Creating Banners with Your Cricut

First of all, I would like to share the exciting news that I have accepted a job as a middle school teacher in an EBD (emotional-behavioral disorder) classroom at an alternative school! This position is absolutely my dream job since I did my student teaching in a similar environment but with high school students.

Most people don't really understand what this job will entail, so the short version is this:
The students in my classroom will come either from Homebound/residential care to make the transition into an environment that is less restrictive, or from a special education classroom in a regular school because they need more intense supervision and help handling their behaviors that are getting in the way of being academically successful. The goal at this school is to help students learn how to adapt to the circumstances around them and cope with their feelings in a healthy and respectful way so that they can then transition back into a regular school, and eventually a general ed classroom.

Although this is somewhat of an unconventional environment, I know a lot of you teachers out there love to color-code and coordinate EVERYTHING! I loooooove seeing those gorgeous classrooms ya'll got (and feel free to post some of your inspiring pictures below, or tag me on instagram at @barrowsbows!)

For me, I am going to use colors to define each are in the classroom as well as subject. So the language arts area will be purple, math area will be blue, science is green, social studies is yellow, schedules and morning meeting are red and orange. To counteract this, I will be using black bulletin board paper for every background.

But instead of buying lots of letters in all different colors, I finally put my large supply of card stock to good use! It did take me quite a long time to cut all of these letters out and then glue them on the banners, but I am overjoyed with how they turned out! This post is just going to be how I created the banner for the background (the polka dotted paper). Stay tuned if you're interested in how I cut the letters for my next post, or use stickers, your own handwriting, cut out your own letters, or use this alone for a banner perfect for any occasion!

You can purchase a pennant banner design if you have Cricut Access or for $0.99, or you can create your own for free!

Here's the DIY version:

Materials:

• I used "Seeing Dots" Cardstock from COLORBOK for the background banner and the white is from a pack from The Paper Studio, but anything you use should work! (You just might have to adjust the setting a little on the cricut if you find that it's not cutting. We'll talk about cut settings in a minute.)
• I also used a Cricut Explore One for this project, as well as the green standard mat. 
• You will need your cricut connected to a device that you can work on Cricut Design Space that also has whatever font you will be using (I think that a desktop computer is easiest, but I know many people use their phones or ipads.)

1. Go to design.cricut.com, log in, and create a "new project"
2. Use the shape icon on the left to make a square. Then, use the size icon and click the lock button above it to unlock so that you can make the height 4" and width 3.7". 
3. To make it easier, line it up by putting 1" on both the x and y under "position".
4. Then, click on the triangle under the shape icon. Don't resize it! Just rotate it so that there is a vertical line on the left side so that you can move it in line with your rectangle. This is probably the trickiest part, so don't get frustrated! Use the position tab to move the triangle to where x is at 1", and if part of the edges don't line up, keep rotating it and making sure that you keep changing the top position to say 1". 
5. Once you get the left edges lined up, move the y axis to 3.408". 
6. Then, flip the triangle (using the flip, horizontally tab on the top). This triangle should be at x: 1.611", y: 3.408".
7. Finally, highlight all three shapes together and click weld. The separate shapes will become one shape!

You can duplicate this shape as many times as you want, and change the color, depending on how many you need of each color (changing the color will sort the shapes onto different mats). 

When you're ready, click "Make It" and make sure that your cricut is connected. I used the "Light Cardstock" cutting option with the blade that came with my machine. If you are using thicker paper or poster board, make sure you change your setting accordingly, and Happy Crafting!