Mojo stuck? Unstick it with this freebie! Plus: focal points.

If you've ever been stuck with no mojo (and from the posts I've seen recently on the OWH FB page, this is a problem that runs rampant), you might want to try these cards I made.  I typed up a smattering of ideas on themes, color schemes, embellishments, and techniques and formatted them like a deck of cards.  They are color coded by category: theme, technique, tool/supply, and color scheme.  You could draw one or more cards from the deck when you're stuck with no inspiration to get you rolling!  There are 72 total ideas in the stack and you could certainly add in your own.  Just print these out, trim them apart, and tuck the deck somewhere handy for when you need to be inspired.  (If you're not familiar with Box, it's pretty user-friendly.  Just click the download link and you should be able to open the Word file within seconds.)


Part 2 of this post is going to let me showcase the cards I made with the last of the kids kits from the swap Scrap to Treasure did last month.   Here are the final cards.   I stretched a few of the kits with a bit of my own cardstock and was able to make more than one card from most kits.  The first three cards came from Mary's kit and the last was from my own kit.  These kits also are going to help me enter Paula's boot camp from 2/18 on creating a focal point.  I really try to think about creating a focal point each time I design a card and I think I do a pretty good job of it at least 90% of the time. That was not so when I started making cards, but I've learned a lot in the past two or three years. 

Cupcake as focal point

Sentiment as focal point.  I love this paper.  I wish I knew where it was from because I would buy a few more sheets.  :)

Girl as focal point. 

Dragon as focal point.

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2013: 340 blank and 140 AnyHero (as of 1/7/13)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 1284 blank and 218 AnyHero
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Tutorial: Tool Organizer

Inspired by a clutch I saw on Pinterest that was made by TidyMom, I set out to make an organizer with elastic loops to hold my crafting tools so I can easily take them along to crops.   I thought the plastic bags in the inspiration were a recipe for disaster for me- they would certainly make my sewing machine spazz out and I knew I'd destroy the bags if I ever got them stitched down properly.  Elastic loops sounded much more promising. 

I purchased a printed pot holder with a pocket.  The pocket is optional but gives an extra storage space and a convenient way to hide your stitches. 

I cut a length of thin elastic the same length as the potholder and I sewed it down every 3/4" or so by hand.  I would recommend that you choose the objects you want to store first and change the spacing of your stitches accordingly.  I would also recommend 1/4" or 1/2" elastic instead of the slim elastic I used if you're storing heavy things.  I chose to sew this by hand because I wanted to hide the stitches inside the pocket.  

 

Finally, stitch a button in line with the hanging loop so you can close up your organizer.  Not bad for $1.50, right?  It was a very quick project, less than 30 minutes start to finish! 

The button is on the back!  Small scissors easily fit in the pocket.

Potholder: Big Lots, $1.50
Elastic, Thread, and Button: from stash 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Building Vocabulary with a Word Wall

I think most teachers are familiar with word walls.  I've seen elementary teachers organize them alphabetically.  For my math students in middle school, I organize the walls by unit theme.  Each unit we study is assigned a color so students can look for related words in the group.  We make use of our word walls in countless ways, but here are just a few:

1. I place all of the words for a new unit on the wall.  As we work our way through a unit and learn a new concept, students try to guess which word could have that meaning. 

2. Students refer to the wall for spelling and to help them recall words that have slipped their minds.

3. Because I am lucky to have metal walls, my words are most often individual strips with magnets on the back.  We take them down and use them for games.  One favorite game is the fly-swatter game.  Give a representative from each team a fly-swatter (clean, of course), scatter the vocabulary words on the board, and give a definition, example, non-example, drawing, etc that the students have to match to the correct word.  It's fast-paced and they get to smack the board, so they love it!

4. Review/Study.  I give a final exam so I encourage my students to use the word wall to identify their weaknesses.  They can read through the words and decide what to study based on what vocabulary is most difficult for them.  I also find my students using the word wall when they help each other.  They are frequently overheard asking each other about the words and the responses typically include the related words.  I love hearing my kids use their vocabulary! 

I have experienced a few set-backs with my word walls in the past.  First, the words get a glare once laminated so they can be hard to read.   Sometimes I end up with students who have trouble reading at a distance even with really large font sizes.  So, readability is a big problem in my classroom.  Second, the students can't take the wall home so they don't have that resource when they are completing assignments outside of my room.  In response to those issues, I decided to do a little more with vocabulary this year. 

New to my class this year will be personal word walls.  Hooray!  I designed a template to look like a brick wall complete with a graffiti title.  Kids will be responsible for adding words to their wall when we first learn them in class.  Each unit will be written in a different color and the kids will be able to place the words how they want to on the sheet though I'll encourage them to group like words in some way instead of randomly scattering them.  I'm going to have the kids lightly shade or outline the boxes with colored pencil when they feel they have mastered the term.  To me, that means they can describe/define it clearly, draw it accurately, and spell it correctly.  I think we'll need two or more copies to fit all of our words depending on the course as each size holds about 75 words.  When I taught Geometry in the past, we had nearly 300 words, so we would have needed 4 of these.  I'm going to make this double sided and copy it on cardstock.  They'll keep it in a sheet protector so they can use it to quiz themselves by marking things off with a dry erase marker. 

 

If you would like to use this with your class, leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send you the file.  

For my regular readers who are here for cards, fear not!  The cards will return soon and these pesky school posts are going to find a new home on my new blog, i is a number where I will discuss all things middle school math.  I took the plunge and decided to set up yet another blog!  Come on over and follow if you like.  I know several cardmakers who are also teachers or homeschoolers.  :)
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Classroom update

I know my readers don't come for school-related photos, but I can't help but be excited for the upcoming school year.  Our kids will be back in three short weeks and I only have two weeks left to call my own.  Of course, I'm already back at school setting up and planning things.

A few days ago, I shared some things I'd been working on for my room.  Now I have them up on the walls!

Here's my Homeworkopoly game board.  I made a magnet for each kid, but they're definitely too big for the board.  We'll deal with it!  They're numbered with the hope that this is a successful enough that I do it for several years so I won't have to swap out kids' initials.  Each class period has a different color sticker.  I also added a small dry erase board so that kids can work out their Chance problems there if they want to.  I found some great Brain Teaser flashcards from which I extracted the math questions to be our brain teasers.  Interestingly enough, while the age listed on the box is 14+, almost all of the math standards represented should be well understood as the kids enter 8th grade.  Most of them won't seem like brain teasers at all, but like problems we do on a regular basis! 

 I'm going to use these pocket charts for cooperative grouping.  Each child will have a card and I can mix and match them into groups as needed and not hear, "Who's in my group?" or "What group number am I?" again.  At least, not as much! 

This poster isn't new this year, but was rather one of my favorite things from last year.  I often require all of my students to answer a question by raising their hand to vote.  I like to get them to agree or disagree with classmates or answer my questions this way.  They "ride the roller coaster" if they're not sure.  

My new class store.  We already have a classroom economy in 8th grade.  I am so stinkin' tired of handing out hundreds of pencils, erasers, and the like over the course of a year that I knew I needed to do something different.  Introducing the store!  

My students may not drive yet, but they do have assigned parking spots.  The grid is large enough that students can put a 3x3 Post-it in their square with the answer to a question, a comment, or something else as they walk out the door.  

Some of the best organization I have is for my students to use.  These hanging file pockets hold four things for each class: missed work from absences, tests/quizzes that need to be made up, no name or not finished papers, and papers to be handed back.  I got these at JoAnn in the dorm section and they've been going strong for two years already with no signs of wear.  It doesn't look like they are carrying them this year, however my store is small so a larger store might have them.  

Hello Pinspired stool!  I have a comfy stool from my parents' old basement wet bar.  I was tired of the black vinyl, so I covered it with this cheerful corduroy.  I sort of want to paint the legs, but I'm not sure I really want to paint it badly enough to put forth the effort.  The top makes me happy enough for now.  

Perhaps I'll give you some full classroom shots in a future post.  There's still a little bit of a mess to be dealt with and some chores to be done before I photograph the entire room.  :)  Thanks for humoring me.  I might have to start a school blog, but I don't know if I have enough time! 

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

A break from cards...

...but not a break from being crafty!  Yesterday I started to get my classroom set up for the upcoming school year.  It's earlier than I've ever started that process, but I know that there will be lots of changes at school this year, so the sooner I get rolling, the smoother it should go.

Today I've been quite industrious, I think.  Inspired by Pinterest, I took on several projects.  The first project is dubbed Homeworkopoly.  I changed the directions and the board to suit my classroom.  My students will individually earn the right to play on Friday if they have turned in all of their homework for the week on time.  They'll roll just one die since the board is small (and I don't want to hear about taking a second turn for rolling doubles).  The potential rewards are small prizes that are inexpensive or free but are things I know my kids generally like.

Go earns $50 Cat Cash (money in our grade-level economy).  They'll earn this whenever they pass by Go, just like in real Monopoly. 
Free Reading awards kids with the opportunity to free read instead of doing the math warm-up one day.  They always whine about doing the warm-up, so this might be a good motivator to do homework.
Treasure Chest is just the choice of a small prize (pencil, eraser, etc), piece of candy, or $25 Cat Cash.
Lunch Bunch will be the coveted prize for sure!  It gives kids the chance to bring two friends to eat lunch in my room.  Since lunch tables are assigned and stay the same all year, some kids never get to eat with their closest friends.
When they land on Chance, the kids can answer a math problem to earn extra Cat Cash.

I'm storing all of the cards in plastic index card boxes.  I put advertising magnets on the backs.  I still need to make the game pieces, but I'm going to wait until class lists are somewhat more finalized than they are now.  Clothespins would be great if I didn't teach almost 80 students.  I'm going to do small magnets.   (Update: I actually used Staples page flags and had each class period use a different color.  They held up well and weren't going to move if someone bumped into the board.)  I also need to collect questions for the Chance spaces.  I'm going to aim for 30 questions.   The files for the game board are below.  I removed any references to things specific to my school, but you could also update the spaces with school-specific rewards. 

Update (9/2013)- Homeworkopoly got to be too much work for me after one marking term.  It took about 15-20 minutes of class time per week.  If your students are really good independent workers, this might be an option for you.  I found that my students would have questions about their assignment and that would make this process take even longer.  I couldn't justify taking away from instruction with this system.  It was a good motivator for certain kids, recognized those who consistently do what they should, and I had it well organized, but it wasn't working for my class, so I let it go. 




On to project #2.  Here's our classroom "Parking Lot."   My middle schoolers can't drive yet, but they'll all be assigned a parking space.  When I need to do a quick, short exit pass, I can have the kids write their work on post-it notes and stick them to this poster.  Each kid will use their number (based off my alphabetized list, of course) so I can quickly record their scores.  To differentiate this assignment, I can give out different colored post-its and direct the children to answer a certain question based on the color of their post-it.  Then when scoring them, I can score by color.  Easy peasy!  I think it will be quick enough to score one class's answers while the next class is doing the warm-up. 

Another thing I LOVE about today's craftiness is that I used two hideously old fashioned pieces of scrapbooking paper.  They're great for school but not so hot for my own crafts!    

Sorry for the break from the cards, but I was excited to share some things for my classroom! 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Welcome to my Craft Room

My craft room is four years in the making.   This week marks four years that I've lived here and finally finishing this space was one of my 2012 goals.  I've been collecting the pieces in this room over the past four years, searching secondhand stores and discount stores for the most functional items at the most reasonable prices.  Some items are left over from my childhood and others are recent purchases.  If your craft space isn't meeting your needs, I hope this tour gives you some good ideas for how you can improve it on a budget.    

When I first moved in, I intended to use this room as my office and left open the possibility of using it as a guest room.  I might have graded papers in here once or twice in four years; I simply prefer to work in my classroom.  At the time I moved in, I was quite used to having a gigantic desk.  Both in college and at my apartment in France, I had a three foot deep desk.  As it turns out, you can't easily find a desk like that on the retail market, but I loved the size.  I bought a kitchen table to be my desk and it's been working out great for crafting because there's so much space.  The table and four chairs was about $150.  I use two of the chairs elsewhere in the house.

On top of my desk, I use a variety of small shelving pieces.  I have four of the Quickkutz Magpie storage units.  I bought these in 2009 for a total of $24 at Big Lots.  Funny thing- I didn't know they were meant as scrapping storage until last year.  I thought I was clever to use them for my punches.  They were displayed with discontinued items from Rite Aid so I thought they were meant to organize cosmetics.  :)  I also have a plastic shelf that was about $5 at Dollar General and some random wood shelves that were between $1-6 at Goodwill as well as some plastic crates from Dollar Tree and even a couple of cardboard boxes.  My Copics are in empty frosting tubs- free!  Under my desk, there's a plastic drawer unit that holds some additional punches, inks, envelopes, and more.  I also have a cork board above the desk with some important info, templates, and a couple of inspirational cards.  My grandmother made a birthday card for me a few months before her severe stroke in 2010 and I proudly display it on my board as a tribute to her.  The other inspirational card is from Sandy of OWH from when I won a prize.  I keep it there to remind me of the great work OWH does. 

My Cuttlebug station sits just behind my desk chair.  It's a computer desk that I bought at Habitat Restore.  It could use new paint, but I would probably just mess it up again while being crafty, so for now I'll just say it has some character!  All of my Cuttlebug supplies fit on the top.  The keyboard drawer holds my glue gun and heat gun along with a craft mat.  Below is more open shelving for storage.  My sewing machine lives at the bottom of this cabinet as well.  Check out that blue beauty! 

I use embroidery floss boxes for buttons, eyelets, and brads but I prefer the old ones to the new ones.  The plastic seems flimsier on the one I just got at the craft store than on the ones I've had since elementary school.  My solution- I bought a few more at Goodwill for the same price as a new one but they were the better quality plastic. 

 I love, love, love using these plastic drawers for stamp storage. I paid $2 each on clearance at Walmart because the color was discontinued, but these are generally available for about $6.  If you want some, look in a few weeks when the back to school items go on clearance.  One layer of wooden stamps in each drawer isn't heavy enough to destroy the unit (though doubling up in all the drawers will cause them to start buckling).  I have my $1 stamps sorted by themes and I use them often thanks to the ease with which I can locate them.  Line the drawers with grippy shelf liner to keep stamps from sliding all around when you open and close the drawers.  On top of these shelves, I have a Canada Dry caddy that was 50 cents or $1 at Goodwill.  It holds all of my pens, tools, scissors, and the like and it's super sturdy. See the serving fork there, ready to make bows? 

Scraps and full 8.5 x 11 cardstock are stored in these two bins.  At about $5 each plus the cost of file folders, they are an inexpensive way to sort papers and remain portable  Nearby, the green plastic drawers hold rarely used tools like a tag maker, large stapler, circle cutter, and more as well as supplies for other crafts I enjoy.  

Most of my storage is boxes on shelving.  This Ikea bookcase has been around for a long time.  I picked it out for my bedroom when I was in elementary school and it's been serving me well ever since.  I have no idea what my parents paid for it, but I know that it's been well worth the price.  The binders hold my stickers.  Paper trays hold cardstock that I've purchased by the ream.  Small plastic shoeboxes hold random embellishments like chipboard sets, extra adhesives, and more.   I keep a ream of 11x17 paper on hand to cover my work space if I'm going to be inky.  Under the shelves, I store my cropping tote. 

My other shelving is a set of 5 cubes for paper storage.   I lucked out and was able to get these cubes at Big Lots in 2009 for $8 each.  Michaels sells identical cubes with white shelves (mine are pink and green, not that you can tell for all of the paper) for $35 each. 
   
A plastic shelving unit holds my lightbox, ribbons, clear stamps, and Stampin Up sets I rarely use.  It was about $11 at Habitat ReStore. I keep cards that are ready to go in a large FRB on top.  This one's about half full. 

I glanced back through my post and totaled up what I've spent in storage for my room- about $300, half of which was the dining set.  I know everyone has a different budget to work with, and I was hoping this might inspire crafters on a low budget to look into secondhand stores for items that could work.  I am more concerned with function than looks, so I don't mind the mix of colors and materials in my room.   If it's important to you that your space be cohesive, look for items that you can paint and opportunities to pull in a fabric such as on chair cushions, curtains, and wall art.  For now, I will be happy to sink my craft budget into papers, tools, and postage for OWH instead of perfectly matched furniture. 

At four years old, my craft room is finally "done."

What creative storage solution makes your space work for you?

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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Goal Update

We're 2/3 of the way through 2012.  Can you believe it?  I know I can't quite fathom the idea of going back to school later this month.  I have to go to training today, in fact, so I guess that will kickstart the BTS season for me.

I thought it was an appropriate time to review my cardmaking goals for 2012 and check my progress.  Copied below in italics are my goals that I blogged about in January.  

My sample for Sketch #104

1. I want to do every OWH sketch this year. Past and upcoming sketches together, that will be just over 150 sketches. 

I'm totally on track with goal #1.  I've finished all of the numbered sketches that have been published thus far and I've done most or all of the bonus sketches.  I just need to go back through the bonus sketch document that has them numbered and check them off.  As a sidenote to this goal, I was honored to make the sample cards for two of the sketches earlier this year, #104 and #120!   
 

Some of my best coloring at this point

2. I want to color at least 20% of my cards because I need to develop this skill. This will be hard to track, but can be a guiding percentage as I craft.
20% might have been an unrealistic goal for me in January but I think I might get there by December.  I still don't enjoy coloring, so it's not something I do that often.  It's also really easy to do multiples with pre-colored digis and sometimes I do like to take the easy way out!  (I definitely made about 40 cards with pre-colored digis this week.) Two things that have helped somewhat in this goal are my growing collection of marker colors and having the correct ink, Memento Tuxedo Black.  My images come out without smearing and match my papers better now that I have a few more markers.  The box that's currently filling up has 155 cards of which 20 have coloring.  That's about 13%.  I still have some work to do if I want to make it to 20%. 
 

Fun AnyHero cards using mazes I bought at the Dollar Tree.

3. I want to include at least 1 AnyHero card for every 50 cards I make. I'm often so into the crafting that I neglect to write special messages for our heroes. 
Yes and no on this one.  As you can see in my signature below, I've sent in 215 AnyHero cards this year.  Of those, about 200 were written by my students at school.  If I count only the cards I've personally written, I'm a handful behind.  Good thing that's this week's Midweek Throwdown! 

 

Just one way I am trying to stay organized- this bin holds scraps and a second one like it holds 8.5 x 11" cardstock.

4. Purge then organize my craft room. I saw my aunt's space over the holidays and was enamored with her very organized space. 
Yes, or very nearly so.  I spent a good deal of time on this task in the past two weeks.  I took a carload of items to Goodwill from all over the house including the craft room, purchased new-to-me furniture to provide additional craft storage and workspace, and now have a much more useful craft room. I moved into this house in 2008 and there were some boxes in my craft room that hadn't been used much or at all in that time.  I also had a much, much, much smaller collection of stuff when I moved here.  I think I had two paper punches, a corner rounder and a fleur de lis.  Now I have well over 100.  Previously, I crafted in my craft room and also in the dining room just to have extra space to spread out and use my Cuttlebug.  Now, my Cuttlebug has its own dedicated space so my craft room is much more functional.  The part that remains to be seen is if I can keep the space neat!  It's not a pretty space (my furniture doesn't match, the walls are boring white, etc) but I intend to post pictures soon in case they inspire anyone else on a small budget to overhaul their space. 
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 928 blank and 215 AnyHero (as of 6/26)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Check out OWH at www.operationwritehome.org to learn more about its mission and how to get involved.

Scrap box

Since I can't post photos directly to Facebook (and I have no idea why), I decided to post my scrap box here.  This is a recent set-up for me.  The file box holds legal hanging folders organized by color.  Last weekend I actually went through my scraps and used many of them up making some cards.  I think I'll be keeping this box under my desk from now on so it will be easy to grab a scrap when needed and to file them when I make them.  

I'm starting to wonder why I don't keep my 8.5 x 11 cardstock in the same kind of container.  That might turn into my next organizational upgrade.  
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Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: 302 blank and 200 AnyHero (as of 3/4)
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Quick tip: storage

Hi everyone, 
I just wanted to share a quick storage tip today.  I love dimensional foam, but I can't stand it when it gets covered with lint.  Thank goodness I don't have any furry pets, or I'd really be going crazy! 

I don't buy the gigantic roll that Sandy's shown on OWHtv several times.  I found some thin, economical foam tape at Big Lots for $1.50.  The roll is about 4 inches in diameter.  To store the roll, I pop it in this Laughing Cow cheese container.  It's the right size and it keeps the tape tidy. 

My tape won't moove out of sight in this container! 

If you're looking for the Big Lots foam tape, I originally found it in the craft section in one store.  When I visited another location, it was in the hardware aisle.  The package is yellow, teal, and purple.  The roll pictured is partially used, so what you would buy is a good bit larger.
 
Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: none thus far, but my box is filling up nicely!
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695

Organization: embossing folders

I've amassed a large collection of embossing folders over the past two years. The majority are the A2 size that emboss an entire card front. I have so many that it takes a bit of time to flip through them and find the one I want. I recently decided I needed a method to organize them further. I took a permanent marker and wrote the name of the folder on the front of the folder in an inconspicuous place. I like to be able to list the style on my blog but I rarely remember. This will help. I store my folders in a small plastic crate meant to hold CDs or DVDs ($1-$1.50 at dollar stores and big box stores). I'm going to make dividers for themes: floral, geometric (polka dots, stripes, plaids), characters (Disney), text, love, Christmas, stars, and other. I suspect this bit of organization will halve the time I spend looking for a folder. :)


Cards shipped to OWH in 2012: none thus far, but my box is filling up nicely!
Cards shipped to OWH in 2011: 1695