Halloween Mesh Wreath

Last Halloween, I took a mesh wreath class at Joann's, and this one came out WAY better than the very first one I created. I used two different colors of mesh, plus some Halloween ribbons from Joann's and Michaels. I got the sign and the decorations from Michaels. It goes very nicely with my Halloween themed classroom.

Halloween Word Wall Tree

From cute

Every year, I decorate my classroom for Halloween. I have a word wall tree up in the front of my room. I wanted to change the tree from my usual owl theme, to a more Halloween theme. I used the "fade less" paper that I buy at my local teacher store. I also used a Charlie Brown pumpkin theme border, to make it look more "Halloweeny". I also bought the orange and yellow note cards, at the teacher store. I had some fun with some free Halloween fonts. For the words, I used my Silhouette and Amy Chomas marker holder with a purple Sharpie to create the words that we are studying in Flocabulary

Halloween Themed

Here is a look at some of the rest of my decorations. 

Welcome Back Melinda!

Math is Fun!

I was so happy when one of my colleagues returned from being out for back surgery. My fellow co-teacher, Melinda Castaño, had to be out two weeks for back surgery from one of her car accidents. I put together this cork board to welcome her back. This was a plain cork board I found at an estate sale, and wanted to jazz up. I bought some rulers back in the summer, when they were super cheap, from Staples. I glued the rulers around the board with E6000 glue. My husband used his saw to cut two of the rulers to size. The "Math is Fun" banner was made using some pennants I found at Hobby Lobby and silver stickers. I used buttons and glue dots to make them stick because I didn't want to mess with string. I also used the E6000 glue to attach push pins to some decorative clothespins that I bought at Hobby Lobby. The post-it I grabbed from the Target Dollar spot. The folders and envelopes, I bought at Michaels and used push pins to attach them. I thought the cork board still looked kind of boring, so I attached some of my many washi tapes to make it a little more interesting. (I really need to stop buying washi tape!) Needless to say, she loved it! I am happy to have her back at school, so we can do great work together.  

Decorating for the New School Year

The last several weeks, I have been getting reading for the new school year. I'm almost done with all my bulletin boards. I need to finish the "Word Wall". I'm going to put the words "Word Wall" on the owl tree and then put the words up. I will post when finished. Since I write terribly, I used my Silhouette to cut out all the wording for my bulletin boards. I also purchased the thought bubbles from the Silhouette online store, and cut them out. I plan to use that bulletin board for a place for the kids to post their exit tickets. I'm glad that I'm almost done with all the bulletin boards, now on to lesson plans!

Mustache Bulletin Board

 I was inspired by all the "Moustache" stuff, I've seen everywhere. When I saw this paper at Hobby Lobby, I couldn't resist it. It is supposed to be for lockers, but I thought it would work well for a background on my bulletin board. I used my Silhouette to cut the "moustache" and words. I love how it turned out.

Classroom Door Hangers

Sometime this year, I bought these door hangers on clearance at Michaels. I finally decided what I could use them for. I always have to post a sign when I leave my classroom. Of course, I'm always rushing at the last minute, looking for a piece of paper, so I can scribble a sign. I made little door hangers so that I can hang on the knob when we leave the classroom. I used the Amy Chomas marker holder in my Silhouette, and a regular sized Sharpie. Luckily,  the font was skinny enough that the Sharpie filled in the font. I tried a Paper Mate Flair pen at first, but I thought the Sharpie stood out more. The font was So Splendid free font. It is really cute and I love how it turned out on the signs.

Mod Podge Book Holders

It's "Back to School time", and all the stores have cardboard boxes for the folders, notebook paper, and notebooks. I asked for a couple of the boxes so that I could display my books in my classroom by genre. I used paper Mod Podge and two packages of chevron-themed paper from Michaels. I probably could have gotten away using one package, but I wanted to Mod Podge the inside as well. All summer, I have been adding a strip of duct tape to the books to make it easier to organize after the kids mix them up.

Notebook Refresh

This past school year, I had been keeping my "Scope and Sequence" in a plain white notebook. I have a whole bunch of scrapbook paper in my craft room, laying around with nothing to do. I decided to give my notebook a new look for the new school year. I trimmed the scrapbook paper to fit inside the plastic that is on the front and side of the notebook. I used my Silhouette Cameo and my Amy Chomas Marker holder to draw the words "Scope and Sequence". I used the "So Loveable" font, which is really cute, and a regular black Sharpie. The next step for me, is to figure out offset in the Silhouette, so that I can fill out the font. For now, it's better than the old boring white notebook I used to have.

Eraser Holder

Eraser Holder

Materials Needed:

• Ribbon
• Mod Podge
• Silhouette Cutter
• Vinyl
• Chalkboard Paper
• Sharpie paint pen
• Glass cup
• E-6000
• Black Spray paint
• 1 round wooden ball
• Terracotta pot and saucer

Here is a picture of my new eraser holder for school. I used a glass cup from Dollar Tree. The rest of the materials were from Michaels. I started out by spray painting the terracotta pot, saucer, and wooden ball. After they dried, I attached them glass cup to the pot and the ball to the saucer with E-6000 glue. I used my Mod Podge to attach the ribbons. Finally, I cut the mustache from vinyl with my Silhouette. I just bought the Amy Chomas marker holder and used a pink Sharpie paint pen to draw the word "erasers" on the chalk board paper.  

My new T-shirt

Home T-shirt

This is the new t-shirt I made using my Silhouette and iron-on vinyl. This was the first time I used iron-on vinyl and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The layering made me nervous. I did the Texas first, then the home, and finally the heart. I got the images from the Silhouette online store. I followed this tutorial which made it very easy. Iron-on vinyl tutorial There are a few things to remember when you use iron-on vinyl.

• The shiny side goes down
• Make sure you mirror your images and text 

Overall, I'm pleased with the results. 

Pencil holders for School

Getting ready for school, I decided to make some new pencil holders. For the first pencil holder,  I had an old holder laying around. I was worried that I would have trouble gluing down the crayons, so I wrapped it in a piece of black paper. I used my glue-gun and glued down the crayons all around it. I used some ribbon that I bought at Michaels to dress up the bottom and make it look a little bit cuter. All in all, I liked the way it turned out.