I made this

Top 5 Back to School Craft Ideas

Back to school craft ideas | SuzerSpace

Nerd alert: I really liked school.

Well, parts of it šŸ˜‰ .

One of the best was picking out those school supplies. I’m somewhat convinced that my love for paper and pens led me on a long and windy road that ended up with a career in the prepress department of a commercial printer.

These days, just regular notebooks and pencil holders won’t do. You need to step up your back to school craft game to have the best, and I’ve been reading and pinning some really great ideas.

Here are my top five back to school craft ideas for this year:

Here’s an easy tutorial on covering composition books with a printable and washi tape to make a custom notebook.

How about some really custom pencils? Although I’m still obsessed with hand lettering with my brush pens (and iPad), I’m a pencil devotee – as long as the eraser is a good one.

This crayon design is listed as a teacher gift, but how cute would it be to make a child’s name for their art area?

Another teacher gift project that I think would be super cute (and useful) in a homework area at home. I’d fill it with pencils and scissors, not plants.

I don’t remember teacher gifts being a thing when I went to school. In fact, I’m really hoping they weren’t, because if they were, then I totally didn’t participate and that would be kind of rude/sad. But if you’ve suddenly realized that school starts this week (it does in Kansas City) and you aren’t in the mood to craft up a ton of projects, a printable card might be exactly what you need!

Red Fri Yay! T-Shirt

Learn the freezer paper stencil method of fabric painting to create a Fri yay! t-shirt | SuzerSpace

Itā€™s been a little while since I stenciled a t-shirt. I took a side route and tried out heat transfer vinyl, and while it was fun, and I do have a lot of ideas swirling around in my mind on how to take advantage of that method, it does have a drawback to my beloved freezer paper stencil trick.

The issue is color. If you want to have multiple colors of HTV for your projects, you have to commit to a roll of each, and they are more expensive than a tube of fabric paint.

This project is actually one of my first Fall crafting projects. August starts pre-season football, which means the real start of the season isnā€™t far off. In Kansas City, the Friday before the first home game is a big deal. They call it Red Friday, and there are pep rallies, charity events and a big celebratory feel about the season that day. Most fans continue to wear red on Fridays throughout the season.

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Cool Off With A Paper Fan

Beat the heat with an easy to make paper fan | suzerspace.com

I grew up in West Texas, so you’d think I’d be impervious to hot weather. It wasn’t just “fry an egg on a sidewalk” hot there. It was so hot that Dad kept a pot holder in the car so he could grasp the silver metal transmission lever and shift out of park when the car had been sitting outside in the sun for a couple of hours.

It didn’t bother me as a kid, nor as a teen-ager. But I moved away, to several different climates, and over time I’ve really begun to more than just not like the heat. Hate is an ugly word, but I’m close.

Two choices here – be unhappy all the time, or stay inside and do a little crafting! A paper fan is an easy choice for a hot afternoon project.

This paper fan is super easy – no special cutting machines or real talent involved. If you can fold a sheet in half and use a staple gun, you are all set! (Or as you’ll read below, even if you have a little trouble with the staple gun, it will all work out OK).

CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR FAN

Beginner Zipper Pouch

For this month's Pinterest Challenge, I used a tutorial from Shinny Happy World to conquer my fear of zippers. I ended up with a great beginner zipper pouch.

Itā€™s the third Tuesday of July, which means itā€™s time for the Pinterest Challenge. The purpose of the Pinterest Challenge, hosted by Erlene of My Pinterventures is to encourage everyone to actually try out one of the many pins theyā€™ve saved on all those Pinterest Boards.

I took the ā€œchallengeā€ part this month pretty seriously. Iā€™ve been sewing off and on since I was in my early twenties, which means that Iā€™ve also been afraid of trying to sew a zipper since my earlier twenties.

I realize that sewing a zipper into clothing is going to be way above my skill level. But a beginner level zipper pouch looked like a great starting point.

To give myself a chance at getting this to be successful Iā€™ve gone with a few steps that have proven helpful in the past.

I read a gazillion blog posts and watched their video tutorials.

I pinned several beginner zipper pouch projects that seemed to really be at the beginner level. So many Pinterest Pins are full of beautiful but really tricky projects and I wanted to start small.

I sourced materials that were zero cost to me so Iā€™d only be out my time.

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW THE ZIPPER POUCH COMES TOGETHER

Create a Shaped Sticker From An Image

Create a Shaped Sticker from any image using the Print and Cut feature of Silhouette Studio | SuzerSpace

If youā€™ve been down the planner/planner accessory rabbit hole on Pinterest lately, you are probably aware that planner stickers are a big thing.

Buy the cutfile at suzerspace.etsy.com

Itā€™s super easy to make your own if you have a cutting machine, and once you know the process for making a shaped sticker, you can make one from just about any piece of artwork you can create, find or buy.

In this tutorial, Iā€™m using the free version of Silhouette Studio software.

Iā€™m sure Cricut users can do the same thing – youā€™ll just need to look around in the software to find the matching menus.

CLICK HERE TO KEEP CRAFTING