Brooke's Florida School Project

This past week, my daughter Brooke, had to do a presentation on one of the states in the USA. She chose "The Sunshine State" of Florida. 

I guess if you're gonna have to a project like this to do in March, it might as well be some place sunny & warm!

At first, I was going to use my Cricut to cut out the state of Florida using the "50 States" Cricut cartridge. It's a great cartridge for this kind of thing & the very reason I got it in the first place. But Brooke wanted a really large state cut out. To be honest with ya, I was not all that comfortable trying to cut the state into two pieces with my Cricut. So, I relied on my Silhouette Cameo to do it for me using their Designer Studio. It made very quick work with no guess work needed on my part.

You can clearly see the seam where I had to piece this together, but that was my own sloppiness. This cutting technique is easy when you use the knife tool in the Designer Studio program. That program is extra (like $50?) but it's well worth it if you like being a little more creative with your designs. Luckily, mine was free as part of a Christmas promotion.

The poster is really pretty simple in design, but it's how my daughter wanted to do it, which probably makes it easy for her and the rest of the 3rd grade class to absorb. 

We put everything on a piece of white foam board that we purchased at Dollar Tree for $1. The colored poster board we used for the blue and the yellow is less than a dollar! (I think it was 69 cents - white is 50 cents) And this poster board cuts on the Cameo like a dream!

I thought it was cute that she wanted the sun at the bottom corner to look like the "Cutie Mark" on Celestia from the My Little Pony cartoons. 

The font that was used for the Florida title is called "Upper East Side". If you click on the font name, it will take you to Dafont.com, where you can download it for free!

The font that was used for "The Sunshine State" is called "Walt". I'm not sure where I got that exact font, but Dafont.com has one almost identical called "Waltograph."


Brooke said that everyone was fascinated with her poster and swarmed all around to get a better look at it. And here I thought it was very plain & simple. 

I guess that just goes to show that the best projects are the ones that are "Simple with a 'Wow!' factor."

Now that this is all done, I'm going to cover the backside of the foam board with fabric and use it as a back drop for taking pictures of my projects.

 
Parties I'm linking to:

Kinda tootin' over here...

How do you like THAT title? hee hee. 

It's been some time ago that this even happened. And of course, I announced it on my Facebook page when it happened - and you KNOW I did! If the truth be known, it's not even really the first time I've tooted either. No! Really! I bet you didn't know I was that talented. uh-huh. I tooted the month before too! You have no idea how relieved I am now. Wheeeeew-eeee!


Let me show you an example of what makes me toot.
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I was published in the Cricut Magazine's Holidays Issue back in the late Fall of 2011!


And here's more reason...

And even more! I just can't stop!

How pretty did they do that up?! It looks so much prettier than MY picture of it hanging from my hubby's spray painted, flat metal train decor thing on his man-cave room mantel. LOL! Not sure why I didn't hang it from the mantel in the living room....maybe it wasn't finished yet. You can see my picture of this here.

Well, now that I've got that outta my system, I'm happy to say it was all worth it.  Yep, that was a whole lotta load off.  Don't you agree?


I haven't been all that crafty lately. I've been working on some Christmas stockings, but not much really coming of them so far. I've been mostly just playing online and just when I finally discovered Picnik, they're deciding to close. I was seriously about to pay for a year to get the Premium stuff too. I love how it turns my pictures into something better than just me alone. What the??  However,I think I am the reason that this is happening. No really. It seems that every time I find something that I like, and I mean REALLY like, it ceases to exist anymore. It doesn't really matter what it is. It's most prevalent with food and it drives me nuts at the grocery store. Am I the only one this happens to?  It's like....Whoa! That Beth chic is starting to like this stuff, so we best mess up her world and get rid of it - nooooow! Look out Pinterest, you could be in danger. And naturally, blogs will no longer be cool to have once I finally start getting somewhere with mine. Facebook is safe for a little while, I'm not all that into it (yet - shhhhh!) but they do change it more than my mother changes her mind. And you don't eeeeeven want to go there.


My sweet child came home from school today complaining of not feeling well and she has a fever, so it looks like cheerleading class ain't happening for her tonight and Alan is working really late. Looks like a good night to work on that mini album that I've only been in a creative block with for 7 months now. 

This Marks the Spot!

Before I get started on my topic at hand, I want to mention an opportunity for YOU to win a $50 gift card. Yes, I said a $50 gift card!  Who couldn't use an extra 50 bucks? All you have to do is head on over to Debbie Doo's blog to see what green apples and Head & Shoulders have in common.

Now, onto my topic....I have been trying to get into crafting again. I still need to do some serious organizing, but when inspiration strikes, ya just gotta go with the flow. I used to make book marks a few years ago for my craft shows and they were pretty popular, because they're inexpensive and practical gifts for teachers. This is not your ordinary book mark. I seen the style for these somewhere, and I'll be darned if I can remember where, maybe a scrapbook magazine?

Anyway, I thought they were a cute style and I liked the way they fit over the top of the page to stay in place better.

What about you? Do you read more in the colder/winter months? I don't. I should, but I don't. I either can't find anything that interests me or I can't put it down until it's done.

And how cute is this book page?!! I can't say that I've ever seen sketches done in RED before! The book is from the 60's and I think I may have gotten it from a garage sale or from a box full of books that our neighbor brought over. I'm not too sure. I just thought it was a cute book.

Having the bookmark fit over the top of the page is not the only positive side to this. It can also save the exact line you left off at! 

 

This image is the backside of the bookmark, and I've finished it off too, cuz ya just can't leave it all ugly & neglected!

I used scalloped circle punches that I picked up at 40% off from Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago. They come in 4 sizes and being a scrapbooker, of course I have all 4.  ;^)

So, I have several of these I'm wanting to make for my craft shows that are later this year. I'm also going to make different shapes for the top. 

I made these for my daughter's class last year for Valentine's Day and I used my Cricut to cut out heart shapes for the top instead of the scalloped circles. I kept those pretty simple since I had to make 30 of them. There was no cute little embossed shape over the strip portion, just kept 'em basic. I wished I would have taken a picture of those, but I'm pretty sure I didn't.


I'm sorry that I forgot to make a tutorial on how to make these, but maybe I'll get around to it when I get a little more motivated. Tutorials are a lot of work & I sing the praises to anyone who does them!! Aaaaaand, you get bonus praises if you do videos!!

So. Is it cute?  For a bookmark?

  

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