72 Pencils

While on vacation last week I made my usual trip(s) to the dollar store and of course came back with a bag full of goodies.  I had seen this somewhere on the internet and wanted to give it a try and with 72 pencils, a bag of rubberbands, and some crazy glue (and peace and quiet), I did it!

It's a little clumsy at first, but then you get the hang of it adding the pencils in between the rubber bands.  Here is the link to directions should you want to give it a try:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Geometric-sculpture-from-72-pencils/

Before crazy glue, with rubberbands still in place.

 Back to work today and going to put this on my desk with the sign:  No school pencils were harmed in this project.  I think I might use it to hold my rubberband ball that's been growing larger for the last 9 years!

Pumpkin?

Remember these?

These are gloves meant to be used to wash your car (or dust) and I got them at the Dollar Tree for a buck a piece. 

I folded in the thumbs on both of them, placed them palm to palm and pinned around the edges.  Then I whip stitched the two gloves together leaving a small space at the very top.

I thought about stuffing it at this point but it really wasn't necessary.  What I did instead was to fold up the cuff and stuffed them inside.

Next I got out a golf tee and used a brown Sharpie marker to give it some stripes.

Then I stuck the tee into the top of the gloves where I had left a little space.

Stood it up and here you have it.............

Oh, the snake is not real - just cleaning out a junk drawer this weekend and I found that when I was looking for...............these

Yeah, they may be a little big but you get the picture. 

Peaches, Limes, and ...... Pumpkin?

Fall will be here in the morning.  Already some of our trees are dropping leaves like it's raining.  One maple in particular has continued to cover the driveway making it a crunchy mess on a daily basis.   I love the colors of fall - the oranges, golds, reds, and rusts.  Each tree turning from it's verdant green into a warm and sometimes fiery color.  The sun giving just the right light exposure for us to enjoy the beauty of those colors. 

The leaves on this card aren't exactly what you'd expect to see at this time of year.  The aqua and turquoise shades paired with the lime and pear were inspired by the leaves on a card by Sandy McGiver.  (click her name to see the card)  I had to match those leaves up with their complimentary colors of pink and orange, or in this case Peach Parfait, Regal Rose, and some Calypso Coral.  The leaves are from French Foliage and the butterfly from Strength and Hope.  The leaves are embossed, the butterfly is not.  This card is for my Mother's birthday which happens to be today.

The card below is done in some of the similar colors, mainly because I had stamped a few of those butterflies and thought they were too pretty just to set aside.  Strength and Hope provides the flourish on this and the sentiment comes from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I went a little crazy with the ribbon - it almost looks like some weird rick rack but it's just regular straight ribbon squiggled up.  I use sticky strip behind the ribbon here and recommend using a heat gun very lightly over the ribbon so it will adhere better to the sticky strip. 

So you've seen the peach and lime referred to in the title.  Would you believe that these two car washing mitts that I picked up at the $Tree last weekend will be a pumpkin?

You'll have to wait and see. 

Happy Fall!

Dollar Store Eye Ball

I love visiting "dollar stores" as some of you may know.  You never know what you're going to find there and how you might use it.  Saturday I had some time to myself in the afternoon and was able to visit one of my favorite dollar stores - Dollar Tree.  I was looking for something particular for Boss's Day but I came away with a basketful of things as usual.  I was in the mood to do some Halloween crafting and I came up with this project - an Eye Ball.

The ingredients included 2 bags of wiggly eyes ($2), one styrofoam ball ($1), a small ceramic incense burner ($1), a twist tie, glue, toothpicks, and screen scraps which I already had on hand, and some glitter (which was an after thought I'll relate below).

I spilled out the wiggly eyes and started gluing them to the styrofoam ball, but I thought it needed a little more, so I got the glitter and also a pie pan to help control the mess.  Once I decided to do that, I realized that I would not be able to hold it without the eyes sliding all around in the glue so I stuck a toothpick into the ball to help me hold it as I worked and used another toothpick to help spread the glue.  After the eyes were on a section, I sprinkled the glitter on to fill in the gaps between them, tapping off the extra into the pie plate.  I continued this until the entire ball was covered.  Then it had to sit and dry for a while.

While it was drying, I took the strip of screening (this is flexible plastic screening leftovers) and gathered it into a bow using the twist tie in the center.  I used the tails of the twist tie to wrap around the incense burner and then set the Eye Ball on top.  Voila!  Total cost $4. 

I did take a soft brush the next day and gently brushed off the errant glitter.  I'm planning to put this on my counter at school - do you think it's too creepy for 3rd-5th graders?

Itty Bitty Birdie Frames

I picked up these little frames at the Dollar Tree a while back. They came three to a package and measure about 2-1/2 x 1-3/4 inches. They are soft like suede. Tonight they happened to be sitting on top of my tool bag so I decided to do something about that.

The image I used is from a retired SU set called Feathered Hope. Of course, you know that I would be making the bird a bluebird! This is only a portion of the image of this particular stamp which I stamped in Basic Gray onto Confetti White CS. Then I used markers and my aquapainter to color the image.

I've already decided to keep the blue framed one for myself for my desk at work and I'm hoping that if I get to Dollar Tree this weekend that they'll still have these frames. You see, I need a little prize for a few of the teachers that I work with.

Every year they get a certain dollar amount of money to order some classroom supplies and, with the approval of my building principal, and in order to get the orders in on time, I make it a little contest. The first three orders handed in get a prize (this year they got to "shop" in our office supply closet for some of the coveted items we keep there). Then I also give out prizes to those whose order comes to the exact amount of their $allowance. There were four of them. So I'm hoping that I can find at least one more package this weekend.

Oh, and you know what - they fit perfectly into the matchbox die box! More about that tomorrow.

$ Store Makeover

Take one $ Store Photo Frame Pencil Holder

Add some stamped panels, flowers, and ribbon

And this is what you get.