Married and Bright: Inspiration from Minted

It is all I can do to control my Christmas craze by early November.  My poor family and friends know that by Thanksgiving I have done all I can do to control my need to listen to Christmas music, take in the holiday merriment and bask in the joy that is Christmas.  I got a little ahead of myself this year...I promise I was only in the middle of planning my wedding when I noticed this lovely little contest from Minted, featuring holiday cards.  I tried, I resisted, but I just couldn't help myself.  Anticipating our first Christmas together in 2014, I went ahead and themed my board "Married and Bright."  I hope that you enjoy!

Merry and Bright board by Katie. See more unique stationery

Our "UP" inspired Hopes and Dreams

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I have to begin my saying that I work at THE BEST school.  I truly, deeply, love my job and the team of teachers that I work with.  Working at a charter school, in my opinion (and I know there are others out there who disagree, which is fine), gives you the best of both worlds.  We get kids from all walks of life, but it makes a HUGE difference when families choose to attend your school, rather than being forced to attend.  At our charter school, we not only have an academic curriculum, but we also have a social curriculum which is called Responsive Classroom.  

Responsive Classroom has you use the first week of school to really formulate and think about what the students' hopes and dreams are for the year.  We sit down and really think about all of the things that we, individually and communally, would like to see happen for ourselves and for our classroom.  It takes a bit of stretching to help them understand what the possibilities can be, but after awhile they start to roll with the idea.  We then used our hopes and dreams to guide the discussion for what rules we would need in our classroom to make it possible for everyone (including the teacher) to reach their hope or dream for the year.  

Once the hopes and dreams are created, the purpose is to create a beautiful display that will stay up in the classroom for the ENTIRE year.  We'll reference it regularly to help us remember EXACTLY what we hope to achieve this year.  Which, led me to some detailed brainstorming, because there are FEW things I like enough to leave up in my classroom ALL YEAR LONG and that the kids would find inspiring. 

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how I wanted to display our hopes and dreams.  Now, for those of you who know me...and for those of you who are just now getting to know me through this post, you'll know that I deeply love the movie "UP" from Disney Pixar.  I mean, talk about and hope and a dream...that guy had it going.  So, drawing from my love of UP, I had the students write their hopes and dreams on a balloon template, which I copied in many different colors and then we put them up in the sky with some beautiful clouds to showcase the bright colors.  However, I was left with the decision of what to put on the bottom of the balloons.  In the movie there was a house attached to the bottom, but that wasn't at all applicable.  I mean, this applied specifically to our classroom but drawing a "classroom" was tough to conceptualize in a bulletin board display.  Knowing that our hopes and dreams applied to all areas of school, though, helped me out and I ended up drawing a very tiny display of our school to put up in the room.  

Now, I need you to know that our laminator has been on the fritz and my quote "Never give UP on your dreams" has yet to be added to the display, but I've been DYING to share it with you.  So, here it is.  Drum roll please...........................................................................................................

I hope and dream that you've been inspired!  Thanks for stopping in!

Happy Dreaming,
Katie

DIY Memory Board

Do it yourself crafts are definitely my favorite lazy weekend projects...especially when I can make something that I love for WAY cheaper than I could buy it or find it.  I've always been the particular sort that can find what I "sort of" want...but never what I exactly envision, which often leads me to making it myself.  I've been looking for a cute chevron memory board to hang it my classroom and wanted to share the fruits of my labor with you this afternoon.  This is a SUPER easy project that can be completed in an afternoon's time and will be ready to hang in no time.  I hope you enjoy!

Materials: 

• 1 medium size canvas OR 3-4 4"x4" cork boards
• Enough fabric to cover the area of your board and leave approximately an inch border around the edge
• Quilt batting
• Glue gun
• Stapler
• Ribbon
• Scissors

Constructing your Board

Begin by deciding the size of your board.  I decided to use 3 square cork boards due to the size of the fabric that I had purchased.  I laid them out on top of my fabric, leaving approximately 1-1.5" of fabric as a border.  This is important because you'll need to be able to fold the fabric over onto the back of the board.  

Once you've decided on your size, glue your boards together.  If you are using a photo canvas, go ahead and skip down to the section with quilt batting. 

Quilt Batting

Using the quilt batting, place your board or canvas on top to make sure that you have enough batting to cover the entire board.  Using a pair of scissors, cut the batting so that it is exactly even with the edge of your board.  After this step, place the quilt batting and the board on top of the fabric, leaving about a 1.5" margin around the edge of the fabric. I recommend making sure you have 2 layers of quilt batting in between the board and the fabric. 

Fabric

Using a regular stapler, fold the fabric over onto the back of the board and staple it securely.  It is imperative that you pull the fabric as tightly as possible or else the fabric will sag upon completion. 

Staple around the entire board.

When you finish, turn the board over and make sure that your fabric is smooth.  If you notice that the fabric is not smooth, remove the necessary staples and staple again until the fabric is even and smooth.

You can staple ribbon to the back to hang it, or you can leave it as is.  I also like to make boards with criss cross ribbons on the front to hold pictures.  It's up to you! :)

Finished Product: 

Happy Crafting!

Katie