End of Year/Back To School Teacher Gift

I know I am not the constant blogger, but when I have something to blog about, I get out here.  I guess I just don't find my life interesting enough to constantly blog about what is happening!  Anyway,  I have another project that I completed that I wanted to share with everyone.

 I made these for my two kids' teachers as end of year teacher gifts and they were a big hit!  They are supply organizers and I have included pics and instructions below.

I bought this KaiserCraft kit online and used it as my starting point.  This was the small size, there was also a medium size that might actually be better suited for this purpose as the small drawers made it impossible to include band-aids as a classroom supply. 

1.I used Quick Dry Tacky Glue to glue the wood pieces together and also to assemble the drawers, it worked really well.

2.After the glue dried, I used acrylic paint that would coordinate with the scrapbook paper that I chose for decoupage.  I painted the edges of the wood pieces on the front, sides, and back.  I also painted the sides and back of the drawers.  I made sure to cover the front edges in case the decopage didn't cover all the way to the edge.  I did not paint the inside of the drawers, but you could do that if you wanted.

3.  I then painted the sides and back of the main piece with Rustoleum Magnetic paint.  The can said to use at least 3 coats of paint for a more magnetic surface.  I used 4 coats, but I would recommend even more than that.  It is magnetic enough with 4 coats to hold a small piece of paper, which is probably sufficient for my purposes, but if you wanted a stronger magnetic hold, I would use at least 6 coats.  I would also consider doing this step before the acrylic painting as I did get some magnetic paint on the edges and had to do some touchup.  Also, allow the paint to completely dry between coats, this gets a bit time consuming which is why I stopped at 4 coats.

4.  I then traced out the top, sides and back of the main piece onto coordinating scrapbook paper.  I used one design for the back and sides and a coordinating design for the top.  I used Mod Podge to decoupage the paper onto the piece.  I also traced the front of each drawer, I did 5 drawers with the same design as the top and 4 drawers with the same design as the sides and back.  I used Mod Podge to decoupage the drawer fronts as well.

5. The last thing I did was super glue one of the supplies that I filled the drawer with to the front of the drawer, so it would be easy to identify what was in each drawer.  The supplies I chose to include were, Rubber Bands (I cut a piece of a rubber band and glued it to the front of the drawer), large paper clips, small paper clips, pencil topper erasers (I cut one in half and glued it to the drawer), small binder clips, push pins (I cut off the point of one and glued it to the drawer), post-it flags, binder rings, and magnets.  I used coordinating colors for many of the items so that it would go with the theme.   I put a few magnets on the sides and back to show that the panels were magnetic and filled the drawers with supplies.

The kids' teachers really loved them and I am hoping that they will be using them for years to come!

To the right you can see the back of one with the magnet attached.  Below, you can see how the colors of the supplies coordinated with the scrapbook paper and paint colors that I chose.



Coaster project

I haven't written in this blog in ages... I have been very busy with life in general.  I wanted to start posting some fun stuff out here though that I can pin on Pinterest.  I am going to start with the project that my girl scout troop just did for our meeting yesterday.  We made coasters out of maragarine container lids.  See the pics and instructions below.

  These are some of the coasters the girls made.

Supplies you will need are:  Clean and dry margarine lids, pipe cleaners (3 for each coaster), pony beads, ribbon, sticky back felt, hot glue and gun.

STEP 1: Trace the lid outline onto the back of the sticky backed felt, cut it out and stick it to the bottom of the lid.  Trim off any excess felt that may be sticking out over the edge of the lid.

STEP 2: Twist three pipe cleaners together and string the pony beads onto the pipe cleaners.  Choose any color pattern you like to match your decor or use random colors to make them fun!  Fill the pipe cleaners with beads up to 2/3 of the third pipe cleaner.

STEP 3: Use the hot glue gun to glue down the string of beads to the inside of the margarine lid while wrapping the beads in concentric circles until you reach the middle.  Trim off excess pipe cleaner and glue down in the middle.

STEP 4: Measure and cut ribbon to cover the outside rim of the margarine lid, then glue the ribbon to the lid using the hot glue gun.

That is all there is to it.  So simple, but it makes a fun and creative little coaster.  Happy Crafting!

Too busy feeding my addictions

Wow, I didn't realize how long it has been since I have blogged.  I have been way too busy feeding my addictions to write about them, I guess.  I totally have a new addiction on Facebook.  The game CSI: Crime City.  It is a bit like a treasure hunt game, but you are hunting for evidence to solve a crime.  Then you have to process the evidence back at your lab and you drink coffee to get energy.  The best part about it is that there are avatars for the CSI characters like Stokes, Langston, Sanders, etc.  There are some cases that are episode extras, so if you watch the show, there are cases that are spinoffs of former episodes, which is really cool too.

So, in addition to my new addiction, I was able to expand my farm on Farmville.  Therefore, I had to redecorate so that was fun too!  I love redecorating my farm.  I also acquired some new neighbors and have been sharing lots of cool stuff with them and getting some cool stuff in return, too.

I also made a wicked cool new cake for Sydney's birthday party with my family.  It was cupcakes that looked like they had french fries on top, with little mini cupcakes to look like ketchup cups.  It was fun to make,we got the idea from What's New Cupcake?  Here are some pics!

Craftin like Crazy!

Hey, it has been a few days since I posted.  Finally got my volunteer fix on Wednesday.  I was at meetings pretty much all day.  Got to spend half of the day in the school...missed that.  Then...Mother Nature missed the Global Warming Memo and dumped a bunch of the white stuff on us so the kids have been home for the past two days.  While they do a decent job of entertaining themselves, I didn't do much in the way of addictions yesterday.  I cleaned and made my kids do their homework, for the most part.

Today, however, it was back to feeding my monkeys.  I spent a bit of time on Farmville, but after snowblowing the driveway, spent the majority of my day crafting!  Yay!  I got to use my new cricut machine to make birthday party invites for my daughter's 10th birthday.  Can I just say that this machine ROCKS!  I know it took a lot more time to make these than it would have taken to purchase, but I had so much fun.  I'm uploading a pic of the finished product.  They are so cute! (if I do say so myself)

I'll have to come up with another project for my cricut!  Can't wait to make more stuff.  Maybe I'll have to get my scrapbooks back out and add flair with my cricut.  I think first, I'll have to clean a space to work on my scrapbooks.

Anyway, check these out.  Now I am off to play some FB games.

Jonesin' for some Volunteer work

I have been out of the school building for an entire week now.  Last week, we were off school on Tuesday for snow and my son was home the rest of the week preparing for his medical procedure last week.  Today, daughter had a dentist appointment and was still numb after lunch so there was no point sending her back by that time.

I am so totally needing a volunteer fix.  Had my chance this morning to get up early and get some really great cookie booth sign ups for my Girl Scouts, guess who totally forgot to get up early...yep,me!  We got three booths, but none on the first weekend of the sale.  Hope my girls can forgive me for that one.

I am feeling a bit out of touch with what is going on though at the school since I haven't been there in so long.  Tomorrow I can jump back in with both feet.  Can't wait!

Farmville Frustrations

Today I am going to rant about Farmville.  I absolutely LOVE this game, but there are a couple of things that are really irritating me today.

First issue I have is that I want to expand my farm...I need more room.   The 28x28 expansion has been available for 120 farm cash for over a month now (maybe longer), but I am not one of those people who puts my hard earned money into the game on a regular basis.  I want to be able to expand my farm by spending my time on the game and earning coins.  They will not announce how many coins I need to expand my farm, for the past month it lists the coins as TBD.  Therefore, I don't want to spend my coins on other stuff, because I think they might announce that I need like 5 mil coins.  I already have almost 3 so I don't want to spend it all.  I just wish that they would announce how many coins it will take to expand.  (BTW, Yes I understand that they are trying to encourage people to spend their money...it just won't work with me)

Second, they introduced the Duck Pond (which I love) but ever since then, when I open Special Delivery gifts, I keep getting shovels.  I have finished my duck pond and no longer need shovels, I need watering cans to water my trees, but I keep getting shovels that I don't need.  If they would let me use them to expand my duck pond that would be great, but I can't do that to make more room for ducks, they just end up going to my storage cellar which is already maxed out.

My last rant for today, before I move on to other addictions is regarding expanding dairy farms and chicken coops.  Great that I have 3 days to get 10 people to help me with my expansion, but I can only figure out how to ask once.  Can't I post a reminder on day 2 and day 3?  People don't remember to go back on day 2 and 3 to help me out so it is very hard to expand.  Why can't I go in and check my progress and have a link to post a reminder for people to help me out?

Ok, I feel better now!

Today's Vice ... Scorpion Solitaire and something new?!?

So, today I spent too much time playing a game that I have only "won" once.  Scorpion Solitaire on FB is completely addictive and so hard to win.  How can such a simple game be so enthralling?  Is my life really that sad?  Don't answer that.

The sad part of my life is that I have plenty that I should/could be doing, but I waste my time doing silly things like playing Scorpion Solitaire.  If you haven't played it yet, check it out.

I also found a new monkey today when I stole my daughter's DSi and started playing on Art Academy.  I am by no means anything close to what you would call an artist, but this game/instruction tool makes it easier to draw with its step by step instructions.  LOVE IT!  I have already drawn an apple, a sunset, two apple trees, a pear, and a pepper.  Woo Hoo - go me!

So, between Scorpion Solitaire and Art Academy, I only had time to go to the grocery store and then later I will have to cook dinner.  Otherwise, I have successfully wasted my day away.  Which monkey should I entertain now?

Today's Episode of Volunteering

So, I am the Scholastic Book Order person for my son's classroom, my daughter's classroom, and my preschool classes where I teach one day a week.  This week, I had a ton of personal stuff going on with family medical issues, but I still had my volunteer role to fill. 

Well, it didn't really happen so well.  I did get the orders out for my son's class last week, those were due this week, but I never caught up with his teacher to pick up the orders so that I can get them entered.  I guess that will have to wait until Tuesday now, since the kids are off school until then.

I was also supposed to get the orders for my daughter's class ready to send home, but that didn't get accomplished either.  Now that order will be postponed a week as well.

I don't even have the fliers for the preschool class yet and that class only meets once a week.  I will now be spending the weekend getting orders ready and trying to contact teachers to get the information that I need to get the orders placed.  Isn't this fun?

On top of that, our school is starting a new transportation plan when we return on Tuesday b/c our last levy failed and we have now lost busing for many of the students.  I really want to be in the building to help with the transition (this is the addiction part), but my daughter has a dentist appointment scheduled for that morning.  I am so tempted to reschedule the appointment, except that this would be the second time I rescheduled it, so really feeling like I need to let go of the addiction at this point.  So hard to do, really want to help the transition, but I guess the girl's teeth are pretty important.

I guess I could have spent this time working on the book orders instead of blogging about it (can you see another addiction in the works?), but what fun would that have been?

Okay off to trade one addiction for another.  Have a good one all!

Diversified Devotee

Welcome to my Blog!

Well, I have avoided this whole blogging thing for long enough, I guess.  I avoided it only because of my fear that it would become one of my many addictions.  It could be worse, I guess, though.  My addictions are relatively harmless.  It is not like I am addicted to illegal or precription drugs, or even cigarettes or alcohol.  Nothing that can directly lead to my demise.

My addictions include the following relatively harmless vices that I am sure afflict many individuals worldwide.
First and foremost is Diet Coke - probably won't talk about this one a lot as there is really not much to say, but there may be the occasional complaint about a lack thereof!

Next is Facebook (in general) which can, of course, be divided into many subcategories based on updated status, obsessively looking up "old friends", and of course the many FB games to which I am addicted.  I will most likely pay special attention to FarmVille, as I can not seem to get enough of this one.

My next most prominent addiction is Volunteering.  I can not seem to keep myself away from my kids' school and have a really difficult time saying no to any volunteer opportunity.  This one will be too much fun sometimes due to the drama that tends to develop whenever you have a bunch of women together for any extended period of time.

I am also addicted to Cross-Stitch and crafting in general.  Love to make things, when I can find the time and you may get to hear a bit about my current projects and see some pics of my work as well.

My latest addiction is karate, just because it is totally fun learning how to kick someone's butt.  (Not that I would ever do that without provocation).

Anyone who cares to follow me on my journey, please feel free to tag along.  If you don't care about my addictions, that is fine with me too!  This is mostly for me anyway!

Diversified Devotee