Simply Cute – First day of school

I wanted to make some quick and cute cards for my kids to give to their teachers for the First Day of School! Sort of a Welcome Back. I know Im excited cause this is the first year ALL 3 kids will be in school! Bad for my stamping budget (School shopping time), great for my sanity!

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      Alexa  1st grade        Noah  Pre-K              Amber  Pre-K

That means 6 hours a week of MOMMY (aka MYTIME) time! Is that bad that I am so excited? I really dont feel guilty about it either :D. Im sure you can guess WHAT I will be doing……….(insert evil grin)

Alexa (God willing) will be in school full time, and back after 1 1/2 years off for her chemo treatments. Im praying she stay healthy! She will still have treatments throughout the next year, but we are hoping her immune system is stronger.

I am generally NEVER able to even think of doing stuff like that, but since having the Team Spirit theme for the SCS Dirty Dozen I was able to be in the mode to create these.

I was not into going ALL OUT! In other words making them dirty worthy. I wanted SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE, and CUTE. I especially hate reproducing cards so that was another reason for my design. AND if you want to make this for your kids or class room-its very easy!

When I saw the Daphne and Donald Back to School set I was giddy! I thought it was a way cuter version of Crayon Kids. At least thats what I thought.

So I went with the lunchbox theme.

Wanna make one?

All I did was make my card base-fold at the top.

Round the corners of the base, and inner mat.

For the handle- I used my Key tag punch. Simply punch the end of your cardstock first ( so inner handle part) then turn punch so you can see, punch the key tag shape. This will allow you to evenly align that hole for the handle.

In other words-dont just punch out the keytag shape then expect to be able to get the center punched out perfectly-wont happen! At least not stress free! make sense??

For the metal lunch box clip-I used a Making Memories decorative clip. Each clip matched the little shape on each of the kids back packs-cute eh? Its the little details!! No one probably even noticed that-but I do.

All the back packs are cut and on dimensionals. Very cute IRL!

I had these alpha stickers and they totally inspired by lunch box colors.

For the kids-I stamped them on the layers, then separately stamped the faces, colored/cut/pasted.

These took a maximum of 45 minutes for ALL 3! Now that is cool.

Hope the teachers like them.

FYI-You dont want to really WOW the teachers on the first day of school with an ultra awesome card or handmade gift item because that will set the bar high for the rest of the year! Not good.

So start simple that way if you have time, in the future the gift can get better and better. Unless you dont want to even let on you are crafty cause TRUST me they can suck the talent out of you through the year asking for you to make X cause you are SO CRAFTY!

Next thing you know you are sewing 22 Halloween treat bags for 3 year olds who upon receiving them try their darnedest to rip the cute handle off the bag, and pick their name off the front-

Yes I had a harsh experience!

Also-dont spend HOURS making tons of bag-a-lopes for that age group either, they dont care-they just want to rip it to shreds for the candy anyway! Save it for the adults! They are at least gracious enough to wait till you leave to rip it open 😀

Only 2 weeks and counting!

See you tomorrow. I have a sample done using my True Friends set-OMG! I LOVE that set!