This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.
Use your Cricut Explore Air 2 to personalize your homeschool space in time for back to school. Perfect for virtual learning too!
Back to School is a little different this year. For us, it's the first year of homeschool. Many of my friends are starting virtual school at home.
Either way it's clear we will need space for school at home this year, and making that space inviting is one of my top priorities.
Having a dedicated, organized spot for all your school supplies, books and electronics is key to making the year successful - whether it's a single bookshelf or an entire room. And since we're home, why not make it extra personal and fun too! I'll show you how with a few projects that are super easy to make thanks to the Cricut Explore Air 2.
Personalize your Supplies with Cricut
This time last year, I was using my Cricut Explore Air 2 to put my twins' names onto their pencil boxes and water bottles in the hope that they wouldn't end up in the lost and found box.
This year, as homeschoolers, personalizing our school supplies is a totally different story. I needed to create a space where we could store our books, workbooks, and supplies that was easy for them to access and still looked fun and inviting in our home.
And with two kids, I wanted to give them each a spot of their own reflecting their unique personalities instead of just their names. For my boys that meant their favorite animals, and with Cricut it is easy to do!
Homeschool Organizing Essentials
No matter what kind of learning space you are setting up, there are a few essentials you should include. You need something for small supplies like rulers, scissors, crayons, and glue sticks, along with headphones and chargers for electronics. These small stackable plastic drawers are a perfect solution (I used 2 drawers for each child).
Then add in some plastic book bins to store workbooks, notebooks, paper, or even chrome books.
And the best part: both of these are super easy to personalize with a Cricut Explore Air 2 and Cricut Premium Vinyl! Here's what I used to make them unique.
Animal Face School Supply Drawers
One of my twins loves tigers while the other loves dogs, so it was easy to decide how to personalize their drawer sets. Since I was planning to stack them two high, I thought it would be really cute to make them into animal faces. I was able to find both designs ready to go thanks to my Cricut Access subscription.
To make these projects, you'll need:
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- Cricut Everyday Vinyl in assorted colors
- Light Grip Mat
- Cricut Tools: trimmer or scissors, weeding tool, and scraper
- Transfer Tape
I started with the puppy face. To make this project, first open a new project in Design Space. Then click on "images" and search "puppy face" to find this particular design. Add it to your canvas and resize to fit onto your drawers. When sizing, remember that you will be putting the top and bottom halves on separate drawers and adjust accordingly.
Once you have the image sized correctly, then click the green "make it" button to send the image to your Explore Air. Follow the prompts to cut each color of vinyl, then use your weeding tool to trim away the excess material.
Once you have all your pieces weeded, use transfer tape to place them onto your drawer fronts. Place the ears on one drawer, and the mouth on the other. When you stack them, you'll have an adorable puppy face and plenty of room to store your supplies!
Once I finished the puppy face drawers for one of my boys, I got to work on the tiger face for my other son. I followed all of the same steps as above, with one addition. Since there was no space in the image, I needed to create one in order to evenly cut the design to fit it onto the two drawers. This is easy to do using the slice tool in Design Space.
First, click Shapes and create a narrow rectangle (you'll need to unlock the proportions to make it thin). Use the Slice tool to remove the space from the image and you'll have a design that is easy to cut in half for your two drawers.
Click here for a detailed tutorial on how to slice one image out of another.
Once your image has been sliced, proceed through the remainder of the steps to cut out your design. Once you have weeded the excess vinyl, use your trimmer to cut the two halves, using the space created by your slice as a guide.
Once you have all your pieces cut, you can use transfer tape to adhere each half to the front of your drawers. I'm so happy with how this turned out (and my little tiger fan is too).
Now that my drawer fronts were finished, it was time to personalize our book bins. I decided to make labels for these, but I also wanted to tie in the animal theme. I also wanted something that could be updated as needed since I had a feeling these bins would probably change purpose over the year.
I accomplished this easily by using Cricut Dry Erase Vinyl to make the labels. You could swap the Dry Erase Vinyl for Chalkboard Vinyl if you prefer, and still have the same functionality. It's totally personal preference!
I've made this project super easy for you because I've done all the work and saved it in Design Space for your use! Simply click here to open the project, then click Continue and follow the prompts to cut your labels.
Once you've cut and weeded your labels, use transfer tape to adhere them to the front of your book bins.
Once your book bins are labeled, it's time to put everything together into a super cute, organized supply area!
I repurposed an old two shelf bookcase to be supply central in our homeschool room. With a fresh coat of white paint and my new personalized bins, it's the perfect fit!
My boys each have their own shelf personalized with their favorite animal. The drawers have plenty of room to hold their supplies and the book bins are perfect for storing everything else.
Want more great ideas on how to use your Cricut to get organized? Click here for all my favorite projects!
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