Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Cyber Monday, Free Gingerbread Clipart, and Catching up on News!

Oh. my. goodness. I have been gone for a long time! Gone from blogging that is. I just checked out the date of my last post as I signed in to write this and it was almost a month ago!

Thanks to Michelle for this adorable button and linky party!

Wow, life has kept me super busy, but I'm back in action and just in time for big sales, new clipart sets and a cute little gingerbread man freebie for all of you. First off, I'm sure you have heard about the {HUGE} Cyber Monday sale on TpT which starts on Monday, November 26th and goes through Tuesday, November 27th. I am going to be having a 20% off sale on EVERYTHING in my little TpT shop. Then, TpT is offering an additional 10% off with the code CMT2012 at the checkout. That comes out to be 28% off! I have a few new clipart sets that I have just added to my shop within the last week too. Click on the images below if you want to check them out!

I am super excited about my Game Board Galore set! Each game board template is large enough for an 8.5x11 page, but can be resized smaller. There are so many possibilities for making products with these templates! I am also finishing up a Christmas version of the game board templates that will be up in the next couple days for seasonal products/lessons. AND... I am also finishing some winter clipart sets that I will hopefully have done in time for the sale! Phew!

There is so much to catch up on that I don't even know where to start! It would probably take a long time to write about it and I might lose some of ya by the end of this post anyway :) Here are a few pictures of what's been going on in my classroom during my month-long bloggin hiatus...

My classroom monkey got another costume makeover for Thanksgiving, thanks to my mom's crafty skills again! The kids LOVED this costume and I can't wait until I put on his elf costume next week. I am currently home for Thanksgiving at my parents' house and my mom is working on sewing an ENORMOUS elf hat with ears for him as I type :)

We also had a little "mock election" for Election Day and the kiddos filled out their ballots in this adorable voting booth...another Mama Wallden creation!

I'm not going to make this post much longer because I have clipart sets to finish up and some new lesson products to do as well- but here is a little gingerbread man freebie. If you have purchased my Gingerbread Clipart set, they fit perfectly with those images. I had planned on making an entire gingerbread set based on the story/characters, but just haven't had the time. So I am offering up the images that I have done for {FREE} because I won't finish the additional characters until probably the summer. These images will be for free until I get the set finished and up in my store. Included are color and black and white versions. Click on the picture below to download them from my TpT store :)

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving with their loved ones. I have so much to be thankful for this year! Thanks so much for all of your sweet feedback and comments that keep me creating :)

BOO! Flash Sale! $1.00 Clipart Sets!

Hi friends! Well, I survived Hurricane Sandy! It actually wasn't too bad where I was. A lot of wind and rain, but I had power the entire time, so all my precautions weren't necessary. Still, good to be prepared just in case!

We had school cancelled on Monday and today (Tuesday), which means I am in for QUITE a treat tomorrow. The kids have been off for four days, tomorrow is Halloween and I haven't been in my room since Friday. Things are gonna get a bit cra-zy. Not to mention I might fuel the fire by giving the kiddos candy and playing spooky music when they come into the classroom tomorrow morning. Why not? :) Our school doesn't let the kids dress up, so that distraction will at least be erased :) Wish me luck folks- and good luck to you, too, because I know you're in the same boat.

Although I feel like I have completely dropped the ball on Halloween this year (in my defense, we don't celebrate it "officially" at school, so I wouldn't have been throwing a party for the kiddos or anything), I'm celebrating at least a little bit with a BOO! Flash Sale for all my Halloween clipart! All my Halloween clipart is on sale for $1.00 until midnight on October 31st! Yep, one buck-a-roo :) The rest of my store is 10% off!

I had the cutest little sale button I made, but I had a fierce fight with my computer when I tried to save it and well....cute button is no more. But I do have this little collage of some of my sale clipart!

Here are my clipart sets that are on sale for $1.00 below. Click on the picture to snatch them up! Happy Halloween!

Hurricane Prep, Clipart Snatch-Up and Sneak Peek!

Hey all! Well, if you haven't heard, there is a hurricane coming. I moved to Delaware last October, so this is my first "hurricane experience" and I have to say I have taken every precaution (insert sarcasm here). Please don't think that I am not taking it seriously and that I am not genuinely concerned for those who live closer to the coast. However, I try to find a little humor even in stressful situations, so hence, this post was written :)

There have been a bunch of notices posted about Hurricane Prep that have been helpful, but I also had a few other survival tips that seemed to have missed the list. Here are some additional measures I have taken to get ready:

1.) Make sure I have Starbucks iced coffee packets so when the electric goes out, I can still make coffee in the morning. I have also stocked up on Advil- for when I run out of iced coffee packets and my caffeine withdraw headache sets in.

2.) I have not only made sure I have candles for when the power goes out, I have made sure I have all my fall favorite scents including apple cider, warm apple pie, and cinnamon so I can imagine that I am sitting in a Yankee Candle store without power- rather than my one room apartment.

3.) I have hauled the jumbo cooler out of my trunk that I purchased last year for my kiddos field trip lunches. Since I have NO extra space in my apartment, I have been keeping it in my trunk since. I may finally find another use for this plastic monster if I need to load it up with my lean cuisines when the power goes out.

4.) I have charged my ipad and laptop so I have the maximum battery time left to create TpT products and clipart in the dark when the power goes out.

5.) I am ready to call my mom with my TpT login in information so she can update me on sales when I don't have internet to avoid the same anxiety I feel when TpT is down for maintenance and I can't check my stats!

6.) As my friend advised, I have made sure that I have wine that you should drink at room temperature for when my white wine is no longer cold after the power goes out.

7.) I read that you should fill up your bath tub with water to fill up the toilet so you can still flush it when the power goes out. Well, thanks to a clogged drain, I pretty much have this one covered on a daily basis when I take a shower and I'm standing in four inches of water.

So, if you are in the path of Hurricane Sandy, some of those might be helpful for you.


In other news! I have finished a few different clipart sets and it's time for a SNATCH-UP! All sets include both color and black/white versions. Here are my new sets!

Gingerbread

Gobble, Gobble

Holly Jolly Christmas

The first THREE people who comment on this post will get to choose one set for {FREE}! If you aren't one of the lucky three, you can still snatch up these sets at my TpT store. Just click on the name or the image and you will be taken to the product listing :)

AND.... here's a little sneak peak at what I got coming your way soon!

Giveaway Winners!

I'm writing off a quick post to let you know who the three winners of my $8.00 giveaway to my TpT store!

Drum rollll pleasee......

Like I said before- I'm still a newbie blogger and didn't know how to set up a fancy schmancy giveaway, so I just did the number generator and found the corresponding comments. I'm going to talk to some stellar blogger friends before my next giveaway and get the run down on setting it up a different way.

BUT! For now, these numbers correspond to the following people's comment on the post. Congrats to:

Comment #10- Michelle @ Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans

Comment #6- Suzy Q

Comment #19- Jennifer @ Herding Kats In Kindergarten

I will email you ladies tomorrow (I would tonight, but I'm all sorts of tired). {Michelle, Suzy, and Jennifer} if see this post first, then you can get a jump on shopping in my TpT store for your $8.00 winnings worth of products. Email me at thecreativechalkboard@gmail.com with your choices and I will send them to you!

I had so much fun coming up with the freebies and having my first big celebration! I can't wait for the next one!! Thanks for reading and commenting!!

I'm off to crawl into my bed! I'm so excited!! I never thought at the ripe old age of 24 (okay...fine...I'm almost 25) I would ever be so excited to go to sleep as I have been this year! It has been a cra-zyy ride so far.

I have lots of new, products and clipart coming at you this weekend! I am LOVING working on my Thanksgiving and holiday sets!! Nothing like festive clipart to bring in the seasons! I am planning on having a couple new sets posted by Monday (I'm thinking a pilgrims/indians one and a gingerbread theme one)- so you know what that means! Clipart snatch-up for you! Stay tuned.

Night bloggy friends! :)

Don't forget to enter my $8.00 Giveaway!!

Hi folks! Just a reminder that tomorrow is the last day to enter my giveaway for $8.00 to my TpT store in celebration of over 800 followers! If you want to enter, just click on this post {HERE} and leave a comment at the bottom. I will announce three winners on Thursday!

Day 8 {Freebie} Borders and $8.00 giveaway to my TpT store!

Hi all! Day 8 of my Freebies and I barely am making this in time! It's 11:34 where I am, so if you are in another time zone, you probably already thought I forgot about you!! Nope- I didn't, just having a case of the Sundays which means procrastination to the max :) I got very distracted making a popcorn-themed main idea and details activity for my kiddos tomorrow, so I blame it on that.

I have started playing around with creating {BORDERS}!!! As if my current obsession list isn't long enough already, I think I have found another thing to tack onto the end of it. I love all the borders that are out there, but I thought I would give it a shot- just in time for my Day 8 {Freebie}!

This is my first try at borders and I was just playing around, but if you think you could put any of these to use- feel free to snatch up up {HERE} from my TpT store and use them for your freebies or products :)

As promised at the beginning of the week, I am going to give three people $8.00 worth for products (of their choice) from my TpT store! I am still new to the blogging world and I don't know how to do the fancy schmancy giveaway entries and generators, so I have to go with the basics here. If you want to enter the giveaway, you must be a follower of my TpT store and my blog (to be honest, I don't even know how to check and see if you are, so on your honor haha) and leave a comment on this blog post saying what your best Halloween costume was- either as a kid or adult. I will have the comment entries open until Wednesday night and will then do a random number generator to figure out which three comments are the winners. Any of you expert bloggers who want to help me set up a fancy schmancy giveaway for my 1,000 follower giveaway down the road from now- let me know!

Alright friends. I'm going to jump into bed for my 4.5 hours of sleep before the week starts off with a bang. It is spirit week at our school and tomorrow is Mismatch Monday, so at least I don't have to worry about what I wear because pretty much anything goes!

Thanks for being a part of my 8 Days of Freebies!!