Check out my classroom

Better late than never. I finally snapped some pictures of my classroom with my iPad the other day while I had it at the school. This is my first attempt at posting via my iPad, so hopefully everything looks normal.

My kidney table where I spend most of my day-my bulletin board turned out great

If you didn't already know I started teaching bilingual special education after graduation in December. I absolutely love my job. I currently have 19 little darlings I spend the day with. I promise they all come in and out, we don't all cram into my little room.



I teach reading, writing, and math for the majority of the day. I also do lots of social skills and life skills within my day. We are looking forward to some spring weather had more outdoor recess. I'm absolutely loving what I do and looking forward to the years to come.

My desk and lots of storage

 

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We have a little courtyard with a pond behind our room

So that is the grand tour. It's small, but I will have a bigger space next year. Life is good!

Farewell to my favorite park

When I was living in Michigan I had a favorite park. It was on the shores of Lake Superior. It was an amazing bike ride. Lots of hills and great sights. We had a few minutes to spare graduation weekend, so we went back to the park for a last visit.

 I was really concerned with telling my story on this page. I wanted to journal the significance this place holds to me. I journalled on the cardstock and then cut it up. I had was too many strips, so I had to break it up into two separate areas.

 The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. I used distress ink on both of the solid pieces to make them fit the pictures with a more nature color. Then I misted with Smooch to pull some of the turquoise from the water.

 The washi tape is Recollections from Michaels.

This tree turned out really cool. I picked up a pack of this metallic medium of sorts, but I have no clue what it is. It comes in a watercolor style container, but it the consistency of a wet eyeshadow. It looked so cool on the tree and the bottom of the page. I'd love to figure out what these are called, so I can find them. They have a really neat effect (except on your nail beds).

Thanksgiving 2012

I love Thanksgiving. I love the family time. I love the food. I love being together. Not crazy wild about football unless my team is playing. Some years I get some pictures, some years I don't. Needless to say we are never coordinated, so it is tough to pull papers.

The patterned paper on this layout is from Crate Paper. The yellow and pink  strip are fussy cut from a matching sheet as well. I am still in love with the green twine from The Twinery.

 This blue paper is my favorite part of the page. It started as the aqua color you can see in the crack. Then I ran it through my cuttlebug with a flower patterned. I rubbed my Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Vintage Photo & Faded Jeans) to give it a more distressed look. It turned out awesome!

 

And of course the journalling. I'm really into the journalling strips right now, and it makes the page flow nicely. 

First Snow of the Year

The first snow of the year is always a little special and welcomed. Now that its April, it's not so welcomed. We happened to get a gorgeous dusting of snow right after I bought my new camera. So I ran outside before work to snap these. It was probably sometime in the 6am hour when I was out there, hence the beautiful dawn sky colors. I love that you can see the Christmas lights on the street in the pictures. 

 

 The base paper for the layout was Bo Bunny, and then a grey Coordinations cardstock. I used glossy paper and alcohol inks for all the blueish snowflakes. I used a combo of Pool, Eggplant, and Sailboat Blue, along with the silver metallic ink, pounced on the snowflakes after I cut them with a Spellbinders die.

 The centers of the snowflakes are iRock gems heated up, and the twine is from the Target dollar bins. I misted on the grey paper with a Mister Huey mask and Tattered Angels mist.

I love how well this page came together. The paper just fits the page so well, and the blues and greys are gorgeous.

Fall Family Fun

So this is part two of our fun day in Madison. My parents brought their bikes, and I borrowed my sister's roommate's bike. We took off on a ride around one of the lakes (who's names are too close to tell apart).


 The paper is this series of photos is from Little Yellow Bicycle. I ordered way too much of it and then didn't like a few of them in person, but the back side turned out to work perfectly.

I dyed the flower centers from clear to yellow with my alcohol inks, before adhering them with my i-Rock

This was a wonderful day, and these pages were the best way to show all our fun. Not much can compare with a Michigan fall, but we made this to be a pretty fun day! I had fun fussy cutting all the flowers and playing with gems, ink, and stickles.

Madison Visit

Back in September, I was able to take a day trip to Madison to visit my sister. I had never been able to experience their famous farmers market. This farmers market goes all the way around Capital Square. They had such a wide variety of vendors. Naturally I love the cheese and bakery vendors. I'm dying to go back as soon as it opens this summer...which is going to be easier said than done. They do a indoor winter market in my town, but its not the same.

The paper is from a 6x6 Kaiser Craft pad that I got at my LSS rummage sale

I used various dies at my LSS to punch these flowers from the scraps

The colors leading up to the capitol were downright stunning

I didn't realize how beautiful fall in Madison was. We had such a fun day walking around State Street and the Capital. This was my first experience scrapping with 6x6 paper, but I kinda liked it. More bang for your buck. I liked having a lot of different papers to play around with....especially the sparkly one.

A Learning Experience

Over Labor Day Weekend my friend Ashley came to Green Bay for a visit. So we decided to take her down to Cedarburg for a day trip. Cedarburg is a cute little town north of Milwaukee. It is all local shops and restaurants. They also have a local winery. I've always wanted to take the tour and learn about the process of making wine and how it works with our Wisconsin Winters. This was the perfect excuse to take the tour.

We got to go down into the cellars and first see the big old barrels. One tour participant even climbed into a barrel. Then we learned about the new techniques of making wine today. We learned the history of the winery and its owners. Very cute love story of the owner and wine maker.

The paper from this layout is October Afternoon. It had the perfect wood tones along with the blues and greens from the outside shot. The accents were cut on my Cricut and then dyed with alcohol inks to match perfectly.

I would highly recommend this tour if you've never learned about the wine making process. It was packed with history and science...perfect for this teacher.