Woven Paper Baskets

One thing that has been constant throughout my classroom decor since I started teaching is hot air balloons. I use them for my table numbers. Every year they change slightly, but I feel like I almost have them right where I want them. This year I switched out the super cool 3D letters I made out of paper for some super cute glitter numbers I found in the Target dollar section. The other big change this year is the baskets.
I got the idea from this website and got started with brown paper bags, but decided that would be too intense, so I rushed off to the dollar store to grab one of their kraft paper rolls. Unfortunately, there were no plain brown rolls, but I was happy to discover all their kraft rolls are plain on the back.

Each strip was cut 1.5"x14"

I tried folding it in thirds just by eyeing the strip, but I failed miserably. I had to use my cutting mat to help.

 Down to 0.5"

Once I folded 13, I was done and the weaving began.

And I am left with a basket. Put fruit in it. Give your neighbor some cookies in it. Use it as a miniature hot air balloon basket. The options are endless.

It's perfect! 2.5"x2.5"x1.5". I cannot wait to attach them to my balloons and numbers.

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Jewelry Holder

This week, I completed two projects (and nearly finished many others). Only one was for my classroom. It is a darling welcome sign.

The other was a jewelry holder.
I have this darling small set of drawers I received from my mother that I used to use for jewelry storage. It is beautiful, but whenever I keep my jewelry hidden away, I forget to put it on. I wanted to create storage that would showcase what I had and also keep it off the dresser.
I headed to Lowe's and bought a vent cover, two metal plates with holes screwed in it, and s hooks.

The assembly was super simple. I went around the outside edge of the vent and the plates with washi tape then and then hooked the plates to the vent with s hooks.

After I hooked the vent to the wall with removable Velcro, I attached more s hooks to hang up necklaces and then put my stud earrings on the metal places.

It looks like I became bored with a heat vent.

Welcome {sign}

I rather enjoy pennants/bunting. I had pennants at my wedding reception two years ago, I have pennants in my apartment, and I have pennants in my classroom.
I have been making pennants now for several years. Almost all of them have been the standard triangle (or square or circle) attached to string somehow. Last year I made an awesome one for the 100th day of school which I of course did not take a picture of and the fancy guy now sits in my classroom many miles away.
I decided to go a little crazy on a pennant and see how it turned out. I love it.
Here is what you need for a multi-layered pennant.

5 types of paper (One cut into 6" circles, I folded into an accordion folded rosette with a diameter of 5",  one cut into a scalloped circle of just over 3", one cut into a circle with a diameter of 3", and the last type of paper cut into letters that will fit in the smallest circle.)
Streamer paper
Stick-on pearl beads

Assembly is pretty logical. You want the biggest circle at the back and the smallest at the front. The only problem was that I had a large gap between the rosette and the scalloped circle. That is where the streamers come into play.
I taped one end of the streamer to the other end so it formed a loop. Then I started to scrunch together one edge of my loop.

Eventually I was able to flatten the loop completely. After taping it down, it fit perfectly in the gap.

I assembled it with hot glue and put three beads somewhere on each letter.

There you have it. A slightly more complex pennant. When it is completely finished (it will eventually say "Welcome to Mrs. Jaeger's class") I will hang it up with clothes pins onto some butcher's twine.

Cupcakes!

Good morning, folks.
Last week, I was proud of myself for making lots of fun classroom supplies. They are waxing the floors of my school and I have not been in my classroom in quite a while. That meant I had more time to research and slowly walk around Dollar Tree to try to find inspiration for my classroom.
I have already posted about several things including
monster bookmarks,

the birthday box,

and I even posted about an awesome find I discovered at my Dollar Tree for crayon containers.

Today, you get a look at my students' back to school present. (Part of it.) You see, I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to bring in this next school year with a bang. Our open house night is the evening before school starts and I really wanted to get students excited about this next year. I decided to treat it as a party. Students will be welcomed with an awesome sign, be directed around the classroom with more adorable signs, and then collect a "treat" as they leave. What is the stereotypical party dessert? Cupcakes!
I had so many allergies last year (gluten, dairy, every type of nut) that I knew these babies would not be real cupcakes. (Besides, we cannot make any food item we want to give our kiddos and I don't really want to buy them a cheap cupcake from a grocery store or spend big bucks on delicious cupcakes from a bakery.)
Meet my faux cupcake complete with a candle.

Mmmm. The idea came from inspiration while at a dollar store. I had seen many cute fake cupcakes, but they looked messy or difficult or expensive to make. These ones cost about fifty-eight cents (I had everything except for the bowls and ramekins already).

Ingredients:
1 small prep bowl (the ones at the store came four for a dollar)
1 plastic ramekin type bowl (I bought these at the dollar store as well in a three-pack, but I can't find a link for them)

3 Zots
Colorful ruffle ribbon
Hot glue
M&Ms (or other small treat)

Directions:
1. I like to start making cupcakes beginning with the frosting, don't you? Begin by gluing the ruffle ribbon onto the prep bowl. (You could also paint the glass or just leave it. Either would look great. Or, for those glitter lovers out there, you could paint it with glitter paint. Super cute.)

2. Fill the cupcake (plastic ramekin) with desired treat. I used M&Ms because I happened to have some.

3. Place some Zots on the lip of the ramekin and firmly place the prep bowl on it. You could also place some hot glue dots onto the glass lid, wait a few seconds, and then press it onto the plastic bowl.

4. Celebrate!

An alternate step 4 is to add a candle. Fake candles are super easy to make also.
You need cute straws (I used striped paper straws) and yellow tissue paper.

Cut the straws to whatever candle length you would like. (My cupcakes are going on a cupcake stand eventually, so I wanted short candles, but super long candles would look great this week for the 4th of July.)

Just place two small squares of tissue paper on top of each other.

For the next step, I pushed the straw into the center so that I could twist it like so...

Finally, I dabbed a bit of hot glue in the straw and stuck the twist side into the straw.

You can just add that to the top of your cupcake! The day of our open house, I will probably add a dab of hot glue, but today I used another Zot to adhere it to the cupcake and it worked perfectly.

Cupcake a la candle. Perfect for bringing in a new year.

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