Crafty Classroom Expectations ... *FREEBIE*!

Let me start by saying that I have ZERO experience with spray paint. I've never even picked up a can before in my life.  Needless to say, I've seen all these super cute projects other teachers do on Pinterest, Blogs, and Instagram and I thought to myself, "Hey! That looks easy! I can do that!" 

I guess I needed to remind myself something I always remind my students:: "What's easy for one person isn't necessarily easy for everyone else."

So last night I created my top 10 classroom expectations courtesy of Lessons With Laughter. She created some super cute ones but they didn't match my color scheme and they wouldn't fit in the frames I bought. So I created my own. I love, love, LOVE them!!!! 

You can download them for FREE here. (Yes, free!)

I found these super cute frames at Michaels for $3.99. They were 70% off plus I had a 20% off entire purchase coupon. So I bought 11 frames (1 extra) for 96 cents a piece!!! Talk about a great deal!

(photo courtesy of Kinder Craze)

I picked up three cans of spray paint from Walmart.

Rust-Oleum in Seaside

Krylon in Citrus Green (which is not green at all but neon yellow)

Rust-Oleum in Berry Pink

And here is where I had trouble. As I already said, I am not a pro at spray painting. I wouldn't even say I'm a beginner. I'm below a beginner.

So here are my top 4 tips for Spray Painting for Dummies.

1. Stand downwind -- Yes, I did have to learn that one that hard way... and so did my poor iPhone.

2. When the directions say "Shake well before use" you better shake well before use.

3. DO NOT use plastic trash bags to paint on to. Not only does the paint not want to dry on the trash bags, but your project will stick to them and when you think you're finished and everything is dry, you literally have to PRY the final project off of the trash bag (thus leaving behind plastic pieces you can not peel off).

4. Although the spray paint cans say your project will be dry(ish) in 20 minutes, believe me... it's not.

Either way.... it wasn't a complete disaster.

This was before I had to peel them off of the trash bag. 

From a distance they look much better. Up close... you can see every little detail. I wasn't able to peel off the tags easily so I just spray painted over them. At this rate, I might just have to sand down and try again. (I think the tri-colored frame actually came out the best and there's only one coat of paint and it was my tester!!)

With a little Mod Podge... this is the final result!!!

Not sure yet how I'm going to present this or hang them yet but I am SUPER excited and proud of how they turned out regardless!!

What are you tips and tricks for spray painting? This dummy would love to hear them!!!

Five for Friday Linky!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Today after cheer practice, I spent some serious time working on things in my classroom. 

This first bulletin board is going to be for my Cultural Diversity course I get to teach. The class itself is still a work in progress. As of right now I have the first project and the final project planned. This bulletin board will be the host of our classroom tree. The first couple days of school students will research their culture and answer a few basic questions. They will put their info on a "leaf" which we will add to our tree. Now all I have to do is figure out how to design a tree out of paper. :)

This second bulletin board took me FOREVER to put together. I may be teaching 6th grade, but I am cross-curricular. Everyone else on my grade-level team teaches one subject. This board will be to post our daily agenda, homework, and my point system for classroom management. My lovely friend Hannah shared this wonderful link with me from Teach. Inspire. Change. This is a whole-class behavior system where students can earn seconds towards their time. Their ultimate goal is to reach 15 minutes where they will be allowed to play semi-subject related games. Hopefully this is something I can keep up with and the students will be excited about!

I'm working on some cute t-shirts for my cheerleaders. 

The colors will be slightly different but I'm super excited for them to get them!!!

I just finished reading this book...            Now I'm waiting for this book... to arrive :)

What can I say?? I LOVE a good mystery!

I discovered these beautiful expectation posters  from Lessons With Laughter . I'm debating how I want to display them in my room. I thought about finding some cheap frames to hang them with or some wooden frames from Michaels that I could spray paint and then modge podge on. Ohhhh the ideas!

And finally, it's messages like these that really make me smile :)