A mathamatical labour of love.

Hi all :)

As i type this i am literally dropping on my feet from tiredness. All my girls have been saying since i picked them up from school today is, "You look very tired Daddy".

That would be due to my latest project for them below, a times table tag board.....don't forget to click on the image for a larger view......

I have been working on this for a few days, my girls wanted something to help them with their tables, so i thought about putting some tags on book rings which they could flick through.

Then came the idea of doing a whole set.....1's to 12's, all 12 tables in each set.

So i started, and what followed was the most tiring project i have ever done! Not because it was difficult, it was the repetitiveness of everything. More about that later though. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.....



The board is just MDF, covered with a couple of bits of Wassail paper. The lace was layed around the edges and also across the board so it sectioned it into squares. This was handy as the tags fitted into each one nicely.

A bit of fibre on each book ring went nicely, and a Prima bloom behind the brass hooks looks gorgeous. I made a little wooden sign for the top too :)

Finished off nicely with some brass filigree corners, and there you have it......one full set of times tables for the kids to learn with.



Now as i said at the start, this was a labour of love. "Labour" being the operative word!

Just to give you an idea of what i did, in case you were thinking of giving it a go.....

1. Cut 144 tags on the Big Shot.
2. Stamp flourishes on all 144 tags.
3. Blend all 144 tags with Distress Inks.
4. Then edge all 144 tags with another colour. (I was tired at this point!)
5. Write the times tables on every tag.
6. Round the corners of every tag. Two corners on each.....288 corners!
7. Laminate each tag.
8. Hand cut round every laminated tag. (I'm wondering why i started this now!)
9. Crop-A-Dile punch all 144 tags.
10. Eyelet all 144 tags.
11. Book ring and add fibres to them.
12. Spend a day making the board.

The only reason i kept going was because my eldest learnt her tables so quickly with the one set i did the other day, i knew it would be worth it in the end. The look on thier little faces was a picture when they saw it. :)

I do however seem to have aged 10 years!

I would love to make these for the girls primary school, but i think it will be a while before that happens! :)