Monday Made It >>>> Marquee Letter!

My first ever Monday Made It link up project!!! (except that I made this last Thursday... ha!)

A few weeks ago I was wandering through Hobby Lobby and happened upon these marquee letter light kits. I thought about how great they would like in my classroom library to spell out "READ"... buuuttt I already have letters hanging that spell that out next to my bulletin board. So, that seemed wasteful. Still... I really wanted to do something with one or some of them....

It was only $12.99 for the kit.. which includes everything you need except the batteries. Oh yeah - IT TAKES BATTERIES! Only two AAAs.. which means you can put this baby anywhere you want! No restrictions to outlets or an ugly cord to hide! I pulled up a 40% off coupon on my phone, grabbed an 'M' for my last initial (Morrison) and I was sold.

It shows you on the back of the box that you can decorate it to look however you like because it comes with a template of the letter that you can decorate or use as a tracer and insert into your light. So, I grabbed a sheet of orange glitter cardstock (orange is my favorite color!) and headed to the checkout.

When I got home, I unpacked everything and got to tracing!

 Here's everything you get (minus the hole puncher....)

Here, I traced the 'M' onto the back of the glitter cardstock, cut it out and traced the circles...

But then, I encountered a DIY FAIL! My hole puncher would reach ANY of the holes. So, I had this beautiful 'M" but no way to get the lights to come through. I couldn't locate my xacto knife (I think it is sadly packed away at school.. sigh) So.. I put the project on hold until I got more supplies.

I finally made it to Target one day, and bought some Modge Podge and glitter. I decided instead to just use the template they gave me (that you can see above) and would glitterize it to put back in so I wouldn't have to worry about making those pesky holes.

Here are all of my supplies.. (the Modge Podge was only $1 in the Dollar Spot - just sayin'!)

I started with a small paint brush and just started covering the template in the glue. I didn't want it to dry too quickly, so after I covered the right half with glue I quickly glitterized it and then started to glue the other half.

After I glitterized the entire thing, some of it wasn't quite heavy enough on the glitter compared to other parts, so I touched them up with more glue and glitter... 

...and then finally decided to cover the spots and let the whole thing set and dry for a while.

It still wasn't as perfect as the glitter cardstock would have been.. but oh well, it's good enough!

Once it was dry, I put it all back together.. here are some pictures for you to check out of the finished product!

 from the back, installed and turned on..

A small shot of how it looks if you choose to leave it white... still looks good to me!

I know there are some teachers & DIYers out there who despise glitter.... I'm so sorry for you. I just LOVE glitter. I don't care if it makes a mess. I can vacuum and wipe it up a few times. The clean up does not out weigh the beauty of the sparkle. But, if you really feel that way and want to make one of these sans glitter, the box gives you lots of ideas. You can use duct tape, washi tape, spray paint, you could even color it if you wanted to! You can totally have fun with it and make it what you want!

My new glittery version is going to sit on my bookshelf in the classroom. I am going without a desk this upcoming year and saw a great bookshelf at Office Max that I can stand at with my laptop on the top, and keep my supplies down below. I am low on outlet space over there between my laptop charger, intercom, and CD player, so this battery operated beauty can sit anywhere I want and shine some orange sparkles on me :)

What did you make today!??

Remember Me? [part one]

REMEMBER ME!?

I know.. it's been a looooong time since my last post! It's been crazy busy around here, but I'm back and promise to post more - so please hold me accountable to that!

So, here's what's been going on.... last time I posted I had moved up to 2nd grade and looped with my students! Second grade was wonderful and I absolutely LOVED it! This year, though... I'm moving up AGAIN! I'm headed to 3rd grade! I don't think I am truly looping with my kids again, but I will have a majority of them for a third time... I just don't have my class list yet! [fingers crossed it comes today!]


I've been quite inspired by Pinterest over the summer [aren't we all?!] and my newest craze is ChEvRoN! So, I thought I'd give y'all a peek into my classroom! It's not quite done all the way, still waiting on some chevron border I bought from Creative Teaching Press ....it's been back-ordered since July! I'm hoping it comes in soon. We don't start back until after Labor Day [lucky, I know!] so I still have time... I'm just impatient!

So to start with chevron craziness, I made my own curtains for my classroom this year! Last year, I really wanted to find white cotton valances [harder than it sounds!] for cheap and tye dye them. Well, I never found them. The ones I did find would have been $20 per panel, and I would have needed about 5-6 of them... a little too much for my wallet at the time. I'm glad I didn't end up finding them. As fun as they would have looked, I LOVE the ones I ended up with this summer!
So, I bought some gray and white chevron fabric from Hobby Lobby with my nifty 40% off coupon and got 8 yards for about $35. I also bought this fabric "tape" instead of ribbon to give it a fun accent. I bought 5 different colors for each panel. Then, I just used a heat bond adhesive to put it all together. I don't own a sewing machine, and if I did I don't know how to use it..... so this was the easy option!

Here's what the process looked like:

I just used my iron and my eyes to make the creases straight. The zig zags of the chevron pattern help make it straighter but also help camouflage any mistakes too!
After I made one using the curtain rod I had at home [I knew it was the same as what I had at school] I took it to my classroom to see how it looked. It fit perfectly but it didn't look full, so I decided that I need 2 per panel. I have a large window at the back of my room with two windows side-by-side, and I knew that one would need 3 panels.... so I had a lot of work to do!
The thing about the fabric I bought that I didn't realize until I got it, was that the chevron pattern didn't run continuous over the whole 8 yards, it ran the opposite way. It ended up working out, as the 44" width it came was the way my pattern ran, and all my panels ended up the same width. I just had to cut them to be the same length. Once I made the first one to the length I liked, I just measured it all and got the rough length to cut the rest of the panels.

So here's a close up of all the panels done with their colors!

I have 3 windows that are a standard size... those are the green, pink and orange. The teal panels are my large back window. Then, the yellow is the extra fabric I had left and I made it to cover part of a tall shelf I have for Word Work activities. Since it's so tall, I can cover the top half of items I use mainly as storage and the bottom is open for the kids. I just hung that one with a tension rod [that of course didn't fit!] and two hooks.

Here's a look at them hanging in my classroom:

What do you think? I just LOVE them! They feel so homey and will match just about anything I do down the road!

You can see a bit from here I have a lot of chevron going on...

I made and hung rainbow colors/chevron patterned pennants from my ceiling randomly. I love hanging things from the ceiling! :)

Over where the book bins are, I used gray and white chevron contact paper to line the shelves. I'll be making a chevron mini pennant banner that says "book bins" to hang over the window [check for a part 2 or 3 of this blog in the coming days!]

The new décor I bought this year is probably some of my favorite.... along with the library... and the curtains...... who am I kidding - I love it ALL so far! haha

But here's what I'm talking about:

I found a lot of these on Pinterest and printed them off. I just love how they look on the wall! They serve as great reminders and inspirations for myself and my students.

This is my absolute favorite of all! I just loved this metal sign when I saw it at Hobby Lobby. I went back for it and got it half off a few weeks later and it looks awesome! It's one of the first things you see when you look/walk into the room and will be a great reminder each morning :)

I made a reading corner this year that is not a part of the class library so the kids have another place to relax and read! This is a small stand I had leftover from my days at home living in a cramped bedroom with my little sister [LoL!]. Again, I used the contact paper and put the flowers I had left from a bridal shower for [one of] the wedding I was in over the summer. Above this awesome sign I [again] found on Pinterest, I have a ribbon board. I am going to ask my students to bring in pictures of themselves with their families to keep in the classroom over the year. Just another idea I found on Pinterest and adapted to my room!

Okay....here's the last picture I'll post for today...

My class library! I just LOVE it!

I got the bench/storage seat at Target for more places to relax and added book storage. I also brought in the white cube storage shelf I got on sale at Target [LOVE that store, obviously] for more book storage. I accumulated a ton more books this year. Between donations, garage sales and good deals at the store I stocked up on a bunch more for my kiddos [especially since I'll have a good chunk of them for the 3rd year in a row!]