Mystery Reader...

My favorite school activity with grandchildren so far happened recently... Mystery Reader! I had never heard of this event before this year- let along take part in it... and as a retired literacy coordinator- that's sayin' something!

Here's the scoop... You sign up to read a favorite story to the kindergarten kids and give three clues as to who you are so they can guess which kindergartner you belong to! Parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. are all encouraged to get a time slot. So I traveled to my granddaughter's schools and got a time to read...

Campbell was first in kindergarten and was just so excited to see me and hear my story. It was amazing!  Two weeks later, I signed up to be the Mystery Reader in her sister, Lyla's pre-K! It was simply the BEST thing ever!

I decided to send thank you note to both teachers for sharing this tremendous experience. Here are the cards:

Clearly Besotted Simply Scrumptious was perfect for this since strawberries are just starting to show up everywhere on fruit stands. I love the clean and simple look to this card and made two different examples... one high and one low on the plants. Clear stamps work so well for this because you can see where they match to stamp on the other layer.

I used PTI's strawberry for the inside of the cards with berry much...

This gives an idea of the fun foam backing on the top layer to give the card dimension... I did not use it on the "thank you" piece. Although I did heat embossed the letters with black to stand out better.

I noticed that on one of the cards I went around the die cut with black marker, but not on the other! It really does make a difference when you look at it.

So my three clues...

• Love to boogie board with my grandkids 
• LOVE strawberry ice cream sodas and shared them on my birthday this year (btw ... Every kid LOVED them!)
• Live in Vermont but spend time in Florida in the winter...

Yes- Campbell and Lyla guessed who I was... Thanks to two great experiences in teaching an old dog new tricks!