Summer Fun

School's out for the summer!

My kindergarten and second grade boys have mixed feelings about the end of this school year.  They both had absolutely incredible teachers who we are all going to miss, but who doesn't love summer days spent at the pool and playing outside?

Here's a photo of Joshua (7) and Alex (6) on our way to school Friday.  They look quite sweet and subdued, right?

Now, check out these sweaty smiles in the below two photos of them with good friends later that night:

I had to enlarge that first evening photo for two reasons.  First, it's the cutest photo...all of the kids are smiling and looking at the camera.  Second, check out that awesome SUMMER FUN banner that my good friend, Betsy Henry created.  And, she created it all without sewing! Pinking shears and Stitch Witch did the trick.  Thanks for a great family night celebrating the end of the school year, Betsy!

I hope you have lots of summer plans with good friends, too.  Let the summer fun begin!

Paradise

It's officially the unofficial start to summer!  Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Are you at the beach?  Planning a picnic or BBQ?  I've been feeling very beachy lately and wanted to share a layout I created and taught to my after school scrapbooking class girls.  Using CTMH's Footloose paper pack and a few embellishments, I came up with this fun layout.

The girls loved using the Crop-a-dile to set the eyelets!  I also taught them the "Rock and Roll" technique to add multiple colors to their fish, turtle and seahorse.  I love the colors of this paper pack: Lagoon, Pear, Olive and Creme Brulee.

I'll be hosting the Footloose WOTG on July 25th.  If you want to order the kit now, go to my CTMH page: http://michellejonesva.ctmh.com/ and click on the 3 for 2 party on the middle/left hand side!

Favor Boxes

I love making little favor boxes for parties or special events.  Recently, I was invited to a Mother's Day Tea at my church.  I offered to make favors for each guest.  Here's what I came up with:

I used CTMH's Art Philosophy cartridge to cut out the box, flap, flower and butterfly.  Then, I used the stamp set from the Lucy WOTG to stamp the flower and the butterfly.  Adding a bit of Sweet Leaf ribbon and some sparkles, I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

A week after the tea, I was initiated as Secretary of my boys' PTA Board for the 2012-2013 school year.  The outgoing president invited us to a breakfast at Eggspectation to transition the board.  I made these favors again for this event.

I really enjoy being able to add a pretty touch to a special event.  Let me know if you have something unique coming up and I'll help you create your own favor box!

Super Hero Fun

The last six Tuesdays, from 3:15-4:15, I've been in the adoring company of seven beautiful males.  I know, jealous aren't you?

Here they are:

I had three sets of brothers and one boy whose sister takes my scrapbooking class.  All of their mothers are dear friends on mine and I just loved every second with this boisterous group.  We played games like: Pin Spiderman on the Web, Kryptonite Toss and Batplane.  They created their own superhero identities, made crafty spiders, superhero emblems, milk carton "kryptonite" boxes and bookmark albums featuring the Superhero paper pack, Superhero Rub-Ons and Comic Badge Buttons, all from Close To My Heart.
They really created some amazing final products.  Here are a few:

Clay Emblems

Alex's unfinished bookmark album.

Joshua's favorite bookmark album page.

The best part of the class was spending time with my two wonderful, sweet, creative boys and their friends.  What a blessing to get to share my passion for paper crafting with this awesome group!

Happy Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was just perfect!  I got to sleep in, read in bed and then enjoy a wonderful breakfast with my family.  My girlfriend, Betsy, made me cinnamon rolls for my birthday earlier in the week and I decided to save them for Mother's Day.  They were absolutely amazing!  She got the recipe from Pioneer Woman, here's the link to the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/. 

After breakfast, I opened some awesome gifts that I will blog about later this week, for now I'll just say my husband is a thoughtful genius.  My parents came around lunchtime and we headed to the Frederick Keys baseball game, where my boys got to parade around the field for their "Keys to Reading" program.  Here's a photo of them with their good friend after receiving their certificates:

After the game (Keys won!), we headed home for a short nap before going out to dinner.  What a great day!

My mom and mother-in-law both seemed to really enjoy their gifts.  Here's a picture of the card I made for my moms and grandmothers, using the stamp set from the Lucy WOTG.

What did you do this Mother's Day?

Teacher Appreciation Week

Teacher Appreciation Week is officially celebrated this first week of May.  My boys' school, BBES, celebrated last week due to state testing this week.  Talk about a celebration!  One of my dearest friends coordinated the week with the theme of Team.  Every day the teachers came to school to enjoy a themed meal, gifts, goodies and well wishes.  The entire school was decorated in blow up sports balls, pennants, balloons and streamers.  The week ended with a pep rally featuring our school's mascot, Mr. T (Tiger), a parade of staff members and gifts galore for all teachers.

As room mom for my kindergartner's class, I helped coordinate flowers for the teachers and goodie bags with treats.  On the last day, all of the kids brought in $5 gift cards for the teachers.  Additionally, I wanted to recognize all of the staff who support my kids, such as: the P.E. teachers, Music and Art teachers, office and clinic staff, guidance, technology and SEARCH specialists, etc.  Not wanting to completely break the bank, I had my two boys help stamp the bags below and then fill them with apples, nuts, candy and pretzels.

These bags are certainly not my best, most creative artwork.  However, it's the stamped messsage that I hope they take to heart: YOU MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. 

After School Friends

For six weeks, I had the privelege of teaching scrapbooking to a group of 15 young women from my sons' elementary school.  Each week, I designed a new layout featuring an awesome paper pack from CTMH.  The girls used the precut papers to either follow my example, or use their individuality to create their own layout.  We had so much fun stamping, adding embellishments and using lots of different tools and techniques.

The girls learned so much and even designed their own layouts for the last class.  They were such a wonderful group and I'm going to miss them!