yipes!

it has been a crazy month or two! back to school routines, soccer x 2, singing in the bach chorale childrens' choir x2, basketball, homework, snack, lunches, field trips, class parties... the list does go on! i'm working on a huge revamp of my blog and my photography web site, and adding some fabulous stationery products... stay tuned for more VERY soon!

To-Teacher Notes!

For our second To-Teacher Note, we'll use a more graphic theme and grey-scaled images to reduce ink-use. These are my "green" notes. And, in fact, if your teachers have email, it would be great to use email communication as much as possible - these would make a very easily adapted email stationery!

For this one, I used DSP Abby and a couple doodley framey things. I kept it very simple. But printed out, it looks so awesome!

To-Teacher Notes!

I find myself frequently sending a note to one of the kids' teachers, and having to scrounge through my notepad-drawer (which can be very dangerous, as it's also my junk-drawer, camera-stuff-drawer, extra-bendy-straw-drawer, and the-drawer-of-no-return) for a scrap of paper to write on. Then, after adding all my necessary correspondence (i.e., "I will be picking Maggie up from school today; will you have her go to the "big K" instead of the bus?"), I add my name and phone number. To every single darned piece of scrap paper I send to the school.

So, why not save some steps (and maybe some paper - or at least the pain and suffering of diving into the junk drawer every morning before the second cup of coffee)? I'm going to show you how to make two versions of a very cute, VERY easy "To-Teacher" note; I use Adobe Photoshop, but you can use whichever graphics software program you wish. You can dress your own notes up, down, or sideways using fabulous fonts (on sale now!), page kits and embellishments from the digital scrapbook place. And you will love the unique flair that your correspondence will carry with your very own one-of-a-kind notes!

Start with a canvas size of 4x10 inches. We will end up with two notes on each printed sheet.

Add your favorite digital scrapbooking embellishments, papers, and stamps to personalize the look of your notes. Since these are notes that we will want to write on after printing, we will use a cardstock or even just plain old copier-weight paper, instead of photo paper. I also suggest that we steer clear of using photographs or other highly detailed graphics for these notes. You can purchase cardstock in a variety of weights and packaged quantities at many local stores in the office supply section.

For our first To-Teacher note, we're going to use a digital page kit with papers and embellishments to make a super-awesome scrapbook page-ish note. For me, the hardest part of the process is deciding which digital page kit to use! A nice problem to have... I'll use graphics from my Ainsley Collection for this note.

The first thing I do is to stick a paper on there. Then I added the title of the note. You might have to get creative with your font work on this if you have as many kids as I do!

I will circle the name of the appropriate kid when I'm sending the note to the teacher. The middle section of the note will be blank for the message of the note. So, that leaves the bottom and top (maybe sides if you want to get really creative) to embellish. I tend to go for white space and simple design, so I'm not using every single piece in the collection.

Once you have your embellishments in their spots, save your document as a layered file (in case you want to go back later and add kid #5...). After you have it saved, you can flatten it to move it to a print-sized canvas.

Now open a new canvas, sized 8.5x11 inches. Copy and paste your flattened note into the new canvas, then duplicate the note layer and arrange them side by side. Voila! Print and then slice it down the middle (and being the perfectionist that I am, I also slice off the white above and below).

oh dear!

practices, singing, and school... oh MY! sung to the tune of "lions and tigers and bears!" i am so far behind in recording our lives........ and yet, it all just goes on without the updates... which is good, right? the kids are all happily ensconced in school. the girls are doing soccer, basketball, singing... homework.... the boys are loving pre-school. and we're just on the go all the time. and to think that someday we will look back at these years as the UNbusy years. :) here're a couple newer tidbits. done with the attitude schmattitude, chimeric and ainsley collections.

first day of school!

wow, i can NOT believe the summer has come to an end! the girls went back to school thursday, so it's, BAM, back to early morning fun! the fourth grader and the second grader both love their teachers and classes. sam and charlie will start in the coming week - i can't believe that we'll have four (sort of) in school!

our good friends, the currys, arrived for a visit on their way to a big family reunion, and we've been having a blast with them! we have done the park, purdue campus fountains, slip-n-slide, and many giggles. here are just a few pics...

and the cinci layover!

we stopped in cincinnati on our way back from north carolina, and spent a couple days with bill's sister, hubby, and their two BEAUTIFUL girls. the kids sort of disappeared - we saw them when they were looking for hiding places during hide-and-go-seek, but that was really the most we spotted them.

home sweet home!

we're home from the beach... and oh my gawsh, let me tell you how wonderful our home felt. it was so great to walk in, hit the pillow... now we have to quickly shift into school gear - the girls go back THURSDAY!!! here are a few last-evening memories from our trip...