CraftyEngineer

25 years of service cards

One of the first grade teachers at my son's school was voted Teacher of the Year this year for our campus. It turns out that she has also been teaching for 25 years. Here's the awesome part... 25 years teaching 1st grade at our school! Her entire career has been at our school. Isn't that COOL? Well, we had to have a reception in her honor, right?

I made some cards for the reception goers to sign. There were close to 90 people in attendance and it was fabulous. There was one 1st grader there whose dad was taught by the same teacher! WACKY, eh? 

This pomegranite and white card was very quick because I ran outta time! Shocking, I know...

The 2nd card is pink and brown and a simple shaker card. It has pink microbeads in it! I used the A Muse birthday builder clear set for the numbers... always handy!

The reception was after school on Thursday and it was very nice. She gave such a nice speech and I was very glad to be part of that.

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday!

More gifts...Simple and quick!

And cute, I hope...

Okay, so for the Parent Program the other day, we had a panel of parents and teachers to answer questions for a Q/A portion of our program. The *awesome* committee I'm on thought we should give our panelists a little token of our appreciation for donating not only their time, but sharing their experience with new parents to our school.

These were SO quick. Seriously. Quick. As you all know, I'm a lazy stamper but I do mass produce a lot. Well, I work in stages. I do have 2 boys around me most of the time so I utilize 5 minutes here or there to do one part of an assembly line. For example, I cut 80+ squares of paper in one sitting. Then when I had time to stamp, the cardstock was ready to go! I actually stamped all 80 in the time it took my DH to get ready for work one morning. Then all I had left was to adhere and package. VOILA. It helps, in this case, that I already had the base cards cut (lots and lots of leftover 3x3 cards from my SU! stash of years past). In the end, I made 10 packs of 8 gift enclosures.

Here's a close-up of one of the cards. I pretty much used whatever color combo would work for the cards I had. I used the A Muse Damask Solid stamp... perfecto! Most of them, I stamped "happy birthday" across the Damask using this stamp. That is one of my favorite fonts!

How is that for simple? I'm really thinking this might be the teacher gift idea for this year... Seriously. What do you think?

I'm so glad it's Friday. It's been a busy week. I'm usually busy just like everyone else but I am a BIG supporter of doing nothing outside of home after 2pm during the week. I was gone everyday morning and night this week and I'm spent. I spent the day just hanging out... doing the "usual" things that we all have to do... Target, eye doctor, kid shuttle, you know... but boy was is nice to not have to be anywhere and think too hard ;). I even took a nap with my 3 year old. I *never* take naps anymore (come on... that's precious crafting time!). But it was sweet.

Have a great weekend. I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow to post another crafty thing from this week! Yowza.

Gifts for School Volunteers!

Yesterday was a very successful parent open house. We did the open house twice - one in the morning and one in the evening. What an awesome committee that I am working with. I can't believe how much we put together in such a short time and how well it was received! Glad to be part of that group of ladies! We had a ton of volunteers come to both sessions to help us check people in, show them around, give tours, etc. To show our appreciation for their help, we decided to give them a little something. Hmm, what to give though? And who should do it? PICK ME! PICK ME! :) As many of you know, I'm a big fan of gift making... YIPPEE!

The scor-pal is my friend. It is almost my best friend. And scor-pal tape is most certainly my Best friend... or favorite tool. OMG. The fact that it can tear by hand will make me never, ever buy the red-line stuff again.

So, I made 20 of these ghirardelli boxes in no time flat because of the Scor-pal, Scor-pal tape, and OF COURSE, the A Muse kitchen papers. I love these pattern papers - love the dots, but most importanly, unlike SU! Designer cardstock, this is "heavier" so it holds well for boxes. Love that! Easy to make boxes with.

And GUESS WHAT ELSE? There is a FABULOUS Saltbox clear set that is AWESOME for this type of gift. AWESOME. It's called "Celebration Sayings". I used the "thank you for your gift of time" saying. Perfect, eh?

Our school colors are blue and yellow/gold so I thought the blueberry kitchen notes were great for this. Inside fits 3 hersey's or ghirardelli squares.

I teaching a Copic class tonight at Memory Depot and I need to prep for that. Maybe I'll see you there! Have a SUPER Thursday!

Happy Birthday, dear Teacher.

Today is my son's 1st grade teacher's birthday. Happy Birthday!

The class pitched in and we got her a $75 gift card to the bookstore. We have a beautiful hydrangea to give her too. I made this card last week for her.

It features the solid zinnia stamp and I used the rock-n-roll technique on it with a little bit of sparkle from the clear Spica Pen. The gift card fits nicely inside these 4-bar cards.

I usually volunteer in the classroom on Wednesdays but I can't today because I'm part of this parent open house committee and we have a program that we're putting on this morning. So, instead of being in there on her birthday, I'll take her a cookie cake and some other party items for the class to celebrate with her!

I had to get her one more thing. One thing that I had to get her just from me.... is Twilight. Just the first book. I talked to her about it so much that I decided she needs to have one. She told me a while back when I was talking about it non-stop (yeah, so what if nothing's changed much! LOL!) that she was going to have to read it this summer. I figure I'll give her a head start! ;)

Happy Birthday!

In other news, did you see that the A Muse Newly Hatched Release...well, hatched! It's now available for purchase here.

Have a great day!

Newly Hatched amuse-bouche - Sneak Peek #5

Tomorrow's the day! The Newly Hatched release will be available tomorrow at A Muse Artstamps. But for now, here is one more taste for you. If you've been checking out the rest of the Creative Team, you've probably seen these images already. I decided to show something non-baby for my sampling...

This card uses two new images: the Kokeshi Doll and Bamboo. The arigato is from the Sushi Clear Set.

Arigato for stopping by all this week! :)

I have plenty of stuff to show you starting tomorrow - think teacher gifts, cards, etc! Is it that time already? Actually, not quite yet... teacher appreciation week is the first week of May (4-8). But I had to make some gifts that were for some things at school ... I'll show you soon.

Happy Tuesday!

Newly Hatched amuse-bouche - Sneak Peek #4

Are you ready for some more tasty treats? Check your LSS, they could have them in stock already. If you don't have an LSS close to you, then this new release will be available from A Muse on April 22nd. It's not just baby stamps either, there are lots of new floral images, too!

I'm a sucker for baby images too. Here are two more... bassinet and "hey baby!". My boys had a white bassinet. Um, but neither used it much. The 2nd more than the 1st but still not so much. I'm a big believer in having places to set your baby down in each room. So that was nice to have.

Alrighty, Monday, Monday (do you know that song?)... Have a super-terrific day!

P.S. Intro to Copic class on Thursday night, 7pm at Memory Depot 326-8045. Hope to see you then!

Newly Hatched amuse-bouche - Sneak Peek #3

Sunday! It's Sunday already? Really? So much to do today and I've been up since 5:30am already and have not done much to show for it! GAK! It's a big week at school this week - lots of events for different committees I'm on and somewhere in the middle of that I'm teaching a Copic class at Memory Depot.

Last night we saw Avenue Q (part of our Broadway theater series at UT). It was pretty funny and very adult. It was hard to imagine how a show with/about puppets could be R-rated!

Anyway, here's my amuse-bouche for today. My boys have one of those red Radio Flyer trikes. You would think it's brand new by the looks of it (i.e not ridden much!) but it's cute anyway. So, my card was inspired by that. The sentiment is an oldie but goodie and one of my favorites for boy cards. Doesn't this make for a great 2 or 3 year-old b'day card?

Have a super great Sunday. It's finally sunny here! Yippee!

Newly Hatched amuse-bouche - Sneak Peek #2

Time for another appetizer... are you liking what you've seen so far? Be sure to check out the A Muse Creative Team (links on the right) for more amuse-bouche!

Isn't this crib the sweetest? My boys had a maple crib. I'm not that sentimental on baby stuff... I mean I've kept a couple of outfits and some handmade blankets and such but not so much in the gear department. I, however, could not, er, I mean "am" not ready to part with the crib. I was, however, READY for my youngest to move out of the crib right after Christmas. And he did. These boys get up to early and the last thing I want to hear first thing in the morning is "mommy, come get me and change my diaper!" Anyway, so my sweet DH, who is the "thrower" in the family (I am the hoarder, of course!), knew that I was having issues with parting with my son's crib. My SIL said something during the time I was conflicted... she, too, is a thrower and not sentimental about these things... she said getting rid of the crib is admitting that they are growing up. I thought she was going to say getting rid of it is admitting to no more children. That I was okay with. Her statement, however, actually kept my legs firm on this side of the fence. So, my DH said let's just put in the attic until I'm ready to deal with it. YAY! Our attic has Christmas stuff and now the crib in it. See aforementioned "thrower". Anyway, I'm happy about that for the time being.

Isn't that sentiment the cutest? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.

So, why did I make a girl card, you ask? Just to force myself to do it! I, automatically, go for A Muse's sky blue notes so I made myself grab the blush!

Alrighty... happy Saturday! We have tickets to see Avenue Q tonight! Can't wait.

Newly Hatched amuse-bouche - Sneak Peek #1

Are you ready for some amuse-bouche?

From Wikipedia: An amuse-bouche [a.myz.buʃ] is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. In this case, it's an appetizer or sample of what's to come!

BABIES and more! Love this release! 

If you've followed my blog for any length of time during the last 2 1/2 years (really, that long??), you may know that my most favorite baby image of all time is baby feet. Truly. Not sure why but it is. I seem to use that image on baby thank you cards all the time. And now A Muse has that image! I'm so happy! And the sentiments in this release... totally awesome. 

Happy Friday!

 

National Library Appreciation Week

I just found out earlier this week from my son's principal that it's National Library Week this week. I love my son's school's librarian and made her one of those bag in a box things, like I did for Easter/Spring for both son's teachers. This time I used the A Muse stack of books and a simple thank you. It's filled with candy because I needed a quick gift to give her yesterday!

A Muse Products:
Red Kitchen Paper, French Roast Sheer Ribbon, thank you ma, stack of books

Have a great Thursday! Remember to tell your librarian thanks today!