Paper Crafting in Math Class?! Say whaaaat?

Yup - you read that right! :) In the math class I am taking (problem solving methods for elementary school teachers) we had two assignments that involved paper crafting. The first one, which we had to do at home, was to create a Base 10 Model, which in real life are blocks that children use as a tactile tool to add and subtract. Some of you may remember using these yourselves (like I did) or you may have seen your kids use them. I made mine out of cardstock paper, but really they would be three-dimensional and look something like this:

Each little square counts as one unit, the rods count as ten units, and the big square is one hundred units. These don't look three dimensional in the picture, and I suppose they don't have to be, but usually they are in the form of blocks so that moving them around is easier. 

For the actual assignment, we had to cut our own Base 10 blocks. We haven't used them yet, but when we do our hands will be videotaped while using them to add or subtract to show that we understand this method. Here are my Base 10 paper blocks:

We had to create four 100 blocks, 30 rods and I believe 30 little squares. I used my paper trimmer to cut them to their proper size:

100 block - 10 cm x 10 cm

10 rod - 1 cm x 10 cm

1 square - 1 cm x 1 cm

The second assignment we had to do was to create fraction circles. This had to be done with the teacher before or after class for safety reasons because we used an Ellison Machine. Now, I had never heard of this before, but after using it I definitely know what inspired the Cricut! You lay your paper on top of your "template" which is a wood block with your shape on it, on the tray. You push the tray 1/3 of the way in, and then bring the lever down. You then push it another 1/3, bring the lever down, and another 1/3, bring the lever down. You pull the tray out and lift your template - and out comes your cut! We used cuts in the shape of fraction circles (you'll see in the pictures) but I found a really great picture online of an Ellison Machine with the templates and other shaped cuts. 

We had to cut two of each size fraction circle and each had to have their own color so that when we work with them as a class we are all working with the same pieces that can be easily identified. Here are my fraction circles:

(From top left to bottom right) 1 whole, 1/4, 1/8, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/3, 1/4, 1/12. I tried to space each of the pieces out a little so you could get a better feel for what they looked like separately. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this, I always like to change up my posts. As a future teacher, I found this really interesting and loved the fact that I got to paper craft as a homework assignment. I thought it would be interesting to share with all of you. :)

Do any of you own an Ellison Machine or have used one before? I'd love to know more about it!

Ashley

DESIGN TEAM CALL EXTENDED!

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the design team call has been extended an extra week until Sunday October 9th. Information can still be found on the Design Team Call page. :)


Thanks!


Ashley

A Sparkly Congratulations

I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine went by WAY too fast. Tonight I thought I'd share with you the congratulations card I made for my blog candy winner, Maribel. 


For those of you that have been following me for a while, you know that I absolutely love using glitter. Even though it's messy at times, I love the added touch it gives to the cards I create. I only had a few colors to start with, but as soon as I received a 50% off one item coupon at Michael's I knew exactly what I wanted:

I'm really sorry about the quality of this picture, I took it at night when there was no natural sunlight. I tried to find a product picture online but couldn't. :(

It originally cost $29.99, so about a dollar per color, but I got it for $14.99. Yay! The glitter is super fine (which you'll see in the pictures below) but I love it! I love having all different colors to choose from (30 to be exact) it's so much fun! Each color also has a cute little name, for example the yellow is 'sunflower'.   This one is made by Recollections but I know Martha Stewart also has a product similar to this.

So enough of my glitter babble, let me show you the card:

Here's a close-up of the glittered letters. There's a small glare from the sunlight, sorry about that.

I absolutely love the colors of this card, the color combo is so fun and cheerful. I have chipboard letters in a variety of different colors, and in this case I found glitter that matched the chipboard pieces and then applied it using an Elmer's glue stick. I love how enhancing something simple can make a creation look so great. To make this card I also used:

- Green, blue, purple, white and pink cardstock paper

- Patterned paper by The Paper Studio (I can't remember the name, I'm sorry!)

- 'congrats' chipboard pieces

- Blue, green, purple, pink and black glitter

- Elmer's glue pen

- iRock with blue, green, white and purple gems

- Blue flower chipboard embellishment

- Black sparkly ribbon

- Green, purple and pink brads

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by! I really appreciate it. :)

There's also plenty of time left to apply for my first Design Team. You can do so by clicking here.

Ashley

DT Challenge - Altered Tea Light

Hello fellow bloggers! :) I recently became a part of another design over at Becky's Sweet Creations. This week's challenge was to create an altered tea light. Let me tell you, it was definitely a challenge! Majority of my creations are cards and I only do very few altering projects - this was definitely unique! The challenge was posted on Monday (I know, I know, I'm a little late posting this. But better late than never, right?) you can view all of the other design team's creations here.

Sorry about the blurry picture, I cropped it and unfortunately the quality didn't remain as good as the original. For my altered tea light, I painted it with blue acrylic paint and then hot glued decorative shells around the border, and added some blue and green glitter on top. It was really simple and fun to make!

Unfortunately it wasn't dark out when I took the picture, but I tried to get a good perspective of what it looks like when it's lit up. I cupped my hand around the tea light so you could at least tell it was turned on.

Sorry to make today's post quick, this week has been absolutely CRAZY. I'm so sorry for my lack of posting! 

Just a reminder that the design team call is open until next Sunday, October 1st. Anyone is eligible to apply, I'd love to have you on my first design team! :)

Thanks for reading!

Ashley

Successful First Storytime!

Hi everyone! Today I thought I'd share with you something different from what I usually post. Part of my job as an employee in the children's department of a library now entails doing a weekly storytime for 3-6 year olds. This was something completely new to me, so I was definitely nervous! It ended up going really well, I read the book The Parrot Tico Tango (see the picture below). I'm trying to stick with a "food" theme for each week, and this week was fruit.

This is the front cover of the book (which I took from Amazon.com) the story is about a parrot, Tico Tango, who goes around and takes a different piece of fruit from each of his friends in his rainforest. At the end, he can't carry it all and he drops it, and his friends turn it into a fruit salad. The story is so cute and is so vivid and bright!

Each of my storytimes will include a craft (my favorite part!), so I figured the perfect craft would be for each of the kids to make their own fruit salad. I printed each of the fruits used in the story onto colored cardstock and cut them out. They looked like this:

Lemon, cherry, date, papaya, grapes, fig and mango

Each of the kids had fun choosing which fruits they wanted to add to their fruit salad, which they made by using a glue stick to apply the fruit to a paper plate. I also used a flannel board to help tell the story, so I made a felt parrot and felt fruit so that the kids could better understand the story.

This is the front side of all the pieces. I attached cardstock paper to the front with a hot glue gun so that the parrot and the fruit looked more realistic, and not just like felt. I found a parrot coloring page online and printed it, and then colored it using markers so that it matched the parrot in the story.

This is the back side of the parrot and the pieces of fruit, which is what they would have looked like if I didn't include the cardstock paper.

Is this something you guys would like to see more of? I always like to change things up a bit. It's a 6 week storytime session so I would have plenty more to share. I could also try and include pictures of the kids crafts and also of the storytime itself. Let me know what you think! :)

Ashley

Design Team Call!

Made Especially For You is pleased to announce it's first design team call! Applications will be accepted until October 1st. Please see the Design Team Call page for more information.


Ashley
especiallymadeblog@gmail.com

And the winner is...

...Maribel Encarnacion at I Love Scrapping! Congratulations Maribel, you are the winner of my first blog candy giveaway! I will be e-mailing you with the details, you have one week to claim your prizes. :)


I would just like to give a HUGE thank you to everyone that participated! I reached my goal of 200 followers, yay! (It may say 199, but I have had multiple people tell me the 'follow' button was not working).  Thank you so much to anyone who passed along the giveaway to their friends, posted about it on their blog, or liked the Made Especially For You Facebook page. And of course, thanks to my new followers, I so appreciate you taking the time to stop by, I promise I'll make it around to all of your blogs, too! :)


I would love to do another giveaway once I am close to reaching 300 followers. It was so fun and went by so fast! Happy three month blogaversary, Made Especially For You! :)


I'll return to regular posting later today (I wanted to announce the winner as close to midnight as possible). Stay tuned for storytime crafts, sparkly cards, and a design team call!


Ashley

Thank You Card & A Blog Award

Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a great start to your week. :) I just got home from school and work and thought I'd share with you the thank you card I sent to my friend Katlyn for designing my new blog header and button. Her digital stamp store is awesome and her designs are so cute! Make sure to stop by and browse if you have the chance. :)

Front of the card: I have some great red and black ribbon that I really need to start using more often and I saw this as the perfect opportunity. I added the flower embellishments for an extra effect and also distressed the border around them with red and black ink, although it's hard to see in the picture. I really like the parallel effect of white on black and black on white with red as an accent color.

Inside of the card: I wrote a thank you message on the white half and left the black half blank.

Back of the card: I added the 'Made Especially For You' because that's a "signature" touch I add on all of my cards, and also where the name for my blog came from, but I'll explain that in a later post. :) I also added some more flowers and the polka dot ribbon that was used on the front of the card.

I recently received this award from two fellow bloggers: Laura over at Laura's Crafts and More and Karla over at Made By Karla. Thanks so much Laura and Karla, I really appreciate it! :)

I've added this award to my new "Blog Awards" page. I found it so helpful to have one of these so my sidebar wasn't always so crowded. It works great! I'd also like to pass along this award to the following three bloggers:

Linda at My Passion Is... She is an absolutely amazing scrapbooker and photographer, her creations are always fun to look at! :)

Sherry at Up Or Down They're Beautiful A wonderful crafter who always has fun tips, inspiring words and great projects! :)

Lisa at Lisa's Little Bits A fellow design team member that I can't wait to work with, her posts are so fun to read and her creations are so cute! :)

There's only 3 days left to enter my blog candy giveaway - I'm only 13 followers away from reaching my goal... that's so close! :) I can only do it with your help, make sure to tell all your friends! 

Thanks for reading!
Ashley

Always In Our Hearts - 9/11/01

Today I thought I would share with you a card I made in remembrance of September 11th. I was hoping to have this posted earlier today, but now that we are open Sundays at work I didn't have enough time to post this morning before I left. Better late than never though, right? :)

I never realized how challenging it was to make a card for a sad occasion. Usually the cards I make are fairly cheerful looking (or at least I like to think so) so creating this card was a bit of a challenge. I tried to make it as positive as possible, without losing its honorability. 

I was really pleased with how this card turned out, especially the stars. I absolutely love using glitter on anything I possibly can, I'm definitely a 'glitter girl'! To make the stars, I used wood star shapes and painted them red, white and blue and then drizzled glue onto them once they dried, and then sprinkled on the glitter. 

As for the bottom of the card, I cut different sized strips of red, white and blue cardstock in different widths and lengths. I used adhesive dots to apply them to the card and then used star confetti (on clearance for 79 cents at Hobby Lobby!) and glued those to the strips so that the card wasn't so plain.

I wish I would have known in advance to make the card a little bit larger, that way I could've centered the picture of the Twin Tower light beams that I found on the internet. I printed it on a clear shipping label in black and white and then highlighted the beams in blue, which is their actual color. I stamped the 'always in our hearts' using clear stamps in red and blue ink, and added a couple more silver confetti stars.

Have any of you created anything in honor of September 11th. I'd love to see! :)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by! There's only 6 more days to enter my Blog Candy Giveaway, I'm only 16 followers away from reaching my goal of 200! :) 

Ashley

Perfectly Paisley Card

Hi everyone, it's almost Friday! Even though it was a short week because of Labor Day, this week has felt like forever and I can't wait for the weekend! Luckily I have tomorrow off but unfortunately I'm stuck working all day Saturday and Sunday. The library I work at closes on Sundays during the summer and we open again starting this Sunday. Because I work in both departments (children's and adult circulation) I'll be working 3 of the 4 Sundays a month. At least it's time and a half pay! :)


Anyways, I know I've seriously been lacking in posting lately (I'm so sorry!) but things have been completely crazy with organizing my blog candy, updating my blog design, keeping up with work and school, and also finding time to craft. To top it all off, my wi-fi has been giving me a hard time lately so that makes it that much harder to post and comment. My next couple of posts I'll be playing "card catch-up" and sharing with you some cards I made a while back and am just now finding the time to post. 


This is an anniversary card I made for fun about a month or so ago. I realized I hadn't used my paisley embossing folder and wanted to give it a try - and luckily I had some paisley paper that matched perfectly! I really love the colors on the card, it's not a color combo that I've seen used too often. And maroon and gold are my favorite colors (also the colors of my bedroom!) so that's another reason I was pleased with this card.

I tried to get a close-up of the paisley border, but it didn't work as well as I hoped it would. :( It does however, give a nice close-up of the die cut, which is from the vintage pack for Cuttlebug.

To make the card, I used:

- Maroon and cream colored cardstock

- Gold metallic paper

- Gold ribbon

- Paisley paper

- 'happy anniversary' stamp in orange ink

- Cuttlebug

- 'Perfectly Paisley' embossing folder and a corner die cut from the vintage package

- Decorative scissors

Thanks so much for reading and bearing with me lately! Have an awesome weekend! :) 

Only 9 days left to enter my first blog candy giveaway, you can do so by clicking here. Good luck!

Ashley

** Blog Candy Giveaway - NEW ITEMS ADDED! **

Hi everyone! I apologize for my absence this past holiday weekend, I was out of town virtually doing nothing on a much-needed break! Regular posting/commenting will return tomorrow, I promise! :) 


Along with the original prizes being given away in my blog candy giveaway (you can view the original  post below) the winner will now also be able to choose 5 digital stamps of their choice from Jen's Digi Stamps. If you've already entered, don't worry, you're eligible to win the digi stamps, too! :) Her stamps are so adorable, I might have to buy a few for myself! :)


Comments made on this post will be eligible for entry, you do not have to refer to the original post if you want to enter. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to announce my first blog candy giveaway! I've been wanting to have one ever since I started blogging and have finally built up my collection enough to where it can happen. The giveaway will be running from September 1st - September 17th in honor of having 200 followers and also Made Especially For You's three month blogaversary (which falls on the 17th)! I'm not quite at 200 followers yet, but my goal is to be at 200 by the end of the giveaway.


I suppose I should tell you what's included in the giveaway... :)

 Shown in the picture:

- 25 sheets of assorted 12 x 12 patterned paper

- 5 sheets of assorted 8 x 8 patterned paper

- 15 sheets of assorted 4.5 x 6 matstack patterned paper

- 'Heartfelt thanks' stamp

- Square brads in assorted colors

- Gold adhesive embellishments

- Autumn clear stamps

- Assorted embellishments (adhesive frames, flowers, fall leaves, etc)

Also not included in the picture, you will receive some extra chipboard embellishments and also some die cut punches from my Cuttlebug. They'll be completely random, even I don't know what they are yet! :)


Here's what you have to do to enter:
1.) Become a follower of my blog if you aren't already
2.) Leave a comment on this post with your contact information (please mention if you're a new follower or not)
3.) 'Like' Made Especially For You on Facebook. If you aren't a Facebook user, don't worry! Just make sure you mention that in your comment. :)


Anddddd... you get an EXTRA chance to win if you do the following:
Post about the giveaway on your blog (either a new post or your sidebar counts) and include a link in your comment so I can see that it's there. Feel free to grab my brand new button (located on my sidebar) and also the picture of the blog candy to help promote the giveaway! :)


The winner will be chosen by random.org and will have one week to claim their prize. If it has not been claimed by then another winner will be chosen.


Have questions? I can be reached at especiallymadeblog@gmail.com


On a side note.. Made Especially For You now has a header and grab button thanks to Katlyn at Splashes of Joy. Her designs turned out great and I'm so happy with the results! Make sure to stop by her blog and check out her beautiful cards as well as her awesome digital stamp store! :)

First Blog Candy Giveaway! :)

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to announce my first blog candy giveaway! I've been wanting to have one ever since I started blogging and have finally built up my collection enough to where it can happen. The giveaway will be running from September 1st - September 17th in honor of having 200 followers and also Made Especially For You's three month blogaversary (which falls on the 17th)! I'm not quite at 200 followers yet, but my goal is to be at 200 by the end of the giveaway.


I suppose I should tell you what's included in the giveaway... :)

 Shown in the picture:

- 25 sheets of assorted 12 x 12 patterned paper

- 5 sheets of assorted 8 x 8 patterned paper

- 15 sheets of assorted 4.5 x 6 matstack patterned paper

- 'Heartfelt thanks' stamp

- Square brads in assorted colors

- Gold adhesive embellishments

- Autumn clear stamps

- Assorted embellishments (adhesive frames, flowers, fall leaves, etc)

Also not included in the picture, you will receive some extra chipboard embellishments and also some die cut punches from my Cuttlebug. They'll be completely random, even I don't know what they are yet! :)


Here's what you have to do to enter:
1.) Become a follower of my blog if you aren't already
2.) Leave a comment on this post with your contact information (please mention if you're a new follower or not)
3.) 'Like' Made Especially For You on Facebook. If you aren't a Facebook user, don't worry! Just make sure you mention that in your comment. :)


Anddddd... you get an EXTRA chance to win if you do the following:
Post about the giveaway on your blog (either a new post or your sidebar counts) and include a link in your comment so I can see that it's there. Feel free to grab my brand new button (located on my sidebar) and also the picture of the blog candy to help promote the giveaway! :)


The winner will be chosen by random.org and will have one week to claim their prize. If it has not been claimed by then another winner will be chosen.


Have questions? I can be reached at especiallymadeblog@gmail.com


On a side note.. Made Especially For You now has a header and grab button thanks to Katlyn at Splashes of Joy. Her designs turned out great and I'm so happy with the results! Make sure to stop by her blog and check out her beautiful cards as well as her awesome digital stamp store! :)


Good luck! :)
Ashley