The idea is pretty simple and you just need a few things to create this project:

• Cut It Out frame
• Craft paint in red and green for apples and gray and white for frame
• 12 wooden apples from Michaels (29 cents each)
• hot glue
• gorilla glue (to glue frame together)
• paint brush
• Scrapbook paper for green apple and background

First, I painted this double layered 11×14 Balboa Frame that I got from Cut It Out. I painted the bottom layer white and the top layer gray and let them dry.

While the frames dried, I used a shiny silvery paper for the background of my frame and hot glued it onto the backing that came with the frame. Next…I picked up a dozen wooden apples for 29 cents apiece from Michael’s. Yes, I could have used a cutting machine to cut these out of paper, but I wanted to show everyone other options if you don’t have a Cricut or Silhouette to cut things. Plus, 29 cents isn’t bad!! I took 11 of my 12 wooden apples and painted them red with green stems. The one apple I had left I traced onto green scrapbook paper, cut out, and glued onto the apple, painting the stem green, as well.

Once all the apples were painted I just eyed them and glued them onto the open portion of the frame in rows. I used hot glue to adhere them to the scrapbook paper, keeping the green apple in the corner.

My message on my frame was “BE YOU-NIQUE” and my green polka dot apple was meant to represent that it stood out from all the others. I thought it was a fun message for Teacher’s Appreciation Day for both the teacher AND the student. I used scrapbooking letters from Michael’s to adhere the “BE YOU-NIQUE” to the frame, but if you have a cutting machine simple vinyl letters would work just fine too.

Finally, I used gorilla glue to glue the double layered frames together and let it cure overnight.

I think it turned out so fun and cute and I’d like to think that this is definitely a unique gift for a teacher that they can cherish for years to come. It’s something your children could personalize too with a teacher’s name on it or by painting the frame in school colors, etc.

I hope you all enjoyed my Teacher’s Appreciation Gift Idea! Be sure to visit my blog, The Cards We Drew, for more crafty inspiration! And stop by on Sunday’s for our Sunday Soiree Link Party where myself and seven other fun bloggers share YOUR projects!! Thanks to Jen for having me here today!

And for a bit more fun…we thought we’d offer you amazing readers a giveaway to Cut It Out Frames to make your very own Teacher Appreciation Gift!! Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below! Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

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 Thanks Abbey! I just love that project. It is unique, and fun, and I know any teacher would love it! Abbey has great ideas on her blog. Here are a few other ideas of Abbey’s that I think you’ll love:

This Easy Birthday Frame turned out so fun! It would be a great gift for a friend, or use it for a party you are having!

This Paint Swatch Heart Air Balloon Art turned out so sweet! Perfect for a little girl’s room.

And this Dream Big Wood Connection Sign would also make a fun sign to hang in a child’s room, don’t you think?

xox

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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I have a little spot in my kitchen where I made a mini gallery wall.

It’s the perfect spot to change out art for different seasons and holidays.

I bought three of the Ikea Ribba Shadow Box frames and I change out the art inside.  (but if you don’t have an Ikea near you, I also found some t-shirt frames at Michaels, which are also square and I used those for my Halloween and Winter Snowflake Specimen Art projects)

So in honor of Valentine’s Day — which I just started to love decorating for about a year ago, I made some new, simple Heart Specimen Art!

I’m a little obsessed with Bows and Arrows this year. So I thought it would be fun to make some hears and arrows for the frames. I bought some heavy red cardstock for the backs of the frames. And then some striped scrapbook paper for the hearts. And some very glittery gold paper for the arrows.

Here’s how to make the simple Valentine Heart and Arrow Specimen Art: 

I used my Silhouette to cut out some simple hearts. I used 16 hearts for each frame — four rows across and four rows down. Then I cut out 2 arrows per frame out of the glittery card stock. I had to cut the gold glitter sheets upside down, with the right side down and the back facing up, to get the Silhouette to cut through the paper. It was SUPER thick. And then I used an Xacto knife to trace the outline and cut through the sequins. But since there were only 8 arrows, that didn’t take long.

I traced the back of the Ribba frames onto the red cardstock paper and cut that paper out so it was the same size. Then I arranged the hearts on the paper. I folded the hearts in half to give them a 3-D look.  And I attached them to the paper with glue dots, with each glue dot at the fold of each heart. On two of the hearts, I put one of the gold arrows underneath, also attaching it with a glue dot. I arranged the arrows on each frame differently, so they were not the same when they were all lined up.

And that was it! This is a super easy and fast project. And if you don’t have a Silhouette machine, you can cut the hearts out with a heart punch. I saw some at Hobby Lobby as well as Michael’s. A nice thing about this project, is that it’s so easy to change out the art. Just take the back off the frame and put a new paper inside.

Then I lined them all up on my wall. I love looking at them, along with my other Red and White Valentine decorations.

I made some pillows that match the wall decor — I will share those soon!!

And here are a few other ways that I have displayed seasonal decorations in this little Mini Gallery Space:

Winter Specimen Art

Spring Specimen Art

Summer Paper Flower Specimen Art

Halloween Specimen Art 

So tell me, do YOU decorate for Valentine’s Day?

What have you made, or what do you want to make??

Share a link to YOUR project – we would love to see it!

Have a Beautiful Day! 

xox

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I have this little area in my kitchen that I love to change out for the seasons.

From Summer {Summer Mini Gallery Wall}:

To Halloween {Creepy Specimen Art}:

To Winter {Snowflake Specimen Art}:

And I thought it would be fun to make some paper flowers to use as Spring Specimen Art!!

Here’s how to make it:

I used Ikea Ribba frames, scrapbook paper including Canvas Corp Chevron paper, vintage buttons and Command Sticky Nail Sawtooth Hangers and Command Picture Hanging Strips.

To make the flowers:

• I downloaded the 3-d Loopy Flower template from the Silhouette online store. I used my Cameo machine to cut out the pattern for each flower. But if you don’t have a craft cutter, you can make rectangular shapes, fold them in half and then cut lines through the middle of the rectangle.
• Then I took the coordinating piece of paper and wrapped it around a pencil, securing the end with hot glue.
• I attached the rolled up paper to the edge of the rectangle and used a pencil to curve the rectangle in half, instead of folding it.
• I wrapped the folded rectangle around the rolled paper until it was all folded up and secured that with hot glue.
• Then I pressed down on the top of each flower, spreading out the cut paper to make petals.
• The last thing I did was add a vintage button over the top of the rolled paper, covering it up. Then I flipped the whole thing over, holding onto the button and filled the bottom with hot glue, securing the button to the top of the flower.

I was thrilled to be contacted by Command Brand to make some projects for them last month. I had so much fun coming up with fun ideas using Command Brand products. I had never used Command Sticky Nail Sawtooth Hangers before. They ended up being one of my favorite Command Brand products. I used them in this project. I am SO excited to share all of the projects with you soon!!

It was fun finding vintage button to use for each flower. I found this bottle of buttons at a garage sale a couple of years ago.

I love that Command Brand products let me be creative with my decorating without putting holes in my walls.

Happy Monday!!

xoxo

The post Make Spring Specimen Art!! (paper crafting tutorial) appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.

The second gallery frame I added scrapbook paper to and then some Washi tape.

Do you know about Washi tape?? It is the coolest stuff!!! I am working on some projects for a Studio 5 segment and I am loving it!! So cool! You can buy Washi tape on etsy — like here.

PS — I’m linking up with Melissa @ The Inspired Room’s Gallery Party! 

This post sponsored by

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To make the Snowflake Specimen Art:

• I found three coordinating 12 x 12 scrapbook papers in my stash. They fit perfectly in those t-shirt frames. {you can get the frames from Michaels for $3 on sale}.

• Then I cut out some foam core. One of my readers suggested this when I made the Halloween version. In that version I used plywood, and foam core is — much easier to cut out, and much lighter!!

• I laid the snowflakes inside the frame and then paid the scrapbook paper on top, followed by the foam core. Then I secured the foam core with some Gorilla Glue Tape.

• I used my Silhouette machine to make some pretty words “Let It Snow”. I think the Edwardian Script is my favorite font!!

 

This project cost me less than $7 since I already had the frames

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