Back To School Mantel

It is August 28... and most of us have sent our children back to school. Yippee!!! I know I did the happy dance on that day!  Here in Arizona we started on August 5. The very beginning of the month. My girls are doing well... and are excited to be back in school. Some of you started yesterday and today. In honor of going back to school... I decorated my mantel  with fun school ideas and supplies. I know it is at the end of the month... and I am just getting done with decorating it and finishing it up... but I love how it turned out. I will keep it up until probably September because we really don't have fall here in Arizona. It is still just plain HOT. Then up next will be the Halloween Mantel. Another happy dance. I love Halloween. As most of you do.

Let's break this mantel down...

2 glass jars I found at Goodwill... filled one with fake small apples I had in my kitchen, which I found at Hobby Lobby several years ago, the second one with pencils. Green glasses... from my kids.

The ruler... I had a piece of tile in my garage leftover from my guest bedroom makeover and I painted it yellow. I then used a black sharpie and drew the lines for the ruler part. Then I had a 2 and 3 in my stash and I outlined them on the ruler and then painted them in with a black acrylic paint. I love how this turned out!

I found the center frame at Michael's for a whopping $2... and printed out the first day of school picture and then framed it. I just ran chalk all over the black frame to give it a chalkboard touch.

Found the plants at Michael's. Saved up for those babies. I can't ever find them at thrift stores.

I used some good books by Shel Silverstein to hold up my old school lunch sack. I had the glass apple from my kitchen and repurposed it.

Then my DIY Sunburst Sunflower. I loved how this turned out. You can find the tutorial here.

The banner I just used burlap and some cute school paper that I found at Michael's and cut into a banner shape and hung with twine. I tied yellow ribbon in between some of the banners.

The Subway art... I found and printed from here. 

That is my back to school mantel.
I love it.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the new school year!