Teachers and Graduates

 Hallelujah, it's the end of the school year!! I'm so excited to have my kids home.  Cheyenne and Natalie's last day was yesterday, well officially on Thursday, but since they didn't have to take the "fake finals" (attendance finals, so lame!) they're home today.  Natalie just has to go to get her yearbook on Thursday.  Billy, Chloe, Maddie, and Jon are just playing today and field day/last day of school is tomorrow.  I really do enjoy having my kids home, well, most of the time.

Anyway, it's that time of year for teacher gifts and celebrating graduates so I have a couple ideas for you.
First for the graduates, what is better than money.  (Kristen, don't tell/show Landon, because his is in the mail.) This is a really easy card to put together.

I used my Cricut and the Batman cartridge for the numbers and Locker Talk for the cap all cut at 1.5".  The "Congrats" are stickers by Doodlebug Design.  If you don't have a cutter and want to do it by hand, it's very easy to type your numbers in Word or whatever program you use and then flip them backwards.  Then print them and cut them out on the black outline.  Then you can flip the numbers over and the black outline will be on the backside and you'll have perfect letters.  I also used my Cricut to cut a small envelope for the inside for money or a gift card.  If you know your graduates school colors, use those to make it more personal - these are for two nephews and a friend of ours, or I've also cut the numbers out of "Congratulations" paper and mounted them on black.  That's really fun, too.

Now for my kids' teachers, I don't do "teacher appreciation" gifts, I do end of school gifts.  I don't know, it's probably just me, but I hate when people tell me when I'm supposed to be thankful or appreciative or whatever.  Maybe I'm more like my husband than I thought with his dislike of Valentine's day for the same reason.  So anyway, since we happen to hear both of their teachers have Kindles, and one of them is retiring this year so I didn't want to give her "teacher stuff", we decided to give them Amazon gift cards and decorate these cute glasses for them.

I used some outdoor vinyl, which I've heard washes better and stays on longer.  However, the teal dots are regular vinyl, so I'm crossing my fingers that it holds up.  I used my Cricut again, to cut it all out, but again, I'm sure you could print something out on your computer, tape it onto your vinyl and trace around it to cut it out by hand.  So in the card I gave them, I wrote something about wanting to kick off the summer right with a tall glass of lemonade (included a couple lemonade packets in the glasses) and a good book.  I really hope they like them.  My kids have had such awesome teachers this year and have been just my kids have needed. 

So that's it, some quick, easy gifts for the teachers or graduates in your life.  Now bring on the summer fun!

Sunshine for the Soul

"There is sunshine in my soul today..." I've always liked this song, it's just so cheery and makes me happy, plus it was fun to play on the piano, too.  However, do you know someone who needs a little more sunshine in their life; someone having a hard time right now; or just someone who is still in the throes of winter and needs a little glimmer of spring?  I found this on Pinterest, again, one of the very first things I pinned.  When I saw it months ago, I immediately knew I had to do this for my friend who lives in Alaska, where the winter lasts forever, and the winter days are very short.

So here's my version:

I had so much fun shopping one day and just looking for anything yellow, orange, or tropicalish.  The party supply store was where I ended up getting most of it - the leis, little yellow guys, cookie cutter, sprinkles, and flip-flop straws (those were so cool!)  I lined a box with different shades of yellow paper and layered it all in there with orange and yellow tissue paper.  Then I whipped up a quick card to go with it.  Cloud/sky paper (I finally found a use for it, yeah!) and just scraps of yellow and orange paper.

I had so much fun with this project.  It probably brought more sunshine to my soul than to hers.  Try sending some sunshine in a box to someone you love.  I guarantee it'll leave you smiling and sunny, too.
 
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Cheyenne's Birthday

 

My baby just turned 16!!  My sweet little girl is getting all grown up!  Where has the time gone?  Seems like yesterday she was this little.

Now she'll be dating and next month she'll have her driver's license.  Oh, and she's waiting for a phone call to see if she'll have a job through the holidays, too.  I don't think I'm ready for this.  Can I be this old?  Wasn't I just turning 16? (Sigh...)  The fun part of her getting older is we have a lot of fun together.  She's my scrapbooking and jewelry making buddy.  We had so much fun going to basketball games together last year.  She's my fashion consultant.  She's my friend.  I sure love you, Cheyenne!

Before I get too, mushy, I'll share with you the card I made for her.  Here's my philosophy on card making.  I like cards to be quick, easy, and not make people guilty for throwing them away.  :)  I don't want to be the reason for someone's hoarding, someone's overflowing box of cards they can't bear to throw away because someone went to a lot of work making them. lol  So here it is, simple, easy, yet cute.

Step 1: I cut an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of brown cardstock in half the short way.  That leaves you with two card bases sized 4 1/4"x 5 1/2", also known as an A2 size card.  Then I tore the numbered sheet of paper slightly smaller.  I have a few of these embossed paper packs that have different colored cores so when you tear or sand the other color shows through.  Really fun for cards or scrapbooking.

Step 2:  I sanded all the 1s and 6s for 16, ya know. Glued that onto the brown base.

Step 3:  With my cricut I cut the "sweet" from the Graphically Speaking cartridge, and "16" from Doodletype.  Glued those on with my Zig 2 Way Glue - it's like gluing with a ball-point pen, awesome! Finally, grabbed some ribbon and miraculously managed to tie a decent bow on the first try.  Yes, I have a love/hate relationship with bows.  I think I'm a little bow-tying handicapped, they just never come out right.  So when they do turn out right, I'm thrilled!

That's it! Quick and easy.

Come back tomorrow when I share more birthday fun and a fabulous upgrade of a box cake mix!

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