Sock Cupcake

I friend of mine from work asked me where she could inexpensively buy silicon cupcake holders.  She wanted to use them to put socks in for her teen daughter's friends.  After telling her that I could cut them out of paper on the cricut, I ended up cutting a dozen of them from cupcake wrappers.  She rolled the socks and place them inside.  They came out adorable.

She found lollipops at the dollar store with clear wrappers.  They made really neat "cherries".  I liked it better than the pom poms I usually use.

Christmas Gifts

I am just a bit behind in updating my posts.  I thought I would share with you the lighted blocks that I made for the personal care aids that work in my classroom.  I bought the blocks from Michaels because they already had a hole in the bottom.  I don't trust myselft to attempt drilling glass! This first picture is all 5 of them on display the day I gave them to them.

This one says Let it Snow and is covered in snowflakes.  I reversed etched the design.  White miniture lights are inside, but the lights do not photo well.

This one was one of my favorites.  I cut black vinyl and adhered it to the block.  The oringinal intention was to etch this one as well, but we thought it gave it a night effect and decided to keep it as is.  I added red, white, and frosted lights that I found in Michaels.  I also loved the Santa belt ribon that I added to silver glitter ribbon.  You can't see the back, but I sprayed it with silver glitter blast by Krylon.

This is what it looks like lit up!  Not too bad of a pic, but it still doesn't do it justice.  It was hard to give away because I loved it so much.

This one is a Christmas Tree and reads Season's Greetings.  I put multicolored lights inside.

I also made a nativity and an Angel.  For some reason my pictures did not download.  I will have to add them later.

Lauren's Family Consumer Science Poster

Last week my daughter had to do a project for her Family Consumer Science Class.  She had to make a poster on the development of school age children.  She wanted a school, but did not like the old fashioned school house.  She chose the library from My Community.  We hid the word library on the gypsy.  I then made her 3 layers so that we could draw, engrave, and cut out the school house.  It is a simple project, but will give you an idea of what a great job Amy Chomas mini gel pen holder and engraver can do.

Here is an upright view of the building.  Sorry about the clarity of the pictures.  The metal made a glare for one and secondly it was around midnight and the project was due the next morning. Imagine that!

Here is a flat on view.  The white paper is coordination gemstone.  The metal like paper was bought at JoAnn's.  It is silver metalic by Colorbok.  We first drew the building using Amy's mini gel pen holder.  That way we got the view of the windows and door.  Next, I engraved the metal paper using the engraving tip, also designed by Chomas Creations.  I just love the way this turned out.  The small balls were embossed using the mini polka dots cuttlebug folder.  Our last layer cut everything out.  I used my ATG gun to stick everything together and to place it on her posterboard.

This is a really bad image, but this was the finished project with her notes on school age children.  I had her use a white gel pen to make the appearance of a chalk board.

Here is a close up of the roof.  Again, there is a glare, but I wanted you to see how neatly the engraving tip wrote out School Age.  Don't you just love the swirls in the roof!  Now that I have experimented with this tip on this paper, I have so many ideas just buzzing through my head.  I can't wait for summer vacation to have more time to devote!

In case you have never heard of Amy Chomas at Chomas Creations, you can visit her blog at http://www.amychomas.blogspot.com/.  She currently has her holders on special to celebrate spring!  They are definately worth the price!

Quarter Note Clock

I have wanted to make an altered canvas clock for some time now.  I have also wanted to use the quarter note cartridge as well.  I decided to make one for a co-worker's daughter who sings and plays the piano.

I just love the background paper that I used.  I bought it from JoAnn, but I forgot the exact company that distributed it.

Here is a close up of the piano.  The background is black coordinations paper in Gemstone and the top layer is white coordinations.  I also embossed the piano with the swirl design by Fiskars. It was then painted with extreme glitter paint in gold. The bling was added using the imaginesce iRock.

The saying is also with coordinations gemstone in yellow and the background is coordintations glitter in black.

Here is a close up of the numbers.  The music notes to not count up as high as 12, but I used the blackout note and added my one and two using my gypsy.  Sorry that the pictures aren't any clearer.  I have a bad habit of quickly using my cell phone.  I also take a lot of pictures at school and do not have proper lighting.

Baby Shower

It has been awhile again since I have posted anything.  Once school is out and I have summer vacation, hopefully I won't slack so much and will post more frequently.  The following pictures are from the baby shower we held in my classroom for one of my co-workers expecting her first baby.

These are close ups of the banner that I made.  I designed them to match her nursery.  Her bedding was brown, ivory, and sage.  The print was of baby deer.  Since she is having a girl, she was going to add pink as well.  The font is Storybook.  I cut the deer from Create a critter.  The paper was Coordination cardstock.  The banner read "Baby Girl" since they were keeping her name a secret.

This was an image of the entire banner with all of the sweet gifts contributed by our coworkers.

I also designed this can to hold my gifts so that it also matched the banner and the room.  I believe the butterfly is from Create a Critter as well, but I am currently drawing a blank.

These were the favors that I put together.  When I saw these sour cream packets, I just had to attempt them.  They were super easy.  The bootie is from New Arrival and I just attached the brads using a paper piercer and brad setter.  The paper is open stock from JoAnn.

Peachykeen Stamps Challenge Let's Face It, It's Friday - Think Spring

Here is my attempt at this week's Let's Face It, It's Friday challenge on Peachykeen Stamps.  I made a dozen of these pillow boxes for Valentine's Day, so I thought it would be fun to make them for Spring with flower seeds inside.  It just didn't work out as easily as the Valentine ones.  The boxes are made from acetate and embossed on the big kick.  You can't see the embossing that is butterflies, flowers, and swirls.  When deciding on a tag, I didn't want it to be too big for the box, but yet big enough for the faces.  It looked much cuter in my head, but since there was a snowstorm here last night, it was still nice to think of spring!

I cut the pillow box using Wrap It Up cartridge on the gypsy.  I used the hide feature to not cut the diploma design.  Next I embossed it in the big kick.  Once I folded and sealed my box using the ATG gun, I wrapped in rickrac.  The grass on my tag was made from Platnum School Book.  The thinking of spring was gypsy wanderings.  It actually said "thinking of you" but again, I used the hide feature to get rid of "you" and added spring by welding them together.  The daisy is from Walk in My Garden and I used Peachy Keen Everyday character faces.  I just love these stamps.  They add so much personality!

Happy New Year!

Hello all!  I would like to take the time to wish all of you a Very Happy New Year!  I said in November that I was back, but the holidays took over and I never posted.  Allow me to try again and place up some of these older posts.  The kids are back to school today and I still have today off.  My goal is to update this blog and possible try to craft a bit today.  I have some home decor ideas and I would also like to participate in MPS Design Team Challenge.  So lets start off with some older pictures that have been just taking up space in my PC!

This is a work station rotation schedule that I made last year for my classroom.  The labels on the buses are the stations that were open to the kids.  The names on the road were the students who were to visit those stations each day.  Everything was held on with velcro for easy changing.

This was the banner I made for my niece's Sweet 16 party back in July.  The glare makes it hard to see, but her name (Haley) was done in Storybook font.  One end of the banner reads Happy Birthday while the other end reads Sweet 16.  Before stringing the banner, I used my Crop-a-dile for the holes.

These are the rest of the pictures from  the Sweet 16 party.  I had an entire sweet table layout.  The cake boxes were supposed to be each decorated with pink "frosting", but we ran out of time.  The soda's were made from Waffle Cone glasses fro JoAnn's.  I used pink and blue cotton candy for the foam and cut out Sweet 16 with a cherry.

I made this Hello Kitty notepad after coming back from CHA.  I had the pleasure of taking the class at the Peachy Keen Stamp booth with Lori.  I made a bunch with apples on for my co-workers, but forgot to take the pictures.  I love making these.  They are so much fun and useful!!

Although the pictures are poor (working on that) these are the coffe mugs I made at the end of the year for my kids teachers and the two personal care aids in my classroom.  On one side, I etched Thanks a Latte and on the other, I engraved their names.  We placed them in boxes with Starbucks, biscotti, and candy. Then, I wrapped them and inserted the miniture thanks a latte cards.

I painted this glass last Christmas for my secret santa gift.  I did this whole 12 days of Christmas theme and made her ornaments to go along with each gift.  I will try to post those later.  I also used my expression to cut her the matching card.

I just love making these little purses.  This was for my friend's daughter's 13th birthday.  Inside was lip gloss, nail polish and nail file, and a gift card for American Eagle.  It was a hit at the party!  I was told that even the boys liked it.

Halloween treat bags for my students were super simple to make.  Each was filled with cany corn, play-dough, and of course some chocolate!

Hope you enjoyed all of these long over due posts!  Hopefully I will add a few more later with something new as well.  It would be a shame to waste this day with no kids!

I'm Back

It has been a while, but now I am back.  It feels like forever since I have posted.  I have so many pictures to post if only I could get to them!  It is always a challenge whenever I return to school to craft and blog.  Well, with Christmas coming, I need to get busy on all the ideas that are floating around in my head.  I also need to post all the great ideas that I use my expression for in the classroom.  That is why I changed my blog to ClassExpressions!  Visit again soon to view new posts!

Peachy Keen Stamp Challenge- Let's Face It, It's Friday

Hi guys, I know it has been awhile since my last post.  With school starting back, September is always a crazy month.  This week I have been busy creating this post for the Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge, Let's Face it, It's Friday.  I had a lot of fun with this because I love holiday projects!  The rules were to complete a project using PKS face stamps, and it needed to be a Halloween Treet holder.

I used Tie the Knot Cartridge for the Bride and Groom favor boxes.  I love these.  I created Frankengroom using the Frankenstein image from Happy Hauntings and Bridzilla using Frankenstein's Bride from HH also.  My intentions were to use the face stamps on their faces; however, their heads were too large.

Instead, I made the pumpkin and used the grimace face from Everyday Occasions PKS stamps.

I also used the same stamps on the spider that completes her spider veil and on the skull on her dress.  The spider was from Mini Monsters and the skull was from Rock Princess.

I used a carmel apple lollipop to hold up Bridzilla's head and filled both boxes with Gummy Worms!

Thanks for the challenge, Angelica.  I had so much fun!

PKS Challenge

This is the card I came up with for the PKS challenge I am trying.  It is also for a 7th grade student at my school who was in a farming accident resulting in a broken leg; hence, the cast on the leg of the cow. I am still working on taking the pictures of my projects.  I tried outdoors, but it was entirely to bright.  I was excited though to figure out a way to incorporate my new Peachy Keen Face Stamps since they didn't work on the cow!

CHA Here we come

My daughter Lauren and I are on a way to CHA.  We will be there tomorrow and Sat. for the supercraft show.  Watch for postings and updates on our adventure!!

Bling it on!

This is the working clock I made for the MPS design team challenge.  It was actually my daughters jewlery box that hangs on her bedroom wall.  The front was a photo collage frame.  I used coordinations paper as my background, drilled a hole into the wood and inserted the clock motor from Walnut Hallow.  The cartridges used were Designers Calendar, Forever Young, Paisley, and Gypsy font.

Birthday Bag

This was the purse that my daughter and I quickly threw together yesterday for a birthday party she was attending.  All of the designs were from Forever Young.  I designed it all on the gypsy and cut it out on a 12x24 mat.  This enable me to piece together the different colors all in one cut.  The paper is from Coordinations stock.  I sanded the purse to give it almost a worn jean effect.  If I had more time, we would have glammed it up a bit more.  Instead of a card, we cut sunglasses out of Shrink Plastic and made it into a reusable key ring.  Black would have worked better, but I am out of black.

Rocking Horse

This is the rocking horse that I painted for Grayson to go with the card.  I used Storybook to create stencils for her name and for the detail designs.

Here is my first attempt at a crisscross card that I made this weekend for a friend's new granddaughter