Monday Made It: Fabric Napkin Art

I'm coming to you LATE for Monday Made It! I usually have these pre-typed up on Sunday nights but I was a busy lady, so here we go now!

Today I only have a home Monday Made It, which is weird for me because at the beginning of the summer, I didn't think I'd ever have one. 

BUT, I am moving out next week! And my new apartment has super super boring walls and I need some snazzy things to hang up.

So I made some fabric napkin art!

I was inspired by Kate at The Small Things Blog. She has a pretty good tutorial up there, so I didn't make a new one. But here are my little tricks and tips:

• I bought my fabric napkins at World Market. Don't even think about going anywhere else. World Market has TONS of awesome patterned napkins and they are reasonably priced! I found these in the clearance section at $1.98 each, and I bought 3 identical napkins. I just featured different parts of the napkin in each frame!
• My sweet square frames came from Dollar Tree and they were $0.50!!!! They are metal, not wood like Kate's, but I am on a budget here people! They were originally frames to hold 5 tiny pictures but I just threw out the little insert thing.
• After I decided which part of the napkin I wanted to show, I cut around it with an additional 2 inch border. I wrapped the napkin around the cardboard backing and then hot glued the edges to the back (remember, I love hot glue!!). I did take a picture of that part to show you... it's a little dark.

• In the end I just shoved it back into the frame. The kind I had was the kind where you slide the backing into the bottom. With the napkin glued it just barely fit so I had to use all my might. :)

So there you have it! 

You could totally use this in the classroom. It would be cheap if you just used scrapbook paper or a school-themed fabric... or a printed fabric to match your classroom theme!

And as a special treat, here are my cousins and me last night during Pinterest crafting!!!

Hope your Monday was fantastic!!!

Mother's Day Gift Idea!

Hi!

Today was a semi-long day because we had our school play at 6 PM and all the teachers stayed for it. I helped with the play and I was proud of the kids - they really worked hard and it all came together!

I was hanging out with the Pre-K kids the other day when I saw their Mother's Day gifts and I wanted to share them with you!

She had the kids take a flower stamp and stamp a bunch of flowers on a little bag. This girl and a few others did a pattern, but they could stamp wherever they wanted to. Afterward, she traced the outside of the flowers with a Sharpie or fabric marker (I can't remember which...) and then they glued buttons onto the middle! So cute.

I love them! So colorful!

The other day, our recess supervisor asked me how much more teaching I had to do. I am desperately trying to get as much reading and math instruction in as I can, so really I think I'll only have one full day (besides Field Day) without our normal schedule.

How much teaching do you do in the last days of school?

Love Jar

I realize that Valentine's Day has come and gone, but I am a slowpoke and just finished my Valentine's Day gift for my boyfriend today!

Before I begin, let me just say that I am really interested in crafting. I am interested in ideas and buying all the things I will need. I am also interested in beginning projects. After that... not so much. My cousins, Kelley and Lisa, can attest to this. I have so much stuff sitting around that I NEEDED for whatever reason. Sigh.

But I actually finished something, so go me!

This is the love jar! I wrote out 30ish nice things about my boyfriend, printed them out, and folded little fortune cookies to house them. I got this idea from Chrissy and then when I looked up "love jars" on Google, I saw the fortune cookies and I just HAD to do it. I have had all the stuff for a week and just now I did it. Story of my life.

I sort of followed the directions I found at Better Way Moms but I am way more lazy than that person so I adapted the directions to fit my needs and maybe yours! I made my own step by step pictures if you are interested!

1. I traced my circles. I used 12x12 scrapbook paper. I used a CD to make 2 big circles on each paper and then I used a cup to trace 4-5 small circles which were about 3.25 inches in diameter. 

2. Then I ripped off a strip of double-sided tape. No specific size... I sort of used the premarked lines on the tape to guide me but I was not religious about this. I cut it in half lengthwise. In the picture you can see that I put the two pieces of tape on the top part of the wrong side of the circle. I folded one of my little messages in half and laid it in there.

3. I had the sticky side and unsticky side meet. I did not crease at all.

4. Then, like so, I held two fingers on either side and just shoved the middle in. Other places told me to make a crease so I could tell where the middle was. I just winged it (wung it?). I think the imperfections will make it special.... haha.

5. Then you will have a little fortune cookie! This one actually looks pretty good but believe me, most of them were off centered and one side was bigger than the other. Whatevs.

 6. However, it will not stay fortune cookie-like unless you stick it together. I tore off a tinier piece of double-sided tape and stuck it close to the fold on the bottom part. I don't think you can see it in this picture. But it is there!

 7. Then I held it together. I didn't crunch it or crush it together... I just held it together and looked at Pinterest for a minute. Haha!

And that's it!! It was actually pretty easy and semi-fun once I got started. You could use this for many purposes! Birthday gifts, anniversary, you know.

So far they are sticking together... nothing is popping apart or anything! Good old double-sided tape. If you choose to do this, you might want to cut some practice ones. My brother and I played around with them and I got super frustrated for a while when they didn't look perfect. Then I let go and now I am happy!