pinterest inspired

Today I am a procrastinating diy adventurer. I have my prep working sitting in nice organized piles. "Grade me!" "Color and cut me out to make puppets!" "Tear my pages out." I hear my work yelling to get moving. My husband has so much motivation he has cleaned and organized both the kitchen and our office, plus completed his school work for the weekend. And what have I accomplished today? Nice guess, no not my prep work... my art projects I have been neglecting since the summer! Yay!

Now with those accomplished I am moving on to my next task. Nice guess again, no not my prep work... sharing my creative diy adventure with you!

My first project is another art piece for our guest room. It has a purple and green color scheme and already is the home space for my paint chip dream sign (blogged here). Now I have added a new canvas sign.

be spontaneous, care deeply, create happiness, give love, enjoy the little things

The inspiration came from a few different pieces I had seen on Pinterest. I took a blank canvas and covered it with a thousand shades of my colors in a random pattern. I than stuck the stickers down for my favorite saying. Next, I tried to create the words with both white glue and hot glue, but with no luck I turned to puffy paints. I had success there and could move on to painting everything black. Once the paint dried I peeled off the stickers and ta-da! I thought about doing all the words with stickers, but my husband liked the more modern feeling of a unified color scheme and I liked using my own fonts verses choosing a sticker set.

Second project was yarn covered letters. A very LONG time ago I saw this idea from an old friend (You need to check out her blog! happy.shiny.day. Do it!). I just fell in love with the letters and set out to do it myself.

We hunted down letters all over the state of California and finally agreed upon the most impossible to cover letters. Thanks hunny. Easily picked out our yarn, and a few months later I had one letter done. This weekend I finally finished our initials to create this piece. We are still working on compromising about a frame, and by compromise I mean convince him my choice is the correct choice. Currently he enjoys his pencil frame you can see in the picture.

Third and final project of the weekend is our love letter box. I found the idea on Pinterest to write each other a letter on your anniversary each year and place it in the box without reading the other persons letter. We are going to open and read the letters on a milestone anniversary, like our 25th.

I found a small sweet box and designed it to match our wedding stationary and our custom throw pillows. I burned the design into the box first and than covered with a gray paint to match our gray and white room. I am excited to have these keepsakes as we continue in our love story.

I hope you find something that inspires you so much you push your to-do list aside and have your own creative diy adventure day. Off to procrastinate some more!

paint chips and fifth grade

Today I am an amazed and proud wifey. As our busy summer is coming to a close (yay!) both my husband and I have returned to the salt mines. Which also sparks a little classroom competition we have going on: who can be more creative with their space? I have to admit currently my husband is kicking my bottom! He has taken our current addictions of chalkboards, paint chips, and children's literature to a whole new level. Don't believe me? Welp take a peek:

He has a bank of drawers and shelves that run just below his wall of windows. The white paint was looking shabby, so he used some left over chalkboard paint from our wedding and just did a swipe to give it a raw industrial feel. He has labeled items in each area helping make the classroom materials more accessible to the students.

This is paint chip mania! He has made schedule cards to use in a pocket chart so to adapt and change the schedule when needed. He also made a calendar that is laminated so he can use a dry erase marker each month to fill in important dates. His behavior chart received an upgrade with numbered paint chips for each student (side note: the number is a student's classroom number, if having a hard time in class he moves it down to the yellow pocket chart). And finally, to help him label his hand-me-down filing cabinets he attached this fun multicolored paint chips. He has also made absent folders to place papers in for students to who have missed a day and need the homework or handout; now they will not have to ask and he won't have to dig around for them.

This is my favorite paint chip idea he has had! He has students turn in homework as soon as they walk through the door each morning. To help him sort through it quicker he has decided to use these labeled tubs. Since some of the homework subjects change he decided to be a bit more creative than just simply tape the sign in the box (or leave it loose to fall in with paper shuffling). He bought these containers at the dollar store, drilled a single hole in each, and affixed laminated paint chip signs with a book ring. Now all he has to do is flip a card over until he reaches the desired subject for that day's homework.

He has also worked hard on making an inviting but mature library corner. He found great chairs and rugs to warm up the space. Oh, and yes, those are paint chip labels to help organize his library to make it more kid friendly and easier to find the "just right" book.

True to his perfectionist side he is still tinkering away in the room trying to make it just right for this years students. But if this is still the planning stages I cannot imagine the final product. Just be warned husband- I might be down, but I am not out! Here's a quick peek at the competition:

That's right, colored duct tape on upcycled soup cans, and that just the beginning!

paint chips and cats

Today I am a crafty thief. Recently my husband and I have become obsessed with paint chips. You know those little sample cards you can find for free wherever paint is sold? Well we have struck there, got some, and turned them into more than they were designed for. 

I just love that now wherever we go I hear him question, "I wonder if they sell paint?" And soon I find myself face to face with more colors than a crayola crayon box. As we stand there our true personalities shine: I think carefully and craftily on what exactly I am going to make, what precise colors I need, and the exact amount (I do not want to take more than I will use), and then there is my husband, not too sure what he is going to make, something "neat", but really just looks at the random shapes and sizes and walks out with more than he will ever use. I love his non-planning non-OCD side, we balance each other well. 

I know this idea of using paint chips is not new to the world, but it is new to us and we are going strong! Take a look at our first attempts as we master this new crafting skill. 

I cannot craft without cats trying to "help." Sometimes I wonder why this blog is not called "Crafting with Cats."

Prepping random sized pieces for clay pot.

I was given a flower from one of my lovely students the last week of school. Of course I killed the flower in a matter of two days (I have black thumbs). So I decided my new pen cup needed an upgrade. I cut up pieces of paint chips in my favorite color, hot glued the pieces to the clay pot, and then covered the whole piece in a few layers of mod-podge.  This picture was taken mid-process. I lined the rim in some green accent pieces. 

I found a black canvas on great sale so I decided my sister-in-law's bedroom needed a new art piece. I wrote the word in chalk to get my sizing right. I then used a circle and button paper punch to get pieces that matched the room's color scheme. I used hot glue to affix each dot, then covered the entire canvas in a high-gloss mod-podge. 

The next project was a calendar for our office. We have a red, orange, and yellow kind of room, so I picked some vibrant paint chips in those colors. I then found a frame at Ikea for a really good price. Scrunches helped make sure nothing was hiding behind it. The nice thing about matting squares in the frame is that the piece becomes an instant whiteboard. To complete this my husband helped try to cut pieces to size (somehow they are not perfect, but who needs perfect), and then I glued them to the gray paper that came in the frame. I left all of the pieces without writing on them so I can use this piece as a whiteboard calendar, or replace the days of the week with a title and instant to-do list or record keeper.

I think having Crumpler help with measuring did not work out too well.

The final piece I worked on was a large picture for our dining room. Much like the previous item I found the frame at Ikea for a great price. It is a bit larger than 2' by 3' so it makes a great statement for a fraction of the cost.

Marked off how large of a piece I was making, then glued different size quadrilaterals down.

These are just the projects we have finished so far. A lot of other ideas for our classrooms are in the works, such as bookmarks, behavior cards, classroom calendars, and word families.

I dare you now to walk passed those paint chip samples without looking at them thinking what else could be made... I double dog dare you.

water volcano

Today I am a painter, because I am trying to eat healthier. For those that do not know: I am an avid baker. But for some reason I have hit a point where I cannot find a reason to bake (or really just an excuse)! Also, I am trying to get geared up for wedding season and I do not want to be eating everything I bake all by my lonesome. So, I have taken up water coloring the past week. Water is healthy, right?

I should also note, about two weeks ago my husband dug up my old art bag for creative ideas to steal. He might have found inspiration for his fifth graders, but I found my baking supplement for the time being. Looking through my old artwork made me want to create something new. The next problem was what was going to be the "something new." Thankfully I live in a place filled with nature's wonders and just a thing as simple as driving into town sparked my newest painting. There is just something magical about the blue sky and the green redwood trees. I started to paint. As I laid down my first layer my sister asked me if it was a volcano spewing water instead of lava. Somehow I carried on despite my lack of execution and the fact that my cat was standing in my paint.

The picture is still a work in progress so, just a sneak peak for now. But, to round outthis post I will include my art inspiration from my previous days of pretending to be an artist.

Water volcano as she calls it.. more like road to blue skies

Picture was taken in Ithaca, NY and I later water colored it

The project was draw three things that represent important parts of you.

The project was draw the same thing three times, each in a different manner.

Stamps I drew and carved

eraser marks and sharpie finishes

Today I am graphic designer. The creativity bug struck me this week as I spent my evenings thinking of sayings that could appear on note cards and simple stationary. I am not quite sure where this bite came from... could be the thousand crafts my class did this week, or just the lack of painting I have been doing in my life for the last year, or my fascination with wanting to sell crafty things on Etsy... Either way, something bit, and now my boring paper is filled. 

You have to look pass my eraser marks, blurry iPhone pictures,  and the fact that I have no real idea what I am doing, and just focus on the fun doodles that came from my brain this week... Enjoy.

The "steam" wording says "Let's celebrate the end of the year with a great cup of coffee"

Please let this inspire you to jazz up boring white paper, but please do not steal.

scent free flowers

Today I am a florist. When Andrew and I dreamed of our wedding day we talked about themes and concepts that would reflect our life and personality. We talked about a winter coffee wedding, a backyard picnic, and finally settled on a school themed wedding. I swear telling people it was school themed and seeing their reaction was the best part of planning. 

Andrew and I met in college while earning our elementary education degree. We survived back to back years of student teaching, the second while planning our wedding. We both talked about our first teaching job, and come to find out one week after the wedding they would be at the same school. Teaching brought us together, teaching fills our days, and teaching is our current passion. It was here we just had to go full out with this wedding theme- go big or go home, right? 

We had the yellow pencils, the red apples, chalkboard signs, coffee for a toast, flipbook station for our guests, and... paper flowers everywhere. I saw the idea online and thought I could do it. I even got Andrew believing he could do it! All of the flowers, my bouquet, the boutonnieres, the center pieces, and the decorations were made from paper. I thought it was cool, my traditional mom thought I was nuts, and in the end the guests were stealing the center pieces before the night was even over.

Here are some unedited pictures of the flowers in progress...