Paper Cake Tutorial *Updated Again*

I've been so busy getting ready for teacher appreciation week, that I completely missed secretary's day (last week). The ladies in the office at our school are really awesome, so I made these slices of paper cake for them.

I just learned how to do this craft, and it is sooooo easy! You can use them for all kinds of things, too:

~Fill them with candy or small gifts
~Give them to teachers for teacher appreciation week (especially if your kids have 50 teachers)
~Give one to a girlfriend on her birthday
~Make a whole cake, filled with candy, and display on a cake stand for a birthday party.
Wanna learn how?
Get some cute scrap paper, and cut it to fit your printer. My Target Dollar Spot has a pack of scrap paper for $1.00. You won't go broke on this little gift.


Download this image. *Updated- I didn't realize my computer had flipped the image and resized it for me, and it wasn't printing right for some people. So I resized the image and rotated it for you. It should almost cover an entire 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper when it prints. The actual image size should be 9.91" height x 8.05 " width. Sorry if that drove anyone nuts.*

**I've updated this post again ... the image file changes sizes for some people so I've saved the file as a PDF and you can download the file here. This way, the file should print in the correct size. **

Print it, but make sure to print it on the side of the paper that is going to be inside the cake. And test print on white before you stick the nice paper in the machine.

Cut it out.

Fold along all the dotted lines, and then score the folds with a smooth surface. I use the handle of my scissors.

Cut along this one solid line with a craft knife or razor blade.

Glue the tab at the short end of the cake, and

along the side. I like using glue sticks because you have a little time to adjust the paper before it dries. Do not glue the tabs at the fat end of the cake!

Attach the glued tabs like this.

Fill with candy (or whatever), and tuck the tab into the slot. If you like, you can glue on a flower, a ribbon or whatever embellishments you like.

If you would like to see some paper cake inspiration, you can go here, here, here and a bunch of cakes on this blog. If you're not crafty and you just want to buy one, go to this Etsy shop, or this Etsy shop. Their cakes are beautiful.

If you make one, stop by and tell me about it!

Dr. Seuss Baby Shower

I threw a class baby shower for my son's teacher last week. I just love Dr. Seuss, so I used that theme for the shower. I would have done more with the decorations, but there just wasn't time.

I found this cute Horton onesie. I love Horton holding his little clover.

I had all the kids sign a copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go! for the baby, including their future advice for the baby. Kids come up with the best things. One girl wrote, "Always stay close to your mother." I think I need to tell her mother what a good girl she is. Another wrote "Try not to drool too much." I guess he didn't hear the "future" part.

This picture is a little brighter than the actual table was. The lanterns had battery tea lights in them, and looked great. I usually use real flowers but I liked the way these dollar store flowers went with everything.

I did a few games with them. I didn't know how they would play along, but they had a blast. The game I thought would be a complete flop was baby bottle relays. Basically, you fill baby bottles with juice or water and they race to see who can drink the most. I didn't think any of them would do this. Thy ALL wanted to do it, and had I known I would have bought 24 bottles just to see the entire class drinking from baby bottles.

We played the don't say "baby" game, and I gave them all necklaces with little pacifiers. If they caught someone saying "baby", they could take their necklace.

Then I gave each of them a paper plate. They had to put it on their head and draw a baby. The teacher picked the best one.

And I gave them a baby animals matching page, where they had to match the name of the baby to the name of the mother. The had gotten pretty wild and this had them all sitting quietly within 1 minute. Priceless.

I like decorating with feather boas, too. Here, I found some cheap boas that were more fluffy than feathery and looked Suessian. I just crammed them in the bottles.

Here is another example of using boas. At this baby shower, I just stuck some big boas right on the table.
To see more feathers used to decorate a party, you really should stop by Brooklyn Limestone's christening party. It's absolutely gorgeous!

Sunday School

I have been teaching 1-3 grade Sunday school this month, and I hit the blogs to find some good ideas for my class. I thought with all these crafty Christian bloggers out there, I would find something besides commercial sites with coloring pages (yawn). Guess what I found? Nada.

So I think I will start sharing my ideas for Sunday school classes, and if you happen to have any great ideas or know someone who does, please let me know.

This past Sunday, I taught a lesson on Jesus appearing to the apostles and Thomas, and how they doubted he was raised from the dead until they actually saw him (John 20:19-30). Our church gives me teaching materials, and sometimes I use the paraphrased story or script from the lesson, but this week I didn't.

I chose to read the story right out of the bible. I don't have the kids read the passage because they are so quiet that every other kid tunes out, and I can stop to explain things or point out ideas.

Then, I found this awesome lesson for teaching faith, called Things I Don't Understand. I put a CD, telephone, medicine bottle, calculator, flashlight, and remote control in a paper sack. They were immediately riveted, and loved taking turns picking items out of the bag to show the group. This lesson really helps kid wraps their minds around faith, which can be a vague concept for them.

This Stuff Rocks

I blow dry my hair with a round brush every day or every other day, and then I flat iron it. Sometimes I also use velcro rollers before I iron it. Then I use product to defrizz my hair and I spray it. Get the picture.

Well, I picked up a travel size bottle of the new Redken product, Blown Away, and I totally love it! If I could only use one hair styling product, this would be it. It is a gel that protects hair from heat, makes blow drying easier, helps your hair hold shape and controls frizz. I couldn't wait to see if it lived up to everything it promised, and it did. My hair looked *awesome* all day. The best blow dry I have done on my hair. And the next morning, my hair still looked awesome. I'm growing out a modified bob, so my hair has the potential to look pretty tweaked in the morning. Nope ... I woke up, combed it and I'm ready for work. I'm getting the big bottle of it this week.

My favorite Bible Passage

This is a Bible passage about Christ, and it's my favorite. Happy Easter everyone!

Isaiah 53

"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

. . . . Lucky Me!

Easter Greetings

One of the ladies I work with recently told me about Peep Jousting. This is what my kids have been doing all week.

You put them in a microwave with toothpicks, and turn the microwave on. Then you wait to see which one survives. Totally pointless, but fascinating. No one actually wins, they just get big and turn into blobs. You really the the chick peeps because they stand up better. These were all I had left for the photo shoot.

I am an assistant teacher in a gifted class once a week. We recently studied Romeo and Juliet, and had the kids make peep dioramas depicting scenes from the play. So I got the idea to search the internet for peep dioramas and this is what I found: The Washington Post has a peep diorama contest each year. Hilarious and demented. Here are a couple favorites ...

Peeps Atop a Skyscraper.

Peep Wars.

You can see the galleries for the contest winners from this year and the past 2 years here and here.

And here is a website with the movie Lord of the Peeps, Fellowship of the Peep.

Have a great Easter.

Lamp Love

I bought this old lamp yesterday.

This picture does not do its ugliness justice. First I painted it gold, but I didn't like it. Little bit of white ... no. Then I remembered my paint from yesterday's post, oil rubbed bronze. Add a new lampshade from my closet.

Throw a tassel on there. All better.

Now off to my next project ... Star Wars triage.

I saw this basket on Chris's blog the other day. I just love it, but I don't have any old schools in the neighborhood where I can get cute vintage baskets.

I did have these new baskets that I picked up on clearance the other day.

And I did have oil rubbed bronze spray paint from Krylon in my "paint shop."

I think I need to add a little Rub N' Buff silver and then maybe some rust coloring.

This is the little table I picked up for a few bucks the other day. It really needs a coat of paint because it is not quite as pretty as it looks in the picture, but I don't want to cover up the chipped areas, so I might just wipe cream paint on. I'm going to think about it for a while.

By the way, love this spray paint. This is how it looks on a chandelier.

That totally rocks. I'm going through my house to see what metal fixtures I can paint.

E*Trade Baby

I just love this little guy. He always makes me laugh.

I am a substitute teacher.
I am an assistant in a gifted class one day a week.
I have 3 children.
I will be home for the entire summer with said 3 children.
These are the reasons I love Instructor magazine from Scholastic.
I just ordered it for $8 (1 year subscription).
It has tons and tons of learning activities, like . . .
Math games,
Gross, slimy science,
Flash card games,
Activities for writing poetry,
and on and on and on.

You can get some of the articles on their website, or you can order it here.

Oh, yeah, and they are going to have a Summer Reading Challenge where kids read from a book list, play games and earn points.

Wordless Wednesday