The Improved Tanks

I decided to "upgrade" the gecko and frog tanks. They were kinda boring. Since adding some new stuff in, ChaCha wanders around more (you really can't expect much more from a gecko) and the frogs seem to talk all day and are hopping and swimming around constantly. Even as I'm typing this I can hear the little froggies croaking away. My hope is to upgrade the frogs to a 20-gallon tank with a waterfall at some point. I saw some stuff online that says you can also have newts in with them but I'll have to look into it more before I introduce a potential "when animals attack" segment. ChaCha is enjoying her new lawn (fake grass in the back right corner from a fishtank). What do you think?

Stamp Something Challenge -- Something Sparkly!

I found this online challenge from the Stamp Something website. The challenge was to create a card that is sparkly or glittery. It's hard to see, but the cherries on the cupcakes are done with red Stickles. What do you think?

Flourishes -- from Step Outside Your Box

I linked to Step Outside Your Box from the Odd Bird Planet website. Their challenge is to turn flourishes into objects. I had a blast trying to figure out what to do with them. Here's what I came up with so far.

Here's a link to their site: Step Outside Your Box

The first idea I came up with was the magic lamp. I used paper called Far East that I got at AC Moore as the background. I went nuts with the embossing powder: clear embossings that say "magic", gold embossings that say "three wishes" and some silver embossing designs that came on the paper. I added a few lines to the flourish to make it more magic lamp-like. The smoke from the genie lamp is liquid applique with a little bit of embossing crystal glitter.

The second one popped into my head while my mom was playing around with the flourishes...I saw a part of a dress. One of my closest friends is getting married next month. Maybe that's what sparked it. I used two flourishes for the dress. It was colored very lightly with Prismacolor pencils.

What do you think?

12 on the 12th

Mom and I started doing "12 on the 12th". It's a scrapbooking expedition where you take 12 pictures on (duh) the 12th of each month and then do a layout. As mom and I started our first layout we realized how difficult it is to fit twelve pictures on the same page! July's will be better!

Artsy stuff

I recently went out to California to visit my family. I absolutely LOVE the scenery out there. Here are some of my favorite artsy shots...

Barnyard Card

Here's the card I made for the Caardvark challenge. I went with something simple and I think it came out pretty nice :)

Valentines

Here are some pictures of some Valentines I made this year. The guys liked that they were circular. :)

Update...

No word from me in quite awhile.... since the last post about my "new classroom" toxic mold was found in my school and most of the building was shut down. The classroom I had gotten settled into only a few months before was taken away from me and I ended up with this... a desk. Boo.

My new classroom

Well, I'm officially moved into my new classroom. It used to be the copier room so it was quite an adjustment! It's pretty cramped--er...cozy.

My graduation party scrapbook

Here are some of the pages from my graduation party scrapbook

My classroom

I think that decorating a classroom is very similar to crafting at home.... My new classroom is coming together. These are pictures from my "old" classroom (it changes as of Monday). New pictures to come.

Winter cards

Here's a glimpse of my winter cards this year...