Tried it Tuesday {Glitter Stenciling}

Hi everyone! It's Time for Tried It Tuesday!
What have you tried at school or home?
If you've never linked up with Tried It Tuesday, just link up any idea school or home related and what worked or didn't work. Grab the button below. Simple!

My Tried It:

Glitter Stenciling

I am still trying to knock items off my to-do list before summer draws to a close. Many of you are back at school but we start officially after Labor Day. Maybe I can even get in a Monday Made It before the end of summer. I will be working on updating classroom curtains this week and making a curtain for under my daughter's loft bed. That brings me to this week's Tried It. My daughter is now 8 years old and her room needed an update. She wanted a more "mature" color on her walls. Sniff sniff. :( This is her room before.

So, I sanded the old stencils before repainting and patched some things.

I painted the walls in Glidden "Mushroom Cap" matte. Then, I bought a pint of Glidden "Bonjour Beige" in satin for the stenciling. It is just a shade darker than the wall color. I knew I wanted a glitter effect in the stenciling and bought this extra fine glitter at Walmart. 

 At first, I wasn't going to add the glitter directly to the paint but was going to try a put a glitter glaze over top of the stencil. However, I decided to try it. What was the worst that could happen? I poured a small amount of paint in a 1 cup measuring cup and started adding glitter.

I used about half of the bottle of glitter for about 1/3 cup paint. I had a lot of paint left over too from the measuring cup when I was done stenciling.

 Glitter mixed in paint:

 Stencils I bought. I only used the large one but may add small flowers later.

 My daughter helped out too! Here she is stenciling a flower with a stencil brush.
You don't need much paint on the brush.

 Here is a picture of her room. I am sewing a new curtain for under the loft bed. I will post pictures when that is done. :)

 Another view...

 Stencil up close with glitter

 Bedding is Paige Quilted bedding from Pottery Barn Kids.

 Rug is also from Pottery Barn Kids and has flecks of gold sparkle!

If my maintenance staff allows it, I would like to try some paint with glitter stenciling in the classroom! It was so easy and I love how it turned out! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tried It Tuesday (Mod Podge mistake!)

Wahoo!!  Now that I am officially on summer vacation, I am getting to work on my summer to-do list!  Of course, I am relaxing a little more and my to-do items are mostly "fun" anyway:)
For my Tried It Tuesday, I want to share with you a project I tried last summer using
Mod Podge.    It is on my to-do list to "fix" and I hope you don't make the same mistake I did!

If you are new to Tried It Tuesday, read more about it here.

My Tried It:

Mod Podge Stool Project

Here is part of my original post from last summer:
So, I am extremely embarrassed to say that this is what my stool looked like for 12 years:

I started with my supplies (scrapbook paper, acrylic paint, mod podge, spray glitter, and foam brushes):

First, I lightly sanded the stool with 220 sandpaper.  Then, I painted the stool's legs and seat.  The legs took FOUR coats.  I didn't prime first though and I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me.

I used my Cricut Expression to cut a scalloped circled for the stool top, a center circle in a coordinating paper, and a black monogram "S".  My last name begins with S but I am also going to call this the Sharing Stool where students can share book reviews and adventures with Lilly, the classroom pet.  

I glue the S on the red circle and then mod podged each piece in place.  I mod podged the whole seat and as other people had stated in directions I read, the mod podge dries clear!  I had never used mod podge before and this stuff is amazing!

I sprayed the legs with glitter and then starting cutting scrapbook paper to wrap around the 8 rungs on the sides.  I made sure the seam was on the under side and held each piece in place tightly for 20-40 seconds.  It held firm!  Then I mod podged the whole stool 2x and the seat a total of 4x.  I also bought a clear varnish because I thought the mod podge might be tacky, but it really isn't!  I may still add it anyway.  Here is the finished project:

I love how the one piece of scrapbook paper says, "4th Grade". It makes me happy.  Can you see the glitter on the legs?

UPDATE AND WHAT I LEARNED FOR TRIED IT TUESDAY:
Do you see the part where I said, "I may want to add the varnish anyway?"
Yep, you definitely want to add the varnish!!
I don't know where I missed that little piece of advice when researching how to make the stool but the mod podge is so amazing that it seems you don't need the varnish when it is finished.  WRONG!

I had added a couple coats to the seats and some on the rungs with the paper last summer anyway though.  However, I didn't add any to the four main legs and the mod podge is starting to peel!  I need to lightly sand the legs and varnish them this summer.
Otherwise, the stool has held up beautifully where I applied the varnish.
The students absolutely LOVED the stool and it was a favorite spot in the room!  I had to limit when they would use it though because some would try to sit on the stool while working with a partner who was sitting in a chair and that did not work!
I used varnish like this from the craft store:

Reminder:  There is only ONE Tried It Tuesday for July!!  It is the second Tuesday of the month on July 9th.  In August, it will go back to weekly Tried Its!  Thanks:)

Tried It Tuesday (No Sew Curtains!)

My Tried It Tuesday today is an update on the no sew curtains I tried making last summer.
I know everyone is thinking about next school year (or, if you are not done yet like me, you will be thinking about next year soon) and working on projects over the summer.
Did my NO SEW curtains I tried making last summer actually last?!?

If you are new to Tried It Tuesday, read more about it here.

My Tried It:

Classroom No Sew Curtains
 So, I REALLY wanted (I mean, REALLY WANTED!) curtain valances for my classroom windows.  However, I knew that I would have to make them and I have virtually NO skills with the sewing machine.  If you know how to sew, you can stop reading now and go make your cute curtains:)  Haha!  I'm seriously jealous of people who don't cringe when the needle and thread get jammed in the machine.

I tried making curtains using only:

1. fabric
2. scissors
3. hot glue gun
4.  ruler
5. pen

Yep, that's right!!  I did a little researching and read about people making curtains with a
HOT GLUE GUN.
See this site that gave me inspiration!  YES!

I honestly didn't know if the curtains would hold up or just start falling apart.  Well, they have been hanging in the windows now for TEN MONTHS and they are not falling apart at the seems!  Wahoo!!!
I am a little surprised that my attempt at using hot glue and fabric has actually worked.  Now, that I have tried it, these are the directions I posted last summer (when I didn't know many of you and I had like 20 followers:).

Here is the back view of the four colors I made for the valances.

Here is a preview of the finished product hanging in my dining room.  

I cannot wait to get them up at school!

Here is a short tutorial of what I did to make the curtains (it may not be the right way, but it worked for me:)  

I used only one yard of each color so I kept the side edges just as they were and did not touch them.  My windows are each 37" wide and the fabric is only 44" wide but it will work and it cost half of what 2 yds. would!  So, all I had to do was finish the bottom and top edges.  I started with the bottom edge.  I cut the fabric and then measured 17" from the top and made dashes with my pen on the back of the fabric every couple inches.  This was my attempt at "leveling the fabric" since it didn't have a pattern to follow.

Next, I folded the fabric up to my marks and ironed along that seam to make the fabric the same length all the way across.

Next, I hot glued the bottom seam in place.  I only glued a few inches at a time to keep the glue from cooling too fast.  This is important to keep the bond strong!  It was difficult to take a picture quickly:

 Next, I worked on the top seam.  I wanted a little ruffle above the place where the rod goes.  I folded the fabric over about 4" and ironed the seam making sure it was level by checking to make sure the  measurement was equal from the top of the curtain to the bottom hem along the entire length of the fabric. 

 Then, I marked one inch from the seam along the length of the fabric for my first hot glue line.

I drew a nice line along my one inch marks and then marked 1.5" from the 1" line.  This will be the place for my skinny tension rod.  The spot above is for the ruffle at the top.  I drew another line along the 1.5" line mark.  Finally, I hot glued along each line (the top line first and only a couple inches at a time).

Voila!  I have a place for my curtain rod! 

I bought these skinny tension rods at WalMart for about $2 a piece.

Here they are hanging in my room at the beginning of the year.  I have the fourth valance on a tall glass block window to the right of these three windows. 

Don't forget to check out the amazing flash giveaway where EVERYONE WINS (TODAY only) by Melissa at Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late!!!  

Reminder of the schedule for Summer Tried It Tuesday:

Continue hosting WEEKLY FOR JUNE.
Host JULY ONLY ONCE on the 2nd Tuesday of the Month (July 9th)...

"TWOSDAY"...get it? :)
Go back to hosting WEEKLY IN AUGUST.

Tricks of the Trade Linky: Bulletin Boards!

The wonderful Jessica from Joy in the Journey just started a new linky called 

Tricks of the Trade Thursdays!

This week's topic is bulletin board creations and tips for making bulletin boards.

Um, I have a little confession...

Bulletin boards are NOT my favorite thing to do.

Nope, not in the least.

I used to change out my bulletin boards often and (try) to be creative.

Over the past years 13 years and two kids later, I have gone more for the 

"create multi-purpose low maintenance bulletin board plan"!  

Okay, okay...I know you are thinking that I am so lazy...

I FEEL pretty lazy after reading Jessica's post and admiring her beautiful creations that she changes out often.  So, I LOVE Jessica and want to be able to link up with her, even if it means embarrassing myself.

Well, I have three small bulletin boards in my room and here they are at the beginning of the year (and, yep, they are still there but have had student work swapped out on two of them.  The "Be Wise...Organize" board is where I write down the homework each day.  We do have large bulletin boards in our hallway pod and right now those have writing samples and activities from all three fourth grade classes.  We change the samples out but have kept the writing theme the same since about December!

On the "Whooray for Words" board, I post different vocabulary activities.

These Idiom of the Day cards from Fancy Free in Fourth have been posted here as well.

I like posting these "Define It, Illustrate It, and Use It" vocabulary activities on this board also.

I do use paper as my backing and this year was the first year that I used all black as my backgrounds.  I saw this somewhere on a blog (surprise!) and I liked the cohesive look.

One necessity of putting up bulletin board paper is an exacto knife:

Tip:  I staple around the edges of the paper that overhangs the board on all edges.  Next, I take my knife and just cut around the edge of the bulletin board.  This is SO much easier than using scissors and it gets it nice and straight.  Even though I use borders, sometimes when I used scissors to cut the paper, I would manage to mess it up so that even the border wouldn't cover up the mistake.

Tip:  There is a method to stapling the paper on the board too.  I know this might sound basic but it took a little practice for me to realize this when I started teaching.  I start in one corner with a staple and smooth the paper with my hand across as I add more staples.  I cannot stand it when the paper has waves!

Tip:  I use my Cricut to create my letters and have received many positive comments on them.  

Again, it is super fast and easy to do this:) 

Thank you for reading my not so inspiring post about bulletin boards and I hope you won't hold it against me:)

Ready or Not Classroom REVEAL!!...and Currently

Whew!!  My classroom is as ready as it will ever be!  I am so proud of all the changes I made from being inspired by all of you!  I am linking up with the Teaching Blog Addict for Open House week and  Swimming Into Second linky party:

Here is my owl themed door that was inspired by other owl doors on pinterest.  Of course, there is the welcome sign that I made too.  You can read about it here.  The white sign is designating my room as peanut and tree nut free.

This is the view as you enter the classroom door.  My room is really not very big and there is not much wall space compared to some of the classrooms I have seen.

Here is my reading corner BEFORE:

 AND READING CORNER AFTER:  I will be putting the IPICK poster and other anchor charts around as we get going with D5 (at least, that is the plan!):

This is a view of my windows with my no-sew curtains and owl table skirt that I made with a hot glue gun.  You can read about that project here.  The table is all ready with the bin for my crayfish that will be arriving next week:)

 My chapter books are arranged by genre and the AR level is written on the color coded stickers (taped on bindings).

This is my homework board, schedule, teacher's helpers, and math meeting helper board.  I love the new owl subject headers that I laminated for the homework chart.

The editable schedule cards that I created turned out great!  I used the schedule pocket chart I already had.  I printed, cut and glued the cards on colored cardstock before laminating.  There is a space in the chart because 3 days of the week I have two specials in that time slot, not just one.  You can get the editable schedule cards here at my TPT store!

 These are my baskets to turn in homework on a table in front of my teacher desk.  I improved the labels on the baskets:)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Rules posters you can read about here:

Student work bulletin board with glittered clothespins.  This will not fit everyone's work and I have contemplated moving this onto the chalkboard too:

Kidney table area with bookshelf labeled with nonfiction genres (my daughter keeping me company):

Student computer area:

Book bins located on bookcase for ELA block:

Student mailbox cubbies, sink (to the right when you walk in the door):

View from back corner by sink:

View to the left of the door with the unsightly SMART board cord coming from the ceiling:)

There is my classroom (ready or not) to start the first day with students!  I hope you enjoyed the tour:)

Now, onto the September Currently!  I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade:)

I am really bummed that my daughter will be starting Kindergarten tomorrow and I won't be able to see her get on the bus or walk in the classroom...sniff, sniff:(  I would have to take a 1/2 day personal day on my student's first day too and I really need to save my three days for field trips, parent conferences, and Kindergarten graduation.  My school day starts at 7:40 and hers starts at 9:00 (in a different town).  

I am so glad that they had a meet and greet last week and I met her teacher and toured the classroom!  My husband will be meeting her at the bus stop and again at her class to take pictures.  At least she is so excited and never cried for PreK.  She LOVES SCHOOL (I wonder where she gets that from?...hehe).

On another note, I can't wait for all the season premieres...especially Revenge!  Season premieres are one of the many reasons fall is my favorite season:)  

Have a great week everyone!