First Day of School Signs! FREEBIE!!! Make it personalized with a Publisher tutorial here!

I recently made this sign for Carly's first day of school! She is a big eighth grader this year. Sniff. Time flies!!!!

I also made signs for my niece and nephew. I uploaded it to Facebook and had so many compliments and questions about how I made the signs. I've already made personalized signs for many of my friends and family.

Here is your chance to get your very own personalized sign for the first day of school!

Just click on the link below and download. Now I made the file in Publisher, so you will have to use Publisher to personalize it. I'm working on importing the file to a PowerPoint also but that will have to wait a few days.

Here's how it works:
Open the file.

Click on a Text box, then click on the Format tab. Click on Edit Text.

A text box pops up and you can change the words and font if you wish. 

To resize the text, click and drag the handles around the edge of the text box.

If you want to change the picture of the owl, click on the Insert Tab. Click on the "Online Pictures" icon. A search box pops up for you to search. You can look through Publisher's files or do an Internet Search. You can also insert your own photos by clicking on the "Pictures" icon in the Insert tab.

You will also have to download the fonts first before personalizing your sign.

These are the fonts:
Hello Heartache
Life's a Beach
KG No Regrets Sketch
A Little Sunshine
Janda Safe and Sound

Do a Google search and install.

And that's it! My sister uploaded her signs to Walgreens and had an 8 x 10 printed for around $4 bucks I believe. I printed the file as a poster on my home printer. Yep, a lot of ink and a lot bigger than I had intended, but hey, it worked!!

To print a poster do this:
Go to print the file and click on Printer Properties.

You get this pop up menu. Click on Page Layout tab at the top. 

Check the Multi Page box and then click on Poster Printing.

You can opt to print on 4 pages or two pages. See where it says 2x2? Use the up or down arrows to make bigger or smaller. I used 2x2 and then taped the pages together. 

{HERE} is the link for the signs. Click on it, then right click on the file and click DOWNLOAD. You can also download the file below. 

Thanks for reading!

Crafting with Cricut!!

I absolutely love my Cricut. It is the most amazing thing to ever be invented. Besides a self loading and unloading dishwasher. Does that exist? Somebody needs to get on that.

Anyway, to put it simply the Cricut is a die cutting machine. (But it is SOOOOOOOO much MORE than that!!!) Before this came about, we used something that looked like this

or this 

which required hand cranking and lots of time. 

Thank goodness the lovely people at Provo Craft developed the Cricut. It does it for you!!

You just stick the paper on the mat and the machine cuts it out. Here is a great video about the Cricut Expression. 

from YouTube.

So I had a brainstorm this summer about my classroom. I really wanted to do a rainbow color theme with a black background. I looked everywhere for some ABCs that had a black background that didn't require me to spend exorbitant amounts of money on black ink in my printer. Okay, so extra exorbitant amounts of money more so than I already do. I found some adorable ones on TpT and I really wanted them but then I looked over and saw my Cricut in my craft corner

I have a Cricut Expression that I LOVE!! Cricut has a new machine called Cricut Explore that I am DYING to have, but let's face it...I'm a teacher. That's not gonna happen anytime soon. 

and it was like, "BAM!" Major idea!! I'll just make my own.

So I did!

I made a list of the letters and some picture ideas. Then I pulled out all my cartridges and started looking through the little books to see what pictures I could use. I decided to use black cardstock as the backing and Astrobrights paper for the colors. They have such great paper and the colors really pop against the black. The paper is fabulous for the Cricut mats. I pulled out all the paper I had and got to work.

Here is a list of the cartridges and which pictures I used:

Cricut Classic Font
I cut out all the letters using this cartridge on the 4 inch setting. Real Dial Size was off for every cut.

A Child's Year
Aa   p. 49 Apple, 4 3/4"
Dd   p. 63 Dog, 5 1/2"
Vv   p. 50, Violin, 3"
Ww p. 46, watermelon, 2 1/4"

Life's a Beach
Bb   p. 81, ball, 4 3/4"
Cc   p. 72, crab, 4 3/4
Ff    p. 46, Flamingo, 6" or p. 46, flower, 4"
Ll    p. 56, lizard, 5 1/2"
Oo  p. 54, octopus, 5"
Qq  p. 71, question mark, 4 3/4"
Ss   p. 44, sun, 5 1/4"
Uu  p. 59, umbrella, 5 1/4"

New Arrival
Ee   p. 112, Elephant, 5"
Mm p. 104, moon and hat, 5"
Rr   p. 109, rattle, 5"

Paper Doll Dress Up
Gg   p. 49, ghost, real dial size off
Ii     p. 42, island, real dial size off
Xx   p. 49, skeleton, real dial size off; also need to cut out one blackout doll shape

Designer's Calendar
Hh   p. 29, heart, 5"
Jj     p. 36, jester hat, 4"
Kk  p. 30, kite, 5 1/4"
Tt    p. 39, tree, 5 1/4"

Playtime, Cricut Lite
Pp   Pig, 5 1/4"

Made by me: (primarily because I didn't have what I wanted on the cartridges, but I am actively searching for new ones)
Nn   I made a nest by cutting thin strips of brown paper and cutting out white eggs freehand. I arranged the brown strips to look like a nest.

Yy   Yellow square. I just cut out a yellow square. I am looking for yarn, yo-yo, or yak. 

Zz     Zigzag. I just cut out a zigzag from scrap paper. I am looking for a zebra, zucchini, zipper, etc. Or zeppelin!

After cutting this is what I have: 

Aren't they so bright and fun?!?!?!?

Some of the cutouts you have to glue the layers together like the crab and watermelon. Also, use a marker to outline some eyes, ears, or mouths. Like on Mr. Crab up there I outlined his mouth with a red marker so it's a little more visible. You don't have to. It's up to you.

I attached the majority of the cutouts using a Xyron Creative Station that I got for 1/2 off at Michael's. SCORE!!

It makes stickers and such. It's so simple to use. Just insert the cutout face up in the front, turn the crank, and viola!! It comes out the back in a ready made sticker. 

Peel of the front plastic and you are left with the cutout with a sticky back. 

Stick everything on the cards and you are ready to roll!

I love how it came out and I have gotten such great compliments!! Thanks so much!! 

I had so much fun and can't wait for my next project. I'm gonna start to work on some number cards with tens frames. Or dominoes. Or a birthday board. I'm so excited!!

Hope this inspires you to create something! 

Happy Sunday!

Jessica

PS Cricut is hosting a contest through July 30 for creative projects. Just upload a picture to Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook with the tags #imadeit and #cricut.