Card making

Card making is a great jumping off point to learning the finer points of letter writing and postal addressing rules. With Valentine's Day just around the corner take some time to let your kids tell people that they love how they feel while at the same time learning the finer points of the art of letter writing!

If you want to brush up yourself or do a little bit of online exploration look here. http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=5

Take a quiz about letter writing http://www.quia.com/pop/7318.html

Or a great kid friendly book on the matter? http://www.amazon.com/Messages-Mailbox-How-Write-Letter/dp/082341079X

Now to the fun part!.. making the cards!

Supplies:

Paper, plain and theme paper

Stickers, die cuts, glitter

Glue

Pens and pencils

Check out this website for lots of great ideas http://www.making-greeting-cards.com/

In the next week I will be uploading some fun lined Valentines paper that can be used to write a letter to tuck in a card!

Adding a *KICK* in the pants to your projects

One of the best ways to add interest and a bit of zing to your homeschooling projects is to look into die cuts and punches. These easy to use machines make cutting shapes as easy as 1,2,3. I happen to own the BIG KICK by Sizzix and it like others on the market are able to use multiple types of dies to cut crisp clean shapes. These cut outs make crafting, journaling, and reports really pop!

All it takes is to look at the dies with an eye towards how they can be used to highlight facts and figures as opposed to photos! The cutting die in the picture is the 2-frame film strip die which is perfect for highlighting sequential action or notable moments in history. Multiple film strips could be pieced into a mini book to the tell a life story or show stages of plants growth. Once you start thinking out of the box you will never see your dies the same way again!

As pictured the boys used the filmstrip die cuts on their George Washington pages in their journals to show notable moments and facts from dear George's life. They also chose to use the faux-metal tag shapes for emphasis of their page titles.

Coming soon to a homeschool near you!

Hi all,

I did not fall off the planet but have been taking some time to get things back in order so we can start the second half of the homeschooling year on a good note.

In the next few weeks I am going to be showing off some projects using the big circle punch and am going to talk about using Die Cut machines like the Big Kick and Cuttle Bug to enhance your homeschooling projects, folders and reports. I will concentrate mostly on using the Big Kick since that is what I have but most any manual die cut machine will do the same thing. Of course if you happen to have an computer driven model such as the Cricut you are already well on your way to being able to enhance your projects.

If you are not quite ready for a big machine there are other ways to enjoy working with die-cuts. These include smaller/entry level machines that can be enjoyed by not only you but our children to the even less expensive option of just investing in some over sized single die punches in some basic shapes and sizes. No matter where you start you are sure to find lots of cute projects to do and I will be here to help you learn to incorporate them into your homeschooling classroom