A lovely little art book.

After the first day of school last week, I couldn't wait to make a little book for some of my classes. I quickly printed off a few pictures at the Sams Club one hour photo lab and I went to work. I stayed up late so I could finish. I included many pictures of my students in the book. I showed them cleaning, creating art and being safe in the art room.

Hehe...rule #1 We will listen to Mrs. Mitchell....they think it is so funny to see me in a book!



I used a Flip Flap from CTMH to include a couple of extra pictures on this 'safety' page. I have a special symbol by the paper cutter to keep kids safe!



A few pages don't explain rules or show any students, they are just for fun!



This was a fun book to make. I used a bunch of OLD patterned paper and cardstock and a few new rubons and stickers. I am forcing myself to use up things that I probably won't be using on any cards any time soon. Also, I got to use my Bind-it-All!

Travel Journal

I love to make Travel Journals!! I found some really great notebooks at Target that have pockets and dividers and an elastic band around the outside. My favorite thing on a trip is picking up things to save and stuffing them into the notebook. I love to make lists before the trip and write down quotes, restaurants and memorable things from the trip as we go along. I have travel journals from Italy, Australia/New Zealand, Sweden, Jamaica, and much closer places like St. Louis, Chicago, Washington D.C. and New Orleans.

I like to go back and read my memories and laugh about things that happened.

COSMO CRICKET MR.CAMPY PAPER CRAFT KIT paper pack. Now, this is still a work in progress as it will not be finished until after the trip, but I worked on it Saturday in between working on the baby shower gift and surfing the internet.

School Memories Book

A lot of funny things happen at school. Kids say funny things, silly stuff happens during class. Also, I find that many inspirational things happen. I decided that I need a place to keep these things sacred, a place to write about the things that happen and a place to include photos and keepsakes. Last Wednesday I was feeling particularly crafty and I made this book.

Actually, I made two of these. This one is more finished so I will show it to you. Making a book like this makes me want a Bind-It-All....the book is 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 and I basically combined lots of scrapbooking papers, stickers and stamps. Most of them are from a vintage school paper pack from Daisy D's called Classroom. I know it isn't totally finished, it will always be a work in progress whenever I find something cool, I can add it.

The cover has even changed since I took these pictures, I added a school picture and a sub title on the front. The other book I created (that I haven't photographed yet) uses more recycled things like catalog fronts, school papers, etc. Anyway, I included used manila envelopes to store keepsakes and I used real writing paper on some pages for journaling. I have already used the book to write down funny quotes from kids that I have been keeping a list of on my desk on a piece of scratch paper.

One funny story was from a couple of weeks ago. I announced to a class that they needed to work faster, some students were working very slow and they needed to push on the gas pedal. A girl looked up and said, "Mrs. Mitchell, we don't have gas." My response, "Yes, some of you do....I smelled it...." Hehe...

I love this book because it doesn't have to be perfect. I was able to put it together pretty quickly and it is literally made from scraps of paper. I can make some pages more fancy by adding things, or I can keep them simple. The focus will be on journaling and I can add pictures if I want, but they aren't required to tell most of the stories that I want to tell with this book.

In case you are wondering about the plain white pages in the book, those are watercolor paper and I want to get some vintage school stamps and stamp on those with StazOn and then color them to look like pages from an old children's book with captions that are quotes from something my kids say...Like when a boy fell out of his chair a few weeks ago and said, "That hurt the top of my buttcrack." The really cute thing about it was that he said: 'that huwt the top of my 'butt qu-wack'" because he couldn't say his 'r's' quite right....so cute!!!

While I am at it, I thought I would share this book with you that I have been working on for several months. I actually took these pictures last summer. I got really into book altering for a while. This is a children's board book that I covered in the same papers and stickers. I didn't really leave spots for journaling and pictures though....it is more of a fancy collage, but I love it.