More Back-to-School Items

I hope you all had a nice relaxing Labor Day! Our plans for the beach were cancelled due to Tropical Storm Lee...UGH!! Although my Momma and siblings were die-hard beach go-ers, I opted to not make that trip! So instead I stayed home and watched the Star Wars marathon on Spike TV...YAY!!! Love Star Wars!!

Anyway, now that my children are back in school I finally have time to post some of the items I completed! I FINALLY tried Made's tutorial on fusing shopping bags! I wanted to do it for a teacher's bag at the end of last school year, but never got around to it! Thankfully, I did start saving up a lot of plastic bags! And when I saw what Alexis over at Made By Lex did with her fused bags, I knew it was time to gather my collection! I give you my adaptation of The Recycled Lunch Tote...

Instead of just plain white, I had several colored bags! So I opted to not do too much embellishing, other than their names.

The fusing was a little tricky, and mine wasn't as smooth as theirs...but I kind of like the "crinkled" look. I just fused, cut into squares and rectangles, then serged. I did go back with my sewing machine to reinforce my seams. I know that many of you will sew first, then serge...but I like to use my serger first, not sure why! I used heavy duty stick-on Velcro for the closure. It adhered well, but make sure if you use them to put them where you want them...they bond quickly and you DO NOT want to have to try to remove them!!!

The yellow one is bigger than the blue one...not as many blue bags!! But I did figure out that since you are using so many "layers" to fuse, it will work just as well to put plain white bags in the middle layers with the colors on the outer layers. This way you will have more "yardage" of colored bags! Oh, for the names...I used scrap fabric to cut the letters then used clear contact paper to cover/ protect them. I did a tight zigzag to stitch it to the tote! So far it is working out pretty good, and the letters are staying clean and dry! Although I know these totes aren't very insulated, I really like re-using something that would otherwise end up in the trash. Another good recycled project is using cereal boxes for fun place mats!

I did these Back-to-School place mats for the kids. I used the aforementioned cereal boxes, scrapbook paper, and contact paper...patterned and clear! Cute, huh?

When The Boy got his school tote bag I knew EXACTLY what I was going to put on it...

The machine embroidered font is BONES...love it!! I used my Cricut to cut out some dinosaur shapes on paper, then used them to cut felt...my Cricut won't cut felt...no matter HOW HARD I try!! :( Then I just hand stitched them to the bag with crochet thread! He LOVES it!! The camo ribbon added just a little more color...without being too girly! ;)

Okay...so I think secretly, I am an OVER-achiever...is that even possible when you are as in-exact and as FAR away from being a perfectionist as I am??!! I just don't understand WHY I would poke my hand up for being my kindergartner's ROOM MOM!! I mean last year I was CO-room mom, but that was third grade...they don't do anything in third grade!! But in Kindergarten there are TONS of things that need to be done all.year.long!! And on TOP of that...I said yes to my friend Kathy when she said, "hey, let's do a TENT for Symposium this year"!!!!! Ya'll I seriously think I am OUT OF MY MIND!!! See what happens when I get a wee bit of freedom? I mean, the Boy is only in school for a couple of hours on Tuesdays and Thursday...but here I am going CRAZY!! :)

Anyway...my Room Mom duties have already begun, pretty easy stuff so far. But on first encounter with the teacher I get, "so...I hear you are kinda crafty?" So I was given the task of decorating her Popcorn Box. The PTC sells popcorn one Friday a month, and the teachers have cardboard boxes to carry all of the orders to their classrooms. It has seem in the recent years to become a "thing" to decorate their boxes. My friend Kathy is an AWESOME artist and painter!! She did the boxes for two of her daughter's teachers...good stuff!! I knew there would be NO WAY that I could draw book characters like Skippy Jon Jones, Ramona, or Alice in Wonderland...so I had to stick with what I know...fabric and felt!!

I really didn't have a CLUE what to do on her box, but since they teach the Season's in Kindergarten and there are four I chose that! A Season for every side of the box. The one above is Spring. I know the writing is hard to see, but it says "Popcorn is always in Season"! I machine embroidered her last name in the kites.

Here is Summer..I know my flag is backwards, please forgive!

The clouds are polyfil, and the beach is sandpaper.

Fall is my favorite...

And lastly, Winter...

I was really happy with how it came out. It took me about two good days to get everything on, then another to spray on a clear Mod Podge to protect it.

Oh...I also added a grosgrain strap for easy carrying.

Hopefully everything stays on...we'll find out in a couple of weeks when the first Popcorn Day rolls around! :)

So I know this post is sooooo long, just one more thing before I go. Friday was "Paint the Town Red" Day to honor our local college's first football game. I did a shirt for Ms. Priss last year, so I just needed one for The Middle Child.

So now I'm done!! Thanks for hanging around until the end ;) One more shout out to my Daddy...yesterday was his birthday!! Hope you had a good one Daddy, we'll see ya soon!!! Until later...