Back to School Time

I spent a big chunk of my day today working at my school system’s annual Back to School Fair, a free event open to the community to celebrate the start of the school year and to share information about how parents can support their children’s success. So, with that in mind, I created a few fun school-themed projects to share here tonight.

This first project came out of a crafting session with my friend Michele. She wanted to make a back to school gift for her son’s kindergarten teacher and for her teacher colleagues, too. We came up with this adorable apple Top Note basket, based on the design of a swap I received earlier this month from Stacey Buzbee at the SU! convention.

The front of the basket is a red Top Note die. It's embellished with some punches to make a cute face. I also used punches for the stem and the leaves, too. The box is a simple rectangle, scored in a few places, cut to form flaps, and put together with some Sticky Strip. So cute, not to mention quick and easy to pull together!

Materials Used (all from Stampin' Up!):

Real Red, Green Galore, Basic Black, and Whisper White cardstock, Top Note die, 1/4" 1", and 1 3/4" circle punches, photo corner punch, Dazzling Diamonds, dimensionals, Sticky Strip

This card features a fun school house image from my new Unity August Kit of the Month that I couldn’t resist trying out. I used Mercy's Tuesday sketch challenge for the layout. The school house is colored with Copic markers, then cut out. It's added to the background using some dimensionals.

I paired the schoolhouse image with some paper with a subtle cursive handwriting pattern. I tied a twill ribbon around the patterned paper panel before placing it on the kraft card base. It took me a while to settle on the right sentiment for this card. I finally went with one from Unity's Birthday Chic set. I think it's a nice message for the start of the school year.

Materials Used:

August Kit of the Month, Birthday Chic kit, Distressed Dots background (Unity Stamp Co.); white cardstock (Gina K Designs); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers (Copic); Riding Hood Red and Gable Green Classic ink, Riding Hood Red, Soft Sky, Green Galore, and Kraft cardstock, scallop edge punch, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); designer paper (Imaginisce); twill (Martha Stewart)