Sunflower Theme

cork boards painted red with sunflowers glued on

sunflower pens I mentioned in a previous post

Well, I signed a 1 year contract with "my" new school today.  It was very exciting!  The 2007-2008 school year hasn't ended yet, and here I am planning for the 2008-2009 year.  I've decided that my "theme" is going to be sunflowers.  Whenever I have time, I've been hunting for sunflower school supplies, or making them myself like I did today.  

When David first started working at the church, I covered 12 X 12 cork board squares with fabric and we hung those up in his office.  Ever since then, I've wanted to do something similar in my classroom (by my desk) where I can hang notes, reminders, or student work. After meeting with the principal today, I swung by Walmart to see if I could find the necessary supplies -- cork board, fabric, etc.  Well, I couldn't find any sunflower fabric that I really liked.  There was some that was very cute, it just wouldn't work for my purpose. Instead, I purchased a cranberry colored acrylic paint and several silk sunflowers.  I pained the squares of cork board the cranberry color and hot-glue-gunned the flowers on.  It turned out very nicely. While I had all the supplies out, I also painted a box I am planning to use for pencil storage to match (even adding a sunflower).  I used tape to paint the pale green stripes on the lid of the box.  I wasn't sure how it would look, I just knew I didn't want solid red. I really like the way the box turned out, though.  I used scrapbooking rub-on letters to write "supplies" across the top.  I put another red coat of paint on top to make it more permanent and to give it a more "weathered" look.