A Lucky Class Gift

My fourth grader is taking his FCAT Writes exam tomorrow.  This is a huge deal for Florida's students and teachers.  Their school grade, merit raise and the determination if the student needs to be held back for another year hinges on this tests.  My kiddo's school puts an enormous amount of emphasis on each student and their success on the test.  I thought I would present my kids teacher with a class gift to wish all the students good luck. 

 It perfectly ties in with the upcoming St. Patricks Day holiday!  Who can't use a little four leaf clover for good luck!?!?

Little tin bucket : $.88 from Old Time Pottery
Glittery Shamrock Sticker Pack : $1 from Joann's
St Patrick's Day Pencils : $1 x 2 from Dollar Tree
Ribbon from my stash!
Linking up with : So You Think You're Crafty @ http://www.soyouthinkyourecrafty.com/2011/02/im-crafty-party-6/
Just a Girl Blog @ http://www.justagirlblog.com/2011/02/sas-day-and-normal.html
Keeping it Simple @ http://craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/
Skip to My Lou @ http://skiptomylou.org/
Dittle Dattle @  http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/


Thanks for stopping by!
Rachel

Valentines for the Teachers!

 I bought a set of 6 Valentine treat boxes from Dollar Tree for, yeah, you guessed- a DOLLAR!  And I jazzed them up with a few scalloped circles and my Martha Stewart punched heart. 

 I filled them with a few different varieties of chocolate hearts and adorned them with ribbons, tags a a pretty flocked heart.  Ready for my boys teachers!

I also made these treat holders for the teachers, for some variety!

And my new favorite project, altering vintage books!  I made this one for my sons favorite teacher (shhhh... don't tell the others!)

Linking up with : The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday @ http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Rachel

Card-Attack!

After a craft sabbatical for a few months, I found my grove this past week!  I LOVE Valentine's Day and enjoy making simple and happy cards! 

 My favorite new embellishment is vintage book pages!  You can't beat the cost, $.50 for a 70's edition of the Wind in the Willow!!!

 Heart punch, Martha Stewart, OF COURSE!!!!

And a treat.... just for you!
Have a fabulous day!
Rachel

Valentine's Week (of cards!)

Let the countdown begins!
One week until Valentine's Day!!!!
Time to hit the malls and card stores or the craft stores, in case of blog my readers! Time to create something magical and special to let the ones you love know what they mean to you. Time to celebrate the loves of your life. In my case, that would be my three children, my husband and my parents. I really try to make them all feel special everyday but I also want them to enjoy the day designated to showcase my love and affection! I put together this tray to inspire my week of crafts and fun! I cut up various ribbon and made a handful of tags to their teacher gifts and the candies are just yummy!

And I had a blast creating a stack of cards with my scraps!

My favorite part of this card is the vintage book page! I love buying books from the thrift store for fifty cents and creating something fresh and new with them!!!!

I will be back all week with a new card! Stay Tuned!!!!

~Rachel

Happy Independance Day!

Just a few fun photos of what I did this week to enjoy summer and the quintessential summer holiday- the Fourth of July! We are expecting about a dozen plus friends and family today for a cookout and I made these pretty little cupcakes spur of the moment. I actually discovered all of these 4th of July decorations when I went searching for cupcake wrappers in my stash. I was so excited when I pulled them out!!!! Really, really excited :)Here is a spur of the moment layout I made of my son playing in the pool last weekend, at my Moms! I love how fun it is and I love that it screams SUMMER!!!

We went to Busch Gardens this week with a few friends and enjoyed the Sesame Street Water area :)Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!!!
~Rachel

Party Hardy Friday * 4th Of July Cookout*

Party Hardy Friday was designed specially for the 4th of July and all it's summerific glory! Look at these awesome cupcakes I found on Flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/allycake/2637127991/ If these cuties don't scream Independence Day delight, I don't know what does!!!???!!!???

And fireworks! Any 4th of July cookout worth its salt has a fully stocked arsenal of fireworks! How awesome is this pillow? Perfect for the backyard hammock! (Better Homes and Garden- Walmart)

Don't forget to set out the citronella candles. It is never any fun being sticky and sweaty and scratching bug bites! (Walmart) Flags, flags and more flags (Walmart).

I know my kids love hanging out outside at night with glow sticks and necklaces. (Walmart)

Cookie and cupcake making supplies (that is if you don't think you can take on the hot dog fondant ones in my first photo!) ~ Wilton at Walmart

Inspiring paper plate, really sets the mood and rings home why we celebrate on the 4th of July! (Target)

I am in love with drink dispensers lately. I adore this large glass one that I found at Target for $19.99. Makes me a little sad that I just bought a plastic one from Sam's for the same price!

Then I found this tin one for $8 at Walmart and left WITHOUT it, talk about REGRET! Oh well, maybe it will be there tomorrow!

I love this retro fry basket from Walmart! LOVE IT! Retro-licious :)

And these darling hot dog boats from Target's Dollar Spot. What a steal! Festive galvanized aluminum bucket to properly house your icy cold beverages.

Now it's your turn... post your links here.

Happy Memorial Day

First and foremost, thank you to all the veterans and men and women that are currently serving our country! I am honored to be the daughter of a Korean War veteran. Yup, that's my Pops in the photo below. Wasn't he handsome!?!?! He is 80 today and still a model veteran, helping and serving others. I am super proud of my Daddy!

I hope you all have a fabulous celebration planned for today! I know I do :) We are going to our friends house for a big ol' feast and swimming! I made Greek Pasta Salad complete with homemade potato salad! Lemon Bars. And Flamingo Buffalo Chicken Dip!!!

I even made the hostess a fun Backyard BBQ gift Basket (details on this in a later entry) complete with a tag book of great summer recipes I traded in a recent swap!

I also made cute little gift bags for all the kids, all 22 of them today!!!

Have a fantabulous day!
Rachel

Another Easter Cross Stitch Loom Wreath

Cross stitch (2) looms wrapped in Moxxie paper. Moxxie Easter stickers and paper for the flowers. I also embellished it with vintage buttons, lime green velvet ribbon, chenille pom-pom trim and vintage floral ribbon!

See the pretty little wreath on the bird cage? It's kind of like i-spy, except I told you where to look for it ;)

TFL!
xoxo

Rachel

Easter Wreath from a cross stitch loom!

Yup, I made this cute mini wreath from yarn and 2 different sized cross stitch looms! I bought them for a few cents when I was junking and didn't know what I would use them for and then it hit me... A WREATH!

I wrapped the lime colored yarn and twine around the looms and tucked the ends in, I actually used no glue at all for that part! I glued paper Easter grass to the bottom and wired sparkly eggs around the loom. I purchased a bag of them at Dollar Tree! The festive stickers and PP I mounted them on is Moxxie!!!! The chocolate bunny is a Cricut cut.

Thanks Kelley for the bag of buttons! I put a few to good use already!

Voila!

TFL!!!!
Rachel

Spring is in the air!

I got a new box of goodies from Moxxie (shown here = http://gotmoxxie.typepad.com/ ) a few weeks ago and instantly fell in love with the festive Easter collection! All of the vibrant pastels were so inspiring, it was easy to start and finish a project I was proud of.

Here is an example of a wreath (one of 3 I made this weekend), I decided to uses some unconventional wreath forms for the background. The backing of this one is a paper plate! The paper I used for the scalloped squares were the green/ orange combo and the pink/ purple for the flower.

And a vintage bingo card and plastic cookie cutters for good measure ;)

Happy St. Patty's Day

In honor of one of the most colorful and fun-loving holidays... I am posting a few of my favorite green and rainbow photos from my laptop (I store photos on my desktop too but I am on my laptop right now!)

Enjoy and Happy St. Patty's Day!!!
Rachel