Back to school in style

Emma had her first day of first grade today. SO much was new for her (new school, new teacher, new friends, full day, etc.) that I wanted to make her something fun. Something that would make her smile and think of home when she pulled it out of her backpack.

Her school supply list included a composition book, spiral notebook, and pencils (among countless other little things..I still haven't figured out what the bag of candy and ziploc bags are for!). I'd seen so many cool and funky supplies at Target and I thought, "Surely with my considerable stash I can come up with something similar."

Stampin' UP's demonstrator magazine had a super cute pencil holder and I immediately sat down to create it. Since the pattern is online on the demonstrator side of Stampin' UP's web site, I just had to print it out right on cardstock and then cut and score. How easy is that?! I stamped the polka dots from Polka Dots & Paisley in Purely Pomegranate ink on the same color cardstock. I used Big Deal Alphabet with Whisper White craft ink to stamp out Emma's name, then heat embossed it with White Detail Embossing powder. I then took a scrap of Very Vanilla cardstock and used my spiral punch along the edge. I glued this to the top inside edge of the pencil holder. I tied some bright and fun ribbon (from Wal-Mart - I was there for rubber cement and saw their entire ribbon section was being clearanced out for pennies!) around it to finish it off.


This next notebook is the spiral bound one-subject kind. I took a sheet of patterned paper (Creative Memories) cut to the dimensions of the cover plus a 1/2 inch on 3 sides (to wrap to the inside for a cleaner look) and ran it through my Xyron 900 (thanks, Mom! I love this gift :) ).

I cut a scrap of Pumpkin Pie cardstock into 4 pieces and rounded the corners with my corner rounder punch. I used Certainly Celery and Cameo Coral ink to stamp Emma's name (Big Deal Alphabet again) on a scrap of Apricot Appeal, of which I also rounded the corners.

I had two triangular scraps of the patterned paper left, so I glued them above the "m"s in her name. That's it!

I pretty much followed the same process with this composition book. I stamped some of the animals from the Wild About You set on the paper, using More Mustard, Soft Sky, and Ruby Red ink.

I *heart* this set! When I picked it out for my free set a few months ago, I did so reluctantly. But I knew I needed a set with solid images and one that could be used for kids and babies. I didn't have anything like that in my collection (*gasp* out of 50+ sets, nothing? No, nothing). I'm SO glad I got it! I've used it on multiple techniques (kissing and faux shaving cream to name just a couple), created numerous baby cards with it (read my last post for more about that), and stamped my kids some fun things. Again, I *heart* this set!

I didn't embellish these projects much because anything lumpy would have just been knocked off. After all, these are school supplies that one would hope are going to be used for the purposes of learning LOL!

Emma was very excited about her gifts and told me she had the "coolest school stuff in the class". Take THAT, Target LOL!

Now go create!
- Nicole

You can't judge a book by its cover

Especially when the book comes from the Dollar Tree! Back in May, I started thinking about end-of-the-school-year teacher gifts for Emma's kindergarten teacher and aide. I decided to make them prayer journals, knowing they both liked to record their spiritual progress.

Although Stampin' UP does make art journals to alter, I wanted a notebook with lined paper in it, to facilitate the journaling process. I headed to the Dollar Tree, knowing they had a gazillion spiral-bound notebooks. I was guaranteed to find the right size.

And that I did.

The journals below began life as a Beatrix Potter notebook, complete with a peachy colored cover and cute little bunnies on the front.

With each journal, I cut Au Chocolat paper to size (from SU!, now retired) leaving about an inch extra on 3 sides. I then used my spiral punch along the left edges. I inked my brayer up with Ruby Red ink (on the first journal) and Tempting Turquoise (on the second) and rolled it right over the paper. I then used Mod Podge to adhere it to the notebook cover. Scoring the paper and mitreing the corners before gluing makes for a much easier and neater job.

The sun is made from some handmade paper I cut into a circle (traced using the lid of a salsa jar) and the rays are vintage book paper. I used Tempting Turquoise and Ruby Red ink to stamp inspirational words using Everyday Flexible Phrases and Expressive Flexible Phrases (this latter set is retired).

I had just gotten Well-Worn Words as one of my Sell-A-Bration redemption sets (gotta love being an SU! demo!) and thought the style fit these journals perfectly. I stamped "Pray" in Chocolate Chip ink, then inked the torn cardstock edges with Ruby Red and Tempting Turquoise ink.

The finishing touch was to tie all kinds of fun ribbon down the spine of the journals. Not only does it make the journals funky-looking, but it's a great way to use up ribbon scraps. Ribbon is too awesome to waste a single inch, you know!

I so thoroughly enjoyed creating these! When I got Emma's school supply list for a few weeks ago, I saw she needed a sprial-bound notebook. Well, guess who's kid will have the coolest looking Meade in first grade ROFL! I'm thinking this paper will work perfectly. Those bright colors - WoW!

As always, thanks for looking.......

Now go create!

- Nicole