Santa's Little Helpers

On the last day of term two of the TAs in school manned a grotto along with a visit from Father Christmas.  They dressed up, the children were so excited to see them it made for a great end to the term.

I used a square photo on this page, along with a journalling blocks.  The strip along the side made the perfect home for the Thickers title...

...along with a little Santa head, a word strip and a tag as decoration

Confirmation

I taught a year 6 class for most of the year, and being a teacher in a church school I prepared them for confirmation in the summer.  I took a photo of them on the altar with our parish priest and the bishop (I have covered it as I do not want to put their pictures online).

The papers are from the Basic Grey kit I found at the NEC,

I added a bargain title with letters from Home Bargains and older stash to finish off: school themed washi tape, resin flowers and newer Nuvo drops in the translucent finish.

Back to the Rialto

Another night out with my work friends at a local dance hall, we had fun in the photo booth, some squeezed onto the dance-floor, it was just nice to have finished work for Christmas.

Can't believe we are back to work tomorrow, the holiday has just flown by.

School Crafting

We made boxes in school using stamps and an A4 die for the children to put in little gifts for members of their families.

 I managed to get a photo of them on the last day of term just before they went home.

Secret Santa

Every year at school, we draw a name from a hat and buy a small gift for our Secret Santa.  This year we swapped gifts on a Thursday night after school in my roomy classroom.

The cheeky TA who organizes the event grabbed my red coat for the event, in order to look like Father Christmas, and our one and only male member of staff was strong-armed into being 'Santa's Little Helper'!

Another Altenew card

A friend of mine is leaving our school at the end of this term to train to be a teacher.  She is a graduate, and has been working with us for three years now as a TA, so has decided to train to be a teacher (despite me warning her against this!)

I used the teacher set of stamps by Altenew, and decided just to make a really simple card, stamping the apple using different colours of inks for the fruit itself and the leaves.
The label message comes from another set by Altenew, and I added a message about good teachers teaching from the heart, not the book inside; shame the government don't appreciate this sentiment.

Hope she likes the card and doesn't regret becoming a teacher.

Party, Party!

My last festive layout for 2015! I did finish most of the Christmas stash off too, so all good.

The photos are from our workplace Christmas night out at a local dance hall.

 The Rialto has been hosting dances since the 1950's; my Aunties used to go there as teenagers, so it has been lovely to follow in their footsteps...literally!

Much of the page was decorated using the Shimelle Christmas Magic range, I really liked the folded elements and used one for part of the title.

Book Day Layout

At a crop on Saturday a friend of mine brought along a sketch for us to have a go at.  Although it had only one photo, I had three from last Thursday, so I matted my smaller ones onto a piece of patterned paper in a group to give the effect of the one larger picture.

I liked the way the map paper matched the idea of a 'National' event, always like a map!

 I used papers from a kit picked up in TK Maxx along with stamped and cut out images using the January Ali Edwards kit 'heart'.

 The title is die cut from orange fun foam using two die sets, one by Tim Holtz (the capitals) the other a very old Sizzlit set called Rat-a-Tat.

National Book Week

Many schools get involved in this annual event designed to get more of us reading and ours was no exception.  Both the children and many of the staff dressed up in costumes of their favourite character, a great deal of fun was had by all!

I already had a long brown haired wig and sparkly red shoes, so Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum seemed a perfect choice for me.  In my fabric stash I found a few metres of blue gingham I had picked up for a song last summer so  was making my own costume.

The sleeves came from an old blouse with ribbon and trim stitched around the cuffs. Once I had made the dress the neckline was too low for school, so I made use of the collar of the blouse, chopped it off and stitched across the front. The only things I needed to buy to finish it off were a zip and a pair of ankle socks.  The basket we had at home and one of my class loaned me a dog soft toy for the day.

Lots of my colleagues dresed up for the day too, from the Flowerpot Men to Wally, and Willy Wonka to Little Red Riding Hood.

My favourite part of the day was seeing the children's faces when I walked into the classroom. Priceless!

Advent Art Day

We had a day of fun in school at the end of last week, and all the staff wore Christmas jumpers along with the children.

Lots of 'HoHoHos' on the page as we looked so silly. Gold die cut title by Anna Griffin.

No More School

After having a huge clear out of Harry's room this summer, I found a strip of photobooth images taken at his prom.

Since they were taken, he knows his exam results, and has taken up a place at college instead of the sixth form we were all expecting.

 I used the photos to record this journalling as I have a number of pages about Harry's prom already.

It also gave me the chance to use a set of School themed papers by Kaiserkraft.

School Photo

I made this page using an old photo of Katie and Harry taken when they were at primary school.

The layout is inspired by Niki on UKScrappers who runs a Stash Bash challenge every month to encourage to use up what we have bought...this month one of the four pages was to try an ombre effect.

I used a few of the sei papers I picked up at the NEC last week, and the matching embellishments.

The journalling is in the envelope.  I'm sure the Stash Bash challenge would work if only I stopped buying stash....

Year 6

Looking at this photo I can't believe how sweet my boy looked back in Year 6. 

He was the last of mine to leave Holy Family, so this photo was quite a poignant moment, and deserved a scrapbook page!

The papers are Teresa Collins, and the inspiration was a challenge on UK Scrappers.

He certainly looks very different now!

A Giggle of Santas

Another set of photos that made an appearance in my JYC, but I did take lots on that day, so a 12x12" page was in order!

 This layout was made for the UKS weekly challenge to use warm colours (i did add a bit of green, but couldn't resist it on my festive page) inks

 (I sprayed the background and inked wooden embellishments)

 and the subject to be about women.

With the staff at the school I work in being being entirely female, I had no choice but to pick these photos!

Day 18 and 19

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas... I can't believe it is over for another year!
On the 18th I was still at work but I wanted to include these festive gloves Kev bought me from Sainsbury's.  He did want me to wait until the 25th to wear them, but I was glad he gave me the pair earlier so I could get full use of my Christmas hand-warmers.

and the 19th was the last day of term. Lots of staff had been off sick in one of the toughest terms in my 26 year career in teaching My TA Becky had been ill most of the week, but came in on the last Friday just to share her festive hat with us all!

Love the end of term!

At last..

...after eight weeks half term arrived last Friday  It's been a really hard term so far with our workload getting more ridiculous by the day.  I do have work to do in the holiday, but am setting a limit on the time I spend on it... I need a break.
This week has been incredibly busy, I have got my driving licence back after 18 months being unable to drive due to illness, so we have spent time (and a lot of money ) sorting out the second car ready for the start of term. Hannah has got a job away from home, so we have also had to spend time helping her sort accommodation.

There were days when school was less of a trial, when I was on the receiving end and a friend posted pictures taken back in around 1977 during a school reunion this  summer.

They made for a good scrapbook page for my book of me, it's always good to find old photos to fill in the gaps of our lives.

I tried to get a bit of scrapbooking done during the week, but cards for Christmas got in the way.

Industrial Action

It is always with regret that any public servant takes industrial action.  However, as the government continues to refuse to negotiate with us, raids our pension pots to pay off the deficit, and exponentially increases the workload of teachers, it is little wonder that many of us feel we have no other way of having our voices heard.

Apologies if your child is not in school today, maybe if enough parents contacted Mr Gove, he might listen to them.

I love a freebie

The Scrapbook Magazine has been sending free papers with the magazine for years, and to be honest, I usually just use them for cardmaking or donate them to the Scouts for their crafting.  This month, however, i really liked the papers, and yesterday chopped into them to make this layout.

 The photos are really old too, of Kev when we went to Bosworth Hall in Leicestershire just before the closure of Bishop Wulstan school where we both worked.

Funny that closure is back in the news again in Rugby as the county council is struggling to find places for the surge in school age children.....

wouldn't like to say  "told you so".

JYC Day 6. Teacher Gifts

This page was off topic for the journal, but I wanted to include this cards since one of the children in my class made it for me last year, and kept it specially. The journalling is all about my complete puzzlement over gifts given to teachers at Christmas and at the end of the school year. I think it may be because most of my experience is in secondary schools where giving gifts to teachers is rare, but I still don't understand the whole thing of teacher gifts. Is it another import from the US?So no gifts for me please, but I do love and appreciate anything the children make for me :)

Hen Party

Looking at this page this hen party seems a long time ago now; my friend posted today on fb that she has just returned from her honeymoon.

This page shows us messing about prior to the big day back in May on a surprise Hen afternoon.

I used Amy Butler papers, stitched around the edges, stamped the tickets and the birdie.

The star stitches at the top were made using the WRMK Sew Easy tool, a really handy piece of kit.

The day involved eating, playing games, designing wedding dresses using lots of paper towels, sellotape, dust masks etc etc, and a fair few drinking forfeits :)