Graduation Money Holder

My nephew graduated high school last week!  I wanted to give him some cash, so I made him a money holder.  I designed it in Silhouette Studio so that it would create a pocket that was the right size to hold the money.  The bright blue cardstock was a pretty good match for his cap and gown.  I used patterned paper from Fancy Pants Off to School collection.  "GRAD" is cut at 1.3" using Cricut Craft Room Basics.  I cut the top layer in white, but it just didn't look right against the patterned paper.  So, I stamped a houndstooth pattern from My Creative Time's Build a Banner Kit, using Enchanted Evening ink.  Perfect!

To make my cute little graduation cap, I cut it at 1.3" from the Cricut Recess cartridge, but I didn't use the tassel layer.  Instead, I added a brad and some twine, which I adhered to the top of the cap with some Glossy Accents.

On the inside, I added another strip of patterned paper and stamped a sentiment and cap from MCT's Here's Lookin' at You, leaving some space to write a message.  Then I popped in a little money for him to bring along to Johns Hopkins in the fall!

Products used on this project:

Cricut Lite Recess Silhouette Cameo AC "Summer" Cardstock PTI True Black Cardstock PTI Stamper's Select White Cardstock Fancy Pants "Off to School" MCT Build a Banner Kit MCT Here's Lookin' at You PTI Enchanted Evening Ink Memento Tuxedo Black Ink The Twinery Blue Shimmer Baker's Twine

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Back to School Postcard

Class lists get posted this afternoon, so I can now mail off my "Welcome to Ms. Jones' Class" postcards to my new students!  I like to do this every year so that they get something special in the mail before the first day. I made these postcards by welding together images from several Cricut cartridges:  a 4 3/4" apple from Cheerful Seasons, a 4 1/4" worm from Create a Critter, and a 2" book from Recess.  They are a postcard style card, so I can just write my message on the back.

I added some fun details to make these extra cute.  The apple was run through the Cuttlebug with the Seeing Spots embossing folder.  I hid the face on the worm with my Gypsy so that I could stamp a face from the Peachy Keen Larger Critter Face Stamps, and then I added some Glossy Accents to the eyeglasses.  For the book, I stamped the pages with Papertrey Ink's Background Basics:  Farm & Barn stamp set.  To make this very subtle, I used Fine Linen Ink and stamped it onto scratch paper before stamping onto the actual cut.  The sentiment is from My Creative Time's My Teacher Rocks stamp set.

Products used for these cards:

Cricut Create a Critter Cricut Cheerful Seasons Cricut Lite Recess PTI Rustic Cream Cardstock PTI Pure Poppy Cardstock PTI Ripe Avocado Cardstock PTI Simply Chartreuse Cardstock PTI Blueberry Sky Cardstock PTI Spring Rain Cardstock Cuttlebug Seeing Spots Embossing Folder MCT My Teacher Rocks Peachy Keen Large Critter Faces Stamps PTI Background Basics: Farm & Barn PTI Fine Linen Ink Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Sakura White Gelly Roll Pen Glossy Accents

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Easy Thank You Cards

Every year my school has a book fair, and as part of it, many families purchase books to donate to the classroom.  Ours is coming up soon, so I thought I'd make a bunch of little thank you cards to have on hand at school.  These were very easy to make, using My Creative Time's Small Talk stamp set and the Cricut Recess cartridge.

I used a 3 1/4" x 6 1/2" card base, scored at 3 1/4".  I then took a 3" square of kraft cardstock and stamped the border and sentiment from Small Talk on them, and I used pop dots to adhere the book cut from Recess (sorry, I didn't save the size on this one).  A little Glossy Accents on the apple finished it off.  It was very easy to make 9 of these at once, and it would be simple to switch out another cut for the books to fit your need.

For my envelopes, I used the square envelope from the Walk in My Garden cartridge.  This is my favorite envelope for square cards, and it's really easy to use.  For my 3 1/4" cards, I just cut 3 1/4" envelopes.  Perfect!  Another tip for envelopes:  I always use thin patterned paper, not cardstock.  It's much easier to work with.  I also use my Gypsy to hide the scoring tick marks.  It's obvious where to score because of the shape of the cut anyway, and I like the look of it better.

Recipe:

Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy, Simply Chartreuse, Blueberry Sky, and Rustic Cream Cardstock

The Paper Company Kraft Cardstock

The Paper Studio "Little Boys and Their Toys" Patterned Paper

My Creative Time "Small Talk" Stamp Set

Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy & Dark Chocolate Ink

Glossy Accents

School Welcome Poster

Today is my first day of school!  I've been crazy busy for the last couple of weeks getting my classroom ready, but it finally all came together.  I thought I'd share with you some of the ways I use my Cricut in my classroom.  This is the welcome poster that faces out the window in the front of my classroom.  I found this awesome animal print paper (Safari Untamed by The Paper Studio) at Hobby Lobby this summer and just knew I had to use it.

My backpacks are from the Recess cartridge, and I used the Feeling Groovy font cartridge for my words, except for "Wild", which is from Straight From the Nest.

The Cricut is great for making titles for bulletin boards.  I especially love tall, narrow fonts that don't take up too much room.  This one is Cricut Classic Font, Tall Ball.  I love being able to weld the letters on my Gypsy so they are a snap to pin up.

For my reading bulletin board, I used lots of different cartridges that had cuts relating to our Friendship theme.

This is a little board next to my desk.  I made that job chart last year, and was happy to have it survive the year!  You can look at this post to see it in more detail.  I think the "2/3 Stars" is from Nate's ABCs, and the "Table Points" is from the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridge.  The paper flowers are cut from Flower Shoppe, but I can't take any credit for the cute felt flower pushpins.  Those were made by a former student of mine, who is very talented!

My students are arranged in table teams, and they work hard to earn points.  I record them on this chart, and when we reach the top of the popcorn, we have a popcorn party, and so on.  It really only ends up to being three parties in the year, but the kids LOVE it!

I'll be back tomorrow with a couple of more things to share!