Monday Made It

Hello!

I'm sad today that today marks the start of the last full week off school and that I am back officially next Tuesday...our 6 week break has flown by quicker than ever this year and I'm not sure I am ready to start again quite yet!

It's also the last weekly Monday Made It so I wanted to link up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics to share a few bits I have been working on this week - thank you Tara for hosting this great linky each week!

My sister asked me to make pinboards for my 2 nieces after seeing some one of her friends had made. I set to work and my first attempt resulted in this one:

I was pretty pleased with it! (The colour is a bit off on the picture here - both side strips were the colour of the one on the left.)

I then tackled the second one. I bought a polka dot jelly roll in brights and decided just to sew the strips together rather than do anything fancier! 

Here's a bit of a photo collage/tutorial on the steps I took to make it! Any questions, just ask!

And the finished product! I was very tempted to keep it myself and may well need to make another with all the leftover material!

We had our annual summer family BBQ today (which turned into an indoor affair as it has rained solidly all day) and I made a cheesecake to take along! Lemon and Line with a Ginger base. Very simple but very yummy!

My final made it was for my classroom. I currently have a pennant banner with numbers 0-50 along the top of one wall in my classroom. I have seen all the great number posters other people have with the visual cues on them though and knew I wanted something like this. However, as I'm in the UK, I needed it with UK coins so decided to make them myself as I couldn't find just what I needed elsewhere.

Perfect for my classroom this year!

What have you been making this week? Don't forget to link up!

Monday Made it - A Day Late!

Sorry to be late joining the Monday Made It party this week - I didn't think I had anything to share as I was away all weekend but them remembered I hadn't shared my teacher jam jars completed and in all their glory!

I think I've shared before that I wanted to make back to school gifts for all the new members on my team and the start of this project but here it is from start to finish... 

I had seem lots of great teacher survival kits on other blogs and wanted to do something similar. I was browsing around for ideas and I came across this:

Click on the picture to take you to the site for lots of great ideas!

As it happens, I can't bring myself to throw jam jars away and I have a whole cupboard of them sitting there waiting to be used for something amazing! This was their chance!

I went shopping and picked up lots of little bits for not very much money (I had 6 to make after all).

I swashed it all (bar glue stick and Haribo) in:

I made some labels and attempted to mod podge them to the jars. It didn't go so well and I have since learned that laserjet printing will be fine for mod podge but inkjet not so much:

I don't have a laserjet printer at home so I printed off another set and was hoping that if I was a little more careful, it would be ok. 

A bit of pinterest browsing helped me find the perfect saying for the front of the jars. So true!

My second attempt was not perfect but a definite improvement! I did spray with hairspray and put them the labels in the freezer for a few hours (some tips I read online) before trying again. I think it was more the ONE thin layer to start with that worked and not these other things though!

Each class has an animal name at my school (I am Otters) which is why I chose those pictures to go on my lovely Collective Creation backgrounds.

A bit of ribbon and they were done! Cute teacher gifts for my new team!

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A crafty Monday Made It!

First Monday of the holidays! So good not to have to get up and go to school today. I still had to get up pretty early and tidy my very messy house as I had family coming to visit but it has been a lovely day so I'm not grumbling (too much)!

I'm excited to link up with 4th Frade Frolics today for a Monday Made it where I have actually made something (slightly) crafty!

I went shopping at the garden centre for some flowers to give the adults who work in my class as end of year gifts. I saw something nice but it was SO expensive for what it actually was so I decided to make it myself as it was so simple.

I bought the vases, flowers, ribbon and decorative stones and set to work. 

Adding the flowers, stones and trying with ribbon.

The finished vases. At least double the size of the arrangement I saw for just under the price they were charging. The ladies that work with me loved them!

I bought a bottle of wine as a gift for someone and decided that instead of putting it in an ordinary bottle bag, I would make one myself to make the gift that bit more special. I looked on pinterest and found a great tutorial which you can read here.

The only changes I made were not to use batting and to just use a square of interfacing on the bottom of the lining bag as well as the outer lining. It was really easy to follow, took about half an hour and I think it looks great! 

It definitely added a personal touch to an otherwise ordinary gift!

As a final made it - I've almost made it to 105 pictures on the Blog Hoppin' 2014 scavenger hunt! When I started, I never thought I would even get close but thought I would join in just for fun anyway. I only need another couple of pictures which will be easy. Lots of them are thanks to my lovely sister and I thought I would share a couple taken this weekend that I love!

This one was taken when we went in to London to see Les Miserables on Saturday. Posing by the lion statues in Trafalgar square.

This one was taken at my Mum's house on my birthday yesterday. My niece went into the garage and came out with this tricycle which I didn't even know was there so I quickly snapped a picture! Have you been joining in with the scavenger hunt?

Right. As the holidays have finally started I think I will go for a quick nap now!

Have a great week! 

Monday Made It - Vehicle Special!

Hello!

Welcome to my Monday Made It (with Fourth Grade Frolics) Vehicle Special!

Today we finished the vehicles we have been making in DT. We explored different shapes, designed and then made these models over the last couple of days. 

Having moved from Year 6 (Grade 5 I think) to year 2 (First Grade?), things did not go as smoothly as I had planned and my poor old carpet can attest to that, but overall I think they did a decent job of making something that moves! 

First we chose boxes/junk to make the basic shape of our vehicles (sorry - I don't have pictures of all the steps!). A fair amount of masking tape was involved!

We then covered them in papier mache to make them solid and ready for painting.

The painting was a messy business (you may well have see the photo of my skirt on Friday)...

After the base coats had dried I let them loose decorating! It's amazing how much glitter even the boys feel they need to use (even when they were making army tanks and double decker buses!).

None of them are things of beauty but the kids were certainly proud of their creations!

We had explored different ways of attaching wheels before we built anything. In the end, I provided the method we were using as we were running short of time. They worked in pairs to get it all put together though and by the end of today they all had something that rolled to take home with them! 

(The parents were delighted)

Here's my effort which I decorated in glitter as my 'something glittery' for the scavenger hunt!

What kind of models and crafts do you make at school?

Until next time!