AHHH! I am SO EXCITED!

I was bound and determined to make my own clip art. We are kinda broke, and if I want to make things for TPT I needed to do it without having to buy clip art (well, also if I want to attempt to spend money on my classroom next year...)

So, after many long hours searching on the internet, I found this tutorial: How to make clip art from your own drawings and I've had Gimp before, so I wanted to re-download it.

First - DO NOT FORGET to download things like Gimp from CNET or somewhere else safe. In my excited frenzy, I forgot. I got malware. I got viruses. I got bad stuff. Luckily my husband saved me.

I also wanted to learn how to make my own backgrounds/digital papers. I found this wonderful blog:
Mel Stampz and she has some really cool overlays that you can use in Gimp to make papers!

Now, all of this went down at about 10:30 last night. I wanted to go to bed. I wanted to stay up and play. I was torn. Finally, sleep won, because today was baby day at the zoo.

Last year when I was pregnant, I met a fantastic first grade teacher at baby class. She was due around the same time I was and we kept in touch. Fast forward to the first few months after baby and my husband put me in touch with another mom at his work who had just had a baby a few months before me. The three of us get together and then add in two more mamas. We had a great summer with the roly-poly newborns and fun get-togethers.

We now have babies that are one and fun! Today's adventure with the munchkins was the ZOO! We fed animals, we rode the zoo train... I got licked by a gigantic, black, slimy giraffe tongue. I'm not one to shy away from nature, but I was not expecting the slime!

Fast forward through me losing my purse, the long-ish drive home, finding of the purse, paying the water bill (its old fashioned, we can't pay online... really...) I finally get home. Gimp is open, baby is napping, I am READY.

I made two cute cliparty things. One is a monster, one is a dinosaur. I. WAS. SO. STOKED. I am not the best artist, but I can do my "third grade" art. I tell my students that I was an AWESOME artist in third grade, but that's when it stopped. I also happen to have my very artistically inclined step-daughter... mwahahaha (picture Mr. Burns.)

I had to interrupt the fun to take M to her eye therapy appointment. I will have to write a post later about this - it is AMAZING and life changing for M and teacher-me.

Later I worked on some papers using the overlays I mentioned above. So much fun!

I also called my grandma - it is her birthday. We have determined that she is most likely 26 years old. It seems about right! But in all honesty, she is in her 80s and amazing. She is my hero and such an inspirational lady!!! Everyone should have a grandma like her!

Things I need to learn:
-how to make my own overlays
-how to make fonts (yeah, I know this one is super technical, a girl can dream.)

I will post some fun things I have made tomorrow! For now, I am so worn out!

Have a super night, hug and kiss someone and tell them you love them! Be kind!
Alison :)