Welcome Back Paper Pennants

 Hello everyone.  

I hope you are enjoying your last week of August. 

Our days are busy around here in preparation for the beginning of school in just over a week.  The whole family goes this year- Kevin and I teach, our oldest son goes to grade 3, our daughter to grade 1 and our "baby" begins junior kindergarten.  We are trying to enjoy every last minute of our last week of holidays playing board games, reading stories and playing outside.  

Unfortunately our end-of-summer happiness was interrupted last week with the news that my 94 year old grandmother had passed away.  So, we spent a few days back home celebrating her life with my extended family.  When we returned back here, our local flower shop arrived with this lovely bouquet sent by my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.  

It was a lovely mix of hydrangea, roses and pinks - the perfect mood lifter after a few solemn days.  

Thanks again, Joel and Amy!

As I mentioned before, I am  teacher and I am  heading back to my 13th year in the classroom.  Honestly, I have always enjoyed putting my classroom together at the  end of each summer, ready for my students to arrive.  This year, I thought I'd make something a little special to hang across the front of the room to embrace them as they entered another bright and shiny school year.  

I bought a Cricut machine in the spring and I am still trying to get to know it better.  I am an experienced paper crafter - I scrapbook and make cards and have for years.  I've never really been a big user of "technology" for these crafts in the past, but now that I have purchased this machine, I wonder how I ever lived without it!!

Up until this point I  have mostly  used it to cut titles for my scrapbook pages.  However, this summer I have bought a few more cartridges with a larger variety of shapes.  My newest cartridge cuts a variety of pennant shapes with overlays and textures.  It was time to give it a try.

 I cut the main pennants out of school-themed paper.  The picot edging was cut from plain black card.  

Each pennant is 6 inches long.  

I like how the black makes each pattern POP!

For an extra detail, I stitched the two layers together using my sewing machine.  

Instead of just applying my text onto the busy pattern of each pennant, I cut some star shapes to act as mini-backgrounds for the lettering. 

If the pennant paper was mostly red, I used a yellow star.  All the other patterns have red stars.  

Using another cutting cartridge, I cut my black lettering.  It took a few tries to get the right size, but finally 2" letters fit!!

After some adhesive and some pop dots (to add height), my pennants were DONE!!

Already they have a pride of place across the front of my classroom.  A few colleagues have commented on them.  They want some for their rooms, too! I told them none for the beginning of school, but maybe I'll take a few orders for Thanksgiving or Christmas!!