Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Back to School Countdown & Craft Tutorial

So yesterday I gave you a little teaser for a craft I was working on to get Marley excited about going back to school.  She starts 4th grade in 5 days, and personally, I'm looking forward to the new school year (I think more so than her).  To help get her psyched & ready to go, I've come up with a little 5 Day Countdown with a special treat everyday. 

Check it out
  
First I created little countdown cards in a simple Word doc, created a little gift, and attached the card to the gift bag.

Today's gift, to celebrate 5 days 'til school, was a Morning/Evening checklist to hang in her room (DIY tutorial & free printable below)

I also made a little card that provided 5 tips for a successful school year and spelled out the acronym for FOCUS.  I put a Smartie on the card and said, "Be a Smartie!"

Marley liked her first back-to-school gift! (And the yellow tissue paper)  :)

Here's the detail of today's gift:

Now, here's the DIY tutorial for the Morning/Evening Checklists that I made - enjoy!

First, download the PDF of the checklist HERE

I cut the document in half and trimmed the excess around it - they aren't the same size but that's OK

I matched up scrapbook paper to each checklist and trimmed the scrapbook paper to leave a 1" border around each checklist:




Then, basically, I let my scrapbooking creativity take over.  I gave the checklists a border to add a little bling.


I slapped some cardstock on the back of each to add a little durablility.  Keep in mind the backing doesn't have to be even or straight - it's the back.  Nobody sees the back:

Out comes the laminator - if you don't have one, you need one.  Well worth the money (you can get one reasonably cheap at your local office supply store).  I laminated both checklists and trimmed the excess:




Finally, I punched 2 holes in the top of each one and added ribbon to hang them with:


All you have left to do is find them a home!  I used those little Command Strip hooks to hang these in Marley's room.  You can also just hang them on the door knob if you prefer:



That's it!  Easy Peasy, right?  Right!  Oh, if you want to see all of the countdown cards that I made, and possibly use them for yourself, you can download the Word docs HERE, HERE, HERE, & HERE.  I kept them in Word format so you can change the wording to fit your particular child.  I'll be sharing each day here on the blog.

Enjoy the Checklist craft - see you tomorrow!

Here are the links to other posts in this series:

 Linked to these fabulous blogs:





 
 



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1 comment:

  1. Saw your back to school checklist at Addicted 2 Decorating. I love this idea (even though my girls are too little for school) and think I'll start it here at our house anyway. I've been looking for a fun way to get our morning/night routine running a little smoother and this could be it! We'll use pictures instead of words and it might be fun if I let my 3 year old pick the paper and colors, too.

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