Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Tried it Tuesday - Interactive Journals

This year, I'm moving back to fourth grade, but...a little secret...I'm terrified! It's been six years since I moved to second grade. Our standards have changed to the common core and from the common core. This summer, our new state standards were released, and my district is working furiously to put together pacing guides, but isn't quite finished. My classroom library, so lovingly collected and organized by Lexile, only goes up to about a 500! And that's with about 1,000 books! I have never seen the fourth grade math, science, or reading textbooks (not that I'm that big on textbooks, anyway), and just before school dismissed, I moved classrooms, removing all the non-U.S.History "stuff" from the room. Since then, I've decided to go self-contained, and teach all subjects to my kiddos, rather than let them switch around all day. My school has been a "hard-hat area" all summer, so no one can get to their classroom, either!

I need a Tried it Tuesday rescue, so I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper!


So, my Tried it Tuesday? Well, I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure going full-force! I've bought several interactive journals and plan to use them in and across all subjects. That, too, will be new for me. Yikes! I decided today that I wanted a uniform look for all the icky composition notebooks that I'm requiring students use for their journals. Although all the journals I've purchased come with covers, I just kind-of wanted my own thing, ya know? So, here it is:





You can pick up a copy of all six covers from my TpT shop, or by clicking on the picture below:

Well, I'd best be getting back to my long-range plans. Just EIGHT days until I'm back at work!
XOXO,
Brooke


Monday, July 27, 2015

Monday Made It!

Today something scary happened. I realized I have exactly NINE days before I head back to work! Nine days. Summer is fleeting, and I'm not nearly through! 

I haven't spent enough time with my beautiful daughters. We haven't gone to the pool enough. We haven't just hung out having fun enough. How can this be???
Well, to be honest with myself, I've spent nearly every day this summer waiting around the house for cable guys, delivery guys, painters, electricians, plumbers, HVAC guys, and basically every other kind of guy you might wait around on when you've just bought a house. Yes, we've decorated. Yes, the girls did get to pick out their room colors and decor. Yes, we've baked cookies and delivered them to my parents, my hubby's parents, and even my grandma. Yes, the stupid cable works now. But, really, nine days?

To have something to show for some of my waiting around, I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Made it Monday! We have been busily waiting around, after all.

The girls and I tried some mixed media artwork last week...I found some great directions here. We always have canvases lying around, so we chose some scrapbook paper, copied pictures out of magazines, gathered all the materials and got busy. I will tell you that this project took several days, probably because working on my own, while teaching the girls to use Mod Podge, wasn't easy, so we only worked for about an hour at a time. We had fun learning the process, being creative, and I'm pleased enough with mine that they might make it in our bedroom, to hang over the bed.

Clare wanted her room to be pink with an orange chevron wall. Yikes! After looking at lots of tutorials and youtube videos, I think I found the easiest one, for me, here.




After measuring, marking, and taping, I knew I wanted a monogram over her bed, so I printed out the full size I wanted on four pieces of paper, taped them together, and cut them out. Then I traced the frame shape onto the wall. It's one of Krista Wallden's freebies. If you don't follow her on TpT, you should! She is a very talented artist and always has lots of freebies. Then I painted the chevron and the monogram frame. I did find that "cutting in" along the tape caused more bleeding, rather than sealing the tape, as the tutorial suggests, so I just rolled the paint on. Finally, I used my cameo to cut out Clare's monogram and stuck it on the frame.
 
Oh my! Have I shared the best secret ever to use as transfer paper? It's Glad Press n' Seal. Y'all, it is seriously the easiest thing I've ever used with my cameo cuts. You'll never buy transfer paper again, and you can give your husband his painters' tape back, too! Okay, these pictures are from last-day-of-school buckets I made, but you get how easy the press n' seal is, right?

No Sew Window Treatments? Yes, please! 
Y'all, I can sew, but you don't have to with these easy peasy curtain ideas. The first one, I made when I first got married, and I didn't know how to sew. I used iron-on hem tape to do the whole thing. We had bought a house, and it had a black and white bathroom that was pretty dated. I loved this sheer "buggy" fabric, so I "hemmed" the sides and bottom, then ironed in a 3 inch folded-over pocket-thing for the rod. I found the ribbon, accordion folded the bottom, and tied the bows around a tension rod I'd threaded through my pocket at the top. Last week, while cleaning out the boxes upon boxes in our garage, I found that old curtain and knew it would be great in the girls' bathroom, also black and white, just like in our first house. All I did was fold it a little more to accommodate such a short window!
Below is Clare's little curtain. Again, you could use the iron-on hem tape to make your rod pocket (I sewed this one, and hemmed it, too) and hem. For this little valance, I first sewed my fabric into a big loop, like a cylinder of fabric, so that it was doubled for some extra body. Then, I sewed the rod pocket at the seam. The edges are just the selvedges, which are finished off the bolt of fabric. I made the little bunting out of some left-over ric-rack, used my pinking shears to cut the triangles so they wouldn't fray, and hot glued the whole thing together, adding some cute buttons for fun! Clare painted the birdhouse herself.



Here's another no sew project we whipped up last week. After struggling with what to do about a bedskirt, after raising Callie's bed seven inches for under-bed storage, it hit me. The fabric I had upholstered her walls with, in our rental house, was perfect! First, I measured the length of the box springs. Then I pinned the fabric length at the corners. From there, I kept finding the middle (eyeballing it) and putting another pin. When the pins were about seven inches apart, I started stapling pleats and gathers. Then, I'd pin them to the boxsprings. That's it!













The last thing we made was this wreath. I used one roll of burlap ribbon from Wal-Mart, about five feet of another roll (the green), some linen I cut off of some pants I hemmed, and some left-over buttons. First, wrap a foam wreath form with the natural burlap ribbon. Use floral pins to secure the ribbon. To make the roses, I cut strips of linen and then just kind of wound them up. To get them the way I wanted them to look, I loosened the strips and pinned them in place on the wreath, loosening toward the center as I went. Next, I hot glued some old buttons on, and last, I tied a bow and pinned it on with floral pin.

So, as you can see, it would seem I've done nothing school-related. That's why:


Nah! Just relax, take the last week or so easy, and everything will fall into place!

XOXO,
Brooke