Pencil Vase and Apple Print Art

It's been a year or two since I linked up to Monday Made It!  I guess I haven't been very crafty lately!  I'm pretty excited about my projects this week.  They were created at my friend, Amanda's, Pinterest Party.  Her party was a great idea.  She hosted a private collaborative Pinterest board and shared access with all of the people invited to the party.  We all pinned ideas that we wanted to create onto the board.  Then, we "liked" our favorite projects.  The projects with the most votes were what we created at the party.  It was great to finally be able to create some items on my crafting to do list!

Up first is my apple print painting!  It was inspired by {this} pin.  

I LOVE how it turned out!  My classroom has a blue, green, and black theme, so this will be great for some added color.  Unfortunately, I did not take any photos while making the project {possibly because we were eating these while crafting}.  Here are the steps I followed:

1) Using a sponge brush, paint the canvas black with acrylic paint.  The one in the inspiration pin has a white background, which looks great too.  It took about 20 minutes to dry.  

2) Cut an apple in half.  You can use the apple as is, or cut some grooves into it with a knife for a more rustic feel.

3) Choose your apple print colors.  I went with turquoise with an accent of white.  

4) Pour some paint on a paper plate.  Using a sponge brush, paint your apple.  

5) Gently press the apple onto the canvas.  For some of the prints, I put my hand behind the canvas and pressed against the apple.  This helped to add a deeper print and give the canvas some variety.  Repaint the apple and repeat the process! 

6) Let it dry and enjoy! 

The second project I made at the Pinterest Party is a pencil vase!  It was inspired by {this} pin.  I am thinking about making these as a back to school gift for my teammates, so I wanted to try it out first.  

{If my teammates are reading this post, please pretend you never saw this.}

It was super easy to make! 

1) Grab a cheap vase.

2) Put a flat rubber band around the vase.

3) Tuck pencils into the rubber band all the way around the vase.  {If you are feeling ambitious, you could also glue or tape the pencils onto the vase.  We tried a glue gun, double sided tape, and scotch tape, but didn't have much luck}.  The rubber band trick works great, but it's not a very secure hold so your pencils need a bit of adjusting after you set the vase down.

4) Cover up the rubber band with a ribbon and tie a bow!  

5) Fill with water and flowers.  Sunflowers or daisies would look super cute in a pencil vase!  I took the easy route and cut some flowers out of my garden yesterday {and they are already dead today... oops}.  

My last project this week was a product update!  I am in the process of changing the covers on my ugly products.  Not only did I change the cover on this one, but I also added more pages to the pack.  My students always get very excited to create their iStudent book!  They love anything techie :)

This is my old cover.  Very rainbow and slightly busy...

Here is my new one! 

Much better.

You can check out iStudent {here}.  Check out the preview to see examples of all of the pages.  

It's on sale for the next few days! :)

Happy crafting!