DIY First Day of School Gift for Kids & Cricut Tutorial
If you are looking for an alternative to the typical “first day of school” sign or chalkboard for pictures, then check out today’s DIY ‘First Day of School’ sign made from a felt pennant. My complete Cricut tutorial makes a unique back-to-school gift for your favorite kiddo!
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Don’t get me wrong…
Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely love all the “first day of school” pictures featuring printable and chalkboard signs I see in my Instagram and Pinterest feeds. But I can’t help but want something a little different for my kids this year.
While chalkboards and printable signs are super cute, this year’s variation is sure to stand out in my Instagram and Pinterest feed.
Join me as I walk you through the steps to create your own personalized school pennant, complete with all the milestone details you see on typical chalkboard signs. I promise it’s quick and easy with the help of pre-made svg files, a felt pennant and your Cricut Explore Air 2!
Show Your School Spirit with My DIY First Day of School Sign
These “First Day of Preschool” pennants combine everything you love about chalkboard signs (all the fun facts, pastimes and details) with the school spirit associated with your school’s colors!
If you’ve followed me for any time, then you know how much I LOVE customizing gifts. This back-to-school gift is no exception! You can include teachers’ names, your child’s name, the school year, and more!
You’ll just need to START by going to the Pen & Posh storefront on Etsy and downloading her back-to-school svg bundle. Then customize away!
And don’t worry, as always, I’m about to walk you through the steps I used to create my favorite back-to-school gift yet! Here we go…
STEP 1: GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES
- a blank felt pennant in your school colors
- Your favorite heat transfer vinyl
- Light box (optional, but I find it so much easier to weed white vinyl if I use a light box)
- Cricut EasyPress (or a standard iron)
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- 12 x 24″ cutting mat
- Weeding tools
- Cricut EasyPress Mat (or thick towel)
- Additional font* (See Step 2)
- Back to School SVG bundle by Pen & Posh (See Step 3)
TO COMPLETE YOUR GIFT! Add one of our favorite books – The Night Before Preschool – to your DIY First Day of School Sign to make the perfect gift! Your kiddo will love it! (My own kids are obsessed with this book!)
STEP 2: DOWNLOAD THE FONT & UPLOAD IT TO YOUR CRICUT DESIGN SPACE
I used a font called Milocha for this project, which is not a standard font in Cricut Design Space, but you can get it for free from dafont.com and upload it to Design Space.
*Always double-check the licensing for the fonts you download. I am using this font for personal use and will not be selling these pennants for profit. However, there are plenty of completely free fonts on dafont.com.
Download directions:
- Go to Dafont.com and search for “Milocha” or click on the links above. Next, click on the gray “download” button to the right of the font.
- Once the zip file has downloaded to your computer, open the file and double-click on the TrueType font file to open it.
- Then hit the “install” button at the top of the document.
- Once the install is complete, open Cricut Design Space and select your new font from the font drop-down menu. (If you are already working in Design Space, you’ll want to refresh it or log out and back in so you can see the new font selection).
STEP 3: DOWNLOAD THE SVG BUNDLE & UPLOAD IT TO CRICUT DESIGN SPACE
To add any of the signs from the bundle (includes preschool – twelfth!), you will want to:
- Go to Etsy, purchase and download the svg bundle to your computer.
- Open Cricut Design Space and in a New Project, click on the “Upload” button on the left sidebar.
- Click on the “Upload Image” button and then the “Browse” button to navigate to where you’ve saved your image.
- Double click on the file
- Add an image name and tags and click “Save.”
- Now your image will be saved to Recently Uploaded Images under the Upload tab.
- Click on your image and hit the “Insert Images” button, which will take you back to your canvas for further manipulation.
STEP 4: ADJUST THE SIZING OF THE PENNANT AND ADD YOUR TEXT
Once you have both the graphic and text uploaded to Design Space, play around with the sizing until you are satisfied with the overall look.
I added text to all three sides of the pennant using the previously described Milocha text. Next, you’ll want to add three text boxes and adjust their size and orientation using the circular anchoring each text box (see above).
Once you have everything in its proper place, rubber-band select all the text and the preschool svg, select “attach” and then “save” and finally – the green “MAKE IT” button.
STEP 5: CUT & WEED YOUR HEAT TRANSFER VINYL
Make sure the material dial on your Cricut Explore Air 2 is set to “Heat Transfer” and that the pennant image has “Mirror” selected.
Once the decal is cut, remove it from your 12″x24″ cutting mat and weed the excess vinyl leaving only the mirrored vinyl on the plastic vinyl sheet.
STEP 6: IRON/TRANSFER THE DECAL TO YOUR PENNANT
Place a thick towel or your Cricut EasyPress Mat on a sturdy work surface, and preheat your iron or Cricut EasyPress to 315 degrees. Transfer away!
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT: MY DIY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL SIGN ALTERNATIVE
If you end up making this project or using my tutorial as inspiration for your own creation, I’d love to see! Feel free to leave any questions in the comments below!
IN NEED OF ADDITIONAL GIFT & PARTY INSPIRATION? I GOTCHU…
Head over to my Pinterest and Instagram accounts and follow me for gift ideas shared daily!
AS ALWAYS – IF YOU NEED HELP BRAINSTORMING OR CREATING A CUSTOM GIFT, PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME! I’D LOVE TO HELP!
More later! The craft room is calling, and I must go…
OTHER SCHOOL PROJECTS YOU’LL LOVE:
