Hello friends! Anyone want to (Strawberry) Shake up a back to school page? Sorry, I can never resist a good (or bad) pun. But that’s why you keep coming back, right? 😉

I think we all know I’m not one to save a “summer” collection for only summer layouts – I’ve never really been theme-y in that way – so I don’t expect you to be surprised that I used this collection to document the first day of school. But, if you’ve never thought about how to take a slightly-themed collection and branch out, this might help.

I started with this fabulous cutfile from Peartree Cutfiles. To add more depth and colour to the paper I cut those from, I used a little (or a lot, depending on the cloud) of Picket Fence Paper Glaze in Succulent Green. That also gave a little shine and texture so the clouds became more of a feature. A small white border helps them stand out against the background.

The background paper is full of leaves – perfect! The colours are more vibrant than one would generally think of for fall, but falling leaves still fit with my overall plan. A back to school page is as much about the transition from summer to fall as it is the season itself, right? The overall colour scheme is still green, yellow & red, just in lighter shades.

The “Today, it’s a day card” is a title and a half for this page! It sure was a day – the first day back after almost six months. I suppose that’s part of the reason I wanted to keep it bright and fun; why not celebrate getting a small part of our routine back?

For final touches (besides the journaling I will add later, in case my kids don’t want you to see all their thoughts on the 2020 school year), I added label stickers and bits & pieces left from the cut-apart sheet I used on the page. The Strawberry Shake labels come in plenty of colours, and I added a few from older Studio Tekturek collections as well. I love layers, and when you have perfectly good scraps laying around, there’s always a place to tuck them in!

I hope this page inspires you to mix your seasonal-ish pictures with some seasonal-ish papers – I told you I don’t get *that* theme-y 🙂 – and mix and match something new!

Thanks for stopping by.

CA