12 Days of Christmas (for a teacher)

Hello all of you out in Digi Land!

The months have flown by and while I have 'thought' of updating my blog, it just honestly got away from me.  So, here I am months later with a post about the holidays.
I will just right to it. ;)

First, for those of you that digitally scrapbook (or even if you don't), have you been checking out the Scrap Orchard's Advent Calendar freebie.  Each day, they "open" a new door to a coordinated freebie and the designer that designed it is 50% for that 24 hours.  If you download each free mini, you end up with a HUGE, gorgeous Christmas kit.  The best part is that you can start now (on day 8) and have a great kit.  You have to get it while it's there, because it is too cool to pass up and if you forget, you miss that day's download.  The best way is to sign up for their newsletter and they send you an e-mail each night at 9 pm (pacific) with the download link.  It is so cool, that I have already been using it - twice!

What have I done with it?  Well, the first thing, is that I am creating my annual Christmas Newsletter with it, but more importantly, I am creating a gift for my daughter's teachers with it.  I found the cutest little idea on, what else, Pinterest.  Here is my link to my board, it is an idea for a 12 Days of Christmas for your teacher over at How Does She.  I pinned it a long time ago, but knew that I wanted to do it sometime.  I love that it is small little gifts for the teacher, but things that they can really use.

So, for the next couple of weeks, I will show you each of the days and how you can do this gift, too.
The first thing that you need to do, is to hit your local office/stationary store.  Some of these items could be found at a discount/Dollar store as well.  I also added some items from a my craft store (JoAnn's).  I really wish that I had planned ahead and got these items back in September, when most of these items were on sale!  I had 2 teachers to do this for, so some of my items, I bought a bigger package and got a better deal.
Here is your shopping list:

• 1 Clipboard - $2.29/each generic Staples brand, but then I embellished it (see Day 1 later)
• 2 Red pens (the original post had 2 red Sharpies, but I thought that regular pens would be of more use) -$4.79/7, enough for both teachers to get 2, plus 3 left over for me
• 3 Binder Clips -$3.99/15 pack of cute red ones.  I split these between the 2 teachers and am keeping the rest
• 4 Dry-Erase marker set - $5.29/4pack
• 5 pkgs. Popcorn $4.99/10 at grocery store
• 6 pkgs Hot Cocoa & marshmallows $2.29/package 10 packets cocoa + $1.99 marshamallow at grocery store
• 7 (times 10 = 70) Paperclips - $1.99/100 red plastic coated ones.  Generic ones would have been cheaper if cost is an issue.  Have your kiddos help count out the 70 that are needed and maybe not tell them that it would be easier to subtract 30, then to add 70 ;)
• 8 Chewing Gum (the original had this as #7, but I couldn't find a package of 7 pieces of gum) $1 at dollar store for a double pack of 8
• 9 Candy Canes - $2.24/ box of 40 minis at JoAnn's, you could give big/regular ones instead.
• 10 Magnets - I chose a ten pack of white board magnets -$3.99
• 11 Pencils - $5.29/24 Ticonderoga (the good ones, you could get the Dollar Store ones, but many times they are more trouble than they are worth, this was enough for both teachers)
• 12 Apple Thank You cards (the original post has 12 apples, I really couldn't see my kids dropping a dozen apples on the teachers desk, so I thought they could find more use out of some hand-made thank you cards.)

optional:

• white card stock (to print your labels on) - I bought a big package since I use it a lot.  $13.99 at Staples.  You could use whatever you have.
• ribbon and/or clear bags- to wrap your gifts
• Package blank cards and and envelopes to stamp/embellish for thank you cards - $6.99/48 cream colored at JoAnn's
• Teacher paper pack - I used to embellish the clipboard and I will use it to make the cards.  I got this one DCWV Grade School at JoAnn's for $9.99.
• Mod Podge - to seal an embellished clipboard. I already had this
• Die-Cut letters - for clipboard.  I used my Sizzix and cut them out with red paper that I had
• Adhesive, hole-punch, scissors, etc.

I will be back tomorrow with how to embellish and decorate the generic clipboard to take it from "whatever" to "how cute".

Mousescrapper Minnie Marathon

Phew!
This weekend was AWESOME!  I participated in 9 Speed Scraps (creating a scrapbook page LO, or layout, based off of rules set up by a moderator in a certain quick turn-around).  They started Saturday morning at 7 am and I went until 9 pm (with a small break in between for a cute 2 yo monster birthday party).  Then Sunday, starting again at 7 and going until late once again.
Eight of these LOs were part of the Mousescrappers Minnie Marathon.  For each LO that I created in the appropriate time limit, I received a Disney-themed digital gift from one of the awesome designers.  Then, when you complete at 8 by this morning, you receive an even bigger Disney "Goodie Bag" full from all the designers.  As an added bonus, if you were in the chat rooms with each Speed Scrap, a lot of the designers would give out discount codes to their stores or even gifts.
It was SO much fun, and my hubby was so good about me being glued to the computer all weekend.
Here are the pages that I completed:

It feels so great to have gotten this many pages done for my Disneyland Album.  I even did a 2-page spread of the one of Luigi and I was able to work within the rules to make my page of Stanley (the Founder) match the one of his sweetie, Lizzie's store.

Haven't done it before?  Now is the time.  Jump in the next time and give it a try. You have nothing to loose!!
TTFN!

Disney Speed Scrap Weekend (or how to complete a lot of pages over the weekend)

Man, I wasn't kidding when I said that my life is centering around Disney right now!  Just this morning, one of my favorite sites - Mousescrappers, posted that they are hosting a Speed Scrap Minnie Marathon this weekend.  YAY!!!
So perfect!  I have all of these pictures from our two trips to Disneyland that I need to get scrapped and this is the perfect opportunity to get some done.
For those that don't know a Speed Scrap is a hosted event, where they give you certain criteria for a LO and you create your page based on those "rules" in a certain allotted time.
For this specific Minnie Marathon, there are 8 separate speed scraps, each with their own participation prize for completing it in time.  Then, as if that isn't great enough, if you complete all 8 in time, you get a goodie bag full of digi scrapbook stuff.

So head over there and check it out.

Now, onto my next 4 pictures for the August Disney Photo-A-Day Challenge
Day 4 - Sport
I chose our speed cone (Racing is a sport)

Day 5 - Fast
I chose, Lightning McQueen.  If anyone is fast, it would a race car!

.

Day 6 - Nobody's Perfect

Since we are potty training mode (for the 4th time), I immediately thought of all the accidents that happen and how some days are Pull-up days and some are Big-Boy-Underwear days.

Day 7 - Child

Have fun and Disney On!

Meagan

Fun Disney Photo Scavenger Hunt Challenge

One of my favorite sites is Mousescrappers.  It is a great community of people that love Disney and Scrapbooking - 2 things that I love.  You mix that with photography and scavenger hunts - 2 more things that I love and you have me quite giddy!
This year, for the first time, we have gotten the Annual Passes to Disneyland and have already gone twice.  We went in April for Spring Break and again in June for the Grand Opening of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street.  For each of these trips, Mousescrappers had photo scavenger hunts.  If you are planning a trip to Disney, I highly recommend printing out the list of things to find and participating.  It is a lot of fun.
In April, the challenge was to find the alphabet in the park by taking pictures of the signs.  You didn't need to find the whole alphabet, but once I got started, I wanted to find them all.
Here is the layout that I did for that one

Then, for June, the Challenge had a new list of items, of which you needed to find 15:

1. Take a photo of something that starts with the same first letter as your first name. It can be a letter itself or an item or character (ie. J for Jasmine, Jammitors, Jar, or Jewel).
2. Since Mid-May marks the end of the Flower and Garden festival take a photo that showcases how well Disney uses plants to decorate the parks. It can be a topiary, or just an arrangement of flowers in a vase, but try to be creative with your photo.
3. Since Mid-May is also the start of Star Wars weekends take a picture of someone with a lightsaber. Can be a character, one of the members of your party, or the Jedis in the Jedi Training Academy. Use your imagination!
4. Take a photo of a wishing well.
5. Take a photo of a bicycle.
6. Try to take a photo with as many Disney rides in it as you can. It will be fun to see how many we can get in one photo (please label the rides in the photo).
7. Take a photo of a restroom sign. Try to find unusual or themed ones. I can’t wait to see how many different and interesting ones there are.
8. Take a photo of some kind of wooden statue. It must be wood! Think of a totem pole or the Indian in Frontierland.
9. Take a photo of a street performer.
10. On my last trip I became obsessed with all of the different trashcans in Disney World. Take a photo of one you find interesting.
11. Take a photo of you and a cast member who helped you in some way.
12. Take a detail photo of something you have never noticed in the parks before. Detail means close up or highlighting one aspect of an item.
13. Take a photo of a meal, snack or drink that you didn’t like so much, try to get you or a party member in the photo with the offending item.
14. Take an up close photo of one of the major icons of the park you are in. If you are on a cruise take a photo of the ship or a major icon of the ship up close (figurehead, aquaduck, main entry chandelier etc..)
15. A photo of some fastpasses, extra kudos if you can show them and the fastpass time clock over the machines in the same photo.
16. Get a photo of something reflected in the water at a park or on a cruise, be creative.
17. Take a photo of Mickey ears of some kind. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a hat, I want to see what you can come up with.
18. A photo of Disney Balloons. Yeah I love Disney balloons.
19. Take a photo of the same spot outside in the morning and again at dusk to see how different they can look. Place them side by side on your layout.
20. Take a picture of a flag of some kind.
21. Take a photo of an umbrella.
22. We all like a good laugh so take a photo of something you find to be funny (a moment, a character acting out, a sign etc..)
23. I love seeing fireworks, so take a photo of some fireworks.
24. I also love night time photos. Take a photo of something at night. Try to be creative.
25. Try to find a merchandise display that really wows you and take a photo of it.
26. Take a photo of the park schedule or tip board. I don’t know if they have this on the cruise ships, but if you can find a schedule of the daily pool games or of the daily activities offered that day on the 

ship then that will work too.

Since we were going for the Cars Land Opening, I tried to do as many of pictures of that as possible.

Here are my 2 pages:

Such fun.  It definitely added a fun element to our Disney trip to be on the look out for these hunt items, so next time, you are traveling to the happiest place on earth, be sure to check out the current list of photo scavenger hunt items - I know that we will! :)

How to Make a Fun Adult Mickey Birthday Party

Like I said, it has been a whirlwind of Disney things these last few months.  I guess that it started in February with my birthday.  I decided to have a Disney Birthday (at the young age of 39).  It started because my girls had innocently asked what theme my party was going to be, and I told them there wasn't one.  Their answer to that was that THEY would always have a themed party.  And I realized that I wanted one, too.  I had seen so many fun things and didn't want to wait for a kid's party to do them.

Here is my pinterest board of Disney stuff.  Check it out.

First thing in the morning, my dear hubby made me breakfast with Mickey-Head shaped pancakes!  How sweet.  Love that man-o-mine :)

We had a full day, but I made time while breakfast was being made to paint my toes to look like Minnie Mouse.  Really easy - just paint red and add white spots with a french manicure polish.  It wasn't perfect, but I loved it.

I had my friend with a Cri-cut cut out some big black Mickey-Heads and I hid them all over the house for my own Hidden Mickey Hunt.  Do you see the hidden Mickey on our fish tank?

I made a Mickey Head out of red tissue paper flowers.  I used it as decoration with other items.  

Plus, I added other fun Mickey elements all around the house.

I made Mickey Head Oreo suckers.  It was really easy (more on the how to's later).

I also made my own version of a Dole Whip - which didn't really turn out like a real Dole Whip.  I am going to have to work on this one some more.  Don't get me wrong, they were still yummy, but . . .

Then, to top it all off, I made Peanut Butter Cupcakes to look like Mickey Mouse.  My favorite thing.  These even had peanut butter cups sunk in the middle.

There were a few other things that I thought about making, but ran out of time.

The best part was that all my friends came, we had a yummy dinner made by my husband.  We all sat and chatted (a lot of talk about Disney :) of course) and had a great time.  What a great birthday.

So, just goes to show that you are never too old for a themed party and certainly never to old for Mickey!!

August Disney Fan Photo-A-Day Challenge

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted anything!  Bad Blogger!!
We have been busy just living life and an AWFUL Lot of Disney :)

For the first time, we got Annual Passes to the magic and when we haven't been at Disney, we have been talking about, or making plans for it, or scrapbooking the pictures from it!  It has been great.
In fact, I wanted to share something with you that I am doing.  A Disney Fan Photo-A-Day Challenge over on Britt-ish Designs Blog.  The Challenge is for the month of August and can be of anything, but I am going to see if I can do them all of Disney-related items.

Day 1 was to take a picture of Mickey, so here is mine.  It is a figurine that my husband's grandmother gave us from her collection.

 Day 2 was to take a picture of something red.  This is the popcorn holder that my 2 yo had to have during the grand opening of Cars Land.  He loves Lightning McQueen

Day 3 was "movie".  This is one part of our Disney DVD collection.

That is it for now, but I plan to come back and post my pictures of the days challenges.  You can participate, too!  Let me know that you are doing your own challenge and we can share with each other.
At the end of the month, I plan on putting them all on a scrapbook page together.

How to Appreciate your teachers (for Teacher Appreciation Week)

It is Teacher Appreciation Week this week - did you know?
This is the week that you let your (or your children's) teacher(s) know that you are thankful for all that they do.
What should you do?  Some grand gesture?  Actually, some of the best ideas are simple ones.
How about a bookmark.  It is easy to make your own, printed on cardstock or stamped with a bit of ribbon.
How about a simple baked treat?
How about a handmade set of Monogram cards, perfect for them to send a little note to someone.
Here is how you can very easily make a set:

1.  Open an 8.5" x 11" page in your print program (I use Storybook Creator by Creative Memories, but you could use Adobe Photoshop and can even do a very simple set in Word).  I set mine up to be portrait.

2. Determine the measurements that you want for your card (usually determined by your envelope size).  To keep things simple, I am dividing my page in half, so that I will have 2 cards on one sheet, each card will be 5.5" x 4.25".

3.   Create a text box in one of the right hand boxes that is about 1.5" wide.  Type your monogram letter in this box.  It should be about large and take up most of the center and in a very bold font (I choose Pickwick, 132 pt.)

If you are doing this process, you will then need to flatten it, in order to fill it with a paper.  Some programs, allow you to insert the shape of the letters and fill them immediately with any paper.  Here is the difference.  In the upper corner, I added a letter in a text box, and then flattened it (therefore, making it an element).  Then, I was able to fill it with a digital paper.  In the lower corner, I inserted the same letter, as a shape, filled with the same paper, but in this program, you can add a border, so I did.

Either way would work.  Now, all you need to do it print them and cut them in half and then fold those in half.  Walla - Monogram cards!

There are many things that you can add to these cards - shadows, elements, ribbons, etc.  But simple is very nice, too!  Make up 5 or 6, add envelopes to match, tie with a ribbon together & instant present!

Thanks to all the teachers in the world!  We love you!

Meagan