Handmade Back to School Card: Spread Joy on the First Day!

Hello, fellow crafters!

I love sharing my creative journey as I created a special back-to-school card for the Back to School theme of the Craft Challenge Blog.

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All Dressed Up Stamps

This card was all about capturing the excitement of the new school year while spreading joy through the power of handmade crafting. So, let’s dive into how I turned this vision into reality!

Before we begin, let’s take a quick look at the dimensions and materials I used for this back-to-school card:

• Card Base: Sturdy white paper, measuring 26 cm x 13 cm (scored at 13 cm).
• Background Panel: White paper, 12.5 cm x 12.5 cm, used for the stone path and sky background.
• Stencils and Inks: I used stencils to create a stone path and fluffy clouds. I employed pausable sensitive masking tape to prevent ink from going beyond the stencil.
• Building Stickers: Various building stickers to enhance the school environment.
• Grid Pattern Paper: Pattern paper with a playful grid pattern, resembling school notebook paper.
• Digital Stamp: The digital stamp “We make a good team” from All Dressed Up Stamps. But you can use any image you like.

The challenge theme on the CRAFT challenge blog is “Back to school, which also formed the basis for this card. Using the “We make a good team” digital stamp, I quickly got an idea of how I wanted to make this card.

I wanted to put the boys in a scene where they are standing in front of buildings. And especially a building that could pass for a school. To achieve this, I went looking to see if I had anything in stash to use for this. I found these stickers, perfect for creating this scene.

Let’s see how I created the background that forms the backdrop for this back-to-school card.

• You need your white paper measuring 12.5 centimetres by 12.5 centimetres. You will use this for the background.
• Choose stencils that match the look you have in mind. I used one stencil for the stone path and another for the clouds.
• Choose ink in colours that match your scene. That can be any kind of ink you like. I chose “cloudy day” from Decotimecrafts for the stone path and “nautical blue” from Memento for the clouds.
• Make sure you have masking tape handy to prevent the ink from spreading beyond the boundaries of the stencil.

• Place the stencil with the stone path on your white background panel, where you want the path to be.
• Carefully tape the edges of the stencil with masking tape. Tip: Do you have tape which is still very sticky and will tear your paper when you take it off. Stick the tape on your trousers several times and keep pulling it off. This will get most of the stickiness off your tape.
• Once the stencil is well attached, apply the ink with a blending tool and concentrate on the open areas of the stencil. Create the stone texture by blending in a circular motion.

• Now cover the stone path you just created with the masking tape. This will protect it from the blue ink when we add the clouds.
• Place the cloud stencil over the untaped part of the background panel, making sure it aligns nicely with the stone path.
• Use the “nautical blue” ink and apply it along the edge of the cloud stencil to create clouds in the sky. The masking tape keeps the blue ink from touching the stone path, so you get sharp edges for both elements.

As I mentioned above, I had stickers with different buildings lying around. These seemed perfect for this scene. I place these stickers on the background like this, so they place a nice school environment on the background. The big building in the middle seemed suitable as a school building. I decide to use foam tape to make that one stands out a bit further.

By following these steps, you can create a multi-dimensional scene. The masking tape technique ensures clean and defined edges, so that each element stands out beautifully.

Now let’s start the part of bringing those happy boys to life! Each boy wears a unique combination of colours that makes them stand out as a vibrant football team. Follow along to discover which colour combinations I used:

• Skin: Barely Beige (29), Salmon Pink (25) and Peachy Blush (257).
• Blue parts: Baby Boy (144), Midi Sky (190), Dark Sky (190).
• Green parts: Weeds Green (162), Grass Green (47) and Forest Green (50).
• Red parts: Cardinal (144), English Red (249) and Burgundy (247).
• Yellow Parts: Pastel Lemon (39), Lemon Yellow (35) and Deep Yellow (32).
• Orange Parts: Bright Orange (216), Carrot Orange (269) and Orange (23).
• Patch: Sand (107).
• Shoes: Black (120), Cool Grey 9 (CG9) and Cool Grey 7 (CG7).

Using these carefully chosen colour combinations, each boy’s individuality shines through. The vibrant colours reflect the energy of the new school year and the fun of friendship.

To top it off, I decided to make a personalized text for my football team.

I used the grid pattern paper to create a playful nod to notebook paper. From this patterned paper, I die-cut charming speech bubbles. In each one I wrote two words: “study, play, laugh, learn”. The written handwriting gives it just a little more of a personal touch.

To add just a little more detail, I apply my subtle highlights to clothes and accessories with a trusty white gell pen. Although I considered adding glitter or paper glaze for a touch of sparkle, I chose to keep the elegance of white highlights to maintain the overall cohesive look.

Now that we’ve completed this back to school card tutorial, it’s your turn to get started.

I am curious to know what you guys think of my back-to-school card. Feel free to leave a comment below and share your impressions. If you get inspired to make your back to school cards, don’t hesitate to showcase your work in our challenge. I can’t wait to see your creations.

Happy crafting!

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through these links. This helps support my crafting journey and enables me to share more creative content with you. Thank you for your support!”

We make a good team digital stamp from All Dressed Up Stamps

Shop at All Dressed Up Stamps

White gel pen

Shop at Hobbyshoponline

• Stickers: brand unknown
• Pattern paper from Decotimecrafts
• Stencil from Aveccreative
• Chalk ink from Decotimecrafts
• Speech cloud die from Aveccreative

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