A Job Well Done!

I am a list maker! I make a list every Sunday night of everything I want to accomplish during the week. Every night, before I go home, I make a list at school of things I need to do the next day. I love crossing things off as I finish them and, I will even let you in on a little secret - if I do something that is not already on my list, I write it on my list just so I can cross it off! Sick, I know. Maybe there is a support group I can join!

On my list, for about a month now, I have had, "Finish Christmas Card Album." What is this? Well, I keep my photo Christmas cards that I receive from my friends and family up all year on my fridge. I take them down every Christmas when I get the new ones. Usually, the old ones go in that shoebox stashed in my bedroom closet. No more! I took all of last year's photos and put them in an 8 by 8 album. I just cut out some Christmas paper and slapped on the photos. The journaling is already on there! Today, I used my "Joys of the Season" Cricut cartridge and added simple embellishments to each one. Now I have a collection of my past cards. It was super simple!

I also decided to do a little Valentine's Day project too. At Hobby Lobby, I bought two paper mache mailboxes. I painted them with various colors and then covered the ends with patterned paper. The Cricut was dusted off again to make them more personalized. On the front, a wooden monkey and a frog were added. (This project took me way too long! I am not the cleanest painter!) I hope my Valentines like them!

Inspiration!

Happy Birthday to my sister Joy! I hope you have a great day! It is also my cousin Lexie's birthday and it was our great-grandfather's birthday too. Very important day in our family. For Joy's card, I took a little inspiration from a t-shirt that one of my students wore. I cut out the flower background using my Storybook Cricut cartridge. Then, I cut out the owl using Happily Ever After. (This is the first time I have used either cartridge and I like how they turned out.

The cartridges offered so many more shapes and characters than it shows on the box.) It looked kind of plain so I sprinkled blue glitter around the edge and then added all of the blue and orange flowers with white brads in the middle. Now that I look at it, it looks nothing like the t-shirt but I still love both. I hope she likes it! And, I hope the Cardinals win today. This town has been in a red bird frenzy all week. Today, either "you know where" freezes over and we go to the Super Bowl or this town goes into quite the depression. I am hoping for freezing temperatures!

Vinyl, Vinyl, Everywhere

Happy New Year everyone! Hard to believe, but 2009 is upon us. I was figuring out today how long ago I graduated from high school and I began to feel a little bit queasy!! (Did I even spell that right?) Oh well, I hope 2009 is much better than 2008.

For New Years, I flew to the land of the frozen tundra and went to a Packers' game with my friend Jamie and some friends. We had lots of fun and my snow pants kept me from sticking to the ice covered seat. It was fun - trust me! While I was in Wisconsin, Jamie's wife decided we needed to decorate their new house with some vinyl lettering. First, we headed to a sign company and bought some vinyl. The ladies there were frazzled. They were used to dealing with companies and not just two women with two little kids off the street. Once they figured out how to charge us, we marched home with the sheets of vinyl and dusted off Amy's Cricut machine. She searched for quotes on the internet. We then cut out the quotes on paper first so we would see how it would all look - visual learners!!! Then we cut out the vinyl. Cricut cuts out vinyl beautifully!! Cricut makes a transfer tape that we used to transfer the vinyl to the wall. Then we just rubbed it like a rub on and there it is! (Just a side note - when Holly reads the quote wrong and it is in the wrong order on the wall, just peel it off and redo. Oh yeah, twice!!) We loved the first quote so much that we went back to the sign company and ordered more vinyl. (Frazzled the ladies again!) In all, we did four quotes in different rooms in their house. It is so easy - I would be happy to do some for you or help you do it. I have some tricks up my sleeve. Just ask!