The first day of school is one of the most memorable events in a kid’s life and counting down to the day will make it so much more fun! I have had the wonderful privilege to make this awesome Back to School countdown calendar with Bostik smart adhesives. Although this is a sponsored post, Bostik has been my favorite choice of adhesives since I was a child so you can just imagine how excited I was to work on this project.
In South Africa, the new school year starts on the 13th of January 2016 so I filled 10 boxes with back to school stationery that will each be opened in turn from 10 days before school starts.
On the day before school the last one, which is the school building, is opened where they will find the last of the stationery needed for school. This is an exciting way to help first graders know when school starts and that way every new piece of stationery will be received with joy!
You will need:
- A3 Project board or a side panel of a storage box
- Bostik Art and Craft Sprayable Adhesive
- Bostik Clear Adhesive
- Different colors A4 project board
- Bostik Rainbow Glitter Glue
- Bostik Super Clear Tape
- Containers from around the house like toothpaste boxes, cookie boxes etc.
- Bostik Crazy Clay
- School Supplies like pencil, sharpener, ruler, scissors, glue, lunch box etc.
- Bostik Glue Stick
- Bostik Blits Stik Super Glue Gel
- Bostik Colour ‘n Paint Twisters
- Bostik Prestik
Step1:
Gather all the school stationery and supplies and find boxes and holders around the house that the items will fit into. Common boxes like toothpaste boxes, cookie boxes and Bostik Crazy Clay boxes are ideal. The Crazy clay box works well for a homework book and notebook for instance, which is bigger but thinner and don’t fit anything you usually find in a food cupboard.
Step 2:
Arrange the boxes on a project board to resemble a school building. You can even just do a big school bus containing all the boxes, or something else school related… be creative!
Step 3:
Place the stationary into the boxes and tape it with Bostik Super Clear Tape so that the opened box tabs wont make the box towers tumble.
Step 3:
Cover the boxes with colorful project boards. Bostik Glue Stick works well for the smaller parts like windows and wheels. It leaves no bubbles and dries quickly.
Bostik Art and Craft Sprayable Adhesive works amazing on the larger surfaces. Simply cut the project board to size, spray the surface and stick. I am amazed at how well this glue works and how quick it sticks even though the instructions are to wait a few minutes before you stick it. Definitely one of my new favorite adhesives!
For the round roofs I cut out a circle, made a cut to the centre of the circle and twisted it into a cone before I stuck the edges together. Bostik Clear Adhesive has always been my ultimate favourite… it works great for quickly sticking ends together without having to hold it while waiting for it to dry.
Step 4:
This was the most fun of this whole project! I made numbers for the boxes, with the Bostik Crazy Clay, to count down from ten days to school to the last day (I used Bostik Blits Stik Super Glue Gel to stick them to the boxes) and then I was going to make school children for the school grounds but ended up making minions to match the lunch box and juice bottle set. Crazy Clay turned out to be absolutely crazy to work with!
Moulding and smoothing out bumps is child’s play compared to other clays and if you like what you made, you only have to leave it out to dry and you end up with a soft, yet firm spongy figurine that can also bounce! How’s that!!
The left overs can easily be stored in tact by keeping it in the airtight containers it comes in. I really, really like this clay a lot and I think we will be having loads more Crazy clay fun from now on.
Step 5:
This step is all about the finishing touches.
I used Bostik Colour ‘n Paint Twisters to add detail to the windows, pathway and grass like the picture above.
Bostik Rainbow Glitter Glue rounded off the edges of the grass well and made beautiful shiny apples on the tree and lit up the school bus in the picture above by using silver glitter glue for the details on the wheels.
Step 6:
Lastly I used Bostik Prestik to stick the roofs to the cylinder containers and also to secure all the boxes to the A3 Project board. You don’t want to stick everything with a glue that won’t allow you to disassemble the boxes in order to get the stationery out as your kids will probably want to put the boxes back together after opening them to keep the display in tact for a keepsake.
Well that’s it folks, have fun! This will be a first day of school to remember….
This post is sponsored by Bostik smart adhesives.
