Little Red Schoolhouse

Can you feel it yet? Autumn is just around the corner. YAY!!! Yes, it is still crazy hot during the days, but at night there an ever-so-slight change in the “feel” of the air signaling that cooler days are ahead. I love it! I love it! I love it! I have been busy going on school-shopping dates with the kids this past week. Two and a half down (Jensyn still needs a few things), and one to go! I love school shopping! And I love the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with each of my kids. We have so much fun laughing over the quirky things that happen while we are out (like the waitress serving us our salads at lunch and asking us if we need forks for those . . . Bwaaahaaa!).

I have been using my Silhouette machine a lot lately and have a new obsession … the digital cut files at SVG Cuts. They have digital files for the most adorable boxes and cards you have ever seen! And they do a BEAUTIFUL job showcasing them and explaining how to put them together with their videos. I decided it would be fun to put together the shoolhouse boxes from the School Days SVG kit for the kids’ to take to their teachers on the first day of school filled with notecards or a notepad and a goodie or two.

These kinds of projects are perfect for making a dent in the papers I am hoarding in my stash. 😀 For this first schoolhouse set, I used the Hometown collection by Pink Paislee, with a ledger paper and plaid paper from the Old School collection.

I created the card exactly as it comes in the file, but added a band of plaid paper underneath the pencils. The cute burlap buttons are from Nikki Sivils.

I had a blast decorating the shoolhouse. The ABC and apple cuts are from SVG Cuts and are included in the School Days digital kit. The flag and owl were created with my Cricut Expression machine. The owl is from the Recess Lite cartridge (I trimmed his graduation hat off with my scissors), and the flag is from the Stand & Salute cartridge (with the flag pole trimmed a bit shorter). The little chalkboard is a Silhouette cut by Lori Whitlock. I wrote on the chalkboard with a white gel pen, and then punched tiny holes in the corners so that I could hang it by the door with a mini brad and a bit of twine. The red cardstock panel on the front of the schoolhouse was  embossed with my Cuttlebug machine and the Distress Stripes embossing folder.

The letter stickers are from the Pink Paislee Old School collection. And the bushes around the sides of the schoolhouse were created with my Cricut Expression machine and the Live Simply Lite cartridge.

The roof of the schoolhouse opens up on a hinge. At the tallest point of the roof it is 6.5″ tall, so you could even put in a cute, decorated bottle of hand sanitizer if you wanted. 🙂

I didn’t have enough paper to do all of the schoolhouses the same . . . which is completely fine to me! Heck, it gives me a chance to make a dent in my stash. 😀 Here is the same schoolhouse, created in a slightly darker color scheme with all Pink Paislee Old School papers.

I added a little embossing to the pencils on this one with the Cuttlebug Polka Dots embossing folder and then wrapped the pencils with some My Mind’s Eye baker’s twine.

My kids are in love with these little boxes and can’t wait to surprise their teachers with them. Hehehe! Hmmmm … maybe I will send their teachers a new goodie box every single month JUST so I can have a reason to have fun making more boxes! Ha!

Have a great week!