I blinked...

and another week has flown by... how does that happen??? Things have been so busy at school. We're all trying to get assessments done, reports finished, classrooms organised and all the end of year stuff that we teachers do. For those of you who are regular readers... our house hasn't sold and decision time came about so... the girls and I are going to be staying here and I'm going to be teaching again next year BUT I'm working reduced hours so that I can dedicate my afternoons to a big project that I'll reveal at the end of January... nope not even going to give you a hint at this stage LOL I'm moving out of the ICT specialist position and going into a Year 5/6 class (which is the equivalent of Standard 3 & 4). I'm quite excited about it and looking forward to having 30 kids to do assessments for instead of around 400!!!

On the creative front I have been busy busy busy making lots of goodies and unfortunately I can't share yet because my mum and sisters all read my blog!! I can show you what I made for my Dad though because even though I've explained it to him over and over he is a bit technologically challenged LOL. I made him this cute little tote bag using cardstock and Crate papers... really love crate papers for this kind of thing because the texture and weight of the papers really lend themselves to OTP projects. If you want to make a tote of your own click HERE for the tutorial... it's really easy to follow!

Once I made the tote I decided to use the same papers for create four greeting cards to put inside so now Dad has no excuse when it comes to sending a card!I finally managed to get the scroll cuttlebug embossing folder Kelly mentioned in her blog and have to say I love it too Kelly!!! You can see that I've used it in a couple of Dad's cards and it's really effective even on patterened paper. Here's the tote and cards all spread out... hopefully he'll be really pleased with his gift!While I was on the card making tangent I decided to make a couple of Christmas cards. I used the embossing folder again (don't you just love it when you get a new tool that makes you want to use it!!!) I don't actually have a cuttlebug machine so I put them through my sizzix and they worked just fine :)Here's a little OTP box that I bought... it's from Maya Rd and very cute. I covered it with cardstock and then added some gorgeous papers from the Kaiser Craft range before adding some stamped images and holly leaves. Love how cute it turned out!So that's all I can share with you for now... I've sent off my 'Secret Santa' present and waiting to see when it arrives and if the recipient can hold out until Christmas... not sure if I can... think I'll have to get Miss 15 to hide it from me when it arrives!!!

I've also realised that my blog roll needs a BIG update... I've got to get onto that this week! Right it's time to hit the shower and get to work... only 16 more days until we finish YIPPEE!!!