Some Fancy Serving Trays

In case you haven't seen these all over blog-land - this is my try at dollar store trays! I am working on a fun, cute teacher treat day for the school and thought it was the perfect excuse to make the trays I've seen on about a million blogs.

Start with a visit to the Dollar Tree and pick up an array of trays and candlesticks. Then pick up some spray paint primer and cute colors.

Primer first - hopefully this will help the color stick!

Then I went color crazy, I'm going for bright and cheerful. I also sprayed clear coat to help protect from scratches.

Then I stacked and re-stacked until I found the combination that I was looking for.

Voila! An awesome collection of co-ordinating trays for my treat day! I'm using them tomorrow so I'll snap pics of them in action ;) Now go make some for yourself!

Halloween Treats Anyone?

Is it too early to start thinking about yummy Halloween goodies? I think not! My friend Diana agrees, and suggested I share some ideas here :)

Right off the bat, this year's top runner for classroom treats in my book:

Love this idea from How Does She? It's just oreo cookies covered in melts! I think it's a good follow up to last year's bats.

What about taking a page from Harry Potter and making some butter beer?

My Harry Potter fans will love this surprise after school one day! Find the recipe HERE.

How about some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Spice Bars? Can we say YUM?

This recipe looks awesome!

I'm having a hard time getting into the 'season' this year. Usually I've already dug out my ton of fall decorations and have them all over the house by now.... just not on the ball this year. I considered doing only a mini decorating this year but that still requires digging out the decorations so once they are out shouldn't I just go for it? The topic is still up for discussion so we will see what I end up doing. Whenever I'm looking for a little holiday inspiration I usually hit the Family Fun website. Browsing through all the Halloween ideas might give me the kick in the butt I need. I'm doing lots of baking for the school this week so I will add another goodie post later!

Guess Who Got A Cricut?

THIS GIRL!

O, how in the world have I lived without this? My awesome friends & family pitched in and got me a Cricut Expression for my *ugh* 34th Birthday last month. Two of my girls have one already and we used them for our big PTO door decorating project at the end of school last year. That's when I realized that yes, I probably needed one. Of course I just keep talking about it though! So their awesome idea has made me so happy and here is project #1:

A happy birthday sign for Ms. Kloe who turned 1 yesterday! O, the fun that we had making stuff for this owl themed party. So, let's see.... big owl, some letters, little owls, cute saying - perfect!

Wait! Gotta add a cute border!

O, of course I must stickle like crazy. (Seriously, like crazy, my hand was sore for days)

The glittery goodness of a birthday sign!!

In all it's glory at the party...paired up with my little felt owls that I made like 2 years ago, wow was I planning ahead or what?!!

Some PTO Projects

So, I'm very involved with PTO at Riley's school... not news, I know. This summer we decided to remodel the teacher's lounge as a 'welcome back' gift for our hardworking teachers. I will do a full post on that soon, when all of our finishing touches are done and I get pics. But for now I wanted to share the canvas I made for the lounge.

We wanted to do a nice quote to hang on the entry wall, but on a small budget. I picked the quote: "Learning is a treasure that will follow it's owner everywhere." Don't you just love it? It makes me tear up :) So, I took a big canvas that was laying around my house waiting for inspiration and painted it a dark red color (This is the main wall color in the lounge). I could of cut out some vinyl letters but wanted something more swirly, I had a specific font in mind. It was a little trial and error but what I finally came up with is this:

1. Print your saying out in the size you want it on cheap, thin printer paper.

2. Cut up your words and get your placement right.

3. Now trace the words on the back of the paper with chalk.

4. Place the words back on the canvas and trace each letter on the front of the paper.

5. Voila! When you lift the paper you will see a pretty clear chalk outline of your quote in the specific font you've chosen!

6. I then painted my quote with one of the trim colors we used in the room so it would be all matchy-matchy.

This project only took about 2 hours start to finish (including dry time for the 1st coat). Pretty quick if you ask me! We have plans for 2 more canvases that I will tackle this week.

Also for PTO, I'm in charge of the teacher treats this year (can you think of a better position for me?!!) I made this huge bag of tiny Chinese takeout boxes to distribute. They say 'we are fortunate to have you as a teacher' and they are filled with fortune cookies.

We have about 90 teachers and staff that we like to pass out treats to and this project was perfect - quick and fun. I got the inspiration for the tag online but can't find the blog again! I'll look some more and post as soon as I find it.