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Back To School Portraits

So we survived the first week of school, and now we are headed back for our second full week of classes. I thought it’d be fun to take a trip down memory lane and show some more fun back to school ideas and inspire you to take your pictures to the next level. I’m going to show you some back to school crafts that you and your “classmates” or kiddos can put together to elevate your back to school pics and create special keepsakes for your family albums.

Last year, we decided it would be fun to make the kids custom “loose leaf paper” shirts for their first day to make it extra special. Using masking tape we created horizontal lines with 1.5 inch separation between. Then we used blue Acrylic paint to paint narrow lines in between. I waited for about half an hour for the paint to dry and sped up the drying time by using a blow dryer. Then I taped two lines from the left side of the neck and ran them down to the bottom of the shirts. I painted in between the lines with red paint this time. Finally, I personalized their shirts by writing their names with a Sharpie at the top, and I hand painted a little red heart on each. The kids were so proud to wear their new shirts on the first day, and I was really thrilled with how they came together.

Since River started school we’ve been printing Olive & Eve Co flags, which I absolutely love. They have flags for every stage from Pre-school to College and all the stages in between. They are sold as digital prints, so you can print them off right from your very own printer. We’ve been hot gluing the flags onto wooden dowel rods that we pick up from Dollarama and we tie beautiful ribbons around the base to add a cute little detail. We also printed our pencil garland from Olive & Eve Co, which made for some super cute pictures and inspired my apple garland this year that I made on my Cricut.

I made gigantic pencils out of pool noodles that I spray painted yellow. If you can find yellow pool noodles, that’s the way to go and will save you a step. To make the eraser, I glued pink card stock around the bottom and grey card stock for the “metal” part. For the top of the pencil I rolled a cone shape out of brown card stock and trimmed the excess. To make the led, I found black glitter craft paper from Michael’s Arts & Crafts store.

To go with the over-sized theme, I also made a giant apple. I used a big red ball that we picked up at Walmart, and made a stem and leaf from some foam sheets. I taped them to the ball, as I knew that hot glue was a bad idea and would likely pop the ball. Anyhow, the kids posed for pictures with the apple and then played apple toss for a fun back to school game.

Another fun idea that I did when River started kindergarten was that I made a “Smart” cookie. I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and pressed the cookie dough into a cake pan instead of rolling them into individual balls. Then after it came out of the oven and had time to cool, I piped black glasses and a big smile with Wilton Icing Tubes in black, white and pink which is available on Amazon. I had River take some pictures first before diving in. Afterwards, there were crumbs everywhere but pictures to last a lifetime, so it was well worth it!

Well, I sure hope I’ve given you some fun ideas for back to school. Even though school is underway, it’s not too late to snap some pictures of your littles. You will be so happy you did!

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