We have dearly loved the beauty, talent, and generosity of spirit that Wilna Furstenberg and Michelle McCord have brought to the JBS team over the past several years. They are both taking on new adventures in photography as well as keeping up with all the new adventures of their active kiddos, so they are stepping down from JBS. We will greatly miss them, but hope to entice them to visit us from time to time. :)
Today we have an amazingly creative and detailed two page back to school layout from Briana Johnson documenting her son's preparation for Kindergarten. Stay tuned! Later this week we'll be bringing you an equally amazing and creative alphabet project that Briana has created.
This is a page about a little refresher course we did on letters before Zane started kindergarten. I wanted to use the little boy rub on and somehow make letters floating around in his mind. I used my Silhouette for the letters cut then my scissors to cut the cut again : ), tracing the shape of his head with a pencil first. The gray ribbon is from the May kit, red striped ribbon is from Etsy. The smallest black buttons are vintage. I used some of Jenni’s small alphabet stickers on top of my buttons to make them look like brads. The large photo block is a Kerri Bradford template.
I made a pocket behind the photo block for the letters my son wrote that day.
I also misted black on black letters on the edges of my cardstock and then added black die cut letters as well for subtle texture – I thought the page was busy enough but wanted detail all the way to the edges.
Today we have a simply delightful teacher gift and accompanying card from Ranjini Malhotra.
When I first thought about doing a teacher gift, I decided that I wanted to do something pretty and elegant that Alekha's teacher could hang in her classroom. I bought this hanging file holder from Target and altered it very simply using JBS patterned paper (Red/Black Line Extension III) on the front face. Because the file holder is made of metal, you could also add coordinating magnets on the front. I added chartreuse trim, and a gold ribbon with red seam binding for accent. I created the vintage label with the teacher's name and the school's name in Photoshop. I love the finished look.
Once I used the vintage kids patterned paper for the metal file folder, I decided to do a coordinating card and used the photo card from the Haven Accessory Paper. I trimmed it down and added the humorous text "The teaching staff could barely contain their excitement at the thought of another school year," for some lighthearted humor for Alekha's very hard working teacher! I accented it with JBS tickets, JBS star chipboard, the JBS red bow and stamp.
Sorry for the late peeks this month, but we were waiting for all the brand spanking new CHA product to arrive. This is going to be a fun one! Can you spot this month's exclusive stamp and mask in use on this layout by Doris Sander? August sold out quickly; you can reserve your membership HERE so you don't miss out on September. :)
Today's back to school feature is brought to you by Keisha Campbell. We just love Keisha's ability to make classic JBS product so fresh and inspiring.
Keisha writes, "OMG, Amira will be starting high school on Monday. The time just flew by...and it is a blur in my mind right now. We have been telling her that she needs to jazz up her style now that she is going to be a freshman. She shocked me by picking out some cute leopard ballet flats. And she actually likes the green blazer I showed her while school shopping-she won't even put it in her closet. She is excited about her new look, and that is nice!"
Supplies: Bingo Cards - School Days Set, Black Label Stickers, Classic Die Cut Label Paper - Receipt, Die Cut Block Alpha - Red Ledger, Die Cut Mini Paper Pad - Polka Dots, Plastic Ribbons - Classic
Today we have just the sweetest back to school post to share from Becky Novacek . . .
Since I no longer have children at home, back to school is a little different experience for me. I usually hear bits and pieces of their experiences as they start back, but I'm not that involved- so doing a "back to school" page gave me an excuse to be more involved! I loved it actually. Harper and I spent the day together and if you look at the photos, you'll see that I must have worn her out, since she fell asleep on the way home! I intend to do another page about our lunch conversation. It was hilarious! 
Today we have a charming retro page from Shimelle Laine featuring an exceedingly clever and whimsical use of the Be Our Guest "Home Sweet Home" patterned paper. (and after you peruse this page, if you would like to see more of Shimelle's scraptastic work with JBS head on over to her blog for another page complete with video tutorial and giveaway - giveaway ends 8/21 at midnight UK time!).
Shimelle writes, "I love living in a big city and the great London area has a population between 7 and 10 million, depending on where you draw the lines in suburbia. But there was no difficulty drawing the line in the small town where I grew up, and every morning the school bus passed the 'Welcome to...' sign with the population labelled as 2002 for many years... something I remember because we use to debate which two residents would be the 2 in 2002! So in such a small town, I went to a very small school. Everyone there knew everyone else, and although the town has since grown, everyone who lived there during my school years can tell you all about the teachers, the students and the four-page local newspaper. This photo is so very unattractive but it makes me laugh and remember the days in this particular class - 7th grade science. The girl to the right may kill me for scrapbooking this image as she's a scrapbooker too! But we sat at the same table for science and according to my wobbly script on the back of the photo, I was trying to convince my classmates not to use a flash on the camera, lest we get in trouble with Mr. Vopat. Also, I had just *part* of my hair permed. Serious dawn-of-the-nineties-mall-hair. I have to laugh otherwise I'll cry!"
And here is a little background information about her process, "I had been a bit stumped with the house print on this paper from the Be our Guest collection at first until I looked at it as a school house rather than just a country house. My elementary school wasn't much bigger than that! I hoped to scrapbook something about that, but neither my shoebox of old pictures nor the internet was very helpful with that! So this photo was the next best option and I love how you can see the look of a standard classroom from the simple background in the picture. 
As a teacher myself, I know just how much little treats like this are appreciated. When my son came home from school last week so impressed that his teacher was eating beef jerky at recess, I knew we needed to send her some on Friday. It only took him a couple extra days of sleuthing to find out her drink of choice as well. Now enter mommy and the scrap stash . . .
I made this cute little treat folder out of a spare piece of chipboard and a few other bits from my stash. I'm still shocked by how quickly I made it! The chipboard was already sized to 8.5 x 11, so I trimmed two pieces of patterned paper to that size as well and then lightly scored all three with my paper trimmer so they would fold nicely into a card. I adhered Class Photo to the outside and Nap Time to the inside with a glue stick.
To decorate the front, I covered a large chipboard star with the polka dots from Home Sweet Home. I then misted it with a mixture of Lemon Drops and Chicken Feed Re-inkers. The small chipboard bird is covered with the reverse side of Home Sweet Home plus the clocks from Sewing Room and the ledger side of Game Night. A red pearl button makes a cute birdie eye.
Inside I glue dotted the pack of beef jerky. I punched holes and added hole reinforcers to string my seam binding tape through. A couple red label stickers complete the gift. I then dressed the Diet Coke up with a Red Award Ribbon.
Today's back to school thought is brought to us by Dina Wakley who writes, "Back to School for me means....a quiet house! When all three of my boys are home, it's fun but LOUD. There's always something going on...laughing, computer games, guitar-playing, IPODs blaring. It's great...but I will say I do really enjoy a quiet house when they leave for school. I recharge and work and get ready for the craziness to begin when they get home."
Today Kerry Lynn Yeary is sharing a great organizational tool for all those school papers.
I've been wanting to have a more organized way of documenting the littles school year experiences ever since the bean started kinder 3 years ago. Up until now I have just been writing notes on our family calendar and putting select bits of memorabilia and schoolwork and art projects into a box, not the best thing to do when you want to remember "when" they got that 100% in spelling or drew that family portrait.
Since these binders are going to be sitting on the counter, near our mail basket & other home organization items I wanted to know who's binder was whose so I could select them easily when I wanted to add a layout, memorabilia item or write in the calendar.
The interior pages hold the printable claendar that I created for the school year and I'll be adding memoralbilia, art, as well as layouts documenting pictures that I plan on taking over the year.
