TpT Seller Challenge: Week 1

As a teacher I am always on the lookout for great ideas for my classroom.  Handouts, printables, flip books, homework, games... Often, I would find something that was close to what I wanted, but not quite right.  So I would make it for myself.  At first, the pages were awful not terribly attractive (remember Comic Sans?  It was my favorite), but they worked!  Over time, got a little better at it, and I started sharing things with the teachers at my school.  It was then that I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers 

Oh.  My.  Word.  So many products to choose from, from other teachers just like me!  And a lot of them were FREE.  Woo-hoo!  I went a little bit crazy downloading free clip art (did I tell you I LOVE clip art?), and then I started BUYING things.  Like all the time.  I couldn't stop myself.  It got so bad I had to hide it from my husband.  How was I going to pay for my habit?!  Well, why not sell my creations on TpT?

So I made myself a store and uploaded a free product.  It was a school year calendar that I made to put in my teacher planning binder.  With bright colors and polka-dots.  I thought maybe a few teachers could use it, and that made me happy.  
Light Bulbs and Laughter Blog - 1025-2016 School Year Calendar - FREE


A year later, I have updated it for the 2015-2016 school year, and as of today, it has been downloaded 19,422  23,355 times.  Seriously.  Something that I made has made a lot of teachers' lives just a little bit easier.  How cool is that?

I've also made some other products.  Things that I use in my own classroom.  I charge a little bit of money for them.  Not a lot.  And here's the good news: I am now breaking even!  I figure that if I can earn as much as I spend on TpT... it all helps our kiddos, right?

So, enough background info, and on to the Challenge part of this post!  Last week I joined the TpT Seller Challenge started by four amazing teacher-bloggers.  I was to go back to one of my first products and update the covers with new fonts and clip art.  

I chose my 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice:
Light Bulbs and Laughter - TpT Seller Challenge: Week 1 - Makeover Madness
What do you think?  My style has definitely changed in a year!  I like them, but my husband prefers the originals and he's a teacher, too.  If you click HERE, it will take you to my store to look over these babies and see for yourself.  I would love to know what you think, so please leave a comment!

Blessings,