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Back to School, Back to Planning

9/15/2015

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Well, it's September. And we all know that means back to school. But what many people may not realize is that for teachers, September is literally our new year. January is just another month in the middle of the year; September is the real 'new year'. So with a new year comes a need for a new planner: a lesson planner!

For 5 years now, I've designed and printed my own lesson planner. It has helped me to keep track of everything going on in my classroom through the year. I honestly don't know if I could function without it anymore.

For 3 years, I've also designed and sold personalized planners for my fellow teachers at school. They love them just as much as I do! Usually, I sit down with a teacher on one day (let's say Monday) and plan out what she wants her planner pages to look like. Then I go home that night, make the changes, and print the pages. Then the next day (Tuesday) after school, I drop off the planner at Staples or Office Depot to be bound. It used to be that binding a planner would take all of 20-30 minutes; just long enough for me to peruse the latest office supplies or run next door to Michaels. But now, it takes at least a day. So I drop it off on Tuesday after school and pick it up on Wednesday after school. Which means I don't give it to my colleague till Thursday. That's 4 days of turn-around! And that's when I don't have anything else going on that interferes with the drop off and pick up. And it assumes they get the binding right the first time (which they don't always - which adds another 3-4 days on).

I was getting frustrated with this long turn-around time and increasingly incompetent workmanship at the store, so I finally broke down and purchased my own binding machine!
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I took this picture immediately after un-boxing it right in my living room. I didn't even bring it down to my workroom! As soon as the box was empty, my cat climbed right in. He loves boxes.

I have had my binding machine for 3 weeks and I've already used it 6 times! I've made several planners for teachers at school (with a less-than-24-hour turn-around!) and a few for online orders.
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Speaking of online orders, I have added physical planners to my Etsy shop! Now that I am in charge of the process from start to finish, I feel confident offering physical planners on a regular basis, not only by special request. So if you are in need of a planner (or know someone who is), please check out my Etsy shop. If you don't see something there that works for your needs, please contact me and we can work out the details for a personalized, printed planner just for you!

Happy New Year to all you teachers!
Happy Planning to all you plannerds!
And Happy Crafting to all!
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Playing with Distress Ink: 3

6/9/2015

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My last day of school was on Friday, so I had to say goodbye to many of my assistants and paras that worked in my classroom this year. And I also needed to say thank you. I could not run my classroom the way I do without the support, knowledge, and humor of my support staff. They are amazing! So I knew I needed to make some special cards just for them.

I have really been loving my distress inks, so I decided to pull them out again for these cards.
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The first set I made was very easy, but they turned out so striking!
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I started by heat embossing with a giant thank you stamp from Hampton Arts (retired - I found it at Goodwill). Then I pressed my ink colors onto my craft sheet and sprayed with water. When everything was nice and wet, I pressed the embossed image into the puddle of color and mushed it around (technical term). I dried, re-mushed, and dried, again and again till I got the mix of colors I liked. Then I just mounted the stamped image on a black card base and that was that!
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The next set used the same distress ink technique (mushing and re-mushing), but I didn't emboss on it first, I die-cut after.
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I used this die from Simon Says Stamp to cut into each inked piece of paper, saving the circles from the insides. I also cut the frame from black card stock so the contrasting colors would pop even more. I adhered the background to a black card base, then in-laid the frame and all the inside circles, using opposite colors for each card pair.

I love the inlay paper technique - it looks like you did a lot more work than you really did! Plus, it lots be use both the positive and negative space of the die cut, which reduces waste. I don't like to throw away any of my beautiful inked papers!
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To finish off these cards, I added a flag with a white embossed Congratulations  with a stamp from Verses Rubber Stamps.

I really liked how these cards turned out! I'm going to make more of them and post them on Etsy, so if you'd like some of your own, head over to my shop and pick one (or two, or ten!) out for yourself!

Happy Crafting!
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