It has been my absolute pleasure to work alongside Rachel with The Positive Teacher Company to create the beautiful matching display packs. I’m such a “matchy matchy” kind of person /teacher so I knew this would be up a few people’s streets as well as mine! I thoroughly enjoyed the process and you can see most of the process on my TPTC Vlog over on my You Tube channel!
Rachel and I started with discussing ideas for what we wanted to include in the set. We had a rather extensive list and, given the time we had to create them, we had to be a little bit selective; however, we did get most of what we felt was needed in there. Once we had all the ideas narrowed down, we divided up the designs and got cracking!
In this blog, I will focus on the creation of 4 designs (Pink ribbon, Fusion, Nightfall and Lavender Burst) and keep your eyes peeled for the next blog where I’ll cover the remaining 4 designs. One of the first things I did was get out all my existing display resources, that I had accumulated over the years, and start to create mood boards and a list of what else was needed to create the displays.
The mood boards inspired each of the display boards so I will show you each mood board and then the display that I produced from it.
Pink Ribbon
I started with the beautiful planner and went from there. The magazine files and folder seemed obvious to me that I wanted to keep is bright and simple and go with white and both of these were from Amazon . I loved the pearlescent pink boarder, which I found on the YPO, but sadly there were out of stock so I couldn’t use this (all the backing paper used was from the YPO). I also loved the idea of the painted jam jars used as pen pots as well, but I didn’t get to create those unfortunately. I absolutely love a teacher trolly and I used my Rose Gold one from Hobby Craft in my display images you will see soon but I also love it with the white or the blush pink too as you can see on the mood board!
Without further ado, here are some pictures of the Pink Ribbon Display.
I absolutely love how it turned out and, although the woollen tassels weren’t on the mood board, I really love them with this theme! If you want to know how I made them you can watch my You Tube video.
I really wanted to show as many ideas as possible for the displays and so you will see some of the same labels and different ones as I do each theme.
For the actual board itself, I kept it bright with the white backing paper (this is actually yellow reversed as they don’t actually sell white paper). I used the Pink Ribbon patterned boarder and also a gold (this gold is from the YPO but you can print off the one in the pack so no need to buy any others if you don’t want to). Then I hung the tassels across and added the lettering that comes with the display pack.
Next is my favourite part, where I get place all the bits and bobs out and around (I always have all the labels on before I start the backing so I can just pop them in place nice and easily).
In the pictures you can see lots of labels from the display sets including the teacher toolbox labels (I get asked about these A LOT and they are Von Haus from Amazon). I added the Pink Ribbon washi tape above along with some selected from a set I got from Amazon that I also used in a few of the other sets as well (mainly Nightfall). The print was created from the binder cover and I edited in MS Power Point to add the text. You can also see the matching notebook and “to do” pad in the first image with a coordinated Flair Pen for good measure! The white binder shows the other binder cover, which has white boxes on already for your text to stand out, and the spines are in various sizes (my binder here only needed the smallest size). I love a Tolsby frame and these are super cheap from Ikea. I have used these for years for various things and throughout the sets you’ll see different ways I have used them (in this case for areas of provision). After I decided to style my teacher trolly using the tassels and the Teacher Planner and notebook. I absolutely adored how this looked and I would definitely love my teacher trolley to look like this next to my desk! The tassels even hide the second shelf so you could be a little bit messy on there and nobody would know!
Nightfall
The set was actually the first display that I did (I think I eased in gently) as the geometric shapes were simpler than some of the other boards I produced. Again, I started with the gorgeous planner and went from there. I knew I had the geometric pots but I actually ended up using some tea light holders from my wedding for the actual finished display (you can see them in later images). The black trolley I got from Amazon as my old Hobby Craft one got a little bit ruined (to be fair, the Amazon one was a tiny bit cheaper too)! The magazine file and folder (pictured) you can get on Amazon; however, I did get my box files from Ikea. The backing paper and the gold boarder I used were from the YPO (again you can just use the boarders that come in set but I knew I wanted to use them across the board for the geometric style).
The display board itself I kept really simple with black backing and I used the gold boarder to create the style similar to the cover of the planner design. I used the same gold around the edge and the coordinating boarder that comes in the display set.
I love adding fairy lights to my classroom and the vibe of this one worked perfectly with fairy lights. These are just my Christmas lights and I got them from Amazon a few years ago they are warm white and pure white mixed.
The Washi Tape from Amazon featured a lot on this one as I felt it went with the planner design and matching washi tape really well. You can see on the first image that I used the binder covers in the display set to create a coordinating poster and I just added the quote on using MS Power Point again. The matching “to do” pad and notebook are featured alongside the planner on the trolley too and just look so gorgeous together! In the second image, you can see the Tolsby frames from Ikea and this time I used them for table names. In the final image, the magazine file labels without the white text box, but you can also get them with the white text box if you find it too tricky to read. Sneaking in at the back of the magazine files, is the binder cover and spine which has the white text boxes on.
Fusion
Fusion was one I wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to do with at first, but now I think the display turned out better than the mood board did! Again, I started with the image of the planner, and I knew I wanted to do the blue backing for this one. The geometric pots I already bought from Amazon (they don’t sell them at the time of writing this which is a shame), the white binder was also an Amazon buy (the same as Pink Ribbon). The magazine file was an old one of mine that I bought from Ikea but they do not sell this colour any more unfortunately. The blue trolley matches perfectly from Hobby Craft too and I love a teacher trolley! The backing paper and the black boarder (pictures on the mood board) are from the YPO again.
Here is the Fusion board complete! I used the patterned boarder from the display set as well as the lettering on the main part of the board. I also added the black strait edged boarder from the YPO I had pictured on the mood board. I added the solid patterned bunting across the top to incorporate the pattern more into the display. For the corners of the board I wanted to pick up the geometric style but also do something a bit different so I decided to try using the paper leaves. I think they really add the little something extra and they are so versatile, you can make your own using my guide on You Tube.
In the first image, you can see the Von Haus Toolbox and the labels from the display set. For this, I used the patterned versions (which are tiled to make a continuous pattern) and also the coordinating solids so you could see the different variations of labels in the sets. The beautiful “to do” pad looks so gorgeous with the teacher planner and matching Flair Pen (the matching washi tape is even sneaking in there too). In the second image, you can see the binder cover I used to make a matching print and the co-ordinating notebook. The final label in this image is the magazine file label turned sideways and this one has the white text box on it (I know it says “pencils” but I didn’t want to be wasteful when I had already printed it). In the final image, you can see the solidly pattered magazine file labels, which again, you can get in the solid colours if you prefer less patterns.
Lavender Burst
Lavender Burst was one I was really excited to do and when I found the woven material I’d purchased from Country Baskets my creative juices were flowing. I added the geometric pots, white binder and magazine files from before to the mood board. I then selected the white trolley again from Hobby Craft to use as the teacher trolley (I have my black one in my images, but I felt the white would be lovely). The backing I wanted to keep white with using the material on there to create the bursts from the planner (again the backing was from the YPO) and originally I wanted purple wavy boarder, but opted for gold in the end. The gold glitter I thought would complete the look on the material so this was from the YPO as well.
Here you can see the completed board with the lavender burst matching boarder from the display set and the lettering for the title. The material blobs were placed to look random and inspired from the cover of the teacher planner with the gold glitter on them too. The gold boarder I used to pick out the gold in the planner, but I think one of the coordinating boarders from the set would have looked lovely as well to create the double boarder. Purple is one of my favourite colours and I really loved this one.
In the first image, you can see the toolbox labels where I just chose the tiled, full patterned versions for mine and gave the text a white outline to stand out off the colourful background. The matching “to do” pad is also there with the notebook and washi tape and I think it just looks so gorgeous together! The poster print I used the binder cover from the set and again I just added the text. I used the Word Art feature on MS Power Point to create the purple glow around the word “amazing” to make it stand out more. On the second image, you can see the magazine file labels with the solid pattern and the binder cover with the white boxes (I like using this one for the binders so the text is really clear). In the final image, you can see the alternative patterned magazine file label just turned sideways and with the white text box used to label the Wham container.
I hope you enjoyed the blog all about the first 4 sets and how I created the displays for them. The remaining 4 sets (Polka Stripe, Lovebird, Midnight Forest and Red Pop) will be coming in part 2!
Display packs can be found by clicking on the image below.
