Fall Painting Crafts

I was so excited to stumble upon this post from Sugar Bee Crafts.  I was looking for a fun, fall craft to do that would use some colorful paint and the mason jars I had bought.  What better than to create a cute little mason jar luminary?

Adorable graphic from Sugar Bee Crafts

I will say, mine did not come out as cute as Sugar Bee Crafts.  I did not have time to find the perfect leaf decals so I said hmm... what could I use that would be convenient and not break the bank?  I headed over to Michael's Craft Store and got some leaf stickers - perfect!  I used the leftover stickers for my second grader's work (a win, win!)

 The supplies I needed:

1. acrylic paint

2. mason jars

3. paint brushes

4. water / plate to put paint on

5. leaf stickers (or decals) 

After they are dry and finished you will need:

6. small stones/rocks for inside the mason jar

7. tealight candle :)

  Recommendations:

1. Put on lots of paint coats, especially with lighter colors.

2. Let fully dry in between and try to be as smooth as possible with your brush strokes.  

3. After it is dry, pull off the stickers as gently as possible (The photo below shows them still drying)

4. Applying an acrylic sealer will help for the paint to stay and last a long time!

I also painted pumpkins with my sweet friend and her sweet mom.  It's so great living in the same house as one of your best friends - you get to do lots of crafts and fun things together!

We used acrylic paint on these ceramic pumpkins.  They were only $3 each at the Target Dollar Spot (gotta love it!) Below are the two pumpkins that I did.  One of them was for her new baby boy, Parker :) 

The bottom two pumpkins are her moms and Rachel's.  Can you tell Rachel is quite the artist?! xo

What fun crafts have you been doing this fall? 

Happy October :)

Wedding planning and purchases

Hi everyone!  So I am in the process of planning one of the most important days of my life... my wedding.  It's coming up this June and I am frantic. :) I have not been a bridezilla [I hope] by any means, but I am stressed to the max because of the $$$$. I am sure so many of you that have been through the wedding process or are going through it understand what I mean!

To keep the cost budget friendly, I have turned to different sites and DIY projects.  One site that I have found most helpful is Oriental Trading.  I have always turned to Oriental Trading for my teaching and crafting needs, but for my wedding?  Heck yes!  Last year, my beautiful cousin got married and being her maid of honor, I got a lot of the supplies at Oriental Trading from a card bird cage to special favors to bridal shower decor!

I wanted to give you all a sneak peek into my wedding and what some of my ideas are :) The colors are light pink, gray/silver, and black.  I am getting married in upstate NY where I am from and at the craziest time of year - the end of the school year!  :)

Something my fiance and I discussed with my minister was lighting a unity candle.  We loved the idea and I found these gorgeous unity candle. I love the personalization and the fact that Mike and I will be able to keep this forever.

Place cards! Perfectly simple, silver, and ready to be written on!  Instead of doing anything too fancy, I decided to be cost effective and "hire" a friend who writes in beautiful calligraphy for my guest names and table numbers.  50 cards for only $3.99!

Dessert?! Cake?! Who doesn't love cake... this is one of the best parts of getting married - cake tasting ;) And I had been thinking so much about a cake topper... should I put my dog on the top too?  Should I have Mike and my names?  A bride and groom silhouette? Hmmm...

The cake topper I decided on was simple and elegant.  I surprised myself because I was thinking cake toppers had to be elaborate and I have seen some pretty luxurious ones.  However, I went with a personalized cake topper where the glass shines just right. 

Hmmm... favors.  This was a toughie.  Being me and loving food/goodies, I am going with... a candy bar!  I am so excited.  I bought gorgeous glass vases on a Facebook wedding site with all of the scoops and supplies.  (I will pick out the yummy candy when we get closer to the wedding!)  

After getting the vases and glassware, I checked Etsy, Amazon, and eBay for personalized wedding treat bags.  I came across this pin on Pinterest, and they were beautiful.

 But with having a more cost effective wedding, I realized I could get plain bags and boxes for guests to fill with treats, and place stickers on them to make them a little "sweeter" (ha, see what I did there?) :) These thank you stickers are only $2.49 for ONE HUNDRED.  Say whaaaat?  Some of the prices for personalized treat bags were $2.49 for 5 bags or stickers!  I know these are not specifically personalized with my name on it, but I didn't think it was needed.  

Planning a wedding is about discovering what is really important to you, and what you can budget and live without.  I can live without those cute bags :)
If personalization is something you cannot live without, check out these cute options from Oriental Trading!

Centerpieces.  I saw this bling from Oriental Trading and I had to have it.  Such beautiful crystals (or "ice" as they call it) and very good quality.  I am going to be filling my vases with a touch of this ice and placing light pink roses in the vases with water.  

 Since I am not buying the fresh flowers ahead of time, I bought some fake flowers to get the effect of what it will look like.  I will also be placing round mirrors below the vases and votive candles around the vase.  I can't wait to see what it comes out like...and I can't wait to show you pictures ;) 

There's more to come with my wedding journey and planning, but I feel relieved to be on the right track with these great products.  Let me know what you think in the comments section below xo

Disclaimer: Oriental Trading sent me products in exchange for a blog post, but all opinions in this post are mine.

Whimsy Tree Paintings

I wanted to show you the gifts that my students made for their parents this Christmas.  I am so proud of them.  I modeled on scratch paper what a whimsy tree would look like, and they did EVERYTHING themselves! Here are some of their beautiful canvases.  I hope their parents loved them as much as I do!

I am so proud of my K/1 kiddos!

 I love how each one is so unique, and completely done independently - if you would like to these with your own students on canvas or cardstock, or wood (the possibilities are endless)

Below I have listed the materials needed for the paintings - super easy! The kids learned to "blackline" from their art teacher, and the sharpie gave it just the right pop before they painted (just be careful with the sharpies!)  They use their finger prints for the leaves and flowers around the trees, and painted the hills using a medium size paintbrush.  Masterpieces! :)

Holidays, Crafts, 12 Days of Christmas

 One of my favorite units to teach during the year is Rachelle Smith's Holidays Around the World unit.  This is one of my favorite and best purchases I have EVER made on TPT... please check out her full bundle HERE - it's the perfect pack to teach your little ones about the importance of learning about all holidays.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ! - My babies made these adorable winter paintings (using white crayon!) with our sweet art teacher, Mrs. Ciotti.  I love the individualized creativity in each art project they do!

 I came across this amazing Elf craft from Today in Second Grade! My kids loved creating their elves and elf profiles! The templates were very easy to use and some of the names and interests of the elves were very cute - for example, one named her elf "Cookie Crumble!" You can find this product HERE from Miss Nicole!

We are right smack in the middle of Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.. with some of the best people I know :) There's only a few hours left, so head on over HERE to enter to win some wonderful prizes!

Stay tuned every day for 6 more days for new wonderful TPTers to be featured, and wonderful prizes to be won.  This really is the best time of the year! Xo I love you all, and thank you for all of your support. I am almost reaching the first milestone on TPT and I could not be more surprised, thrilled, excited, and blessed.  

Have a great night!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I am thankful for all of my family, friends/coworkers, Mike, Lily, and my students and their families.  I am thankful for finding joy in the simple things of life, and thankful that my students always help me to strive to be a better person, a better role model.  It is my favorite time of year (especially Christmas) - I just can't wait to be with my wonderful family tomorrow.  I hope you all enjoy!!

My sweeties and I had a Thanksgiving breakfast - they made these adorable table decorations with the inspiration of this pin on Pinterest from A Girl with a Glue Gun :)

 My kids LOVED making this easy freebie from Kristen on TPT! Heart penguins are the cutest :) We are getting ready for winter!

 First real snow fall was today.. I had to share this adorable picture of my sheltie-pom, Lily - I love her and I can't even stand how cute and sweet she is! Mommy's little girl :) 

 Special news! Teachers Pay Teachers will be having their annual Cyber Sale! - My store will be 20% off December 1st and 2nd on all of my products :) Please use the code TPTCYBER and receive an additional 10% off - 28% off products from many TPT sellers (including myself of course!) - this includes bundles with 100's of pages and more! Start wishlisting now;)

Adorable button from The 3AM Teacher

 I leave you with... the best face ever :) My kiddos LOVE Daily 5, and they take it very seriously - and when it is their "Listening to Reading" day, they are ecstatic.  Enjoy your holiday!

Cute displays and projects

I was so excited to get some amazing products from Creative Teaching Press for my sweet coworkers.  I feel as teachers, we know how much our coworkers really mean a lot to us - they help us copy, plan, cope, and support! I love them, and I think these are great gift ideas for coworkers to help stay organized (and they are super cute!) - PS-my sweet Lily wanted to get into the picture for this one!

 The stationery sets at CTP are adorable - they come with a folder, blank cards, list pad, and a pen :) They have many different designs - I happen to love polka dots! The whimsy and paisley styles are adorable too!

I also love their bulletin boards... one of the teachers that I gave this one to is going to laminate to use year after year! Such a cute winter display! on sale right now :) 

Since we are having a Thanksgiving breakfast next week, the kids were very excited to create Thanksgiving placemats - there were SO many to choose from online, but I figured they could let their creativity take over, and create their own! All we needed was paper, markers and crayons, a few stickers, and a laminator/laminating sheets! 

Check out those adorable turkeys and apple pie! ;) 

We also made these turkeys! I love them, you can check out the freebie HERE from The Applicious Teacher! They are actually placemats, but I just changed it up a little bit to fit my classroom and made miniature size ones! They loved it and definitely each put their creative spin on them with the sponge paint. 

During their art class, they also made these beautiful fall trees... they used tissue paper, watercolor, and cardstock!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

End of the Year Sale and Craft

Many of you have already started their summer vacations, but I am still in school with my sweet Kindergarteners - we are having a blast doing our 10 Day Countdown with something special each day.  

I will miss them very, very much!!

For one of the kids crafts that they have made at the end of the year, I cut out letters (L-E-A-R-N) on cardstock and taped them to a paper.  The students then painted (any color they choose) over the cardstock to form the letters - didn't they come out cute? You can use this with any word, any color paint, and the students decided to make it even "cuter" by adding a flower - so I helped them with a little bit of tissue paper, and they cut out green leaves from construction paper.

 To celebrate the end of the year, all of my TPT products will be on sale - 20% off including bundles.  

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Fonts from Kimberly Geswein and Graphics from Melonheadz, 3AM Teacher, and Tonya's Treats for Teachers