Teacher T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U Gift

The school year is coming to a close which means it is time to tell our teachers how much we appreciate them!  I like to involve my boys whenever possible so I decided to modify a cute Christmas card we received last year.  The card said "PEACE" but it was spelled out with 5 pictures of the kids holding the individual letters P-E-A-C-E.  Simple but so cute.

To make our Thank You cards, I started with construction paper and sketched the letters in a bold black marker.  I set the boys up at the table with markers and stickers and told them to decorate the letters however they wanted...  (this was a school morning...they were ready...but I was not...so this was a great "busy" activity while I got my act together!)



Once the letters were done...we went outside to our front porch and I took pictures of the boys holding their letters in front of a neutral background. I loaded them into Picasa (a FREE photo editing software) and did some cropping/straightening/lighting adjustments. The final step was to pick my favorite of each letter and create a collage (also using Picasa). I ordered some 5X7 cards from Walgreens (using a great coupon) and picked them up the next morning.

 

I think they were a big hit...and we just might use them again for my boys' joint birthday party later this summer!

We also gave our teachers new books for their classroom. I thought this would be something that gets used often and I wrote a note inside each book cover so the teachers would remember our kids when they read these books to their classes over the next years...



(in case you are wondering...the books from left to right are We Are in a Book (piggie and elephant...we LOVE these!), Yummy Yucky, Color Book, Put Me in a Zoo (Dr. Suess, of course!)).

The last "thank you" I did was for our preschool Director. She had given me some blank white capes several months ago and mentioned that she "heard" I could sew. Does that happen to any of you??? People find out about your little hobby and you get volunteered? I am not complaining...I was happy to do it...and my boys absolutely loved that I was able to do these for their classrooms. Just a part of the job I guess! :)

Anyhow...I decided to keep them somewhat gender neutral and simple by using our new Lightning Bolt and Star on Circle patches using different color felt. They were quick to sew but turned out really cute...and I hear the classrooms have lots of new superheros these days!



Do you have any teacher thank yous/crafts to share? If so, please link up in our comment section below and share your wonderful work!

Chalkboard Wall, Painting, Gifting, and Designing

We have been busy, busy, busy designing and listing just as many Thanksgiving and Christmas designs as we possibly can for you guys! Have you seen them all? Take a look...



Do you have a favorite? I think I like the Dinosaur with the Santa Hat...because that one was a special request from my 4-year old. :)

You can find ALL of these designs and MORE at either www.allthingsapplique.com or www.allthingsapplique.etsy.com

Here are a few baby gifts that I FINALLY mailed this week. I stitched all of these bibs when we were in our temporary apartment this summer. Talk about belated gift giving! Thankfully babies need bibs for a long time and I hope they can still use these.



Now...it is time to work on the 10+ other new baby gifts I am still behind on. So many new precious gifts to be thankful for this year!

I recently tackled a couple of Pinterest ideas...and I must admit...they were both very fun and easy!

First up...a BIG, GIANT, chalkboard wall!

For those of you that remember our housing saga as we relocated to North Carolina, there was a room in the house we first had a contract on that was going to be PERFECT for it to be painted 1/3 chalkboard, 1/3 stainless steel (magnet) and 1/3 cork board. I had my heart set on it and it was going to be one of the first projects we tackled.

You can see the idea here...



While I do LOVE the house we are now in, there just wasn't a good wall for that type of project. But, as we have gotten settled, I have been inspired by a maps/solar system theme for the boys' playroom. I will share more as it changes (very slow progress around here)but for now we have one giant solar system wall that is chalkboard paint! The idea is for the bottom half to be all kids...and I am going to sketch the solar system at the top...



The boys have LOVED it and it is fun to see the creations they come up with.

The other Pinterest inspired project was for Halloween...a little late in sharing...sorry!

The boys painted canvases...



We added footprint ghosts and handprint spiders...



And then they wanted to keep painting! It was great and I LOVE their creations. Look forward to hanging these for years to come!



I will start switching design gears to Valentine's soon...if you have any design requests or ideas...please e-mail me at allthingsapplique (at) gmail (dot) com.

Pinned It & Did It!: Teacher Thank You Gifts

Up next in our new Pinned It & Did It series inspired by Pinterest? Teacher Thank You Gifts!

Because of our move, both of our boys ended pre-school a month early.  With all of the craziness surrounding the move...I needed a quick but cute thank you gift.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for the teachers for summertime!



Here are my completed gifts...



I found the cups at Cost Plus World Market and I filled them with single serve lemonade packets as well as some Lindt Chocolate Truffles. 

Our tag said "Thank You for quenching my thirst for learning!"  A little corny I admit...but it got the job done and I think the teachers will enjoy them.



Here is my big boy on his last day of school. 



They threw him a going away party...it was so sweet.  It brought my first tears of the moving experience.  His class made him a tote bag and they each drew a picture on it and all of the parents helped their kids make cards to say good bye/we will miss you. 

I have "pinned" lots of summertime activities...can't wait to try some of them soon. :)

Pinned It & Did It: Mother's Day Flower Hands

First...a belated Happy Mother's Day to all mamas. I have been blessed with a caring and selfless mom as well as a generous and loving mother-in-law who have shown me continuous love over the years despite my many faults! I am also blessed to have so many friends that are mamas that teach me new lessons in motherhood every day. And I also consider myself blessed by my four grandmothers(I count my in-laws as my own!)who are wise and caring and so supportive.

And now, I have the joy of being the recipient of Mother's Day love and fun too! My boys pampered me with sleeping in...and when I came downstairs they were all busy in the kitchen making blueberry muffins. Yum. There were sweet cards...and loving flowers picked out from the Dollar Store. Ben's choice...Birds of Paradise...quite a bouquet in the dollar store version. :) Adam said they were there picking out cards (you just can't beat the 2/$1.00 price!)and Carter looked around and saw a wall of flowers and said "Let's get mommy flowers!" so they each got to pick out a stem for me. So sweet. By the end of the day all of the flowers and leaves had been pulled from the stems...but they were pretty while they lasted.

So...on to the blog title. I have decided to start a new series of posts called "Pinned It & Did It". For those of you that are unfamiliar with Pinterest...I think of it as my online stack of magazine clippings. You know how you come across a page in a magazine that inspires you for whatever reason? A good paint color? A new recipe to try? A vacation spot to check out? Well, with Pinterest, when you are browsing the Internet and find something you want to remember for later, you just click a button to "Pin" that picture to one of your Boards. Here is a snapshot of my Boards:



And here is a snapshot of some of my pictures in the Playroom Ideas Board:



Pinterest is great. I feel like I can toss that stack of magazine clippings that is getting dusty on a shelf. I can also browse the Boards of all of my friends that use Pinterest and see what inspires them.

On the other hand...Pinterest can be challenging. You see all of these people doing all of these great ideas and you think...how do they have the time? or why didn't I think of that? It is easy to compare yourself to the perfection ideals that Pinterest creates and feel that you fall short. Still...I choose to come back and I  "pin" away. Why? It is fun. And my "pins" can't collect dust on the Internet. :)

So...I am here today to show you my first "Pinned It & Did It!" I did a quick search for Mother's Day crafts and found this adorable handprint flower from Skip to My Lou:



Here are my supplies:
Poster Board White(cut into small squares)
Green Poster Board (for stem & leaves)
Paint and Brushes
Stick On Magnets
Scissors
Tape




We painted hands...



Cut out our stems and leaves...



And then taped our flowers together...



I decided to get them laminated so they might last a little bit longer... And I added the boys' names and ages...


According to the recipients this was a hit!