Artsy Fartsy Friday {Linky Party}

Another week almost down in the books for summer, and time for another Artsy Fartsy Friday link up with Jena Hudson from Sew Much Music and myself!

I was so busy this week presenting at our district's conference Digipalooza, part of the Department of Education's Summer of eLearning Tour, that I was unable to do any of my projects that I was wanting to complete; however, I didn't want that to stop anyone from participating in on the fun and showing off your 'artsy fartsy' projects. 

If you have missed the linky party in the past and are unsure of what it is, check out my post here for all of the info on linking up. 

Happy Artsy Fartsy Friday, Everyone!

6 Months 'Til Christmas Sale!

I love a good sale just as much as the next person. What do I love even more than a sale? Christmas! Along with some other great Teachers Pay Teachers sellers, I am throwing a 6 Months 'Til Christmas Sale in my store to celebrate that we are six months closer to Christmas!

This sale is two days only, June 24th and 25th, and everything in my store is 20% OFF! I have some great resources to grab prior to the beginning of the school year, and there is no better time to grab these items than now! 

Here are some of my newer items and most popular sellers. You can click on any of the images below to check them out in my store, or you can check out ALL of my sale items here: 

This adorable chevron and bird behavior management clip chart pack includes everything you need to manage behavior and communicate students' behavior with parents.

This all about me pack includes two different types of pennant banners for students to decorate and fill out to let their classmates get to know them, as well as a writing creativity. Perfect for the first few weeks of school!

Everyone needs a little motivation sometimes, right? These brightly colored chevron and chalkboard posters are meant to motivate and inspire your students, and you, throughout the school year. 14 posters included in this pack. (I have one of these adorable posters as a freebie in my store. Be sure to grab it!)

This B.I.R.D. (Be Independent and Ready Daily) binder is perfect to get your students organized and allows for teacher-parent communication with ease. Did I mention that this is editable?!

This chevron and chalkboard calendar set is perfect to add some color and spunk to any classroom. Grab before the beginning of school year and allow yourself time to get it printed, laminated, and cut out long before school begins. (The tooth tally chart in this pack is A-DOR-A-BLE!)

I personally can't wait to get this up in my classroom before school begins. This EDITABLE word wall features both chevron and bird themes, but would be great to add color to any classroom. Add your own high frequency word lists that align with your own curriculum, and you'll be ready to go.

This is a BEST SELLER and for good reason. This chevron and chalkboard themed numbers 1-20 is perfect for any classroom. Each poster displays the numeral, numeral word, tens frame, tally mark(s), and base ten block(s). Perfect for showing different ways of making a number. 

Head over to The Learning Highway for a great giveaway and check out the other stores that are throwing sales!

Artsy Fartsy Friday {Linky Party} Tissue Poms

It is that time again, folks! Jena Hudson from Sew Much Music and I are bringing to you another Artsy Fartsy Friday! Are you ready to get artsy fartsy? Link up at the bottom to show off your artsy projects you are working on this summer. 

For this Friday's Artsy Fartsy Friday post, I am showing you my tissue pons that I made to hang in my classroom. I am doing a bird themed classroom, and have recently painted my entire room a "Seascape Green," which is, surprisingly, not green, and actually the prettiest robin's egg bluish color. I am in love with it, but that is besides the point...

Since my room is blue, to look like sky, I wanted to make and hang white tissue poms to be my clouds.

Now, I know what you are thinking. There are TONS of tutorials on how to make these tissue poms all over the internet. I have looked at several of them, and they all made sense to me until it came to the "fluffing" part of it. None of the tutorials I have seen really give good descriptions, or pictures, of this important step, and it intimidated me to even try to make my own. After searching at Hobby Lobby for white poms, and failing at finding any, I finally decided I was going to sit down and try to figure it out. 

I hope that my tutorial will help you out if you decide to make your own. 

Materials Needed:

-Tissue paper (I used ten sheets per pom, so calculate it up depending on how many you want to make.)

-Scissors

-Floral Wire

Step 1: Gather tissue paper.

 I wanted my poms to be full so that they would look like fluffier clouds, so I chose to do ten sheets of tissue paper. I lined them up, horizontally, and did the best to get all ends together. 

Step 2: Fold tissue paper.

I started at the end and folded the tissue paper at about an inch, back and forth in an accordion fashion.

Step 3: Cut ends of tissue paper stack.

I didn't want my poms to be edgy or point when they were fluffed. I wanted them to be rounded to give the fluffy appearance. To do this, I rounded each end by cutting the ends off at a curve.

Step 4: Secure tissue paper.

I cut about four inches of floral wire and tied it around the center of my tissue paper stack, and then I twisted the ends to secure the wire from unraveling. 

Step 5: Begin to fluff.

To fluff, I fanned out one side of the floral wire center. I then began to peel down each layer of tissue paper. I would do one for one side, and then peel down one for the other side, continuing that until all of the layers were fluffed out. 

Then repeat the process on the other end. Fan it out, and begin to peel down, and fluff, each layer of tissue paper. 

Step 6: Fluff, fluff, fluff.

After having all the layers of tissue paper out and fluffed, I needed to play around with the tissue paper to get it to look just the way I wanted it to. The fuller, the better. 

Step 7: Add wire and hang.

This step I don't have pictures for because I have yet to actually do this, (but I am really excited to). In order to hang, you will need to find the center of your pom where your floral wire is tied. Take some string or wire and tie around the floral wire center at the desired length. Hang, and voila! 

I will be doing a post of my newly renovated classroom once it is completed and ready for the school year, so be sure to check it out and look for these tissue pom "clouds" hanging all around! 

Now it is your turn to either link up, or check out other artsy fartsy projects going on for Artsy Fartsy Friday. 

Artsy Fartsy Friday {Linky Party} Filing Cabinet Makeover

I have been so excited about launching this linky party with my friend Jena Hudson from Sew Much Music, and it is finally here! Still unsure what this linky party is all about? Check out my previous post with all the details and info right here. 

Want to link up? Here's what to do:

1. Grab the Artsy Fartsy image and link to one of our blogs.

2. Blog about a craft or project you have been working on this week.

3. Link up at the bottom of this post. 

Now onto my Artsy Fartsy Friday project: Filing Cabinet Makeover.

I am completely transforming my classroom this summer, and one of the first things I had to check off of my to-do list was my filing cabinets. They were the extremely dull tan color, and they were real eye sores in my room. With the help of Jena, we quickly decided on ways to beautify our drab filing cabinets, and we are both extremely happy with our results. 

To begin your own filing cabinet makeover, you will need the following items:

-Spray paint (for a small, 2-drawer cabinet you will need 2 cans--for a large, 4-drawer cabinet you will need 4 cans.)

-Gloves (We used latex gloves from the nurse's station)

-Painter's tape 

-Tarp

-Contact paper

-Ruler

-Scissors

-Exacto Knife

-Squeegee

-Wrench or screw driver

Step 1: Prepare to paint your filing cabinet.

Take the drawers out of the filing cabinet. Lay a tarp out and place your filing cabinet on it. If you are doing this outside, I would advise either taping the ends of the tarp down so they don't fly up on your newly painted cabinet, or place items to hold the ends down. Use painter's tape to protect any areas on your filing cabinet you don't want painted such as a school inventory label or lock.

Step 2: Get your paint on.

I am doing a colorful room this year, and I wanted my filing cabinets to go right along with that. For my smaller, 2-drawer cabinet, I chose Krylon spray paint in the color Watermelon. It was the perfect shade of pink to go with the chevron contact paper I purchased to go on my drawers. For my taller, 4-drawer cabinet, I chose Krylon spray paint in the color Bright Idea. Yellow is my favorite color, and this paint was the perfect shade. For the 2-drawer cabinet I used 2 cans of paint, and 4 cans for my 4-drawer cabinet. Be sure to shake your can of spray paint for 1-2 minutes prior to painting, and make sure you put on your gloves. (I learned the hard way of not wearing gloves. If you want to spare your hand from getting paint all over it, I would certainly advise wearing a glove on the hand you are using to paint.)

Now, begin painting. This is where your patience needs to show up (and your muscles). You'll need to use long, slow swipes from side to side from top to bottom when painting. Your first time through, you will not see the coverage you are going to be hoping for... and that's okay. Trust me, you don't want to spray too much paint in one spot. Spray a coat on each side of your cabinet, and let the sides dry before applying another coat. It took three coats to get the look that I wanted on my cabinet. 

Don't forget to spray the front panels in between where your drawers will go. These are tricky little parts that are easily looked over until drawers are inserted. 

Step 3: Drawers

While waiting on your layers of paint to dry on your cabinets, begin removing the hardware on your drawers. This can be a bit tricky because between Jena and I, we had FOUR different types of filing cabinets, and each had different hardware on the drawers. There are screws on the inside of your drawer that you will need to be removed in order to get the handles off and to pop off the latch and other hardware. (Be sure to check out Jena's post to see what the inside of your filing cabinet looked like and what all she had to do to remove the hardware. Mine was much simpler on the inside than hers.) Any hardware that cannot be removed will just need to be cut around with an Exacto knife when applying your contact paper. 

Next, you'll need to measure out your contact paper to fit your drawers. I added about a quarter of an inch to all sides of my contact paper so that I was certain to have enough to cover the entire front surface after having to cut around hardware. Then cut out your contact paper to the size you measured.

Now comes the fun part. Applying the contact paper. I began by peeling about an inch all the way across the top of the backing of the contact paper off and then stuck it to the top of my drawer. I made sure that the inch was completely smooth and no bubbles before peeling more of the back off and applying more of it to the drawer. As I removed the backing to apply the paper, I used a ruler to help get out the bubbles and make it smooth. (A squeegee would probably work best, but a ruler was all I had.)

I couldn't remove some hardware from my drawer, so I simply just cut around it with an Exacto knife. (It wasn't as hard as it may sound.) 

I continued to smooth out the contact paper with the ruler until I made it to the bottom of the drawer. I then folded the remaining contact paper on the sides of the drawer down so they weren't sticking out. 

Then, I needed to reapply my handles that I had removed. 

Any excess bubbles in the contact paper can be solved by using a safety pin (or tack) to poke a tiny hole in the bubble. It smooths it right out, really! 

Step 4: Put everything together.

Now, add your new (and cuter!) drawers into your lovely new cabinet, and voila! 

Here are my two different filing cabinets. 

Here is my 4-drawer cabinet with Jena's 2-drawer filing cabinet. (I love her colors, too!)

Be sure to check out Jena's post here to see how she made her bright pink and gray chevron filing cabinet. 

I'm so excited to share all of the projects that I will be working on for my classroom throughout the summer, so don't forget to check back every Friday. Don't forget to link up your own 'artsy fartsy' projects at the bottom of my post. I look forward to seeing what everyone else is out there creating!

 

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