Monday, December 8, 2008

Kaper Chart

Last year I was a Daisy Girl Scout co-leader with my DD's current Brownie Leader. We made our own Kaper Chart with use of the Cricut and had the BEST Kaper Chart in the Girl Scout Hut, if I do say so myself! LOL

This year I am "just" a supportive parent, having given up my gig as a leader. DD's leader asked if I would consider making the Kaper Chart again this year. Of course, I said I would love to.

My instructions:
  • use a theme of "Our Rising Stars"
  • use a color scheme inclusive of blue and brown

So, I went and purchased a normal sized sheet of poster board (actually 2, because I needed one for when I messed up! LOL). After measuring it, I split the design into thirds going horizontally, taking into consideration a 1 inch top and bottom border.

Then I worked on the blue rectangles. I ended up cutting them to 5 x 6, mostly guided by the fact I did not want them to be square and my starting paper size was 12 x 12. From there, I made the stars, basing their size on the blue rectangles.

The stars were cut using the George cartridge, using both the star and the shadow set at 4". I also cut thin cardboard at 4" (not on the shadow feature) to reinforce the stars. They have Velcro on the back so they needed to be sturdy to stand up to repeated taking on and off. The cardboard is covered easily by the white paper. I decided to break from the brown and blue scheme at this point thinking that I needed an accent color. I chose yellow for obvious reasons!

I finished the stars by using my Cricut Design Studio (CDS) with the Street Sign font. The names were set at 1". (Looking back I think I could have easily managed 1 1/2" inches, but I did not want the names to hang off the stars. I think I got close on Samantha, so maybe the 1" was a good decision!) I welded the names together (as much as I could, anyway), ran them through the Xyron, and adhered them to the stars. I did those in the lighter blue to bring back the requested color scheme.

I then used the CDS again with the Street Sign Font to make the job titles. I chose brown to again get back to her requested color scheme. (IRL you can see the job titles easily...they are subdued in the picture.)

I finished off making the Brownie Troop info with Street Sign in brown, set at 3". I wanted the Rising Stars to be accented, so I used Making the Grade for a more whimsical effect. That, too, is done in 3".

Once I laid it all out, I decided to make a shooting star as my accent piece. Ahead of time, I thought I would do a string of stars, but quite frankly, I felt like it was going to be distracting. I cut a 10" star using George and CDS, putting it at a 25 degree slant. I then versamarked the star and embossed it with Iridescent Ice to give it a sparkle! Once that was down, I used a pencil to draw some lines and colored every other one with yellow Crayola marker!

I then adhered everything to the poster board using the Xyron and my beloved ATG gun! I finished it off by using stickles on the girl's names, so it looks like their name in lights!

I actually think the rectangles look like a movie star's name on their dressing room door!

Thanks for looking!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

This is very cute!!!! What a lucky troop to have you involved!

Louise F NZ said...

This is just awesome!!! Turned out fantatsic and I bet the leader was very impressed.

fishlips said...

I bet when you were just a fantastic troop leader when you did it...I remember those days too...I sure miss it somedays when my daughter does not want to play with mom ...lol

The troop is so lucky because your page came out totally perfect, I know they were honored you were able to help!!!!

Anonymous said...

Well I'm impressed that you put the Cricut to such good use! What a creative mind!!! I have to start scrapbooking so I can get more use out of my Cricut. I got my Janome!!!!!!! whoopee!!! sews so much better than the Singer and it is like a REAL machine.

Jennifer Schmidt said...

Nice Job!!! They do look like movie star blocks:)

Tlbran said...

Great kaper chart! I bet your DD troop has the greatest again this year! It is so cute and love the stars.

thescrapmaster said...

How great. Of course it was the best one in the hut because YOU made it!! I bet you were an awesome girl scout leader :)

~Samantha

Rachel Brumley said...

What a great job on the chart! Lucky they have you to make it again this year!

Jess said...

I would say it was good.. but I have to say I DID love my Kaper chart in the hut too.. :)

Jess said...

I would say it was good.. but I have to say I DID love my Kaper chart in the hut too.. :)