Cake Anyone?

For the last day of teacher appreciation week, we were supposed to make or bring in a small gift for the teachers.

I made a few of these and stuffed them with candy. Since this cake-making stuff is new to me, I learned last night that if you use thin paper instead of thicker card stock, the cake doesn't hold it's shape as well when you stuff it with candy. It still turned out ok, though. If I tied a ribbon around the side instead of putting the flower on top, it would have kept it together quite nicely.

I also made a clipboard for QTPa2T and Handsome's homeroom teachers. In the past I used ModgePodge for clipboards, but this time all I had was Crafter's Pick Decoupage & Collage Gel, and I think I like it a whole lot better. When it dried, the paper still felt like paper (MP has an elmer's glue-like coating), and the big deal was that there was not a single bubble. Not one. It dried perfectly flat. Then I just blasted it with 2 coats of varnish spray.

So here's my small world blogger story . . .

Handsome's teacher just left on maternity leave for the rest of the year. A few days after the new teacher started, we were talking in the hall because I substitute at the school part-time. She told me that she is a secret admirer of mine. Huh?

I didn't quite get it. She explained that she got to thinking the night before, that my name is Heather and she knew Handsome's last name was Jones ... so she wondered if I might be the blogger Mrs. Jones (in case you're wondering, she didn't recognize me outright when she saw me because my hair looks a bit different than the photos I have of myself on the blog).

Wow! Turns out, she has been reading my blog for a while. That completely made my day. When you start a blog, you think only your family friends will look at it. Then when other people show up, it's a nice surprise. Then someone in real life actually recognizes you, it is a great surprise and an awesome compliment.

Anyway, if you're reading this Mrs. R, you're awesome and I'm glad I've gotten to know you.

Trash to Treasure and Teacher Appreciation Week

I'm going to join the Trash to Treasure Tuesday party at Kimm's, and show you a project I did for Teacher Appreciation Week. I signed up to decorate the teacher lunchroom at our school (I've learned to volunteer for PTO projects I enjoy doing - decorating, yes, planning, not so much).

Our PTO and parents serve breakfast to the teachers on Wednesday morning, lunch Thursday, and desserts on Friday. We like to decorate the room to make it a little more special. I had the idea to put chalk boards in there (isn't it funny that schools don't have those anymore?! Even dry erase boards aren't used as much because of SmartBoards ... I digress).

I found my inspiration for the chalkboard here, at LuLu & Co. , when I saw this photo. I like to use sunflowers for parties, and I like how this whole setup looked. I was even going to buy lemons, but by the time I got to that, I had spent too much money and didn't want to fork over another $5.00.
I went to the thrift store in hopes that I would get lucky and find a frame like LuLu's, but this is the only thing I could find. Just a couple bucks, no problem. I'll make it work. It had a couple gouges on the front, so I patched them with spackle and sanded them smooth.
Then I re-painted the sides gold (I didn't like the cheap gold paint that was already on it) and after that I painted the entire thing white (I like to use heirloom white spray paint with satin finish).

When it was dry, I rubbed down the top layer of paint with steel wool. I use sand paper on the corners where I really want it worn down good, but I generally like to use steel wool because it is gentle and lets the layers of paint colors show through.

I taped off the sides and painted a couple coats of chalk board paint.
Voila!
For the second chalk board, I had an old picture frame we had in the garage. The glass had broken and there was no backing, and Mr. Jones was going to throw it away. Ooops, I don't think so.
I went to The Home Depot, and in the lumber department they had this cheap, $3.00 board. I marched it over to the cutting center and had the guy cut it to fit my frame. 2 cuts are free. That's all I needed.

I learned something new on this one, though. I thought spraying grey primer before I spray painted it with 2 coats of chalkboard paint would be good enough. Not good enough. You could see the particle board through the paint. It didn't look good. So I slopped on a thick coat of white paint with a roller. This covered up the particle board surface and gave it a nice texture. Then I painted with grey primer (more for the grey undercoat than to prime raw wood at this point) and 2 coats of chalkboard paint. Perfect.

Mr. QTPa2Tee (Youngest Child) was helping me set up, and came up with this brilliant idea: I had planned to just write a message to the teachers on the chalkboards, but he filled a couple mason jars with chalk and wrote a question for the teachers to answer. I can't wait to see what they write. Well done, my young apprentice. (He is really into Star Wars lately. Do I sound like Emperor Palpatine?)

This is the buffet table in the teachers' lunchroom. The mason jars are to hold cutlery or whatever else needs to be held. I have a thing for mason jars and jelly jars lately.

Here is my Southern Living at Home server, and I tied it with some school-themed twill from the scrapbook stash. Here's a closeup look:

I covered the buffet table with a big piece of white burlap. For those of you who read my burlap post and helped me with my problem, thank you, thank you. For those of you who didn't read it, my burlap smelled like it pumped gas at Shell all day. I washed it, Downey'd it, left it outside in the sun and rain, washed it, bleached it, and let it soak in vinegar (I still have to try lavender sachets). Yep, it was that bad. Here's what I learned: Don't buy burlap at Ben Franklin crafts. It STINKS. I went to Wal-Mart and bought more burlap to make the table runners, and that was much better. The quality was better, the color was better, and it didn't smell. Imagine that. We have lame craft stores here in Northern VA. And don't even get me started on the subject of Hobby Lobby. That is the greatest craft store ever, and there is not one in my state. Not fair. Stomp feet. I digress again.

For the 2 teacher tables, I used a big, long piece of white burlap. Since there were 2 tables, 12 feet long, I made table runners out of the 1 piece of burlap to save money. I chopped it in half lengthwise, and I stitched each side with red zigzag so it doesn't fray too much. and the zigzagging looked cute. The table runners were actually a bit too long, so I chopped off the ends, and stuck the pieces right on the buffet table.
Here's me playing with my camera. I have a question for you bloggers: Do you find yourself wanting to take pictures of everything you do so you can blog about it? Or wish you had a keyboard on your steering wheel so the post you thought of while you were driving doesn't get lost? It's an illness, I'm sure. I digress again. Distraction is an illness, too. I'm sure of it.

Next up are the lanterns, ala Matthew Mead. Ikea lanterns, about $6.something each. Great price.

I didn't have any white primer, so I painted them all over with cheap white paint. Then I painted them with heirloom white. Matthew says to use 2 sides of his download, back-to-back, and tape to the outside. What I did instead is used 1 layer of my scrap paper, and I put it behind the glass under the little prong thingies that hold the glass in. No need for tape. *BUT* if you plan on using candles, tape the paper to the outside for obvious reasons. I can't burn candles in the school anyway, so it didn't matter. I have a wild child, so I'm not really a big fan of leaving fire where he can reach it anyway, so I'm experimenting with other methods of lighting up my lanterns.

Here is what the lantern looks like with a red glow stick. How cool would that look on your walkway or deck at night, and you wouldn't even burn your house down! Unfortunately, the mega pack of glow sticks I bought were tiny white glow sticks, and you couldn't see any light when I put the lanterns in the lunch room. Oh well.

When I get my hands on some battery-powered twinkle lights, I'm going to try filling the lantern with that.

2 lanterns with floral paper, 2 with polka dots.

Next up, flowers. I just did a repeat of the flowers I did for this baby shower. I should come up with something new. I bought plastic containers to go inside the not-water-sealed tin buckets. Add a chunk of oasis soaked in water, 3 flowers, a bit of moss. I tied the flowers with some raffia and ribbon (bigger ribbon would have looked better, but I was getting stingy with the coin), and stuck a pick in it.

I made all these picks with shish kabob skewers and tags that had vintage images and buttons glued on. It would have looked great with zigzag stitching across the tag, but I made the tags 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave for the school with the flowers. Not enough time.

I hung some lanterns from the ceiling.

You can't really see it well, but right here at the end of the buffet, I stuck a box under the burlap. You can put different size boxes under your table cloth, and it makes the buffet look soooo much better. Stick some tinkle lights under that cloth, too, and it looks like a caterer came to your house.

I tend to use the same things over and over at parties. I add a little here and there to my collection. Things that are cheap, but add a lot of style. Like these old vintage milk jars. They always look good with flowers. I may get some more of those Ikea lanterns before they stop selling them. You can change the scrap paper for different events. Buy a case of mason jars or jelly jars at Wal-Mart. You can do all kinds of things with those babies. Put all of the jars right down the middle of the table with candles. If you use a lot of the same thing, it looks amazing. I'm a fan of tin buckets, too. And you can bet that burlap will show up at more events.

So that's it for me. To see more inspiration, stop by Kimm's blog and see the other Trash to Treasure Tuesday entries.

I Was Featured

I was featured on Skip to my Lou's Teacher Appreciation post. Woohooo! Thanks, Cindy!

Go check it out here, along with lots of cool ideas for Teacher Appreciation Week.

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!

I've Come Back to My Senses ...

At least, temporarily. It was 6 degrees outside when I woke up this morning, to find my husband on the phone with the furnace repairman because our furnace died last night. What? You mean it has a FILTER in it that needs to be CHANGED, REGULARLY!??? Ooops. I'm from California, like, ok? Some people there don't even have and/or use heaters and air conditioners. But now I know. I also know, now, that home warranties don't cover repairs for lame homeowners who don't take care of their stuff. But here is a more positive tidbit that I learned, that you should know too, is even though the home warranty repair guy isn't covered, the home warranty company negotiates a seriously discounted rate, and we get to use that discounted rate even though we're not covered. So if you don't have a home warranty, it's really worth it. I'm really not bothered by the whole furnace drama today. We have a second furnace that works, space heaters, a fireplace and nice warm clothing. How many people don't have those things? I bet there is a family close to me right now that doesn't have any of that, maybe not even a home. So yeah, I'm appreciating everything I have right now.

So the repair guy will be here soon, my house is a wreck, and I finally have gotten my priorities straight. Yes, I'm posting on my blog after a serious dry spell. I should be cleaning. But all these nice blog friends have been stopping by to find out where the heck I am, and I think that is so cool. I have met the nicest people blogging, real friends.

So I thought I would share a few pictures from last month, and then I'll get back to cleaning. And then I have a hair appointment to make a few tweaks to the haircut I got last week. I have had long hair for about 4 years and I chopped it last week. I got a modified bob, and I absolutely *love* it. I'm going back today because I actually want the back a little shorter. I cut 10 inches off my hair people! And my poor honey, he really loves long hair. I didn't tell him I was doing it either. Anyway, I'll show you some pictures after I get it fixed just the way I want it today. I digress.

Here are some clipboards I made for teacher gifts at Christmas. I really love foam stamps lately, and I stamped their initials and some swirls with my set of Heidi Swapp foam stamps.

Here is a gift I made for my sweet mother-in-law Betty. I just used some scrapbook paper and Heidi Swapp rub-ons, and I distressed the edges of the photos. I threw a couple swirly stamps on this one, too. Betty is so wonderful. I need to send her so many more pictures than I do.
And here is a calendar I made Betty. It is on a clipboard, but it fits in the picture frame, too, which would be really cute. I got the templates for this from Shabby Miss Jenn. It was a tiny bit time consuming, but really pretty darn easy.
Here is January's page. Each month is different, and really cute.
I finished the curtains in the living room, and finally realized that curtain rods have no business being right above the window. I think there are a lot of people who don't know this, because most stores only sell 84" curtains. This is a crime! Anyway, I learn all these things the hard way, and my house has a lot of patchwork from holes I've drilled in the wrong place. The curtain hung just above the window just isn't quite as dramatic, and the one hung just below the molding makes the entire room look bigger. What a huge difference. Now I would like to get some bamboo blinds and hang them higher, too. No worries ... this isn't how my living room looks now. I just wanted to show you the difference and I snapped a pic before I fixed the other side.