last day of school

Well, that's the end of Kindergarten for Kid #1.  It all whizzed by so quickly.  I had a knot in the pit of my stomach last night, but today I'm fine and happy for her.  The last two weeks have been a complete whirling dervish of activity, I've been going and doing and spinning around, crafting in my sleep practically.  When I actually get any sleep, that is.

There was an embellished canvas tote bag for Rebecca's teacher, which I got smart about and didn't start from scratch.  I purchased a very sturdy, nice quality tote from a department store instead of sewing a sub-standard one myself (or raising my blood pressure and killing myself trying to do everything), then had Rebecca draw a picture.

Here's the closeup, her and her teacher holding hands, in front of a school.  What a mishmash of stitches.  I used split stitches, French knots, chain stitches, lazy daisies, backstitches, straight stitches and then bordered it with a buttonhole stitch, which also attached the embroidered fabric to the bag.

Then there were the birthday party invitations that needed to be made before all her classmates split up for the summer.  I couldn't envision gathering all those addresses and details and then having to mail everything out.  I thought it would be easier this way, for her to have them ready and then just pass them out subtly right before the bell rang on the last day.  Well, I forgot that I'd have to finalize the date and reserve our party space before then, too.  So I set everything in stone yesterday, got all the materials together and scrambled to finish everything early this morning.  As in 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. early-this-morning. Since we'd decided on the dot theme a couple of months ago, I'd already taken a page out of Martha's book and gotten the CD envelopes for the invites.  But instead of making cards, I just decided to write directly on old CDs instead.  I had a stack of junk mail CDs that I was saving for one of those "they've-got-to-be-good-for-something" projects.  So I just wrote the details on the shiny side of the disc with an Ultra Fine Sharpie, and used a glue stick to adhere some polka dotted scrapbooking paper onto the advertisement side.

And, lastly, there were 24 of these babies. 

But I'm going to wait to tell you about these guys, because I'm going to post a tutorial for them soon.  Right now I'm going to space out in front of the television with my husband and some knitting, and just revel in the fact that I don't have to set the alarm clock for tomorrow morning.

Comments

[Michelle]

I LOVE that bag! So cute the way you stitch Rebecca's drawings.

[Lan]

i love the idea of the bag! and it's so thoughtful, as well as personal since it's her drawing.

i also really like the CD invitation idea. what a festive and adorable way to do invitations!

[Missy]

I'm going to officially take myself out of the running for mom of the year, since you clearly have it all wrapped up! LOLOLOL! Seriously tho... cutest bag ever!

[jek]

hey there!

i couldn't get yer email addies from here so could ya email me and i'll send you the pics? jekinthebox at google (g) mail....;)

thanks for playing today! i had fun!

[Jhoanna]

What an awesome effort Michelle! I so adore the tote bag and the invites are such a fantastic idea. Can't wait to see the tutorial too - but first, hope you get some much needed rest. Congratulations on your little one's graduation from Kinder :-)

[Beth]

You are so creative! The bag is beautiful and I know R's teacher must have loved it.