A few crafts for my classroom

I am a teacher by profession. I taught highschool French and Chemistry for 3 years and Jr. High Science fo 5 years. I took a break from teaching to have kids. When we moved to St. George, I decided to try to find a teaching job. I was too late to find a job teaching science, but I found an opening as a study skills teacher.... which I love! My students told me that my classroom was boring... so I thought I'd take care of that!!! I made this adorable bunting to hang across my boring chalkboard... It's always top priority to count down until summer break... ... and no classroom can be complete without a calendar. The dates are laminated and attached with velcro so that I can use different dates for each month. ( I have loved having a laminating machine at my disposal)

I used my Cricut a little, the old-style Ellison die cut machine at the school, and a pair of scissors to create all of these crafts! It was also a fun way to use some of my papers that I didn't think I would use on my scrapbook pages.

-Anisa

Home made Wheat Bread

I am in no way a food storage guru. But I am trying to work on getting my year supply of food storage. I believe that food storage needs to be used and rotated. My kids are good at using and rotating our brownie mixes, but we need to work on using the wheat and beans and things like that. When we moved my parents a few months ago, we moved laundry detergent, toilet paper and wheat (among other things) that they had in their food storage for 40 years.... not so good at rotating their food storage. I also found a brand new Kitchen Mill Wheat grinder that had never been used. So, a couple of days ago, I decided I was going to grind up some wheat! With the wheat grinder, it was a piece of cake! All I had to do was scoop the wheat in and the machine did the work.

Look at this beautiful wheat flour!

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com. I love allrecipes.com. I love that people leave their reviews with their suggestions. I know there are a lot of other things you can add to your wheat bread that make it fabulous... like gluten. I did not have any on hand... and I made this bread on a whim. I even used more wheat flour than the recipe called for and it turned out fabulous! Isn't it pretty? I totally want to have some as a snack right now!

-Anisa

A few changes.....

In case you haven't noticed, Cami and Angie have decided to leave Twiddle Thumbs. I even had my moments when I thought about giving it up as well.... but I love crafting and I like to have a place to share my passions with others. So, I'm just not ready to give it up yet! I'm going to miss working with Angie and Cami... I miss living by them as well.

I have a lot of fun changes in mind, so check back often....

-Anisa

Cloth Diaper Burp Cloths

It's been a busy week for me... and I've had sick kids... no fun. I needed to get a baby shower gift for my friend, Rachel... but just didn't really have time. I live about 20-25 minutes from Target, Old Navy, etc.... and just wasn't up for a drive clear across town. Plus, I really like to make home made gifts for my friends. On my way home from work, I stopped by a little boutique and saw burp cloths... they wanted $20 for them!!!! I had actually purchased some cloth diapers to make burp cloths to go with this blanket... so, I thought, I guess I'll make some girl ones for Rachel. I had minky left over from the blanket... and this super cute fabric that I had bought for a project for my sister in law...(that I never made)... So, I started cutting, and sewing.... I'm into appliqué right now.... so I appliquéd a flower on the minky to give it a little something extra... Here are pics of each burp cloth... (I didn't do a tutorial for the burp cloths, but I found a tutorial online at Chickpea Sewing Studio that is similar to the same technique that I used) Here's a little tip about your bobbin thread.... it is the thread that shows on the back. So, when doing a project like this, use white bobbin thread... then the thread doesn't show! Here are the burp cloths all wrapped up... I totally love how they turned out and I hope she likes them too! -Anisa

(PS Shellie... I am still going to make you some to go with the owl blanket)

Nothing a little Appliqué won't fix

I have 3 boys... I pass their clothes down. My oldest son had this lovely jacket from his elementary school last year... Well, it's a nice jacket, but he doesn't go to school there... plus it doesn't fit him. So, my second son inherited it. I thought I would try to do a little appliqué to cover up the words. I first appliquéd the star... I wanted something subtle, so I went with a gray and black plaid scrap that I had. Then I appliquéd a guitar over the star. To give it a little pizazz, I did a little zigzag stitch in bright blue over the whole thing. It turned out totally cute!!! And my little boy loves it... my hubby was even impressed. -Anisa

Baby Boy Blanket

Riley Blake Designs has this super cute baby boy owl fabric! When my sister in law and I first saw it, we fell in love with it! Lucky for her, she was pregnant with a baby boy at the time. So, she bought some fabric to make a cute car seat cover.

There is a cute little fabric store that I drive by every day on my way to and from work. I have purposely avoided it because... well, I knew I would spend money there. So, the other day I needed some ric rac for a project (that I need to post about) and I saw that they had the cute owl fabric! My sister in law had mentioned that she wanted a light weight blanket to match her car seat cover. Something she could lay the baby on. So, I got to work! And I discovered that the fabric comes in flannel too! I wanted to use minky because it's really soft... and I had a bit of the lighter brown color left over from a project. Just be careful with minky because it's very stretchy... it caused some problems for me and a little unpicking... and the blanket still doesn't lay as flat as I would like it to, but I still think it turned out cute... and it's super soft! I wanted to give it a little character so I used bright red thread and did some zig zag stitching along the seams. It was super fun to make and I hope baby West loves it!

-Anisa

Repurposed Twin Bed.... Bench!

A few months ago, a twin headboard and footboard showed up in the garage. I asked my mom what she was doing with them and she said... "making a bench." She began to explain to me that the headboard is the back of the bench, the footboard becomes the sides... so it sat for awhile... and finally this weekend I got my hubby to help me make it into a bench. The first thing we did we measured how deep we wanted our bench to be. We wanted it to be 18" deep, so we measured 18" in from each side and marked the wood. We then cut the footboard to length. We then attached the two footboard pieces to the headboard to form a bench.... And we needed a place to sit. We used some scrap 1x4's that we had laying around. Make sure your bench pieces are sturdy because.... well, they have to hold your weight. We wanted our bench to be about 18" off the ground, so with our design, it worked out to screw the wood into the top board from the bottom.... it all depends on the style of your bed. Now I have to paint it.... -Anisa

Birthday and January Banner

A couple of months ago, I made these cute banners. Well, I need to keep making one for each month. So, here are the last two that I made. The "Celebrate" one is mostly for birthdays. I didn't get it made in time for my hubby's b-day in December, but it was finished for my little boy's birthday in January. My favorite so far is the January banner. I had some fun die cut felt that I was able to use and I did a lot of stitching! I love the colors... red, turquoise and gold... and I love the stitching. A couple of close ups... I've got my paper for February... now let's see if I can some up with something creative to do with it! --Anisa