Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

In the words of my son, the first week of school has been "awesome."  I'm glad to hear it!  It makes me excited to share another learning-related layout with you.

Supplies: background paper by Lily Bee Design; airmail paper by Bo Bunny; all other papers by Jenni Bowlin; buttons by October Afternoon; stickers by Bo Bunny; thread by DMC; blue twine by Crystal Palace; vintage brown twine; stain by Ranger; pens by Zig; assorted brands of colored pencils; household stapler.

The title of this blog post is "Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic."  Each of these subject areas is connected with my layout.  The reading connection is probably the most obvious, since "Reading" is the title of the page.  For my journaling, I wrote about the types of books that my son liked to read, at the time when this photo was taken.

As far as the connection to writing goes...I used alphabet stickers in an interesting way on this layout.  Perhaps you noticed that this post has an "infinite*alphabets" label?  Over the last few months I've used this label to showcase projects in which I've mixed and matched alphabet stickers from various manufacturers and lines.  From now on, I'm going to be doing something different with the "infinite*alphabets" label, though.  I'm going to show different ways to use up leftover alphabet stickers.  You know, those letters that don't spell anything (all the X's, Q's, H's, etc.) but are still too cute to throw away.

On this layout, I used left over alphabet stickers from the Bo Bunny "Ad Lib" collection as masks, to create a fun borders along the top and bottom edges of my layout.  For added interest, I used colored pencils to outline and add doodled patterns to a few random letters.

Besides using Ranger Distress Stain to create my alphabet borders, I also used it to ink the edges of my page elements, to create "shadows" beneath clusters, and to create assorted "splashes" around the page.

How does "arithmetic" come into play on this layout?  In the use of a pie chart.  I've seen pie chart tutorials that simply say to guestimate the sizes of the pie pieces.  However, I'm a dab hand with a protractor, so I actually made accurately sized pieces.  You can too--it's not hard!  First, decide the percentages of the pieces you want to cut.  Remember that the percentages should add up to one hundred percent.  Then convert each percentage into a decimal (25 percent = .25, 10 percent = .10, etc.).  Since a circle has 360 degrees, you will need to multiple each decimal by 360.  For example, .25x360=90, so the pie piece that represents 25% should measure 90 degrees.  .10x360=36, so the pie piece that represents 10% should measure 36 degrees.  Make mock-ups of each pie piece from scratch paper first, to check that the pieces all fit together properly.  Then, place the mock-ups over your chosen patterned papers, trace lightly with a pencil, and cut the pieces out.  Voila!

Yes, those are friendship bracelets that I used as embellishments.  I adore pages with hand-knitted or -crocheted embellishments...but I can't knit, and I can't crochet much more than a chain stitch.  However, I loved making friendship bracelets in the 1980's, and I have retained my mad skills in that craft.  So, I decided to make some mini friendship bracelets to add to the youthful feel of this page.  I stapled the bracelets onto the page and twisted some twine around them in a free-form manner, further enhancing the feeling of carefree youthfulness.

This is the last school/learning-related page that I have to post for the time being...but if you want to see more school-related papercrafting projects, do check out the current issue of Scrap n' Art e-zine.  I have a school-related layout there, and so does my blogosphere pal Helen Tilbury...it's an honor to have my layout displayed right by hers!

Although this is my last school-related layout for awhile, stay tuned, because I have another friendship bracelet layout to blog about soon!  Take care.