift without a card! It's a little hard to tell, but the paper used has a shimmer to it, to add a special touch. Of course we added googly eyes to both the owl and apple because everyone knows they make everything that much cuter!

This is a list of everything that was in the paint can. Our favorite? The last one about wanting a snow day! It's too bad we don't get too many of those.
We are entering our little teacher gift into this week's "Back to School & Classroom Favors" at Decorate to Celebrate.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Come back tomorrow for another (adorable) back to school project!

Fabulous Classroom Decor!

Good evening! Phew! It's been a super busy day today. We woke up early to get started on classroom decorating, and spent a good 10 hours there, which is why this post is so late. Or early. I guess it depends on when it's actually read... It will be adorable, once it's all set. (I'm such a good sister, spending my free time helping out, huh?!) Today's project is a quick little banner I made for Robyn's room.

We needed to throw something together for yesterday's meet-and-greet, to spruce it up a bit. (And to show off our creativity to parents. Birthday parties, anyone?!)
Each subject is represented on the banner. Some are cuter than others, including the school-pride banner on the 'C'. Others have special touches, including the US map (with both homes) and the town school bus on the end. And, of course, each piece has a little sparkle, although it might be a little hard to see on a few.

The school's mascot is the "Wolf Pup"- how cute is that?! They are also red and navy, so it worked out so nicely that we red paw print ribbon. And the black paper behind it is from the grade-school stack, which is perfect for any school-related project!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

Cupcake Saturday!

Happy Saturday! I hope you have some fun plans for the weekend, enjoying the last few days of summer vacation. Well, we have some cupcakes to share with you today for Cupcake Saturday! These are our Chalkboard Cupcakes.

They are just your regular ol' chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and a fondant chalkboard on top. These would be great for a back to school party- you can even let the kids write on the chalkboards themselves!

Thanks for stopping by!

Your Math Skills are Terrible!

So we were looking for projects for next week and came across the lyrics of One Direction's song, "What Makes You Beautiful." But these weren't the ones you hear on the radio. Oh no, they did a parody called, "You're Math Skills are Terrible." Well, we thought this was appropriate for school week- not because math is terrible, but because we were horrible in math growing up. I bet our dad was glad when we went off to college and he didn't have to help us any more! Luckily I can do the math required of an elementary math teacher...

The jumbled number on the front?? That's pretty much what every math book ever looked like...So this card is just for fun. I'm pretty sure that if it as ever given to someone like me growing up, I would burst out crying, but looking back at those times, I just laugh now! But the shaker part might make it worth it (but probably not).

Thanks for stopping by today! Come back tomorrow for another edition of Cupcake Saturday!

Back to School Calendar

Happy Thursday! We hope everyone is having a good week. We are enjoying the start of fall (I know, so early here), after our week of summer! To get us in the mood, today's project is a back-to-school/fall-themed calendar we designed.What teacher doesn't love fun calendars to keep all of their important dates in one place?!

We alternated between apples and leaves- two things that we think of this time of year. Oh, and our two little birdies, ready to go to school! The picture below is an up-close view of some of the pieces. We even have a special piece for the first day of fall. I do have to make the Labor Day and Back to School one still... All of the pieces are on magnets, so we can redecorate the white board accordingly.

I don't know if you can tell, but there is a pattern. That's the kindergarten teacher's idea. Much simpler than the original plan. The last picture is of the little header:

 This is probably my favorite part of the calendar. I love the little owl in the corner, just chilling on his tree branch! And the leaves on the tree are starting to change! September hasn't even started yet and I'm already looking forward to our October/Halloween calendar!
Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow for a fun little card for the mathematician in all of us!

Food for Thought

What do you call a fish with no eye?

A Fsh!

Who doesn't love a good "bad" joke, especially ones about food?! Today's post is of Lunch Box Notes. I think kids would love these little jokes in their lunch box. It sure would brighten my day if I got them! With all the bad jokes out there, you could definitely have one for each school day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Weather Heather

Ok,so I know it would be easier go out and buy a bulletin bard set for a morning meeting, but that's just not as much fun and not my style! Why buy when you can create? I had "Weather Bear" in my class last year (really only because it was left from a previous teacher) and he had no style. Sorry to say it. So this year I decided to take some time to make my own. I called my weather helper Heather. (Has anyone else noticed there are no girl ones? They're usually boys.) Here she is in her seasonal clothes, and her "holiday dress-up" outfits.

I also made these to show the weather for the day. Again, you can always buy them already made, but that's just not fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Teacher Gift Ideas

We did some teacher gifts back in June, but we thought we might share some more with you. So these aren't really "gifts" since we made them for our own classrooms, but they could be!

We made two different name decorations. After making the summer yarn wreath, I couldn't help but want one for school, so this what I came up with. The other one is for a small space, so it needed to be flat, but will still add some color to the area. I think they will look great hanging up in our classrooms!

And we have some thank you notes for teachers. It's really nice to have thank you notes ready when you need to thank someone unexpectedly. So why not give your child's teacher a set? These were so easy to make with basic shapes, and a nice "thank you" on the front.

We've aded this to the Back to School challenges at CWC here and SOUS here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to School Already?

We hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Since today is Sunday, that means we have another theme for this week. There are a whole bunch of kids out there who aren't very excited that the start of another school year is just around the corner. As teachers, it only seemed appropriate to have "back to school" as this week's theme. Hopefully we'll be able to go "back to school" soon, too...
So, for today's project, we decided to make a scrapbook layout commemorating the first day of school.

This is a little 8x8" layout, with just enough room for one of those infamous "First Day of School" pictures. Those that we look back at and cringe. The little piece of paper has a blank for the grade, so it could be used for any kiddo. I really like the look of the chalkboard- I think the embossing markers add a nice, somewhat realistic, touch!
We've linked it to the Back to School challenges at CWC here and SOUS here.

Thanks for stopping by today. Join us tomorrow for a "Welcome Back" gift for the teacher.