Neighborhood Craft Night - Teacher Gifts

When I hosted my first neighborhood craft night in October I knew it would be something fun to do on a Friday night, but I couldn't have imagined how much I would look forward to this "girl time" or what a bond I would feel with these women - many of whom were essentially strangers when we first started. My December travel schedule was a little hectic and with the holidays coming I wasn't sure I'd be able to fit one in (or if anyone would have time to come) - so when all of my "regulars" not only came but brought three new people, I knew we had something special.  This month's project - teacher gifts!  All photos (except the crappy one at the bottom) courtesy of Busy Bee Photography.

We created altered notebooks and post-it note holders using the GORGEOUS Teresa Collins Vintage Finds collection and - of course - my Xyron machines. You can find a quick tutorial on how to create your own notebook (with the lovely Teresa herself) here: 

and I created the post-it note holders using two pieces of 3x3 chipboard covered in patterned paper (and we made our own binding using a smaller piece of paper), but of course AFTER craft night I found an ENTIRE Pinterest page with tutorials that were MUCH easier.  Live and learn!  :)

Bizzy - the official mascot of...well...everything.  :)  She is like the "Where's Waldo" of craft night!

I got so wrapped up in the fun of it all that I forgot to ask Rachel to take a picture of the post-it note holder, so here it is - in all its low light, crummy camera blurriness.  I made it nice and big so you can revel in the awesomeness of the photo.  Ha!

Happy Crafting everybody!  Can't wait to see what the new year will bring!