Welcome To Fourth Grade

It's August, and though it still feels like summer to me,  a great majority of children including our granddaughter are already back in school. I made this "Back to School" card to cheer her on as she enters her school year as a fourth grader.

Our granddaughter's name is Evelyn and we call her "Eevee" for short, so I wanted my card to feature Pokemon Eevee going back to school. Encouraged by my daughter, I decided to give AI a try for my first time by showing Google's AI Gemini a coloring book image of a boy writing on a chalkboard and asking to swap the boy with Pokemon Eevee. Within a few seconds, Gemini amazed me by coming up with an image exactly as I had imagined which I was able to use to create the cutting file for my card.

Gemini AI also helped me with a coloring book style image of the school desk and chair which Make the Cut rendered into a cutting file. To create the look of  the chalkboard with writing, the words were cut using black text weight paper as a stencil, then backed with white cardstock. The world globe and stack of books on the desk were put together using a very old die from Quickutz and Karen Burniston "Bookworm" dies. After assembling all the pieces for my classroom scene, I used a hexagon pop up style card to display them. 

The paper pieced Eevee I used on the backside of my hexagon pop up was asembled from a cutting file I had created in the past. Gemini AI assisted by creating a simple coloring book image of a backpack which Make the Cut could trace to create a cut file. 

I found some cute "math calculations" doodles which I printed onto white cardstock to use as a fun background for my card. "KG Miss Kindergarten font" was used for the sentiments.

This hexagon pop up card flattens to 6.75" x 6.75". I like that there's space at the base of the card where I can add a personal message which can be read by the recipient before the card is opened to it's display position. In case you're interested, there are a few companies like Karen Burniston and Lawn Fawn which have come out with dies to create this style of pop up card. Or, if you own an electronic cutting machine as I do, you can find the cutting file for a this style of card at the Lori Whitlock Shop.

I sent along these two bag charms together with the card. When our granddaughter came to visit for a week at the end of July, I showed her how I had printed these Pokemon images onto shrink plastic and cut them out. She then put them into our air fryer oven and was amazed as she watched how they curled and shrank. We didn't have the chance to finish them while she was here, but I coated the shrunken charms with UV resin and assembled them with beads and split rings onto clasps and promised I would mail them. Pretty certain she'll like them.