Inspired By...back to school

My son has his last day of Kindergarten camp today and I can't think of a better way to say thank you to the teachers than with these "back to school" inspired cards! Normally I don't make teacher "thank you" cards this time of year, but here we are! LOL! I didn't plan on sending him to the summer camp, but when the Kindergarten teacher calls you specifically, you say yes, even though you have 3 birthdays, 2 birthday parties, a wedding, and a baptism all in those 3 weeks! LOL! Anyway, this was made for this week's Inspired By Challenge,which is just as cute as can be!

Doesn't this look idyllic? I think it is just so adorable and it would really be so easy to put together. I was inspired by the colors, the patterns, and the bold black and white of the ruler, and the school theme, of course!

I was thrilled to be asked if I'd like to use the August Large Die Of the Month and the Small Die of the Month from Spellbinders . Of course, they were the obvious choice for this week's challenge! These will be dies that I will use again and again, especially with having so many school aged kids! 

This little backpack is just THE cutest thing EVER! I left it with the option to open it so the recipient can "take a peek" at what's inside. I love how it looks with the buckles when it is closed, too!

The zipper and the zipper pulls just slay me! They are soooo cute! Actually, everything is so cute! Because I was keeping in line with the challenge, I didn't get too crazy with the patterns for the back pack, but I can't wait to try some fun pattern papers soon!

These scissors are just so stinkin' cute! I added a brad to the holes so that they really moved, but then I stuck them to the card! ha ha!

I used  specialty gold and silver paper to make the die cuts look more realistic. I'd like to share a few tips for creating with intricate dies. You'll want to have a few different adhesives; I suggest a liquid glue with a fine tip and a 2 way glue pen. You'll want a pin or a paper piercer handy to push out the pieces that get stuck in the dies. These dies are amazing and have holes all over so that they can be easily removed.

I also keep my Crystal Katana handy to pick up the small pieces and get them glued in place. I had so much fun working on these two cards! I hope you'll join us this week for this fun challenge! Thanks for fluttering by!