Hello Winter

Up here in Toronto, Canada we usually have pretty cold winters. This year has been another story. There has been hardly any snow, and and it's been pretty mild. This past week though, the temperatures have been about -14C with the wind chill factor.  It's pointless to talk about the temperatures without the windchill in the winter or the humidex in the summer, because the way it feels take precedence over what the thermometer shows. Anyway we still haven't really had that much snow, but it is actually beginning to feel like winter. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of winter, but I worry a little about all the talk of the greenhouse affect.

If you don't live in North America, you many not know about Groundhog Day, no not the movie, the actual day, February 2nd. For some very strange reason, people put their faith in a rodent to know whether Spring will be here sooner or later. If that Groundhog sees his shadow, he runs back into his borrow and that apparently means there will be 6 more weeks of Winter. However, if he doesn't see his shadow, he stays out and that means Spring will be along soon. Now does that make any sense at all? Other than the fact its a rodent making this decision, surely when the sun is shining and causing shadows, it should mean the opposite.  There are probably about 4 Groundhogs that make these prediction, but our local one lives in Wiarton, Bruce County, Ontario and his name is Willie. He predicted that Spring is arriving very soon.

There have been very many colds and flu at my school, both teachers and students alike are being struck with it. So my idea this year is to make these sweet little tissue boxes for the staff at school for Valentines Day. Again I have to thank Angelina Clark from http://intatwynedesigns.co.uk for the great idea. I was considering adding a little addition on the back to put in a few cough lozenges, but it looked too bulky and would probably catch on something in the purse.

I've also been busy making some cute little Post-It Note books. I'll write another post about them soon.

Happy Groundhog Day

Happy Valentine's Day

I had a lovely day on Thursday when we celebrated Valentine's Day with the kindergarten kids. It was a PD day for parent/teacher interviews on Friday so we had to share on Thursday.

We had an assembly that included some singing, some information on famous black Canadians, and some dancing. We also had Crazy Hat day. What a shame there are no photos of mine... NOT!

I made those dear little owls for the children, and some of the parents that let their kids look at their Valentine boxes, (tissue boxes with tissue paper and hearts), came to me to let me know they loved them.

The children did a few Valentine activities, which was good because it was an indoor recess due to the wind chill factor being -32*c brrrrr. I handed out my little treat boxes to the staff, with chocolate inside. The free cutting file for them is here. Thanks SVG cuts.

My favourite card that I received from the kids was this one, (I know we aren't supposed to have favourtes, but those ugly dollar store Disney ones are nasty!)

Handmade, just for me. LOVE IT!

And now here is the card I made for my son, since he is the love of my life, always.

I used the Cuttlebug Script embossing folder on the dark purple cardstock, 3 other purples for the banners, and the Lovey Dovey stamp from Stampin`Ups A Little Somethin` and 3 little purple jewels.

I LOVE the way it turned out. I bought him a red mug and a chocolate cake as well.

Happy Valentine`s Day Everyone

Valentine treat.

I was trying to decide what to make for the children at school for Valentine's Day. I saw some interesting owls to craft on Pinterest, which gave me an idea.

I have been saving my empty toilet rolls to take in for the kids to make stuff with, but I wanted to ensure there was enough for one each, so I was on my way to 30.

I realised that I could use them as a container for the kiddies, so I came up with this idea.

First I had to clean off the remaining paper on the rolls. Some brands make that easy, others do not. I used a knife to scrape the tough glue off the roll.

Next I chose the papers that I would use and cut them at 4"X 6".

I glued them onto the roll, it was a little bit tricky.

I punched a circle to fit the bottom of the roll, and glued it in place. This was very frustrating as the rolls don't always stay round, sometimes they get a bit squashed.

While the glue was drying, I punched out black and white circles for the eye, and adhered them to each other.

I cut out a large brown circle then folded it in half, and ran it through my die cut machine again to give me 2 oval shapes.

I also cut out a heart and a beak by hand.

Then I pinched the tube together at either end of the top.

I pushed down the front and back to make points of both sides, and squeezed the corners between my thumb and finger.

Next I adhered the wings, eyes, beak and heart.

I had already sorted out a few candies to give the children, so I got them ready.

I opened the top, rolled up the baggie, and popped them in and pushed the top back down again.

This is what I will be giving the children. I figure they can keep it as a keepsake after they have eaten the candies.

I already had the toilet rolls, patterned paper and cardstock on hand, so the only expense was the candies.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

OWL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!!

Love and Friendship

I am part of a group of people who make and share cards through Paper Craft Planet. I have been making Valentine Day cards to send to them, and some to give to the kids at school. Here are few of the examples.

This last one has a wheel that turns giving a choice of many Valentine's quotes.

Valentines for the Sweet

I wanted to enter My Pink Stamper's challenge so I decided to make these sweet little Valentines cards for the kids at school. They look good enough to eat!

I used brown card stock, some Martha Stewart Christmas paper from a couple of years ago, pink ribbon, glitter covered Styrofoam hearts from the dollar store, some punches and some Stamps of Life stamps. I got the idea from something I saw on dollar store crafts last year.
First I cut the Styrofoam hearts

I used a serrated bread knife to slice them in half

Then I punched out the circles and labels and stamped them.

I added red ink to the edges

I added brown ink to the edges

I tied small bows and cut thin strips for the stick, then assembled it all together.

Admit it, you want to eat them!

No Valentine stamp, so I combined 3 stamps to make this

The perfect stamp for the back of the card

Thanks for looking.

Using my Cricut

Since I am home with bronchitis I figured that between coughing and sleeping I should make an attempt to create some cards.

I seldom use my Cricut for cards, so I am making an effort to do more with it. The first one is a child's birthday card, the dog image is from Everyday Paper Dolls.  The flower in the card is an idea from Creations with Christina, but I only used a single flower.  The flower was cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.

This one was an idea I saw on Posh Designs Scrapbook Store.  As soon as I saw it I knew I had to try it.  I used the birds and love word from Home Decor.  I love the way it opens out to reveal a different look. I have posted a few angles that the card was taken from.

Valentine Treats

I decided to make Valentines chocolate gifts for the staff at work. I love how these turned out. Then I decided to make something for the kids. I work with all but 2 classes this year, so that is a lot of kids. when I finished I had about 150 little chocolate gifts. Then I thought that it would be better to use these as a fund raiser for the school. We have a Winter Concert coming up next month, so it would be a perfect time to sell them. I think I can ask $1 each, and hopefully we can make $150.