Bulletin Boards

I've taught several grades from Kindergarten to 7th grade Math. Each grade had something
I enjoyed about it, however my favorite grade level was 7th grade Math. I enjoyed decorating my class for Kindergarten the most, as I was able to let my creative side take over.

I really enjoyed thinking of ideas for different bulletin boards. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

 

Starbucks Themed Bulletin Board



 Starbucks is a FAVORITE of mine (especially the Caramel Light Frappuccino).

There were many days when Starbucks helped get me

ready for my day. (I had a 6:45am start time!)

I made a Starbucks themed Christmas tree this past Christmas. I'll share in

another post (it turned out so CUTE!).

 

(This was my inspiration, but I was unable to locate who created it to give

credit. I found it on Pinterest.)

 

I located something similar while searching online and this

was my interpretation. I created Barista Name Tags for all the math

teachers, made mini latte cups, a large focal latte cup, and then

added glitter paper (my favorite! - everything looks better with a little sparkle)

as a background where we could put up "STAR" student work.

 

The large cup I made by pulling up the cup template and projecting it onto my

dry erase board. I put up two pieces of white post-it poster paper, and traced

the cup. I made the cup holder from brown wrapping paper (paper bag paper). I made

 the large logo and printed it out. Attach the brown paper to the cup, then center

and attach the logo. Finally, laminate your project.

 

Here is my template for the smaller cups with instructions.

 

 

Large logo:

 

Barista Name Tags:

 

 

Thanksgiving Themed Board

 



I drew a basic tree trunk, sprayed it with spray adhesive and put

on the brown glitter. The leaves I bought at the local teacher supply store. I

found my favorite glitter card stock at the local craft and hobby store. I

purchase it when it's on sale. The pumpkins were used as a background

to display student work.

 

 

Mardi Gras Bulletin Board

 

Another fun board! The first time I saw a Mardi Gras bulletin board was when I

went to pick my 3 year old up from preschool. The teachers had made a super

cute bulletin board with construction paper for the king cake, and had

pasted the kids faces onto the little babies (it was so cute to see my little ones'

face on the baby). This was my variation on that bulletin board.

 

How it was made:

I took brown paper on the roll and cut off pieces that were about 20 inches wide. If

I had to do it over again I would make them wider (I like a fat king cake), probably

36 inches wide. Next, I scrunched the paper a bit to give it a crumpled look. Then, I

connected the ends and stapled them together, basically making a tube. The number

of tubes you need depends on how wide your king cake will be. For the corners,

I pleated the paper then stapled until I had a nice curve.

 

To attach the tubes onto the bulletin board I put the seam (stapled part) on the

bottom (facing the bulletin board), and put my arm inside the tube and stapled

it onto the board. After all of the sections were attached, I needed to put on

the icing. The icing were pieces of white tissue paper that I cut with

a scalloped edge. I sprayed the sections with spray adhesive and sprinkled

my glitter onto the paper. Then I sprayed the king cake with the spray adhesive

and lightly pressed the tissue paper onto the brown paper. I continued to do this

until all the sections were covered.

 

The next step was to put up a border. I wanted something flashy, so I pulled out

the deco mesh from my craft supplies. I cut 6 inch sections and bunched and stapled

it onto the board. I had some confetti that I wanted to use, and the spray adhesive

came in handy again. I sprayed a section of the board and took a handful of

confetti and pressed it onto the board until it looked like I envisioned it.

 

The last step was what made this board so stinking cute! I took pictures of all the kindergarten

classes (I needed small faces, so group pictures worked perfectly). I printed the pictures, cut

out the tiny heads, then hot glued the faces onto the king cake babies. I hot glued each

baby onto the bulletin board, and voila! The kids LOVED walking by and

looking for their baby.

 

King Cake Babies - Amazon.com

 

Mardi Gras Deco Mesh - Amazon.com

 

Brown Wrapping Paper - Amazon.com

 

 

Pete The Cat Board

 

This was a quick board that was put together last minute. I found an image of Pete

online and used the projector to project the image onto the dry erase board. I taped up

some navy butcher paper and traced Pete. I cut him out and painted on his eyes and nose.

The shoes were clipart that I purchased (the link is listed below). I printed the shoes

onto cardstock and cut them out.

 

Shoes clipart - Regina Berns - Teacherspayteachers.com

(I was not able to find the exact link to where I purchased these,

but I did find a store that had very similar shoes. I've linked to

that store.)

 

 

 



Wall Art Project

I was searching for a piece of art that would take up a good amount of space, but not break the bank. I found something that I liked and the tutorial that went along with it, but I didn't have the time needed to complete all the steps involved. This is what I found (I love it and will work on it at a later date).

These polished damask wall panels were found at www.horchow.com 

and after some additional searching I located them at Neiman Marcus

 

I found this awesome project on Pinterest, and followed the link

to Knock Off Décor. It looks like the original project was done by

Maria at A Hoover-gaton is tul.

 

I don't personally own a projector, so I used one at the school I worked at. I would

come in early and stay late to trace my stencil. It never turned out how I would have

liked and I really didn't have the time to dedicate to proper tracing, and painting. Our

home flooded and I was busy dealing with mushy drywall and wet insulation (yuck!).

 

Since I had decided to put this project on the back burner, I still needed a large

inexpensive piece of art to use as a focal point in my living room. Off to

youtube.com I went, searching for wall art tutorials. I was fortunate enough

to come across this video by Art Fusion Productions. I really liked

some of the results Glenn Farquhar's students had using his tutorials.

 

(This painting is a favorite of mine...I'll use a different

background color).

I purchased his tutorial, which was very well done and easy to follow,

and I started working on my wall art.

 

I found this great website to purchase your canvas at for very reasonable prices!

wholesaleartsframes.com

 

Here's a picture of my canvas once I have the textured flowers on it:

 

Here is my finished product:

 

Finished product on display:

 

I really enjoyed this project! I was definitely on a time crunch, but was able to complete it within 5 days (you need time to allow it to dry). Go check out Art Fusion Productions there are

many great tutorials there.

 

 

Staging to sell.....round 2

I've had a second opportunity to stage a home to sell and would love to share. This time I have before and after pictures! When I think about color scheme and how  I want to decorate when staging, I focus on keeping the area uncluttered, I use neutral colors and add "Pops" of color.

Living Room from entrance

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

  

I purchased the rug from Overstock.com, I ordered custom pillow covers

for both the large and small pillows. The curtains I found on Amazon.com

and are a beautiful plum color. The wall art I made myself (I found a

fabulous site where you can purchase a tutorial. I will link below).

Safavieh Handmade Moroccan Chatham Purple/ Ivory Wool Rug (6' x 9') - from Overstock.com

 

Violet Purple Throw Pillow - from The Home Centric on Etsy.com

 

20x20 custom pillow cover - from Couple Home on Etsy.com

 

One thing that I purchased, but did not finish in time to use

was this beautiful fabric from Fabric Mart on Etsy.com (can you see a

common theme here? Yes, I love etsy.com!)

Isn't this just gorgeous! I am planning on making an

ottoman with it and coordinating valences. I'll post

pictures once I'm done with the ottoman (maybe a

tutorial).

Purple and Silver Damask Fabric - from Fabric Mart on etsy.com

 

 

The wall art was so much fun to make! I found the tutorial

on youtube.com and was lead to Art Fusion Productions website

Floral Textured Wall Art

 

 

 

BEFORE 

 Living Room view 2 - towards the front door

 

AFTER

 

 

 

Dining Area 

 

AFTER 

 

 

I realized that I was one set of curtain panels short, so my mother

made valences for me (thank you so much mom!). Another view of

my floral wall art (I'm definitely not an artist, but I really

had fun doing this, and I think it turned out pretty cute. I changed

the chandelier and staged the table with plum dinner plates, and a

plum floral pattern salad plate. The design for the salad plate was

discontinued, but I was able to find some at www.replacements.com.

I made the floral centerpiece and found really cool plum glasses.

 

Apollo 5 Light Crystal Chandelier

 

Laurie Gates, Anna Plum plates

 

Fiesta Plum Plate

 

Iris Highball Glass by Artland - All Modern

 

 

Plum Curtains - Amazon.com

 

 

 

I've really enjoyed blogging and sharing my thoughts and ideas. I'll finish

this house on a later post.

 

 

 

 

 

Staging to Sell....round 1

I sold a home a year ago and was very fortunate to have a quick sale. When I decided to put the home on the market, I knew I needed to do something with all the everyday clutter that comes with having a family. Over the course of a month we cleaned out closets, donated items to Goodwill, threw things away, took down personal items, and put things in a storage unit. I purchased a few items to make the house pop, but basically used what I had. Here are some pictures with links to the purchased items. I'm sorry I don't have before pictures, but I never thought I'd be writing about what I did.

I was fortunate that when I purchased this house it had a nicely

landscaped lawn. I'm so thankful that we found a great lawn service

to maintain it. The only thing I did to the front was to add

hanging baskets with brightly colored flowers.

 

Garden-Treasures-14-in-x-6-25-in-Basket

 

Living Room:

In this room I ordered custom made pillow covers (the large white ones

with floral designs on them). I ordered smaller pillow covers to tie in

the gray/teal curtains, the gray/teal curtains, and the 3ft by 3ft wall

art over the mantle. I loved the gray/teal curtains and how they

made the room pop.

 

Custom Pillow Cover 20x20

 

Gray Teal Curtains

 

Small pillow cover

 

Wall Art Teal and Kaki

 

Kitchen and Dining Area

 

 

On the kitchen window and the dining area windows I

used an extra gray/teal curtain that I had ordered and had my

mother make matching valences. I bought placemats from Target,

and then "staged" our table using our dishes (Target). I found the

cute teal vase at Hobby Lobby and put some bright

flowers in it to add some color.

 

Master Bathroom:

 

Now our master bathroom was definitely not the most updated

bathroom. However, I made the best out of the situation by

purchasing a nice neutral colored shower curtain, and putting

some flowers on the counter. I bought some matching towels

to hang.

Shower Curtain

 

Hall Bath

I loved this bathroom. The yellow made it so bright and happy.

The picture in the mirror was one I had before I staged the house,

but I love it so much I have to give a shout out to London Bridge

Children (on etsy.com). The shower curtain is from Target.

 

 

 

Bathroom Wall Art

Ombre Yellow Shower Curtain

 

Little Ones Room:

Not much was done in here, other than a LOT of de-cluttering!

Someone gave Samantha the chandelier as a baby shower gift. We

took out the light wiring and use it as an accent in the room. The

wall art are lines from "You Are My Sunshine". I added some

fake flowers for some color and made sure the room stayed clean.

 

 

Wall Art - You Are My Sunshine - from Little Pergola on etsy.com