Teatime!

This is yet another of my new stamps from yesterdays shopping expedition, I was hoping to be able to get a few Whipper Snapper stamps - I didn't find many but I couldn't pass up this adorable little creature! I thought this would be the perfect stamp to use for Beate's Sketch challenge. This week Beate decided that the card we create be a gate fold card.

I also decided that this card would work for the limited supply challenge seeing that my other card I created wouldn't. The little flower is a set of 4 stamps which come in different sizes, I love this stamp it is sooo useful. The flower on the cup the mouse is sitting in reminded me of this little flower so I thought it would make the perfect background for this card. I stamped the flower all over my white card using black ink, colored it in with my tria's. I was going to leave it there but I really didn't like the look of all that white space that was left in between the flowers - I wanted it to better match the cup - so I got my tria I used to color the cup and colored in the background - thank goodness for alcohol pens!

Recipe: Stamps: Mouse in Cup - Whipper Snapper; Flower - alota; Greeting - Karen Foster Snap Stamps
Paper: White; Pale Violet; Lavender
Other: Black Ink; Scallop Punch; Creative Memories Circle Cutter; White Gel Pen; Trias

Cheers!

As you can see I have started playing with my new stamps I got yesterday while I was at the Scrapbooking & Papercraft Expo. As soon as I saw this girl from Inky Antic's I immediately thought of this weeks sketch challenge and how perfect she would fit in that long skinny panel. I also was thinking off all those cards I have seen on SCS of the preggie girl and the "BIG" stamp - where the girl takes the place of the "I" and thought it might work with this stamp too, she is taller but it is worth a try and I don't have too many people getting pregnant around me, but girls do turn the big "0" all the time. Come to think of it my DD turns 30 this year and anyone who knows her would agree she is skinny like this girl - tick tick tick!

I was originally thinking of using this card for the limited supply challenge on SCS, which is creating backgrounds using non traditional background stamps - but then I decided to use the stamps from the sweet spots set which I think would fall into the background stamp category so I scratched the idea of using it for that challenge as I did want to use those stamps.

Recipe:
Stamps: Beverage Girl - Inky Antics; Sweet Spot - SU; Greeting - Stamping Bella
Paper: Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand - SU; White
Other: Black Ink; Barn Brown & Grand Cranberry Whispers Ink; Slot Punch - SU; White Gel Pen; Tria Markers.

Someone left a question in the comments of yesterdays post, so I thought I would answer it here in case anyone else had the same question.

Question: OMG! What an awesome shopping day you had! I think the crossword puzzle stamp is neat and versatile. What images are the clear stamps? And what is a tape writing tool?

Answer: First up the clear stamps were a new set from Hero Arts called "Tiny Bird Messages" there are 6 little stamps each with a bird image on a tree, some are solid and others outline and each have a little message to go with it. eg. Hey; You're special etc.

Here is a link to the tape writing tool, I think that can explain it better than I can. I would call it a dymo or label maker, however different countries sometimes have different names of things so in this case I will let the picture in the link tell the story. I think it is self explanatory, what I really like about this is the fun colors you can get for the tape and also that you have the option of different fonts - mine came with two font wheels one upper & one lower. I was also told by the person selling it to me that other font wheels will be available after July - I am hoping this is true.

I've Been Shopping!

So far today I haven't done any stamping so don't haven't any cards to show you. The reason for this is because today I went to the Australasian Scrapbook & Papercrafts Expo which was held at the convention centre here is Brisbane. Now I am definitely NOT a scrapbooker, but as I knew there would be stamps & papercraft supplies I went along. Last year when this event was on I was demoing for one of the retailers but as this one didn't come up for the event this year I could just go around and take my time to shop. My daughter also came along, but she is house sitting for my other daughter this weekend so she met up with me later which was an advantage to her as she didn't have to get up as early by doing her own thing.

I did manage to find a few things I needed, including some new stamps, I was hoping to get a few more of the cute whipper snapper stamps but the ones I was after wasn't there - no matter there will be another time I am sure. I do wish I had that skinny girl on Wednesday for this weeks sketch challenge she would work sooooo well on that skinny panel!
Of course I didn't just buy stamps today, there were a few punches I was hoping I would find today and I wasn't disappointed. I have been wanting the 48mm postage punch for a while now and I even splurged and got a new tape writing tool - this one comes with 2 different font wheels and I was told other font wheels will be available later in the year - here's hoping! I also couldn't resist the cute girl in the bath die by sizzix, if there had of been more of this type of thing there I would have got more for sure.
And finally some embellishments and papers, I didn't get tooo many papers as you can tell I can get them anytime, I did find a few bargain embellishments and did get a few freebies too. One interesting find was the new double sided tape with is on 3mm wide (for my US friends that converts to about .12inches), this will be great for adhering really things to cards without having to trim it to size.

While I was there I was also able to have a sneak peek at the new expressions machine, the big sister to the cricut which apparently will be in Australia in a few months. Well now I am off to start finding homes for all these goodies, I might even get around to playing with a couple but if not today I will definitely have to do some playing tomorrow.

Never Bored to Pieces

A rather strange title today I know LOL, but as this card was made for 2 challenges I wanted to include both in the title. A few days ago Jen from Pieces of Me.... posted a sketch challenge for anyone who was interested. I thought it was an interesting sketch so I printed it out in case I had time to play.

Last night I was sitting here at my desk and I was looking at a couple of pieces of card I had sitting there that I had started to use for the sketch challenge on Wednesday and then rejected for one reason or other - this one had a smudge at the top and the pink flowers were stamped with the wrong inks - the circle flowers should have been the lighter ink - this mattered for the other card I made as I was matching it with rose red which I thought at the time was the color for the color challenge. This piece I decided was still usable if I trimmed the sides and the top and once I did that I thought I would use it for this sketch challenge from Jen's blog, the pink flowers colors didn't matter as much for this card as that wasn't the dominant color I was using for the card.

A little later last night before I had really decided what I would do for the right side of this card, Julia posted her "Ways to use it" challenge on SCS. This weeks challenge was a rerun - "Never bored with Chipboard". I have chipboard shapes here so I wondered if I had something I could use on this card - after looking through my stash I discovered the chipboard buckle, I inked it with Fresh Eggplant Whispers ink and then used my versamark ink pad over that and embossed it with clear powder. The ribbon was a little paler than I would have liked so I found a tria pen the color I needed and colored my ribbon.

I also remembered while creating this, that a few weeks ago I had purchased some rolls of tape that go in the dymo guns - one of the colors I had was a purple that matched rather well with the Elegant Eggplant on the card so I used that to create my verse.


Recipe:
Stamps: Green Thumbs - Papertrey Ink; Leaves#3 - Cornish Heritage Farms
Paper: Certainly Celery, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red - SU; White
Other:Grand Cranberry, Fresh Eggplant, Mossy Stone, Port Wine, Rio Purple; Butterscotch & Savoy Green Whispers Ink; Certainly Celery - SU; Versamark Ink; Clear EP; Ticket Corner Punch - SU; Pink Grosgrain Ribbon; Buckle Chipboard Shape; Purple Tape Writer tape - Around the Block; Foam Tape

Flashback Friday - Aprons

It doesn't take long for Fridays to come around does it, it seems just yesterday that I posted my last Flashback Friday and here I am again posting another. This week I am featuring some Apron cards I created. The first two are using an apron stamp by Ann-ticipations and the last card is an apron card using a template.

If I haven't mentioned it before I do like stamping scenes, although I don't do as many these days as I used to do for some reason, I guess sketch challenge cards etc are really suited to scenes all that much. For the top card I created a scene with these cute ants carrying an apron, I just love these cute stamps (hmmm maybe one flashback Friday I should dig out some of my ant cards - I am sure I have some. Stamps like this are fun as you can get them to do all sorts of funny things. There are actually 4 or 5 ants that you can get - these ones are by Stamp Camp but there are a couple of other companies that also have ant images. Two companies that come to mind are alota rubber stamps and Rubbernecker, theirs are equally adorable - I know cause I have them LOL. This card uses one of the easiest grass stamps, it fits about the length of the card and on this one I have just stamped it twice with black ink and then colored it - so easy, it is made by Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers who have since ceased trading. As I used dp for the apron and cut that out, the ants are also stamped on card and cut out and then attached to the card.
This second apron is again the Ann-ticipations apron stamp that I stamped on white and yellow card. Before attaching the yellow pocket over the white part I stamped the apron using a tiny flower stamp (alota rubber stamps). The bees that are peeking out of the pockets and also the bzzzz are also by alota rubber stamps.
This last apron card was made using a template. The pink part of the apron opens up so you can write your message inside, I have again got something peeking out of the pocket this time a little bear by Printworks - this bear comes in a few different sizes. I again used a flower for the background of this apron, this particular flower is by Lucy's Stamps which is an Australian company.

Tomorrow I am going to a Scrapbooking & Papercrafts show - I am not a scrapbooker but there will be plenty for a stampaholic like me to buy. This time round I won't be working so it will be fun just going around and seeing all the great products. I'll let you know what I find tomorrow!

A Quick Birthday Card

I made this card yesterday for my niece who celebrates her birthday this week. She loves frangipani's so I thought this would be an ideal card for here and it is such a quick card to make too. Of course the only stamp I used in this one is the happy birthday one, the frangipanis themselves is actually part of a 12 x 12 sheet of scrapbook paper that contains 9 different 10cm(approx 4") square frangipani images. You can't tell online but the paper also has a shimmer to it - I hope she likes it!

Recipe: Stamps: Eat Cake - Stampin' Up
Paper: Hot Pink; Pink; Frangipani Shimmer Paper
Other: Black Ink; Pink Grosgrain Ribbon; Oval Punch; Scallop Scissors

Flourish Thoughts

Here is another quick card for this weeks sketch challenge. I wanted to use my flourish stamps as the background to the main panel and then have a cardboard panel across the card rather than an vellum one.
The plum layer at the back was cuttlebugged using the textile embossing folder, I think that folder goes well with the flourishes. I felt it needed something else so I added the flower at the top. The flower was a gift from my VSN Secret Sis, I think I will need to find some more flowers this size as they look great.

Recipe:
Stamps: Elegant Flourish - Autumn Leaves; Verse - Impression Obsession
Paper: Pale Plum & Bravo Burgundy - SU; White
Other: Bordeaux Ancient Page Ink; Plum Brads; Flowers

If Friends Were Flowers

This afternoon I thought i would play around with my Papertrey Ink "Green Thumb" set. This card is for this weeks sketch challenge, it is also for the color challenge which is Certainly Celery, Elegant Eggplant & Ruby Red. Unfortunately until I just read my piece of paper I had written the colors onto last night for the challenge I thought it was Rose Red which is what I used on this card - and I only read that because I was typing up this post - arghhhhhhhh. Anyway Rose Red will have to be close enough for this week LOL. It may be hard to see in the photo but I also used my new flourish stamps from Autumn Leaves on the background of the base card.

Recipe:
Stamps: Green Thumbs Set - Papertrey Ink; Flourish - Autumn Leaves
Paper: Certainly Celery, Elegant Eggplant & Rose Red - SU; Vellum
Other: Grand Cranberry, Fresh Eggplant, Mossy Stone, Port Wine, Rio Purple; Butterscotch & Savoy Green Whispers Ink; Black Ink; Dark Pink Brads

Featured Stamper Flourishes

While I was browsing in Tosha aka Stamps4funinCA's gallery on Sunday afternoon I came across this card, "Fancypants Birthday". At the time I couldn't even contemplate making this card as I didn't have any stamps suitable for the flourishes, however I had already put on my wish list for a shopping trip I had planned for yesterday the Autumn Leaves Elegant Flourish set which I was able to get (lucky last!!!!!). Seeing I am new to flourishes I figured this would be a great card to do to wet my "flourish feet" so to speak. Changes I made to the card included:

• Changing the color - from burgundy to not quite navy
• I used a different flourish set
• Different Greeting
• I didn't have ric rac so I used black brads instead
  

I am really happy with how this card turned out.
Recipe: Stamps: Elegant Flourishes - Autumn Leaves; Canvas - SU; Greeting - Papertrey Ink; Flower - Penny Black
Card: Creamy Caramel & Not Quite Navy - SU; Black
Other: Blue Iris Fluid Chalk; Creamy Caramel - SU; White Brilliance Ink; Black Ink; Distressing Tool; Black Brads; White & Blue Flowers; Ornate Brad

*******Hooray it's raining and I mean REAL rain not just a little spit here and there, it has rained pretty solidly all night and this morning and by the looks of the weather forecast it is going to continue to at least tomorrow. Anyone who knows me knows I am not a big fan of rainy days, it can be a little depressing, however down here we are soooooo much in need for some good solid rain to fill our dams up and water our poor gardens, that even I wouldn't dare to complain!!! Where I live in Brisbane we have been on severe water restrictions for at least 12 months, at the moment this means we have to carefully watch what water we use - 4 min showers only; no watering the garden; no washing the cars etc etc. On hot summer days our kids can't play under sprinklers etc anymore. Many of us have started buying water tanks for our backyards so that the rain we do get isn't wasted and then we are able to do those little things we have all taken for granted for years, but we still have to be careful because without more rain that water in our tanks doesn't last forever. On hot summer days our kids can't play under sprinklers etc anymore.

Dad's Shirt

I have finally finished my second card for this week's technique challenge. I had actually made this tiny shirt first and then decided I wanted to make the larger shirt to make as a free standing card and of course I got sidetracked with the other one that I didn't manage to get this finished and then it got tooo late. I started up again this morning and then had to go out and have just now managed to get it finished!!!!!

For this one I wanted to make use of my tiny tie & pocket stamps that I purchased a couple of years ago especially for this type of card. Then today while out shopping I found these cute tiny button brads which come in white, black & silver and of course I had to get some and then use them on this card. As my tie was red and black I wanted to repeat that look at the side with the black brads so punched out 3 circles which I attached to the brad before placing on the card.

If I made this card again I would probably make the canvas background a little lighter than it is here, but it is done now so this is the way it will stay.

Recipe: Stamps: Pocket & Tie - Handmade by Me; DAD - Karen Foster; Greeting - Miss B Designs; Canvas - Stampin' Up
Paper: Always Artichoke - SU; Red; White; Travel Stripes DP by Sandlion
Other: Black Ink; Creamy Caramel Ink - Stampin' Up; Ticket Corner Punch - SU; Black Brads; Circle Punch

Retirement Shirt

Today's technique challenge on Splitcoast Stampers is "Origami Shirts", I have made these before but I thought it would be fun to have a play around this time as I would have new products to use etc. I remembered this paper I purchased last year which I still have heaps of and figured it would make a great shirt. Just went to find the name of the paper to write in the recipe section to discover it is called "Red Hawaiian Shirt" so no wonder I had to make a shirt out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made a large one so that it can be used as a stand alone card.

When I was trying to decide what greeting to use on the inside of this card I remembered that the limited supply challenge was Retirement. I thought this shirt looks like something someone might wear when they are retired - so I have decided to turn mine into a retirement card. As I don't know anyone who is retiring I guess I will just keep it.

The greeting "On your Retirement" was printed onto the white card using my design runner. I then used my faux ribbon stamps to create the dot border. The hibiscus I stamped off once before stamping it onto the card so it would not over power the greeting - I thought it was appropriate seeing these flowers were also on the shirt. I also added surfs up, for no other reason than I saw the stamp when I was getting the hibiscus stamp out. I also thought someone who is retirement might go to the beach, not sure they would go surfing though but then you never know do you LOL!

I did add a little bit of extra decorative paper to the inside of the shirt as I didn't like seeing the white side of the paper when I opened up the shirt card. It has been added to the back of the sleeve flaps and also the middle section down the bottom.
Recipe:
Stamps: Hibiscus & surfs up - Club Stamps; Dot Border - Papertrey Ink
Paper: Red Hawaiian Shirt - Karen Foster; White; Black
Other: Design Runner with greeting cartridge; Black Ink; Lipstick Red Fluid Chalk; White Buttons

Crabby Gift Card Holder

While I had the Crab & Co images and the background paper I used for the card I created for Beate's Sketch challenge this week, I thought I would make a 8 x 8 folded gift holder that Cambria posted about on her blog this week. This is a pretty similar fold to one that I use to create a passport fold which has 4 pockets - 2 inside and 2 outside. Cambria used a piece of 8 x 8 Paper to create her gift holders as did I for the one here - these would suit a gift card you are giving to some perfectly. I think these would also be great to present an ATC in, however you would need to change the size of the paper for them to fit. Possibly a 9 x 9 would work but I haven't tried it as yet so I suggest if you want to try this to do mock up one first using scrap paper.

Well I am just about out of crab images now so that will be all Crab related cards until I get around to actually purchasing this set.


Recipe:
Stamps: Crab & Co - Stampin' Up; Sand - Darcies; Clouds - Mostly Animals
Paper: White, Orange, B'G Paper - One Heart....One Mind
Other: Black Ink; White Gel Pen; Tria Markers; Oval Punch; Scallop Scissors

Crabby CD Envelope Card

Well as you can see I am still playing with those Crab & Co images I received from my Secret Sis! I just love this set and definitely need it!!!!!!!!!! Sometime ago I found a tutorial on how to make these CD Envelope Cards on Card Inspired by Maria 's blog. I have been wanting to make one myself especially since I have heaps of CD envelopes here I purchased a few years back for another project, so I finally sat down and got one made. I didn't end up putting in a lot of confetti to shake around as I didn't want it to cover up my main images tooo much. These are definitely fun to make and I will be making more for sure.

Tip: I removed the plastic centre of one of my CD envelopes to use as a guide for placement so I wasn't just guessing where things should go. Once you have removed the plastic centre place your card into this envelope and place your items where you want them.

I also cut out another circle the shape of the hole so I could have a mask when decorating my CD envelope.

Recipe: Stamps: Crab & Co - Stampin' Up; Dots - Papertrey Ink; Alphabet - Karen Foster Snap Stamps; Sand - Darcies; Cloud - Mostly Animals
Paper: White; Orange; Aqua
Other: CD Envelope; Circle Punch; Tab Punch - SU; Orange Grosgrain Ribbon; Googly Eyes; Confetti

Fun Fun Fun - Featured Stamper

It's time for another Featured Stamper challenge on SCS and this week the featured stamper is Stamps4funinCA aka Tosha, Tosha has some great cards in her gallery and I ended up using 2 of her cards for inspiration for the cards shown here.

My first card above is inspired by a Penny Black Hedgehog Card that Tosha created about 5 weeks ago, I remember then loving that card and wanting to do something similar myself. Well today was the perfect time to create my own card using her ideas. I used a different Penny Black Hedgehog, the one she used would have been too small for my centre square as I concentrated on getting the dotted border made first before worrying about what image I was going to use. I don't normally do that I would normally work from the image first but if that border didn't work there wasn't much point doing this card as it was the border that I wanted to recreate and having the Papertrey ribbon set. My other changes were changing the color from red to blue, using a different verse and I also created a photo corner for the left corner of my main image rather than use ribbons.

While I was browsing through Tosha's gallery this afternoon I also discovered this one, Vintage Rose which uses stamps from the Wild Rose set. I haven't used that set nearly enough and I did like the card so I decided to recreate that too. I changed my colors from blues to pinks, changed the verse & ribbon and also added a border to the bottom of my card.

Recipes:
Hedgehog Card:
Stamps: Hedgehog - Penny Black; Flannel Plaid - Stampin' Up; Dot Border & Verse - Papertrey Ink
Paper: White; Black; Ballet Blue - Stampin' Up
Other: Black Ink; Ballet Blue Ink - Stampin' Up; Blue Brads; Tria Markers

Pink Roses:
Stamps: Wild Rose - Stampin' Up; Verse & Border - Papertrey Ink
Paper: White; Old Olive & Bravo Burgundy - Stampin' Up
Other: Rose Blush, Warm Violet, Lime Pastel & Olive Pastel Fluid Chalks; Black Ink; Ticket Corner Punch - Stampin' Up; Brads

ATC - Butterfly Wishes

I needed to make an ATC as a return rak for someone who had sent me one a few weeks ago. So I thought I would play around with my Papertrey Butterfly set, seeing I hadn't played with that set already. I do love these sets, the only thing I wish is that they included a verse that goes with the theme of the set. Don't get me wrong I love all the other verses included in the set they are soooo useful - but sometimes I just like something like I put on this ATC the "Butterfly wishes" verse which is one I have in a set by Impression Obsession.

Recipe: Stamps: Butterfly Set - Papertrey Ink; Verse - Impression Obsession; Script Background - Stylish Images (Aust) Paper: White; Orange Other: Black Ink; Spiced Marmalade; Dried Marigold Distress Ink; Olive Pastel Fluid Chalk; Oval Punch - SU; Orange Brad

Shore Do Love You!

It's the weekend which means Beate has another sketch challenge on her blog, so of course I had to play! Shore do love sketch challenges!!!!

The first thing I did when I was working out what i was going to do for this challenge was pick out my background paper, this is one I purchased from a scrapbook shop I visited recently. Once I had the paper picked was was easy to decide what colors to use for this card, so I got these all out and cut them to the size I thought I wanted my finished card to be. When I looked at my background paper - it reminded me of the spots & dots cuttlebug embossing folder so I got this out to create the background on the cool caribbean card.

So now I had that all done what image was I going to use. that I still hadn't worked out. When I looked at the orange in the card it reminded me of all those cool crab cards I have seen recently using that Crab & Co stamps set which I want sooooo badly!!!! No I don't own this set yet, I guess I had better order it this month to make sure I have it in case it doesn't make it into that new catty you guys are soooo eagerly waiting for! Now I normally don't like using images of things I don't own, for many reasons. For one thing you can't always do the things you want to do with an stamped image that you can do with owning the stamp itself. Also using other peoples images only makes me want to own that stamp more and besides I own sooooo many stamps I normally don't need to use other peoples images - it's a quirk I have - I don't mind people using my stamps if they wish. Anyway my sister sis I had for VSN sent me some images of the cute crab and all the other stamps in the set so I decided to see if that would be suitable for this card. Fortunately the crab was not toooo close to the edge of the card to allow me to get my scallop punch in to punch it out - so off I went. I wanted to use my tab punch for the verse which is why I went with this particular verse rather than the others in the set.
Recipe: Stamps: Crab & Co - Stampin' Up
Papers: Cool Caribbean - Stampin' Up; Orange; Aqua; b/ground paper - One heart ... one mind
Other: Black Ink; Celeste Blue Impress Ink; Tangerine Fluid Chalk; Scallop Punch; CM cutting system; Tab Punch - Stampin' Up; Orange jumbo brads - Karen Foster; Spots & Dots cuttlebug embossing folder; Tria markers; White Gel Pen

Tutorial - Rubber Cement Technique

Seeing I was playing with the rubber cement technique to create my ATC's in my previous post, I thought it might be fun to do a tutorial for everyone on this technique. As you can see by my card I have used the rubber cement to create a particular pattern of lines. You can if you wish just drizzle the rubber cement randomly over your card which will give you a completely different look again. Experiment and see what look you like the best.

What you need:
2 to 3 colors of dye ink
Rubber Cement
Brayer
White Gloss Card
Adhesive Remover (Optional)








1. Apply the rubber cement to your gloss card as desired. This can be done in lines, squiggles, dots or whatever pattern you wish. Allow to dry.

NB: My rubber cement comes in a tube so I can just squeeze it on but you can also get rubber cement in a jar. If your rubber cement comes in a jar use the brush that comes with the rubber cement to apply it.



2. When dry use your brayer your lightest color ink
over your card and the rubber cement.






3. Apply the rubber cement to your card again this time over the brayered areas of your card. Remember you can do any pattern you wish. Allow to dry.







4. When dry, brayer your second color over your card as you did in step 2.

5. If desired apply a third lot of rubber cement and ink on your card.

I have only applied 2 layers of rubber cement and ink to my card it just depends on the look you want.



6. Once you have finished apply all the rubber cement and ink to your card and it is dry, you need to remove the dried rubber cement from your card. To do this you can either use a adhesive eraser or you can use your finger to rub the adhesive off.






7. Use your rubber cement piece to create your card as desired.

ATC Technique Swap

I am hosting an ATC Technique Swap on an ATC list I belong to, these are my atc's for this swap. I chose the rubber cement technique for my atc's. As this was a technique swap I didn't want to completely cover up the whole background so the participants couldn't see the background properly so I decided to attach the oval scallop piece by using a brad so that it can be moved to get a better look at the background.

Recipe: Stamps: Lady - Hero Arts; Verse - Pink Cat Studio
Paper: White Gloss Card; White Card
Other: Faded Jeans & Weathered Wood Distress Ink; Blue Iris Fluid Chalk; Scallop Punch; Blue Brad; Rubber Cement; Brayer.

Flashback Friday - Paperbag Book

Well it's Friday again and it is also the 1st June which means down here in Australia that it is officially the first day of winter! I have to admit though at present it doesn't feel all that wintry, now I am not complaining about that one little bit.

On SCS many people have been posting graduation cards etc as soon is either over or just about over for the year. For me this seems really strange as in Australia our school year is from the end of January to early December. Anyway seeing so many people are thinking graduations I thought I would show you all my paperbag book I created for my youngest daughter who graduated as a teacher about 1 1/2 years ago. I wanted to make her a teacher's survival kit but wanted something that she would be able to keep as a reminder once all the tiny bits and pieces included in the box were long thrown away. So I decided to combine the survival kit with a paperbag book. I know she enjoyed it as she made smaller versions of the idea to give to her friends who were also graduating and also teachers who she had been working with at the time and the response she got was also positive.

This photo shows the book and also the box I made to hold the book and also all the goodies that are referred to throughout the book. I decided to go with primary colors for the book as she teaching the younger children except for the black on the front cover which is meant to resemble a blackboard (not sure they really have true blackboards anymore though)



The photos above are the pages of the book, I typed out all the pieces that I included in the survival kit and put 2 to a page and also found stamps or clip art to use for each piece. A few things like the rubber band, bandaid I used real items and attached them to the pages.


These poems were inserted into the openings of the paperbag book, I found the poems online somewhere.

Teacher's Survival Kit

• Candle - For when you are up late grading papers.
• Ace of Hearts - For the 'heartfelt' way you 'deal' with tasks each day.
• Wiggly Eyes - To help keep an eye on your students to discover how best to help them or when you wish you had eyes at the back of your head.
• Crayon - To color your day bright and cheerful.
• Pack of Seed - Encourage your students and be patient, we are here to plant seeds of knowledge. Rubberband - To remind you to be flexible.
• Lifesavers - You are a lifesaver to many of your students.
• Puzzle Piece - Without you the class wouldn't be complete.
• Marbles - To replace the ones you've lost.
• Tissues - To wipe away the tears.... yours and theirs.
• Smarties - For helping make each student smarter.
• Paperclip - To hold it all together.
• Eraser - To remind you everyone makes mistakes and they can be erased.
• Smiley - Try hard to wear a happy face.
• Mint - To remind you that your are worth a 'mint' to your students.
• Bandaid - To remind you to heal hurt feelings, yours or someone else's.
• Marker Pen - To thank you for leaving a last impression.
• Gum - To help your class 'stick' together.
• A shape - Thank you for helping to 'shape' the future.
• Present - Remember that your students are a gift, treasure them.

A New Tag Game

There is another tagging game doing the rounds and it seems I have been tagged by Flossie of Flossie Goes Hi Tech. I discovered this blog a couple of weeks ago so pop on over and take a look for yourself. This tag game requires that you answer a bunch of questions, the catch is that the answers must be only one word – lets see how I go!

Yourself: Creative
Your Partner: Wonderful
Your Hair: Short
Your Mother: Loving
Your Father: Gentle
Your Favorite Item: Stamps
Your Dream Last Night: None
Your Favorite Drink: Water
Your Dream Car: Any
Dream Home: Self-cleaning
The Room You Are In: Stamproom
Your Fear: Heights
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: Here
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Family
You’re Not: Outgoing
One of Your Wish List Items: Stamps
The Last Thing You Did: ATC’s
You Are Wearing: PJ’s
Your Favorite Weather: Warm
Your Favorite Book: Potter
Last Thing You Ate: Cherries
Your Life: Happy
Your Mood: Happy
Your Best Friend: Husband
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: This
Your Car: Laser
What Are You Doing At The Moment: Duh!!!
Relationship Status: Married
What Is On Your TV: Amazing-Race
What Is The Weather Like: Winter
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: Today

Well that wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be – now I have to tag some other blogs, lets see!

Susan

Trish

Allison

Rhonda

Dawn