Images: The Pleated Poppy
Freshly sharpened pencils, brand-new backpacks, shoes without scuffed toes, lists of supplies….these are all signs that school is back in session. For those of us with children going back to school, getting a fresh start seems to sink into other areas of our lives. The beginning of a new school year is one of those times when moms often look for ways to organize and streamline their existing routines and systems. Beyond creating order from summer’s chaos, it’s always fun to mark and celebrate another year of growth when children start new classes. And that leaves this challenge wide open–we just want to see what back-to-school means to you. Share your projects with us in the Back to School Ideas Challenge linkup!
This week, we are pleased to have Cindy Hopper joining us as our guest judge, from Skip to My Lou. (You can read more about Cindy HERE.)
Cindy will be visiting each of your blogs to view the projects you enter into our challenge. She’ll select her 10 favorite projects to feature, as well as an overall winner of the challenge. We CSI girls will pick our favorite projects, too. All of the selected projects will be announced this Saturday.
We’ll also announce the winner of our giveaway then, sponsored by Shelstring Jewelry Boutique.
The winner of our giveaway will be randomly drawn from the comments left on our sponsor feature (read it and get your entries HERE) and the projects linked below. This week, the giveaway winner will receive a $25 gift coupon to Shelstring Boutique, to enjoy spending on beautiful, handcrafted jewelry.
All our readers can enjoy a special offer from Shelstring Jewelry Boutique, right now. Get a 5% discount and FREE SHIPPING on your purchase when you mention that you heard about Shelstring Jewelry here at The CSI Project.
We’ve had fun viewing the inspirational back-to-school ideas presented by our guest bloggers this week, in three excellent tutorials. Just in case there’s going to be a pop quiz on this, let’s review.
Randi from Dukes and Duchesses provide us with the how-to on this Duct Tape Lunch Money Wallet.
Some fantastic tips for Cost Effective Lunchables came from Nike of Choose to Thrive.
Tammy came by from She Wears Flowers to show us how to delight a teacher with a crafted Note Holder.
Now it’s your turn! Enter your favorite back-to-school tips, tricks, and topics in this week’s linkup.
Please remember that to be eligible to win this week’s challenge and giveaway, you must provide a link back to the challenge in your entry post. It’s easy–we have a button ready for you to insert into your post HERE. For additional challenge rules, please read below.
You’ll find the linkup for this week’s challenge at the end of this post, following the challenge rules. This challenge begins at midnight (EST) Wednesday, August 31st, and ends at noon (EST) Friday, September 2nd.
1. All entries for this challenge need to incorporate the challenge’s theme. We are not simply a linky party. We have a specific theme for each week. All submissions are competing to be the judge’s top pick. If your project does not incorporate the theme we will have to remove it.
2. When you enter the challenge, please enter the link to the specific post on your blog that relates to the project — not to your general blog. This will help when a year from now, for example, someone who visits the site can find your project directly.
3. The CSI Project button must be in your blog post. HERE are the buttons. This makes it easy for other people to come over and join in the challenge if they like – and for us to know that we have the correct entry in the challenge when we’re judging. And if you use an older post, please update it so it’s current. If you don’t want to update it, please add the button to that post and to the sidebar for the week of the contest. Thanks!
4. The project you submit must be your own project and something you have made. (It can be inspired by something someone else has done, but it must be your creation.)
5. We ask that you are a CSI follower or subscriber to win the prizes. The more followers the site has — the more giveaways we are able to host
6. If you enter a project into our challenge, we ask that you please leave comments on at least 2 other entries in the contest. Not only is it nice to do, but it’s a great way to meet new people and make new friends.
7. By entering, you give us permission to spotlight your projects – we will give you credit and link back to your blog. You are welcome to enter as many themed projects as you like! You also give us permission to add your name to our newsletter list. If you wish to unsubscribe you may do so at any time.
Don’t be tardy! Turn your project in to the challenge right here.