Going Batty over Gifts!!!

As you all know I have a secret pal.  I think I am channeling all things motherly when I make my gifts for her.  I feel like if I had kids... this is totally what I would be making for them.... little Halloween prizes and gifts here and there.  But until I have kids.... I will spend my time, money, and craftiness making fun stuff for others... mainly my secret pal.  Here is what I made her today....

I bought a cauldron at WalMart for less than $4.00.  I stuffed orange tissue paper, and bought a 6 pack of her favorite drink... Dr. Pepper.

I made 2 of these bats.  I saw this idea on pinterest...of course.  Here is how I made the bats...

card stock and the tape is double sided.  At first I was going to glue the Hershey bar down but then I thought ....how on earth would she eat it!?!?

Place the bar in the center, fold the sides over and then just cut bat wing shapes out of the sides.

Add a circular head, triangular ears, 2 googly eyes, and a red glitter mouth and you end up with...

a cute Hershey bat.

Pack 2 of them in the bucket.

Add some antibacterial soap with a fun saying.  Find the fun printable at one of my favorite websites: eighteen25

Cute cute...

And there you have it!  This gift was maybe $10... maybe...$12, but its big, fun, festive, and has all the favorite things of my Secret Pal.

Principal Appreciation week and Pastor Appreciation week is coming up.  You could make something special for those great people in your life.  :)

Happy crafting and Happy Halloween!!!

Clipboards and Post-its

I think it is a requirement of teachers to...

1. Love clipboards... and have about 1 million.... you never know when you need one.
2. Have a near obsession over post-its.  Cant they be used for just about anything!?!? Math... yes.... Science... yes... Reading... always.... Love them!

So what's a better way than incorporating the two into a great gift for my Secret Pal at school.  She's a teacher.... any by that fact... she must love school supplies.  What teacher doesn't???  The smell of crayons... having paperclips in a wide variety of colors... and when paperclips cant work pull out those marvelous big guns.... the bracket clips....

Ahhh yes.... teacher supplies.  

So this is what I made for my wonderful teacher friend:

It took me about an hour and a 1/2.... because I am a perfectionist.... but I did all 3 in that time! :)  That's 1/2 and hour per gift!  (yes... I am a math teacher... )

Here are the supplies I needed:

 Lets start with the post-it note holder.... soooooo easy.  Get yourself a cardboard coaster from a place like Chili's.

Grab your trusty mod podge.  Mine is glossy, but I only used it as a glue.

The secret to all mod podge: some sort of squeegee!!! You must press out all those air bubbles or your paper will crinkle and it will not be pretty.

Use an exacto to carefully cut around the edges of the coaster.

One side was covered in dots, the other in black and white.  After I covered both sides, I dipped my brush in black paint and painted the edges and speckled the side as if I were stenciling.  I really like the effect.

Then just add a big clip with some post-its and you're done!

Clipboard:

Paint the sides first.

Cut your paper to the size you want.  I wanted to use 2 different types of paper.... I started with the bottom and worked my way up.

Mod Podge only the bottom.  I used mine only as a glue; I did not put a top layer of it on.

Use that squeegee to get it nice and smooth with no bubbles.

The toughest part was cutting around the silver head area.  You could paint the top black and skip all the cutting, but I only wanted it covered in paper. 

I used the same painting technique around the board like I did on the coaster.  Then add a little bow... so cute!

I used stickers to spell out her name and some kinda paper boarder sticker that I glued on to add a little whimsy to the area where the 2 papers meet.  The back of the board looks close to he same as the front.  Only difference is I didn't add her name to the back.

 Ta-Da! Done.  And if you want to know more about the teacher survival kit... you can find that post right here.  Or a little more about secret pals.... you can check here.


Have fun crafting.... and if you don't have a secret pal, maybe make something special for that wonderful custodian or secretary who we all know the school would burn down if we didn't have either of them :)

Googly Eye Picture Frame.....

Brought to you by the one and only !!!!!

My exclamation marks look ridiculous next to that gigantic word.  

What am I blogging about???  Ahhh yes.... my googly eye picture frame!  So my school does "Secret Pals" for teachers at school.  You fill out a simple questionnaire and then give it to the "head person in charge."  She goes around with all the questionnaires (folded up so no one can see) and you draw one of the papers and that is your secret pal.  Then you send weekly little gifts to your pal with little notes encouraging them for the week or day.    Did any of that make sense?  Anyway... on the question asking "what do you collect?" my pal said "frames."  

So the light bulb went off and I decided to make her a picture frame similar to 

Easy easy easy.  I found a frame a Hobby Lobby for 50% off... so I spent $5.00

I placed the different size eyes first in a small area.

Using one of the best inventions of all time... the hot glue gun.... I hot glued my googly eyes onto the frame.

I used 3 different sizes.  There was one smaller eye but my friend reminded me that I was likely to burn the crap out of myself if I used the tiny eyes.  I am sure she is 100% correct.

After the googly eyes were glued on, I found some lime green card stock and some of my favorite sticker letters.  I cut the card stock to fit and spelled "EEK!"

The finished product!  I really like how the eyes even lose the googly eye look and become a pattern.  

I want to sneak it into her room, but I'll probably drop it by the office and ask the secretary if she could have an office helper deliver it to her.  

SO excited for her to get this gift!!!

Happy blogging and crafting!