Lesson Plan Book Layout

I like to decorate my lesson plan book each school year and this time around I did a fun playground inspired theme. I couldn't bring myself to make a traditional school playground, I wanted a little taste of home. I grew up around cornfields and I pass some on the way to work so I had to have a field behind a fence. My parents had a tire swing when my children were small and we shared lots of giggles and family time on the swing. When I found the tree and swing on Pop-up Neighborhood I knew the layout for my planning book.

All the cuts are from Pop-up Neighborhood except for the school year numbers and the little dude gliding down the slide. The numbers are from Nifty Fifties cart and the little dude is from Winter Frolic (he's supposed to have some skis!)

I used some real twine salvaged from some rustic packaging and and untwisted the ends to make the hair/fringe on my sliding dude.

The same twine was used for the rope on the tire swing.
The yellow corn stalks are cut from bazzil paper, black and silver slide from my stash and the scarecrow and boy's clothes are from scrap stash.

The rest of the paper was My Minds Eye. I slicked up the tire swing with some Viva decor and added grass tufts with a green viva pearl pen. I get a nice happy feeling when I see the layout and hope it will serve to make me smile during the hectic school days to come!

apartment decor

Two of my children moved into their own rooms/apartment for college this month. My son had no interest in what I could make to decorate his walls but my daughter was delighted to have me make a vinyl cut out.

So I used my trusty Cricut and some black vinyl I bought at Craft's Direct and went to town.

The frames were cut using Ornamental Iron 2 and I did some hide contour with my gypsy.

I think the chandelier is from gypsy wanderings (we did this a couple weeks ago) and I made it a big as I could using a 12 x 24 inch mat. We added some self adhesive bling from creative charms after adhering the vinyl to the wall.
There is even a frame to jazz up her backpack hook.

My DD loves the fancy addition to her apartment bedroom and we even used some scrap vinyl to cut out her name. These we used to identify the cabinet and drawer she is using in the kitchen of the shared apartment!

Volunteering on Saturday

I did some volunteering on Saturday for Provocraft and met some wonderful Cricut friends. A few of us Circle gals ventured to Minneapolis to demo the E2 (love that machine!) at the Creative Memories gathering and had a great time meeting a some terrific folks from Provo. I just had to share a picture of Jinger (a very warm, personable lady/spokesperson for Provo) and me. The experience was very positive and rewarding and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again - it is always a pleasure to share to passion of paper crafting with an awesome die-cut machine and make some new friends!

and yes, Jinger had on some gorgeous shoes but the bummer is the photo doesn't show her Cricut green fabulous footwear.

Special Numbers

I have two crafty numbers I treasure...One is my membership number for the Cricut Circle and the other is my Fiskateer number. I was able to visit the beach while out east in Massachusetts and just had to take advantage of the sand and writing...here I am with a chignon in my hair with my crafty numbers