My first child is now old enough to go to preschool next month, (cue waterworks), and I knew I needed a typical first-day-of-school picture to commemorate the occasion! But much to my dismay and probably to the shock of all the bloggers out there, I DON'T HAVE A FELT BOARD … Phew … that felt good to get off my chest. Because of this harrowing bit of info, I knew I needed a photo prop to announce my little girl’s first day, so I made my own! Read on to learn how to make your own!
Here's what you'll need:
- Cardstock Warehouse Cardstock Papers in: Lemon Drop, Factory Yellow, Pure White, Black Licorice, Berrylicious, and Smoke Grey
- Zig glue pens or permanent adhesive
- Foam squares
- Cutting machine or scissors
First, you’ll want to cut out all the pieces of your large bus. I used the Cricut font “Robotz” and a free Cricut image. I just removed a couple of layers to make it more straight forward, but feel free to make it as detailed as you'd like. I sized mine to fit on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, since that was the biggest size I had in the yellow, which is the biggest piece you need to cut; but feel free to enlarge it if you have a 12x12 size of paper. This worked out to be a great size for my preschooler! The whole bus ended up being about 9 x 8.3 inches.
Once you have everything cut, you'll want to start gluing. Now don't make the same mistake I did and glue the pieces in the wrong order! I got lucky and I was able to fix it so no buses were harmed during the making of this. Practice how they'll need to be put together so you can know the order in which everything will need to be laid. Then go ahead and glue all the letter layers together as well, but don't glue them to the bus!
For the letters, I wanted them to pop out more (literally), so I placed small foam squares on the back of each. Then, lay it out on the bus just to make sure you are fitting each word how you want on the bus. No one wants to run out of space when you've already glued your letters down! Once you feel you have a good spot for each letter go ahead and remove the backs to adhere to the bus. I decided to make the letters less straight to be a bit more fun visually.
Now you’re done! Feel free to adapt this to whatever grade or phrase you want to say. I can’t guarantee your child will smile for each picture, but you will smile at your awesome project!
What are you crafting for the first day of school? We'd love to see! Tag your creations with #cardstockwarehouse on Facebook and Instagram to be featured on our account!
Happy Crafting!
Tara