Snowflakes--Pallets and Pillows

I gave my friend a "White Christmas" for her gift. Everything in it was white, but I needed some good handmade stuff in it. So--I searched Pinterest for ideas. I did this fun pillow cover. I sketched out a snowflake with a pencil and then hot glued the buttons on. It was  a lot easier than I thought--and I even did it myself :)

This one I'm just in LOVE with. This guy is made from pallet wood we had left over from another project and nailed together in the shape of a snowflake. Pretty simple (once we got the size and shape figured out). I love how rustic looking it is.

Christmas in the Classroom

A couple fun things from my classroom this year. We made these a*dor*able snowmen as our ornaments. It's a round cut from a tree trunk (If you buy them--they're $3 a piece--No, I didn't buy them). They were really simple and the kids did everything but hot glue the nose on.

I did these stockings last year, but I put them out the first day of December. Then, each student was assigned someone every day to write a nice note to. We put them in the stockings. We learned kids don't know how to give a compliment...we're better at it now. They were so excited to be able to read the notes.

Christmas trees for our parents. For the first time in the five years I've been doing these--I messed up when I snipped the fabric. But, it worked out. The kids were excited to give them to their parents. I now have some kids who have 3 of these at home---Wow!---

Caring and Sharing 2014

I am really excited about how our Caring and Sharing tree turned out this year. I will admit I was really nervous because I had one idea and the lady I work with had another, but when it was finished, I had to admit it is the cutest one we've done. The lady I work with ended up buying it (again)--and gave me last year's tree that she bought. So now we each have one that fits our taste and style. She's getting really close to retirement, so this may have been our last year. Kinda makes me sad.

The star on top is made of chicken wire and twigs and the tree sits in an old tin wash basin. 

 The students in our classes make all the ornaments---and this is the first year I haven't had to go back and fix them. 

 My mom helped eleven fifth graders sew these reindeer. She has  a lot more patience than me and they are full of character.

 We used twine, wrapped it around a balloon and then dipped in diluted glitter mod podge. Surprisingly, I had a boy who was awesome at this.

I loved how these turned out. We just mod lodged burlap on the star. Notice the dried oranges too. The kids were pretty funny about these--they wanted to know how old the oranges were.

 This is just wrapping paper fan-folded.

Barnwood Joy Sign

Let's catch up a little before the beginning of the new year...

We had a really fun family Pinterest Party in November. We selected about ten projects and then had people sign up for what they wanted to make. It was fun, but a lot of work (and on a day I had a big paper for school to turn in).

One of my favorite projects was this old wood Joy sign. The bonus was how simple it was to do.
My mom cut up lengths of wood from an old fence at my grandma's house. We whitewashed the sign, then used a stencil to paint the letters, tied a bow and it was done.