Teacher Bulletin Boards with the Cricut and Gypsy

I said a small prayer while I connected my Gypsy to the Cricut because I had tons of stuff to cut for school; in fact, I had 8 12x24 mats worth of stuff!  Just in the first go around!  I have an bug and/or insect theme in my classroom this year, so I had a blast using the Cricut to make cute bulletin boards!  Here are photos of what I did! 

This is on the outside (facing out of my open) classroom door.  It says "Buggy About 1st Grade."  I replaced the letter B's with butterflies and customized their wings to have the circles in the right spots to make it look like B's.  I cut all the letters at 6".  I used my ATG gun to stick them to the window and I LOVE how quick and easy it was!  I think the font is Jubilee.

Above my bookcases is the saying "Buzz Worthy Books."  I think  the font is Opposites Attract.  You see, I was creating and cutting really, really late at night and my mind was a little mushy and I can't remember what I used for sure!  These letters are cut at 6 inches as well.

 I made two cute Create a Critter bumblebees to accent the title.  :)  Love them!

Horrible picture because the lamination is reflecting, but this is my CAFE wall from the Daily 5 book.  If you are a teacher and don't know about Daily 5, go find the book!  It's wonderful! But, do first graders know what a cafe is?  Probably not, so I rearranged it to spell FACE, as in "The FACE of reading."  (Each letter stands for a reading skill:  F-fluency, A-accuracy, C-comprehension, E-expanding vocabulary.  When I teach a strategy for any of these, it is listed under the correct category for the kids to refer to, thus the columns!

Here's part of my library, with the heading and then the empty focus wall.  The items reflecting are the labels for my focus wall.

Whew!  We just adopted Bridges, and here is a picture of the Number Corner for first grade (ie. the calendar).  Luckily I found these small pocket charts at Target to help organize the area!

Lastly, I did "Great Work Spotted!" and hung it up on my windows.  I wish you could see the colors, but the shadow is black and the actual letter is red.  They are cut at 6" and are Gypsy Wanderings font.  I added two Create a Critter ladybugs as well.  I will post kids work underneath on the windows.

Hope you enjoy!

Let Your Heart Lead You!

I had this great picture of my daughter being totally hyper before we went on the Polar Express (See the last blog entry) and I just knew I had to do something special with it!  I found this layout in an old CK magazine and thought it was perfect.  I used a piece of lightly flecked white paper and then used my gypsy to create a large heart from Gypsy Wanderings.  I used the Gypsy font to write "Let your heart lead you" and placed it on the heart just where I wanted it.  I then used a black marker and had the Cricut "write" the outline of the letters.  Once the letters were written (they were hollow) I replaced the blade and then had the heart cut.  Next I took a silver milky pen and colored in the letters to make it look sparkly.  I used a thing green ribbon with red accents and created a quick border, tying it around silver brads at each corner.  I let the heart overlap some of the border and the placed the picture of Maddie on.  I used another silver brad to adhere a wire embellishment that says "angel."  I placed what I thought was the perfect Suzy Zoo sticker of an angel to balance the photo and heart and added some journaling.  (The Suzy Zoo sticker was perfect because Maddie's nursery when she was tiny was decorated in Suzy Zoo!)

4th Of July LID sketch

This week's LID sketch on the Cricut board featured a double page layout with lots of pictures!  My favorite!  I had some 4th of July pictures to scrap, so I created this layout following the sketch loosely. 

4th of July--10 photos

I used George to make the rectangle title block  and cut it twice.  Once I cut it in bright blue for the background and then I cut it a second time in red with the title "4th of July" cut out.  I used the George font as well.  I then used the Create a Critter set of 3 stars and created a border by copying and flipping the set of three starts back and forth.  (For example, Big star, medium star, little star, little star, medium star, big star).  I then grouped and welded them, and copied the whole thing so I could have a border for both pages.  I used the cut out stars from the border for a little something extra on my title.  I then cut out several other starts from Create a Critter and Gypsy Wanderings. 

I adhered a few more stars, the border and then journaled on the 2nd page.  I decided to hand write my journaling in red ink to continue the American theme.  In all, a simple layout with lots of pictures!

Have a Cup on Me

I made these small coffee cup cards for my husband to give to the team he manages. He is going to put a Starbucks gift card inside each one. I learned several important things with this project! First, don't just measure the gift card, add on to the size because your card will be folded! (Duh, right?) Then leave even more room to make a small pocket to insert your gift card. But, I didn't do any of that, now did I? Here's how I made it work:

I used the coffee cup from Gypsy Wanderings and hid the heart. (Didn't think my husband's employees want hearts on a cup from him!) I then copied the cup and then flipped it. This allowed me to weld two together to make a card. I then wrote "Have a cup on me!" and welded that altogether also. I then cut out a single cup in a lighter blue to show through the cut out letters. Since I hadn't left room for a pocket, I didn't know what to do!
Photo corners to the rescue! I had a stash of photo corners (luckily in the right colors) and I used a credit card to measure placement. This was so easy! Take a look!