Our Chinese Visitors!

 This is a very exciting week at my Elementary School!  We are having our yearly visit with our sister school in China's visitors return!

Last year was my first experience with this AWESOME project our school takes part in.  One of our sponsoring teachers asked me to make something for the visitors to remember their visit to our school.  She's been so kind to order gifts and projects from me before, we went through our usual discussion and idea session, and came up with this.

I used green cardstock for Oklahoma, since we live in what they call "Green Country" though it's been pretty brown this year with the drought!

I lucked out that the Hello Kitty cart had a nice Friends cut, and the other letters were cut and adhered individually.  Oklahoma, the names, and the dragon all have gold Stickles accents.  Each person chose an English name to use.  With the exception of one teacher, and two girls that chose Angel; I added their given names to differentiate the booklets so they wouldn't get mixed up.

There will be 15 visitors in all for the week, 10 kids and 5 teachers.  The assembly on Friday will be GREAT!  We had lots of interesting things to see, a gift exchange between the schools, and I got to see a Native American dance in person.  What an experience that was!  In early May, we send students and teachers over to China for a week to 10 day trip.

 Here's one of the booklets close up.... and if I could figure out how to rotate the pictures with this new interface, it would be in portrait format! 

I am thrilled to know that some of my work will go to China....  so exciting!  I hope they like and appreciate their books.


Your comments are treasured!

Altered Notebooks for Husband's Friend

My husband came home from work one day and told me that one of his colleagues was taking his entire family to Disney in California!

I made us a travel notebook for our last Disney trip to Florida, and it worked out really well... lots of space for writing and saving receipts, etc... so I thought I just had to make one. Finding Disney paper is never that difficult, and luckily I had these Mickeys already made and waiting for a project.

One thing I really love about these notebooks is the coordinated pen, and it's already attached so you won't always have to look for something to write with when something important happens!

These really are the perfect travel journals!!

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ *~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Altered Notebooks for my Dear Friend

My friend goes to Hawaii every Christmas vacation to see her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters.. so I thought she needed a journal to chronicle her trip!!

Her son is going to be in Georgia soon, and I also thought she needed a journal for her trip!!

I used some of the inside/binding paper to make the pen inserts so they'd match the notebooks!! They turned out cute!

**She saw my Florida book from our vacation and ooh'd and aah'd so much, I made these 2 for her.... LOVE to use my new cartridge!!!!!

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ *~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Back from Vacation!!!

This year, we took an entire week plus a few days of driving time to go to Florida!

We stayed at our timeshare (parking is a pain in the @$$ there!), and went to Disney 2 days,

Universal Studios 1 day, 1 day we drove to Miami, 1 day to Cape Canaveral, and 2 days for spending in Orlando bumming around and shopping, touring, and visiting the GREAT restaurants!

Here are just 3 pics of the 700+ we took, and LOTS of video!!

Animal Kindom is by FAR my favorite park!!! It's so relaxing -

not stressing like the other parks can be, every cast member (in ALL the parks) is so very nice!! I think the shows and rides here are among the BEST...

This is a picture of the journal I made for the trip... a nice way to use some of my DCWV papers, my 50 States Cart, and Mickey!!! I filled almost 40 pages of things we did on our week-long trip. No wonder we're wiped out now!!

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ *~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

50 States Swap - Oklahoma

This is an 8x8 Oklahoma page I created for a 50 States Swap on the Cricut Messageboard. Under the flag and horse tag are facts about the state. To the left of the flag, I will attach a piece to adhere the state quarters to.

I found the horse stamp at Michael's on Sunday, and used the Versamark ink with the clear embossing powder to heat-set that horse onto the tag. The background is stamped with SU's Close to Cocoa ink, and the large swirl from the Priceless set.

It turned out even better than I planned!!


~*~ ~*~ ~*~ *~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Post 3 of New "Old" Things - State Posters!

This was a project I did WAY back over a year ago for my 4th Grade class at the time, and all the subsequent classes I'd teach this unit to over the coming years. I have a teacher book from a company called "The Mailbox"; it's a USA regions unit. For almost the past 10 years or so, I've taught this unit to my students right after our testing is finished.

When I made these posters, I used the original maps from the book to determine how many states would fit on the posters. This is a really great way for the students to learn all 50 states and their capital cities.

This year, I've had quite a few of the teachers borrow the posters for use in their classrooms too!

Just two things:
1. I did put in all the commas BEFORE I laminated the posters!! AND, on the side without the capitals, I drew in all the major bodies of water so they could see where the lakes and rivers were located.
2. I don't know where my pictures of the NE states has gone... Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island... I'll have to get a picture and add it to the set! I know I have it - it was posted in my classroom for the beginning of the unit!

Follow this link to the coloring chart I used to make sure none of the states that touched each other were the same color. It works every time!!

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ *~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
A Proud member of The Lime Light. Click on over to see what we are doing.

Christmas Gifts for my Family and Friends

My cousin Jon is quite a hunter...


This one is for my very dear friend. She's a great, funny, smart, amazing lady... and my friend!

Dad belongs to a bowling league, and when I saw this paper, I thought immediately of him.

My nephew is finishing architectural school soon...

My uncle LOVES his hunting dog from long ago.

My mom is an avid bird watcher, and I know she'll love this.

This one goes to a very dear friend who has become like a sister.

My husband requested a Texas notebook for his office.

This went to a dear friend who is more musically talented than any other person I've ever met.

This was the first notebook I made as a gift. When I saw the paper, I knew it was for my sister.

This one goes to my youngest nephew. He loves wolves, and his bedroom is decorated in that motif.

My brother-in-law is an avid hunter, and has taken a black bear.

My dad loves to travel to Alaska, and I just had to make this for him.

I made this one for a colleague at work. She and I have very similar styles, and I enjoy talking with her.

Our latest task for the Lime Light Design Team was altered notebooks for the Ronald McDonald house, and St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis. I had such a blast with these, I made one for every one in my immediate family.