Last Day of Preschool

I found this idea from 2 peas several years ago and have been waiting to use it ever since. For some reason I didn't feel compelled to put this all together for Natalie's preschool teachers (although we did give them something else). I just loved Zander's teachers so much this year and knew exactly what I wanted to give them on the last day of school. Here is what the tag says:

You helped me grow from September to June
Our summer begins this afternoon,
When you see your flowers in this little pot,
Think of me and Forget-me-Not.

Although now that I read this again, I am feeling like a dork, cause it's still May, not June...oh, well. It's a cute sentiment anyway!

His teachers both like their gifts.

Here he is receiving his memory book (what a relief to have that completed!) I ended up making the covers too. I'm kind of a control freak sometimes and want to do things myself, but it turned out great. Each mom was responsible for completing 2 pages (for every kid in the class, plus the 2 teachers)...I did 4 pages (three plus the cover...times 12) It was a lot of work, but so worth it.

Bad things can happen when I'm on 2 Peas!!!

It had been a while since I've had enough free time to post to the message boards on 2 peas. Well today as I was "peaing," I realized it was time to pick up my kindergartner from school. So I went downstairs, got my keys and purse, then I saw my almost 2 year old up on a chair, dropping eggs onto the floor! He was having a ball...I guess that explains why it was so quiet downstairs, and here I thought he was just playing nicely so I could play on the computer...silly me!

And yes, I am THAT kind of mom who has to take a picture of this before cleaning it up. Evidence for later!

I'm finally done!!!

Last Friday I ended my scrapbooking marathon and turned in all my pages. Boy was that a huge weight off my shoulders! I am such a last minute person. I could have started months ago, but did I? No, I waited until the week before they were due and spent every waking minute cutting and gluing paper and pictures for my son's preschool memory book. I used up 4 glue sticks in the process. I normally don't use glue sticks for scrapbooking, but my dotto tape refills are about $5 a piece, compared to .88 per glue stick. Anyway, I will be putting the books together on Tuesday. I can't wait to see what all the other moms came up with for their pages. Wish me luck!

Digi-Scrappin'

Here are a few sample pages from the most recent ibook I made for my Mother-in-law, for Mother's day. It's a picture book with all the photos from our recent trip to Disneyland together. She loved it!

On the farm

Tonight I spent a few hours at a scrapbooking work party for my son's preschool class. Each year they put together a scrapbook of all the fun activities they've done. Each mom is responsible for making pages for at least 2 events. I chose the Christmas party and the farm field trip. Now I have to duplicate my pages 11 times for a total of 22 pages...well actually I am doing the library trip as well so I guess that makes 33 pages. I better get busy. These cute farm animals were cut out with a Sizzix die cutter. Zander's teacher has one we can use, but instead, I borrow her dies and cut mine at home on my BigKick.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week, so last night I got busy and created 4 sets of "old-school" stationery for my older kids to bring to school today (they each have 2 teachers). The cards are pretty basic, but I thought the retro art was cute...especially for a teacher.

Paper Daisy D, Foofala, and Basic Grey.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!!

Although I did stop in and pay a visit to my local scrapbook store, I spent most of my day at the Fairy Festival in Portland. This is a photo of my daughter up in a tree.

Anyway, as I was checking out of the LSS, I saw this deck of cards by Heidi Swapp. They are huge in real life (aprox 5x7). I don't know if I would spend $9 on them just to alter or embellish them, but they sure are cute. I think Heidi Swapp and other scrapbook vendors know that we are all suckers for cute packaging. Seeing those oversized playing cards reminded me of another oversized scrapbooking product I came across last week...Have you guys seen the new Martha Stewart Crafts stuff at Michaels? I thought it was nice, but nothing found it's way into my cart...yet! One thing I did notice...how could I miss it...was her HUGE 18x18 sized albums, and paper. WOW this sucker is gi-normous. And for $80 I don't think it will be a jumping off the shelf, especially when you factor in that all of the MS crafts merchandise is exempt from the 40% off coupon we all love to use. Who on earth is going to buy an 18x18 album...and where would you keep it? Not on a book shelf, that's for sure. On one hand she might be trying to start a new trend with this large size, but if she did her research, she would have realized that most serious scrapbookers use 12x12 and are already invested in 12x12 paper storage, page protectors, albums etc. Seems kind of strange to me. I like Martha, and her designs are very true to her style, simple, elegant and clean, but it doesn't scream "buy me." Maybe after I see what people are doing with it I will change my mind.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Today my daughter lost her first tooth. I was totally unprepared and didn't even know her tooth was loose. Tonight after she went to bed I started working on this pillow. Can you believe it took almost 3 hours to make? I had to decide what I wanted it to look like, find some scrap material, cut it out and sew it. Easy right? Not when you sew as often as I do...once or twice a year. I must have ripped out 3-4 seams before I got it right. Oh well, I am very pleased with how it turned out. The little tooth is a pocket for the tooth fairy to leave a surprise!