Wednesday, August 13, 2014

BACK TO SCHOOL: Backpack Charms

My son will be starting first grade next week. Last year, he was in a big Kindergarten class with three teachers. Now, all the kids will be split up among three classrooms. We don't know if any close friends will be in his new class.  The class lists don't go up until the night before school!  Plus, one of his closest friends is moving to another school.

Although my son is super-social and outgoing, I wanted to help him to reach out and make some new friends this year. I decided to make some quick backpack charms that he could give out to new friends.


 Materials needed:
1.5 inch wooden discs
Ball link keychains
Paint
Printed images
Mod Podge or other adhesive
Crop-a-dile II Big Bite (optional)
1.5 inch circle punch (optional)


I had some 1.5 inch wooden discs left over from another project. I bought them online at Amazon but you can find them at craft stores. 

First, I painted one side of the discs in one of the school's colors. This will be the back of the disc. While it was drying, I manipulated an image of one of my favorite children's book characters and printed out a sheet of the image repeated several times in the size I needed.  I used the circle punch to punch out the images. I ended up adding a little color with markers.  The downside of adding color and using a color ink jet printer is that the color ran a little when I mod-podged it on.  Once the paint on the wooden discs was dry, I used the Crop-a-dile to gently punch holes in the wooden discs.  I then mod-podged the paper circles onto the discs. On the colored side of the disc, I wrote the school name and the school year dates with a Sharpie.  I ended up putting the discs back through the Crop-a-dile to punch the hole through the paper. Finally, I added the ball chain keychain. I got a pack of 28 of them at Joann's.

While they aren't the most professional looking items I have ever done, I think they will be fun items for my son to trade at school. Maybe I'll make a new one each year!

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