First Day of Third Grade

Connor started Third Grade today...Holy Smack!!  Where has the time gone?    Just this summer he seems to have shot up 6 inches and lost all trace of little boy.  He was thrilled with who he got for a teacher and is looking forward to being a third grader.

Here he is with his new teacher, Mrs. Lee.

This is a little garland I made for him to celebrate the first day of school...there are just a couple of cricut-ed images and some of the photos I took this morning.

Here's a school bus...I love this image from the DoodleCharms cartridge!

Just a little note...

and here's the apple from DoodleCharms...I use this apple allllllllll the time.  This is one of the cartridges that I go to on a regular basis.  I love how all the images look exactly how I would make them if I paper pieced them from scratch (if I was artistic :P )...I think I'll save the apple and bus until Teacher Appreciation week and we can use them to decorate Mrs. Lee's door...ahhh, the joys of recycling completely worthless crafty goodness!

Treat Bags

So, this year for Connor's birthday, our plan was to take Connor and a few boys to Boomers in the morning and be home in time for him to go to Cub Scout camp at 1:00.  Well...one week before his birthday, when I finally got around to checking what time Boomer's opened, I realized we were going to have a slight problem.  Boomer's doesn't open until noon.  Oops!  I asked Connor what we should do.  He decided that he's like a real party instead.  Okaaaaay...seven day notice...middle of summer vacation...mother who is beyond uptight...probably not the best combo.  We ended up at Nickle City and it was GREAT!  We only invited people that we could call and who had a good sense of humor  :)  !  I booked the party, invited the people, made a list of snacks we'd need, ordered the cake, and made the goodie bags.  The night before the party, Connor told me he also wanted to take treats in to the boys at Cub Scout camp...having a summer birthday, he's always missed out on taking treats to school.  What could I say?  He's an only child.  It seemed a reasonable request.  It was actually nice because with no notice, I didn't feel pressured to churn out anything special...plus as long as there is sugar involved, 8 year old boys are happy :)

Here are the cookies in all their glory...I stuffed them into Party City cello bags, punched out some shapes, stamped a title, and tied a bow....24 bags in about  45 minutes...I kind of like the whole low stress, low expectations thing....

I just used a big circle punch and a big star punch for the tag...an aMuse stamp and cheap curly ribbon...I paid about $2.50 for the bags and the rest was scrap...Yeah!!  :)

Here are the treat bags for the party.  I bought the bags at Michael's, did a little stamping, spent 20 minutes with the Cricut, used up a ton of scrap paper, and poof...there were 11 personalized gift bags!

Here they are all together (no, we're not in jail, just at Nickle City).  I have to say that the one week notice thing made for a MUCH less stressful party planning experience.  Who knew?!?  Less pressure to perform I guess...Do you think I can plan on having a spontaneous party again next year?  I guess it doesn't quite work that way!!

HELP!!!

Okay...I need some tech support!  Look at all the cute changes to the blog...soooo snazzy...all except for the fact that I have NO idea how to get the blog Title centered in that cute little banner!  Any suggestions?  Someone please tell me it's super easy and that you're embarrassed for me that I couldn't do it myself...please

Connor's Last Day of School

Birthday?  Christmas?  At the very least National Spoiled Child Day?!?  Nope...just the last day of school  :)  Every year on his last day, Connor gets a little melancholy and teary.  He's sure that he'll never have a teacher he loves as much as this one.  He's positive that he'll never see any of his classmates again. Okay, what he KNOWS...is how to play his mother!  LOL!!!  Anyway...each year I wrap up some new summer toys and stack them in a big pile so it looks impressive.

Then I make a sign for the front door for Connor to break through to officially begin summer.

Here he is ....It's rough being an only child!  The attention, the presents,  your parents ALWAYS knowing who did it  :)

He did appear to appreciate the prizes...and he is awfully cute (I may be a little biased).

Here is this year's loot...really...a little effort and maybe $30...makes for a fun family tradition.

Daddy had to work late (knock me over from NOT surprise!)  so Connor and I continued our day of fun with a trip to the movie theater...I have 8 movie passes waiting to be used up, so the movie was free...of course I got dinged  $72.50 for popcorn and a drink...uuuuugh!  I swear concession stand prices are as bad as Disneyland! 

Here is the cheeseburger posing with his treat...Of course, we HAD to go to the movie in 3-D...I have a picture of him in his hot 3D glasses, but I'm saving that for blackmail purposes...perhaps when he starts dating...honestly...with those teeth in thick black horn rimmed glasses...he looks like a cross between Drew Carey and Spongebob...NOT pretty!

So, there's a little insight into the virtues of being an only child...Oh...and 3 posts in one week?!?  Holy guacamole!!  I might put everyone into cardiac arrest and post again tomorrow!

An explanation and back to where I left off....

So...I didn't explain the challenge thing very well...and being computer-impaired and the deadline being 2 hours away didn't improve matters any.  So...Dawn McVey is amazing and churns out tons of cool stuff on her blog.  She designs for Papertrey, so how could she NOT be amazing?!?  Anyway, on her blog, she hosts a color challenge.  Check the link for an example...but basically, she tells you what colors to use and you put them all on a card.  Now, I am not good at following directions or doing what others tell me to do, but I thought, what the heck...I haven't had homework in eons  :)  I'll give it a try.  Well. apparently, not much has changed since I was in school.  I was all excited about the project at first.  I gathered all of the paper and supplies. I looked online for card sketches and idea.  Then I let it all sit there until 2 hours before the upload deadline...nothing like putting it off til the last minute...yup...it was definitely just like when I was in school...oh, and to make it even more like school, I didn't read all of the directions and linked it the wrong way...yup...still a procrastinator and a techno-reject...I did decide that I'll try again though...maybe  if I start a little earlier, I can get picked to go in her blog "Spotlight"...where she puts all the pretty cards  :)  riiiiiiiight...

Okay...so enough babble...I'm going back to where I left off before the technical difficulties began.  Here is the end of the year project I made for Connor's teacher.

Yes, I understand that the APPLE thing is a little over-done for teachers...but...this is cute.  I put Apple lotion and Body Wash from Bath and Body Works, a box of See's candy with a cute apple tag on it, and some homemade personalized note cards ( I also threw in a BevMo! gift card, because I know my son!)  in this metal bucket from the Target dollar bin...

Then I made this card with the cutest stamp set ever...how adorable is that little boy?!?  and the rest of the set is just as cute!!  Go ahead...hit the link and go look...I'll wait  :)   You looked at the other sets too, huh??   Good stuff!  Anyway... I saw some paper tole somewhere and thought that the boy was a perfect candidate to be cut and popped...

here's a side shot so that you can see his layers.  It's a common fact that 3 heads are better than one  right?!?  (Wow...I use excessive amounts of puctuation!!)

Here are the note cards that were in there...super simple...Pebbles in my Pocket stickers and patterned paper, the cuttlebug, and computer aided lettering...8 cards in 40 minutes...gotta love it!

Since they were going in the tin, I just tied 'em up with a ribbon and jammed them in there...no box or anything...what a slacker!  Oh...if you look closely at the cello wrap in the top picture, you can see where I stamped it with Stazon ink to make it "appl-ey"....It took 30 minutes just to stamp it...and never made it to school, since when I undid the packaging to add in the last minute note cards, I ripped the tar out of it ...at least there is a picture of it, and I learned that Stazon stamps nicely on cello...oh, I also learned that cello and sharp edged metal boxes are a bad combo...okay...I'm off to clean up thelatest mess in the craft nook...I can't see any of the countertops again  :(

First Challenge

Dawn McVey from Papertrey hosts a color challenge.  Everything she makes has the coolest color combos...usually things that I would NEVER think to put together.  I've never upload anything before...fear of rejection and ridicule I guess  :)  I finally decided that it was time to get over it and upload something.  So here it is...

It's not what I usually do, but it was fun to let someone else make decisions...plus I made it in like 15 minutes...I think that's a record for me.

I have tons of other stuff to blog about, and since  I finally put the pictures onto the computer, there's no excuse to upload soon...

Middle School Graduation Prize

So my niece is graduating from middle school this week....and while I have a hard time justifying it being a major gift giving occasion, she did work really hard and  I think a little prize is order  :)

 

I LOVE Nicole Heady and everything Papertrey...I wish I had that kind of vision and talent...all the girls on that design team are AMAZING!  This little bank book and box are taken directly from templates on Nicole's blog.

All I did was go to the school's web site and find a picture of their mascot to use as an embellishment...easy!!

I had a little trouble with the letters in the word FALCONS not printing out right...hmmm...I'm a techno doofus and my computer geek husband isn't home...okay...old school it is...I just used a Copic marker to color in the missing part and when the color wasn't an exact match...I added glitter...Isn't that what you're supposed to do when you mess up?!?  just add glitter?  Not perfect, but a lot less noticeable in person than it is in the photo...

Here's a picture of how the book fits into the box..it's a great way to give cash and have it look like a gift  :)  I'm working on a few other end of the school year gifties right now...and waiting (impatiently) for a school stamp set I ordered to come so that I can finish them. Nothing like a little procrastination to keep the juices flowing!!