THE Library Bag

If you've been following my blog, you know that my little dudes have just started kindergarten.  And with that, I decided to introduce them to the public library.
Don't ask me WHY I haven't done this before - my other craft mommas have! 
We have SO MANY books at home...not only do we buy and are gifted books for the kids, we get A LOT (I mean A LOT) of hand-me-down books from my sister, who also has two boys that are 5 and 8 years older than my boys.  So there is a lot of handing down going on - clothes, costumes, games, and books. There really wasn't ever a need to go to the library to borrow MORE books because the boys always had plenty of books to read at home.
But now that we've gone to the library, they're a bit overwhelmed - they were introduced to our local library AND their school library.  So now they're just borrowing up a storm!

Before we made our introduction to the local public library, I wanted them to have their own bags to hold their books - something special that would encourage their love of learning and reading.  I found this bag on Pinterest and immediate knew that I had to make it for the boys. It is also listed as one of my To-Dos for 2014.

 

I love everything about this bag - the Dr. Seuss quote, the Cat's Hat, and the library card holder.

It took awhile to get off my rump and actually start on this project, but once I did, it was a piece of cake.

Here are my materials:

• a bag - preferably canvas; make sure it's not "non-woven polypropylene"
• heat transfer material - I used Silhouette's Smooth Heat Transfer Paper
• red and white felt (I got the minimum amount you are required to purchase - I think 1/4 yd)
• thicker, black thread

First I measured out how big the quote needed to be on the bag and still have space for the hat to the left.  Then I got on my Silhouette and used the GRINCHED font (it's a free online download) to write out the quote. NOTE: When printing this out on the Silhouette, I specified for a DOUBLE CUT because it is hard to even see, with a single cut, if it's cutting anything!  So double cut that quote!
Then I used my tweezer tool to remove all the 'non-worded' space from the film. You can also follow the instructions on the heat transfer material box - it was so easy!
While the CAMEO was busy cutting out my quote, I cut out pieces to make up the Cat's Hat!

I made sure to lay them out so it would resemble something like the hat...and made the more precise cuts after I was satisfied that this actually does look like the Cat's Hat.

So after the cut is made and I remove all the unnecessary material, this is what it looks like laid out on the bag:

Don't the colors look great?!  I couldn't wait to get this all ironed and sewed onto the bag!  But then...epic fail! Non-woven polypropylene bags - look great, seem sturdy...don't like heat.  When I started ironing on the Dr. Seuss quote, the polypropylene started melting against my iron! I had big, melted, blue globs on the bottom of the iron.  Needless to say, both bag and iron were ruined.

I eventually ordered two CANVAS bags off Amazon for like $6 each and re-cut the quote and everything ironed on beautifully.

I pinned down the felt pieces into the shape of the hat and sewed with the black thread.  I actually sewed through twice, making sure to sew over my previous stitches to make the black look thicker.
Even though I hit a snag with the original bag and the iron, I think it turned out great in the end. 

Up close view of the Dr. Seuss quote (in Grinched) and the felt hat.

As for the library card holder - I'm still working on that.  I was thinking of using a baseball card holder but then worried about sliding the card in and out - so I think I might just iron on a pocket to the inside of the bag to hold their library card.  We shall see. In the meantime... 

 HAPPY READING!

First Day of School Keepsake

When the boys started Preschool two years ago, I got my big PBK chalk board and wrote 'Our First Day of School' with the date on it.  I had the boys each take a pic with the chalkboard, and then together, and that was that.
Fast forward two years, the boys are starting kindergarten.  I was thinking about how to make the chalk board sign more 'exciting' and different this time around.  That's when I came across 'First Day' informational signs. Some vendors on Etsy will develop this graphic for you so your child not only has a pretty cool 'First Day' sign but it captures information about your child at that moment of time.

Of course with my awesome sense of timing, I found these signs the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend...school started the Tuesday after Labor Day.  Plus, did I really want to spend $40 on two signs that I needed for a pic...not really.
So I went ahead and started collecting stats for the boys - I grabbed their height/weight and interviewed them on their favorite things.
I had some leftover craft paper I used for their signs and took regular old Sharpies to the paper and made it as creative as possible.
The end results:

They loved their signs when they saw them in the morning.  I loved the signs I made for them...especially my freehand Batman and Incredibles logos.  It's Day 3 of school and the boys STILL love reading  their signs while they eat breakfast. The plan now will be to make one each school year, until they tell me to stop cause I'm embarrassing them, so I'll always have something for them to look back on!