Lawnscaping Challenge #111: Back to School

Good morning!! It's almost that time of year that some parents look forward to, and some parents, like myself, who are NOT looking forward to it. I'm talking about Back to School. That means no more lazy days during the summer to play video games, hang out outside, watch movies on a rainy afternoon or read books until you pass out! So much fun is had during the summer even we were aren't doing anything - it's time together. Sniffle...

But join myself and the other amazing design team with our projects for the current challenge:

The wonderful, fabulous Ellen Hutson! is sponsoring this challenge!!! Certainly you are familiar with her and her store, but if not, a little bit about the store in her own words:

Ellen Hutson, LLC began their adventure in November 2006 as an online web store committed to bringing you the finest paper crafting products and related product education. They are always looking to provide their customers with quality products, excellent customer service, and education and inspiration for the products they carry. You can shop with Ellen by clicking HERE. As well please join them to be inspired and learn some fun techniques in the CLASSroom, or stay up-to-date on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and/orPinterest.

Ellen Hutson will be sponsoring our first challenge of each month in 2015! The prize? A $25 gift certificate to the online store! Thank you Ellen!

Now on to my projects. Yes, I made two. While I was creating my first card, I had to make a second one; one for each child. I usually start the first day of school out by leaving them a handmade card and way too much wording on the inside pouring out my thoughts, but it helps me :) And I hope that they look back on these when they're older and smile.

I created this adorable little card for my youngest who is starting Kindergarten this year. 

I wanted something cute, but boyish. I decided on a simple color palette and layout for this card. I took my Darice ABCs embossing folder with some black linen cardstock and ran that through my machine. I then punched the left hand side with a Stampin' Up notebook punch and rounded the other two corners. I rubbed on some Memento Luxe in Wedding Dress to mimic a chalkboard. I glued that down to my white card base. 

I wanted a pop of color, so I took a red strip and trimmed to the same size as my black embossed piece and glued that down over it. 

For the sentiment, I diecut out the fancy frame from the Lawn Fawn Stitched Labels. Then, I used the "sweet wishes" from the Lawn Fawn Milk and Cookies set. I just covered up the wording to be able to stack the type. You can certainly cut your stamps apart as well between wording if you'd like, but I wanted to keep it together.  I stamped it with Memento in Tuxedo Black. I glued that to the red strip with some foam adhesive. The little heart is from the Lawn Fawn Party Animals set and I stamped that with Tuxedo Black as well onto a piece of lined paper from the 6x6 Snowy Day Paper Pack. I also adhered that with foam adhesive.

The bear. He's from the Lawn Fawn Party Animals set. Oh, is he ever cute. I stamped, colored him with my Spectrum Noir Markers, and cut him out leaving a little white border (to pop him off against the black background). I added in a dapper little bowtie from the Beep Boop Birthday set, glued down with some foam adhesive and gave this bear a bitten cookie from the Milk and Cookies set. Went along perfectly with my sentiment. 

I'm going to miss my little guy during the day with me, so I hope this card makes him smile on his first full day without me! 

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Now for my second card for this challenge. A card for my oldest, who is starting 5th grade. When did that happen??? So not ready for that! I kept his card simple since he is getting older, the cutesy stuff doesn't work with him! 

For this card, I used a simple white card base and pulled out two green cardstock pieces from my stash. I cut and adhered them to the base slightly askew. 

I diecut out the large tag from the Lawn Fawn Tag You're It die set and the reinforcement circle out of a simple black and white dotted paper I had on hand. I used the three leaves from the Flutter By set with Memento in Tuxedo Black. I stamped those on the tag and colored them in with my Spectrum Aqua Watercolor Markers. Just a beautiful subtle look in variation in the colors used. I then stamped the sentiment HELLO from the Hello Baby set and the 5th Grade is from Milo's ABCs. Those were both stamped in Tuxedo Black. For a little fun, I also inked those sentiments up with Memento Luxe in Pistachio and stamped it off on a scrap piece of paper removing most of the ink. Then I stamped it a little off the original stamped sentiment image to give it a slight shadow. 

I tied a simple black and white twine piece through the hole on the tag and adhered the entire tag down to the card with some foam adhesive. For interest, I used some white enamel dots on the card. 

It's simple, a little more grown up and perfect for him. Welcoming him to 5th grade. Sigh. Why do they grow up so fast??

I hope you're inspired to create something fun for your little one(s), not so little one(s) or a teacher or anyone going back to school soon! Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to visit all the design team blogs for amazing inspiration!