Craft Stick Pencil, Crayon, and Colored Pencil Back-to-School Craft

In celebration of back-to-school season, today's craft has students make a craft stick pencil, colored pencil, or crayon and use it to write advice on how to be successful during the new school year. It's a fun way to encourage kids to start the year off on the right foot. Back in my teaching days, I had my students write letters of advice at the end of the year for the students who would be sitting in their desks the following year. It was always a delight to see what they wrote. Affiliate links below. 

 

Craft Stick Pencil, Crayon, and Colored Pencil

Materials: 

• 10" craft sticks
• scissors
• sandpaper
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• Folk Art Metallic Silver
• pencil
• Sharpie

Steps: 

Use the scissors to trim the one end of each craft stick to make a rounded point. There two things to note: 

1. Cutting craft sticks generates sharp wood pieces that can potentially go flying. Teachers should prep the sticks ahead of time rather than having students do this step in class. 
2. It is easiest to cut if you put the craft stick all the way in toward the fulcrum of the scissors.

You can cut the other end of the craft stick straight across if you wish. I did that for my colored pencil and crayon but left the pencil with a rounded end. Totally up to you. When you are done cutting, sand the craft sticks so there are no rough edges. 

Paint the craft sticks. I started by painting the wood part of the pencil and colored pencil, but in retrospect that seems like an unnecessary step since the craft stick is already wood. So I'd skip that. I used green for the body and tip of my colored pencil. For my crayon, I used orange for the ends, then mixed in a little bit of coral to lighten the paint to make the wrapper. For my pencil, I painted the eraser pink, the body yellow, and the tip dark grey, then added the silver paint. 

When the paint was dry, I used a pencil to subtly define the edges between colors. Then I drew parallel lines on the silver paint to mimic the texture of the ferrule. Finally, I used the Sharpie to add the tips for being successful in school. 

Maybe it's just me, but I think it would be fun (if impractical) to tape a real pencil to the back and use this for writing.  

I really enjoyed making this craft, even though my back-to-school days are behind me. I wish all of the students reading this a successful and enjoyable school year. Ask questions! Study for tests! And do your homework!

Highest Honors Ceremony

Our school district holds a special Highest Honors Ceremony before graduation to celebrate all of the seniors completing high school with a grade point average above 4.0. It's a big deal. The superintendent, school board, and principals of all five high schools conduct the ceremony. Each graduate is introduced with where they will be going to college, what their major will be, and what career they hope to have. They receive the honor cords they'll wear at their graduations. It's really inspiring and a great way to acknowledge the hard work that goes into earning four years of perfect grades in advanced classes. 

Highest Honors Ceremony (affiliate link)

There were 190 students at the Highest Honors Ceremony for the Class of 2024. By now, they are 2/3 of the way through their freshman year of college. I sincerely hope they are all thriving and continuing to be as successful as they were in high school.  

Senior Showcase

Here's another really simple layout from Trevor's senior year of high school. Specifically, this is about the Senior Showcase.

 

Senior Showcase (affiliate link)

Once again, I used the event program as my journaling element. It explains Trevor's Senior Project. I paired it with a photo of him in front of his display and added the school sticker as an embellishment. I love how quickly this came together.  

Senior Celebration

I had a good high school experience (Go Mats!), but I would have loved to attend an early college program if that had been a thing back in the 1980's. Small classes, choosing among hundreds of elective choices, a college environment, fellow classmates all college-bound.... what's not to love for an academically-oriented and highly motivated teen? 

Our local Early College High School takes place entirely on the community college campus, but it is technically part of a traditional high school. Unless they play sports, most ECHS students won't set foot on that high school campus until graduation practice. They never meet 400 of their "classmates." They don't have much connection to the school that appears on their diploma. 

Because of this, ECHS holds a more intimate Senior Celebration event prior to the formal graduation. It's a chance to recognize the accomplishments of the ECHS students in a deeper and more personal way than at graduation. The only attendees besides the staff are the 99 graduates and four guests for each of them. It's wonderful. 

 

Senior Celebration (affiliate link)

Ephemera from the event features heavily in my layout. I cut the title and graduation cap from the program cover, put the bio from inside the program onto a pocket, and slid our tickets into a pocket. I kept the second program intact (it's with the other high school memorabilia, not in the album). I'm really happy with how this page turned out. 

Bash Bowl 2025: Graduation

Bash Bowl is back! Since 2022, I've been competing in this Super Bowl themed scrapbook competition each February. There are three games in the series and I'm playing for Twisted Scissors again. This is my contribution for Game 1:

ECHS Graduation (affiliate link)

I wasn't thrilled about the week's playbook. 

Washi tape and stickers work well for me, so I used them both on the layout. I didn't feel like forcing the rest of the elements onto the page, so I only earned 2 points for the Scissors. I really like the page though, so I consider it a win. 

Senior Sunset

I made a page about Trevor's Senior Sunrise for the 2023 BYSS World Series while playing for the Scrappin' Banshees, so it's only appropriate that I made the Senior Sunset page for this year's competition! Trevor didn't take any photos during the event (sigh), so the only pictures I had to work with were the group photo the principal shared, plus the picture I took of Trevor when I picked him up. And a third photo. Did you spot it? During Senior Awards, Trevor was named "Most Likely to Save the Planet" so I took a picture of his trophy, fussy cut it, and used it as an embellishment.  

This layout scored a grand slam for the Banshees: one point for using 2+ patterned papers, one point for the arrow (on the group photo), one point for the outdoor element (moon and trees paper), one point fo the journaling, and an extra two points for the sticker borders along the top and bottom. 

Between this layout and yesterday's, I contributed 10 points to the Banshees. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win the game. We're now tied at one game each for the Banshees and Twisted Scissors. This weekend's game will determine the Series winner. Go, Banshees!

Last Day of 12th Grade

It's been a couple of weeks since I've done any scrapbooking, so I cleared off my desk and made this page about Trevor's last day of high school. 

Last Day of School (affiliate link)

It's hard to believe he's out of high school and off to college! Where does the time go? It seems like yesterday I was scrapping about the last day of preschool. Even though this is the last "Last Day of School" layout I plan to make, I still have most of Trevor's senior events (including graduation) to scrap. So I'll share plenty more school-themed layouts eventually. Good thing, since I still have a lot of school-themed scrapbook supplies. 

The Bash Your Scrapbook Stash World Series starts in a few weeks, which will give me the chance to make a big dent in my scrappy to-do list. In addition to the various Senior Year pages, there are a lot more topics I'm eager to scrap. I need to get photos printed before the competition begins. It's such a time-consuming task and I've fallen way behind on it. Good thing events like the BYSS World Series are there to kick me into gear!

Senior Prom

On May 25, Trevor attended his Senior Prom. It took place at San Francisco's City Hall, also known as The People's Palace. On the big day, I took a picture of him in from of our house, dressed in his tux. Then I dropped him off a friend's house, where I took a photo of the four classmates who rode together. The parents who drove took a photo of the four, plus a fifth friend they met there, outside the venue. I used those three pictures to make this layout. 

Senior Prom (affiliate link)

Built in 1915, City Hall was the perfect venue for the "Old Hollywood" theme the prom committee chose. Here are some of the pictures I didn't use on the layout. The outdoor ones are from the parents who drove and the indoor ones are from the school's Facebook page. 

  

Trevor's prom experience was completely different than mine, which also took place in San Francisco. Back in my day, we had to buy our tickets as a couple; if you didn't have an opposite-gender date, you didn't go to the prom. Trevor's school sold only single tickets. We could bring dates from other cities and, as far as I remember, there wasn't an age limit. Trevor's prom was limited to juniors and seniors from their school. We had separate proms for juniors and seniors; I attended both. Trevor's school combines the two; most students, including Trevor, opt not to go as juniors. We weren't served any food at the prom, so we went out to dinner ahead of time. Trevor and his friends ate at the prom, dining on tacos, crepes, and Shirley Temples. We drove ourselves. All of Trevor's friends either came in party buses or a parent drove them. We could come and go when we wanted - arrive late, leave early - but Trevor and his classmates had to arrive between 8:00 and 9:00 and were not permitted to leave earlier than midnight for any reason, except by ambulance. Our prom had dancing. If you weren't dancing, you were sitting at a table talking. Trevor's prom had a dance area, but it also had a games room and a casino area. He and his friends played ping pong and air hockey and a variety of games of chance. We took prom photos (as couples, of course) and came home with souvenir glassware and later received our photos and a book with all the couples' photos. Trevor came home empty-handed, which saves him from trying to decide what to do with a prom-themed brandy snifter 30+ years from now. One thing Trevor and I have in common: we both had a great time at prom. 

First Day of 12th Grade

I made one layout for the third and final game of Bash Bowl 2024:

First Day of 12th Grade (affiliate link)

I love the simplicity of this page. You may remember these custom papers; they add so much to the design. I especially love the pencil with Trevor's school and mascot.

I was really excited when I saw this week's Playbook. Everything on it is something I use. 

I thought I'd be able to score my first touchdown of the season, but I ended up earning 3 points for the Scrappin' Banshees. I could have added stamping to my page to get the touchdown, but I liked the page exactly how it was. I decided that was more important than earning two more points. Fortunately, those two points didn't make a difference. 

Twisted Scissors beat us again, sweeping the series. We'll get 'em next time! 

Bash Bowl 2024: University of California College Applications

This is the second layout I completed for Game 2 of Bash Bowl 2024. I earned two more points for the Scrappin' Banshees by using stickers and making a page with three photos. It wasn't enough. Twisted Scissors slaughtered us in Game 2 by a score of 551-398. Yikes! 

Despite our massive loss, I am really happy with this page. It shows the three universities Trevor applied to: UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz. I used the mascot of each as my photos, then added journaling about his top choices and what he'd be studying at the three schools. 

University of California College Applications (affiliate link)

I made it as a companion page to this layout that features a small sample of the hundreds of university solicitations Trevor received in the mail. I made that page at the beginning of November, not expecting that he would continue getting mountains of mail. It's almost March, well past the deadlines for virtually every university in the United States, yet the mail still comes every day, telling him it's not too late. He has even received quite a few acceptance letters from schools where he didn't apply. It's weird, but I hear from friends that it's not unusual for kids with a high GPA to be aggressively courted by mid-tier public universities and all levels of private universities. 

All that mail has gone into the recycling bin, because Trevor has known for years that he wants to attend a University of California school. Specifically, he has his heart set on the Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology program at Davis. With so many universities begging him to attend their schools, you'd think he has a pretty good chance at admission to UC Davis. But it's far from guaranteed. UC schools are incredibly competitive. 

Trevor's backup school is UC Santa Barbara. It has a strong academic reputation and Trevor feels like he would be happy there. It is slightly less competitive than UC Davis, so his chances there are a little better. If he goes to UCSB, he'll be majoring in Zoology. 

Trevor had planned to only apply to those two schools, but at the last minute he added his third choice, UC Santa Cruz, as a backup to his backup. They have a solid Marine Biology program that interests Trevor. 

I am really happy that I got this page done before the University of California posts admission decisions. My journaling is more authentic since I don't know the outcome. So when will Trevor hear? "As early as mid-March." This is how I feel about Mid-March. At least he doesn't have to wait until late March. Unless he does, since "as early as" implies that it could be much later. Argh!

Trevor's Senior Project: Wildlife Biology

The 12th graders at Trevor's school complete a year-long Senior Project related to one of three areas: Career Exploration; Community Service; or Creative Expression. They spend August and September coming up with ideas, learning research techniques, selecting a mentor, and doing preliminary investigations. In October and November, they turn their ideas into a formal pitch and present it to their teacher and fellow students, as well as the principal and a panel of parent or community volunteers. Once their projects are approved, they move into the doing phase, which can last through April. In May, the seniors present their projects to the school, parents, and community members. The projects are always as unique and interesting as the individual students themselves. 

Trevor's Senior Project is "Studying Wildlife Biology," which fits into the Career Exploration category. He has applied to study Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at UC Davis (fingers crossed) so he hoped this project would not only help him learn more about careers in wildlife biology, but also help him decide among the four areas of specialization offered in the major. I combined a picture of Trevor giving his project pitch and two of the slides from his presentation on this layout:

Senior Project (affiliate link)

When I ordered the photos, I knew I wanted to use the animal-themed paper scraps a friend gave me a long time ago. The papers were each about 12" x 5", so I sketched out a design that would feature them and still have space for the photos and some journaling. It was a happy coincidence that the design I planned worked so well for Game 2 of Bash Bowl. 

I used stickers for the title, which is on a tag, and there are three photos on the layout. So this page earns 3 points for the Scrappin' Banshees. We need every point - Twisted Scissors walloped us in Game 1 by a score of 454 to 358. Let's go, Banshees!

BYSS World Series 2023: Senior Sunrise

It's October, which means that the Bash Your Scrapbook Stash World Series is back! I'm on the Scrappin' Banshees team again. We just completed our first game and I'm really happy with my contribution. Layouts like these are basically the reason I do challenges. Without a challenge prompt, it would have looked completely different. I love the creative push.

Senior Sunrise (affiliate link)

The layout tells the story of Trevor's Senior Sunrise. The senior class met at the football field at 6:00 am for games, donuts and cocoa, and to watch the sun rise on their senior year. They'll hold a Senior Sunset at the end of the school year. Such a fun tradition! 

For this game, we had four elements to include (1 point each), then a fifth element to earn the grand slam (2 additional points). 

Using one or two photos was easy for me, as was including a Project Life card. The other elements were more challenging. I added enamel dots to my journaling card, make a faux PL card by using a chevron stencil and a corner rounder, and used mists to make the ombre on the title. 

Go Banshees!

Field Trip - UC Davis and Sac State

Back in May, I chaperoned a field trip for Trevor's school. The junior class visited two nearby universities. The first was my alma mater, the University of California at Davis (loud cheering). Then we went to California State University, Sacramento. I like Sac State, but my heart will forever be with UCD. 

 

Field Trip to UC Davis and Sac State (affiliate link)

This was actually the second time I chaperoned a field trip to UC Davis. Trevor went in middle school with National Junior Honor Society. This was a very different experience. Middle schoolers are learning what college is like in general, while high school juniors (especially those in an early college program) are focused on the strengths and weaknesses of each university. They're actually picturing themselves there, looking at all the little things that makes a campus a good fit or not. (For Trevor, a High Squirrel Density is key.) It was fun to watch Trevor and his friends experience both campuses. I'm really glad I was able to be there.

First Day of 11th Grade

 Trevor is midway through the first semester of his junior year of high school. Where does the time go?!

First Day of 11th Grade (affiliate link)

As a junior in the Early College program, he is taking four high school classes and two college classes. Interestingly, the four high school classes all take place on the college campus, while the two college classes don't! (They're online.) His high school classes include: English 11, Race and Social Justice, Chemistry, and College Readiness 11. Each of those is a year-long class. His college classes, which last a semester, are Statistics and World Geography (which also has a lab). He hopes to take California History and Environmental Studies when the next semester starts up in January.  

Last Day of 10th Grade

Trevor wrapped up his sophomore year of high school on June 9. I used these custom papers to make this page showing Trevor on his first day (shorts and t-shirt) and last day (jeans and sweatshirt) of 10th grade. I left plenty of space for journaling to record some of the things I most want to remember from this year - like his GPA, the fact that 340 high schoolers essentially had the entire community college campus to themselves, and that California offered free breakfast and lunch to all students for the first time.    

Last Day of 10th Grade (affiliate link)

I used this page for the 2-photo square on my BASH-O card. My first win!

Fall at Solano

I've mentioned before that Trevor attends high school on a community college campus. Back in November, I spent four days at his school listening to the 12th graders pitch their Senior Project ideas and providing feedback. During my breaks, I walked around and admired the beauty of the campus with its fall colors and dramatic skies. I had the place to myself. Ordinarily, it would be highly unusual for a college campus to be completely empty, but a pandemic has a way of changing things. Out of an abundance of caution, all college classes were remote, so the only people on campus were the high schoolers, who were in their classrooms. 

Of the many photos I took, I chose nine for this layout. 

Fall at Solano (affiliate link)

A fun fact about this page: literally every single letter spelling out SOLANO was cobbled from another letter. The S is actually an 8. The first O is a zero. The L is a Z cut into pieces and rearranged. The A is an upside-down V, with a chunk of the Z as a crossbar. The N is an upside-down U. The second O is a modified Q. I was ridiculously pleased with myself to have made 80ZVUQ spell SOLANO.  

Bash Bowl 2022: National Honor Society

In November, Trevor was inducted into the National Honor Society. We're so proud of his hard work and academic achievements. Rather than include journaling, I printed the pledge that Trevor gave. 

National Honor Society Induction (affiliate link)

This layout earned me my first-ever Bash Bowl touchdown! Here's the before photo: 

I got two points for making a page with black, white, and only one other color, one point for having three blue items (background paper and two border strips), one point for the word sticker in the upper right, one point for the glittery stickers I used for the date, and one point for completing the layout. Six points to Twisted Scissors!

First Day of 10th Grade

The first day of school is always special, but this year's marked the first time in 516 days that Trevor attended school in person. While he enjoyed distance learning and did very well, he was happy to head back to in-person school for 10th grade. 

First Day of 10th Grade (affiliate link)

Of course, school isn't back to pre-COVID normal. Masks are mandatory indoors and recommended outdoors. Students carry water bottles instead of using drinking fountains, and hand sanitizer is everywhere. Staff and students must do a daily self-check for COVID symptoms. Trevor's high school takes place entirely on the community college campus, which opted to keep most of their class in distance learning this semester; consequently, the high schoolers have the whole campus to themselves. Well, almost. Key facilities like the library and gym aren't open. The cafeteria isn't operating, but the district brings in free lunch for all students every day. School drop-off and pick-up are a dream because the parking lots are completely empty. Permits are not required for upperclassmen who drive themselves. Things will change dramatically when the community college returns to in-person learning, presumably when the new semester starts in January.

Last Day of Ninth Grade

Remember the custom scrapbook papers I used to make thank you cards for Trevor's teachers? I used two of Scrapbook Customs' customizable papers to make this layout about Trevor's last day of 9th grade. I absolutely love these papers. This might be the fastest layout I've ever made, since the papers did most of the work for me!

Last Day of 9th Grade (affiliate link)

This post has all the steps to order scrapbook paper featuring your own school colors, name, and mascot. It also has a coupon code you should use to get 10% off everything at Scrapbook Customs. I can't wait to play with more of their custom papers! 

High School Teacher Thank You Cards using Custom Papers

Today is Trevor's last day of ninth grade. His teachers, principal, and counselor have gone above and beyond to make this difficult school year productive and memorable. I wanted to make cards to thank them for everything they did for Trevor and the rest of the students. There was only one place to get the PERFECT papers for those cards: Scrapbook Customs. Did you know that Scrapbook Customs sells individual sheets of school-themed papers that you can customize with your school colors, name, mascot, and logo?! 

I always assumed that in order to get custom papers, you'd have to order at least 25 of the same design. Nope! At Scrapbook Customs, you can order single sheets of custom papers. They are surprisingly affordable. And high quality. There is nothing not to love about these papers. 

To get your custom paper, simply select the paper you want, then choose the colors, school name, initials, mascot, etc. There's even a line for special instructions. Here's what my order for the ADORABLE mask paper looked like.  

The folks at Scrapbook Customs sent me 10 awesome custom papers featuring Trevor's high school's name, colors, and mascot. I saved a few of the papers to use for layouts and other projects and cut the remaining papers apart to make these cards. 

Here's a closer look at each card I made. Everything you see (except for the white card bases) is cut from one of the ten sheets of paper from Scrapbook Customs:

Unfortunately (for me), I don't have an affiliate link for you to get your own custom papers. Fortunately (for you), I do have a coupon code for you to use! Enter Cindy10 at checkout to get 10% off the (already amazingly low) price for custom papers, or anything else you find on their site. 

I hope the rest of you are as excited about the possibilities of custom papers as I am!