A little decor

Last year while at CHA, my boss found these adorable galvanized metal stands.  They had a black chalkboard in the center and were scalloped around the edges.  Very cute!  She puchased one for each teacher and asked us to make something that would show our classes for the upcoming quarter (obviously it would change from quarter to quarter).

I teach around 6 classes each quarter for her.  So, I made a small tray that fit exactly inside the chalkboard part.  The tray was equally divided and in each section I placed something from each of the class projects and a little tag with the class name, dates, and price on it.  The whole tray was then placed on the stand with magnets so it could be removed and updated the next quarter.  I also took the time to decorate the stand itself with Tim Holtz distress paints and some other fun things.  I included my name on the top as well so people would know it was me!

 This is the frame after I painted and embellished it.  Sorry, but I did not take a pic before!  You can see that I was playing around with a tiny, tiny piece of chalk on the board.

 A side view 

This is the original tray I made for the stand.  6 classes each with its own small sample space.

 Everyone loved the idea enough that I had to make it a class!  This is what I came up with:

Can you see that the little lantern in the bottom corner lights up?  So adorable.

The tray itself is only 7 x 4.  I love the idea that this is something that is small enough to be placed on a desk and is easily changed for each holiday or season.  So many possibilities!  The trays are made with chipboard; takes a little time to put them together.  The little lantern in the lower corner is from Tim Holtz.  It comes with a battery pack so when you plug it in the lantern lights up!  Very cool.  I made a few modifications to it for the class.  I added a dark metal element under the numbers to help balance it visually.  Liked it better (now I have to make a new one for me!)  I also made 2 other holiday kits; one for Thanksgiving and one for New Year's.

Again, I made a design change for the class kit by adding very tiny twigs under the leaves on the tree.  It added dimension and looked so freakin cute!!!   Sorry about the glare on the tag on the top.  I used stickles on top of the stamped "so Thankful" image and my photo light just kept catching all the glitter!

New Year's has an old fashioned look.  I love the metallic colors with the deep black.  Feels glamorous to me.  All the stars and swirls were cut on the Silhouette.  Did I mention before how much I adore my Silhouette?  Oh My Gosh.  I love, love, love it!  It cut those pretty black stars (see all the little detail on them?) perfectly.  When I removed them from the mat they lifted perfectly.  I did not have to sit and meticulously pick out and cut out by hand all the little spaces.  Nope, they came off perfectly because they were actually cut perfectly.  And the swirls?  Cut those from a thick glitter paper.  Perfect.  No special tools to take them from the mat or little chads on the edges to cut off.  Again I love my Silhouette!  Sorry, I digress!

I have so many ideas of things to make for the next few holidays.  Not all of them are trays.  The stand is a chalkboard too so I was thinking of integrating that with a design.  Hope this inspired you today.  Happy crafting.