Back to School Mantel/Shelf

July is over, September is quickly approaching, October is too far away.  I decided to do a "school" shelf. My son isn't even two yet, but I figured it's never too early to start teaching right?

I searched for some cute school themed decor and found some.  My favorite was from Tatertots & Jello.  I thought this was adorable, and kid-friendly.  I don't have a mantel, but a bookshelf that I usually seasonally decorate.  Perfect.

I had some wooden abc blocks I bought for my son's 1-year-old birthday party, but didn't think it was enough.  I bought them in the Melissa & Doug little cart, but I didn't want to spend that much for the blocks again (and still not have enough).  What were my options?  I looked online and found some at Toys R Us for cheap.  I spent $18 (about $4 more than the one set from Melissa & Doug costs) and got over 100 blocks ($3 for a pack of 15 blocks).  I was thrilled!  They even had numbers, so I was happy.

Next.  I loved the rulers & pencils from the tatertots page.  Easy to duplicate.  Smith's Marketplace was having a great sale on school supplies.  Twenty pencils for $1.  The rulers were about $.60 a piece, a little pricey, but I wanted the nice wood ones.  Mason jars-free.

I love creating my own subway art.  I have this favorite font - Smiley Monster - that I just love.  It's so cute.  I decided to make a simple subway art using that font.  I came up with some words/phrases that reminded me of school & came up with a cute little 8x10.

I had this idea that wooden letters would be so cute.  I am super super lucky to have such a talented (and generous) grandfather.  He has his own wood shop & is so kind to let me use his tools, machines and supplies.  Again, I used Smiley Monster for the letters.  I printed them out on my computer, found a scrap piece of wood at home and traced them on.  My grandpa and I cut them out, sanded them and I painted them primary colors.  I absolutely love how they turned out.  I also love the fact that they are congruent with the subway art.

So, there you have it.  I absolutely love the way it turned out.  And the best part is it is all kid-friendly.  My boy is all boy, so he definitely plays hard and is rough, but these are sure to last.

I even got so creative that I made my own alphabet tracing/learning pages for my kiddo.  I used the font KG Miss Kindergarten for each letter.  I either found and traced or free-handed the drawings for each letter.  Super cute.  Here's a quick little taste of a couple.

(I don't know copyright laws with the font & some of the drawings, so I don't want to post them all)