Classroom Cuteness

Kiss me if I'm wrong about this, but aren't classroom bulletin boards thrilling?! I don't know about you, but nothing floats my boat quite like an elementary school bulletin board. The colored butcher paper, the little scalloped boarders, the punny titles... Whoo-ee!

Well if classroom decor is your cup of tea, grab a mug.

In the fall, our hallway theme was "Cara's Busy Bees". I had made the bees, so they were ready to go on the first day of class. The bodies are yellow and black card stock, the antennae and legs are black pipe cleaners, and the wings are waxed paper.

In the winter, each student's bee was replaced with a snowflake that they made themselves. I also made giant 3-D snowflakes that hung from the light fixtures in the room, so we had our own little winter wonderland.

In the spring, each student made their own butterfly and tissue paper flower, which were displayed in the hall next to their name.

In our district the 100th day of school is in February, right around Valentine's Day, so this project was perfect. We brainstormed a big list of things that we love about our school, and then each kid had to select four of their own. They had to write them in complete sentences, have them approved by me, then rewrite them on a red heart. They were SO sweet, and kids from all over the school would stop and read them as they walked by. Awesome project!

We did an activity in class that asked kids to state a meaningful connection between themselves and a classmate. "We both like the color blue," was not sufficient; students were asked to think deeply and critically to find a significant connection. What they came up with was really beautiful. I wrote down the connections as they stated them, and then I created this display as a visual representation of the activity.

This board changed frequently throughout the year to display students' artwork. This was our study of Monet and Impressionism.

Posters I made describing the writing process.

Said is dead. We want Said to rest peacefully, so we brainstormed words we could use in Said's place. All the words under the headstone were brainstormed by my students, the little geniuses. :)

Measurement was a tough math unit. We created this bulletin board together, and had it posted in the room for easy reference.

We did a lot of work creating mental images for poetry, and writing poetry that evokes a specific mental image. Shel Silverstein is my hero.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Strings... Or Yarn... Or Jute... Or Burlap...

I don't mean to brag or anything, but I am exceptionally good at wrapping cylindrical objects. Whether it be bottles in jute, mason jars in yarn, or pigs in blankets, you hand me a cylindrical object and I will wrap that bad boy. Here are a few examples of my mad skillz:

Beer bottles wrapped in shades of blue. This is all yarn that I got on the cheap from either Value Village or Dollar Tree.

 This would be a soup can wrapped in candy canes. How cute is this idea for Christmas?!?! I luuuuurve it.

Glass vases from the Dollar Tree, with twigs hot glued to the outside.

I got this cheapo little bucket at Dollar Tree. It's lime green with bunnies on it... I think it was supposed to be an Easter basket. Why so cute, you ask? Because I smothered it in jute and a healthy dose of hot glue, inside and out. It now lives on my dresser and holds my sunglasses (because it's a little too small for oranges.)

Another soup can, this time with pencils hot glued around the outside, and a big ribbon. Such a cute decoration for a classroom, or gift for a teacher! (Although, as a teacher, can I just tell you that these cutesie gifts are adorable, but if there was a gift card inside, we wouldn't turn our collective nose up at it.) This little bouquet sits on my desk at work. If you want to make some tissue paper peonies, follow this tutorial.

Spaghetti sauce jars, my friend, spaghetti sauce jars. A little yarn here, a little jute there, a few burlap flowers stuck on sticks, and you got yourself a party. Or, you know... a centerpiece. It'd also make a cute votive candle holder.

Although I'm exceptionally gifted, not everyone's talent lies in wrapping things in string.What's your special skill?

<3 Cara

Spray Paint Miracles

The blogosphere is full of odes to the wonder of spray paint, and I'm singing hallelujah. Lessons I've learned:

1. Embrace your inner miser. Look for deeply discounted spray paint at garage sales and your local Habitat for Humanity store. Not that spray paint's too hideously expensive to begin with, but if you can get a nearly full can for $1 or $2 instead of $6 or $8, why not? Just take the cap off to make sure the spray mechanism hootananny thingimajigger is still on there-- I learned that lesson the hard way.

2. Heyyyyyyyyyyy, Macarena! Shake your groove thang and get that paint nice and shaken up before you start sprayin' away. Do at least two minutes and make sure the ball inside the can is making noise. (This is your dance beat.)

3. Take it easy. The impulse to apply thick layers of painty goodness will be hard to overcome. Resist! Follow the directions on the can, but a good rule of thumb is to spray light, thin coats, holding the can about 10 inches away from the surface you're painting. Give it a minute between light coats (keep practicing your Macarena skills). If you spray it on too thickly the paint will drip, and you will cry, and then you'll have to sand what you've already painted to fix it, and this could involve more crying, and the whole thing's just wretched.

4. Use protection. You might want to use a coat of clear spray paint over the top when you're done, to keep your surface protected and to keep the paint ON the surface from rubbing off onto other surfaces. (The red streaks on my window sill can attest to this.) I don't do this on all my pieces, but it can be helpful in some cases.

Now for the fun part... examples! Not all of these have "befores" to compare to, but it's still fun to look.

This was part of a set of three attached frames I got at a garage sale for three bucks. They lived their youth as mirrors, but they were empty when I got them. I removed the hinges, spray painted it with Krylon's ivory, and then sanded it a bit by hand to make it look distressed. But then its distress made me feel a little bad... I think it was distressed because it didn't have a back and it felt useless in its life as a frame. Knowing how important it is to have a purpose in life, I picked up a 50 cent piece of spare wood from ReStore, slapped a little chalkboard paint on that puppy, and voila! The frame is no longer emotionally distressed, just aesthetically distressed.

These are the two smaller frames from the same set, also made into chalkboards.

A little quick math: Dollar Tree glass plate + Dollar Tree glass vase + hot glue + silver spray paint = jewelry stand! I've since repainted it black. This is the kind of piece it'd be good to put a clear protective coat on, so the jewelry that is carelessly tossed there at the end of a long day doesn't do too much damage to your $2 masterpiece.

I got this lamp at the airport in Puerto Vallarta as a gift for my mama. Two years and one near-electrocution later, we removed the wiring, and hit it with some ancient red spray paint that I got at a garage sale for a quarter. I think it would probably go up in flames if I tried any kind of interior lighting, but I'm cool with hanging it on the patio and having it sit there and look pretty.

I got this terracotta pot from Michael's for like 89 cents or something ridiculous like that. I gave it a good dose of Krylon's ivory spray paint, and once it dried I used a small paintbrush to apply a thick layer of green glitter glue around the lip. This is now my pen holder on my desk at work, and I love it.

An old, nasty basket. Krylon's ivory spray paint saves the day once again. I wish I could spray it on myself on days when I look old and nasty.

 This was a Pinterest inspiration. I'd like to try using other colors to paint mason jars, too. I love the look!

I love ReStore. I got this lamp there for $8, sprayed it with Krylon's flat black, and topped it with a lampshade I got for free at a recycle party. Have you heard of these? My good friend Amy has hosted two now, and they are so fun! I've scored all kinds of awesome stuff for free (DVD player, curtain rods, books, clothes, lamps, frames, etc.) and gotten to give away stuff I didn't need anymore to people who did. It's kind of awesome. But pretty much anything Amy touches is awesome, so.

Here's a haiku to describe this beautiful vase:
Value Village find
Impatiently sprayed ivory.
It dripped and I cried.

I've had this hideous mirror for ages; I think I got it at Target for $8. I taped it off and sprayed it with Krylon's flat black. (Krylon's flat black and ivory semi-gloss are my favorites.) I got my sweet dog to pose for the "after" photo, but failed to kick my comforter out of the way before snapping it. (Confession: I don't make my bed.) My frustration with this is the imperfection of the lines; even in this picture you can see that the edges aren't clean. Grrrrr.

Another recycle party beauty. This project isn't completed finished yet, because I want to add a mirror to the frame. I know some people might cringe to see such lovely wood painted over... but what do I care? It was free! Can you guess the paint? YES! Krylon's ivory semi-gloss, 100 points for you!

I'm not sure why this "before and after" looks so weird, but as this is my second blog post ever, I'm gonna roll with it. Anyway. Here's an old friend that we haven't seen yet: eBay! These guh-ross paintings were procured for $5 on the Bay of E, and that includes shipping, there, Skippy. I ripped out the weird portraits, painted with Krylon's flat black, and hot glued cream-colored burlap to the backs. It now hangs in my bathroom, looking purdy, like so:

Happy spraying!
<3 Cara

Let The Blogathon Begin

So this is my first blog post.... you know... ever. I needed an online space to show off all the projects I've been working on, inspired by Pinterest. This is what happened to me in 2012:

The result in 2013 has been a garage taken over by furniture from Craigslist, garage sales, and ReStore, in various states of rehab. Good times.

I'll post photos of my projects here. Please don't hesitate to post compliments, "Aha!" moments inspired by my masterful craftsmanship, and any and all gushing statements about how I've changed your life for the better. Criticisms and suggestions can be posted here.

Thanks for stopping by!
<3 Cara