Teacher Appreciation Gifts-Part II

Somehow my teacher gifts for the week from my daughter to her teachers was deleted or never posted and that is a shame since I wanted to share a couple of cute projects. Even though our committee made all the other treats, I made a point of trying to send in something each day so that my own daughter wouldn't be left out of the tradition at the school. My youngest sent in some gifts too so as not to leave her preschool teachers unappreciated!

 This was a super simple way to package up some office/school supplies using a fun graphic from Lettering Delights. It is a graphic set that I print and cut using my Zing and then I created a border to make it pop from the bag. My daughter was so thrilled and proud when her teachr peeled it off and put it on her board!

 Next was flowers so it was just a simple run to the garden and a print and cut created with MakeThe Cut and my Zing. The tag file is awesome(from SVGCuts.com) since the hole is actually sized well to fit the ribbon through! The flowers were the teachers favorite colors...lucky me. :)

 Yummy cookies for the teacher....
 So what goes better than cookies and milk? This is a super cute file from Lettering Delights also.  The cut-it set included the graphics and the file to create the "milk carton" I created another decoration for the sides using the cookies from the graphic set for a bit extra something.

The last days gift was a super fun one that I hope to recreate again...A simple set of bookplates! I used a matchbox file from SVGcuts.com to create the container then using sticker paper and some .png files from a graphics set, I made a few custom book plates that I print and cut to fit inside.

Thanks for stopping by!

Teacher's Gifts~What I've been doing for the past few weeks!

Our gifts for the teachers and staff at the elementary school

Hello everyone, I have been busy creating some really fun stuff for Teacher's Appreciation Week. For four days, we provided a small mailbox treat for the teachers and staff, as well as a special gift for the bus drivers this year.

Our theme was "Caribbean", with each item loosely reflecting the colors and style. The luncheon we provided was jerk chicken, peas and rice, vanilla and lime cupcakes and mojitos mocktails. 

On the first day our treat was goldfish cracker wiht a tag that read "You're O-fishally the best!" . The colors were so fun together and the teachers enjoyed the little treat. The cute fish paper for the back of the tag came form the Echo Park Summer collection released last year. I designed the fish on the front using basic shapes in MTC to match. The text inside is done as a print and cut so all the text was super easy this year.

The second item was a "sour cream container" style treat box filled with Heshey's kisses. This is an awesome presentation because it is so simple. It's hardly original(just google it and see) but a huge hit. My favorite part is that you can make four form one page of 8.5X11 cardstock. This is awesome since we try to stay on a tight budget for the whole week. Staples had some really nice colors to match out theme. The background of the tag was also the EP Summer collection.

Four cards for everyone!

 Each year a big hit is a collection of cards. This year we were able to create four for each person to give out on the third day. Clear bags made a nice but simple presentation. Two of the cards used a print and cut sentiment in a circle using a cool trick of layering that I'll post more on soon. All of them are so bright and festive. I hope everyone likes them! I was so grateful for the talent of our team this year. Everyone was so fun it was hardly work. (Well they might have a different opinion but that's my story and I am sticking to it!)

I don't have a good picture of our mini books we made into gift card holders but I loved them. I'll try to include them in another post since I'll have an SVG file to share too! I think these were the trickiest to create but one of the other ladies discovered and easier way to assemble them so I'll share that as well. It's nice to craft with a group since there's always something to learn.

Finally I want to share out gift bag project for the bus drivers. The bags were made to hold a gift card on a tag in the pocket, and a bagel and spread with a water bottle inside.

One of the ladies came up with the idea to fit the tag in the paper as a pocket and it all fit together nicely!

The little heart and the heart charm part of the tag was created using basic shapes welded together. Then the large tag was created using a basic tag from a SVGcuts.com file set, then layering the gift card slits from the same set. The sentiment was a print and cut onto an inset shadow layer. This was all done using the MTC software. The gift card fit nice and snug on the back since we layered the sentiment with dimensional tape.

Most of the gifts this year went together easily except for the gift card boxes that look like mini books. LOL There's always one project each year that is a pain. I am so lucky to be a part of the group that creates all these things every year. The whole group also distributes the treats each day, then provides a luncheon for the teachers and cleans everything up! For the last day our parents are asked to bring in an entire dessert for the teachers to enjoy at home.  It's a lot of work for everyone but we all think our teachers are worth it!!

More to come....I made some little gifts for my daughter to take in each day as well!!!

Memory Book for a great teacher!

Not a great picture. :(

 This year is a very sad end to the school year. My G who is in second grade, is not just moving onto third grade, but also changing to a new teacher after two years in the same classroom. No, she didn't repeat, but the teacher did! She "looped" with her class when they all made a change to the next grade which meant she taught my daughter for two of her most important years,  first and second grade. Mrs. Daniels has been so amazing in dealing with all the personalities of the kids and I can tell she has a teachers heart through and through. She truly loves to teach and loves all her students. I love her too!

As a result I wanted to be sure her kids all got a chance to let her know how loved she is. I went into the school and Mrs. Daniels kindly arranged her schedule so I could "secretly" take photos of the kids and give them these sheets for to add their own thoughts.

The pages were printed onto cardstock after I used a graphic set and from Lettering Delights and put in some text and lines using Photoshop. Be sure to offset the image so you can leave space for binding BTW.

With a bit of prompting they came up with some really cute things to add to the book. After these were filled in I put it all together with a fun cover and presented it to her with some flowers and such at an end of the year picnic. I was so choked up and sad and she gave me a hug. :(

The kids filled these all in with their own thoughts....

 In addition to these pages I included some photos of some special events and some additional blank sheets of her own. The covers were chipboard covered with cardstock and bound using my "Bind it All" from Zutter. Love that thing!!

The front cover was decorated using my Cricut Expression and the Car Decals and Wrap it up cartridges. Of course I was in such a hurry I didn't get a good pic but a ribbon around the middle and it was a simple gift.


 *Note: This is a rewrite of my original post which got accidentally deleted. It won't be as good a tale as the original but I still wanted to share this with my readers. Thanks for stopping by!

Teacher Appreciation Week, Part 3

Well the last few gifts are done and Teacher Appreciation week is almost over. Yesterdays take in for the teachers was "fruit", while the the days big treat was a take home dessert.

G took a small container of blueberries to her teacher since she found out they were her favorite color (again with the color lol) and I hope she likes them. I saw the tape holding the blueberry container closed and knew it would come in handy! I simply used a scrap piece of cardstock and a printout sentiment punched out with the sticker on it, and just a sharpie to ink the edges...fast and easy!

For the dessert, I made some Apple Caramel coffee cake and embellished with some printed cutouts from Kates Kitchen and my Imagine. I cut down the chef's head and put the dessert saying on instead. :) I put that and the 100% little label on with pop dots and taped it all down! Found an easy way to keep plastic wrap in place by accident! I put one plate under the food, wrapped it up, then put another under that to hold everything in place. Definitely gonna have to use that again!

Lastly, our cards. Today, my DD and I sent in "notes" for the teacher. My G was very adamant  about the look of the card and wanted to do an A+ card she saw in the April Cricut Circle  Magazine, but she needed much more space to write, so she allowed some design changes. LOL! She picked out the papers and allowed me to put it together...She used every bit of the 8.5X5.5 space. G loves her teacher who she's had for two years now. This teacher is possibly one of the few lovely ladies who loves my G back nearly as much as I do. G is a bit of a character (think Ramona, Junie B Jones) and it takes a special teacher! We will miss her a ton!

So, finally my card to her teacher. Sad to say but after making 5 gallons of lemonade and running to the store at 5AM for ice, etc for the luncheon, I didn't leave enough time for her card. So I found this pretty flower partially made and just winged it. I cut the background, the butterfly and the sentiment out quickly not judging the sizes well apparently. :) Throw a few pop dots under the elements and Viola! SO this is what I came up with....not really any worse than one I would have slaved over and torn my hair out for, so this might be my new modus operandi!

Best of all it left time for my handwritten note. I put one of my favorite quotes inside. "We can do no great things, only small things with great love" by Mother Teresa. I surely know that when my daughter's teacher came into school each and every day, with very small actions but with great love of teaching and children, she had a great big impact on my daughter and me too. Thanks to all of you teachers out there who truly make a difference each and every day!!

PS  Look at how proud my teachers would be, using French, Latin and my lemonade escapade required lots of serial conversion and math!! :) Um, but please don't check my punctuation and grammar. Enjoy your day everyone!

Teacher Appreciation Week, Part 2

This was filled with Dove Chocolates!

This was for "school supplies" day

 Every year I work with the PTA to provide a week of appreciation for out Elementary teachers...but in the past that meant I would only give my daughter's teachers a note and a small token at the end of the week. This year I wanted my daughter to be able to take something in each day!

Our PTA sends home a note to parents giving them a suggestion for a small gift for each day. Monday was cut flowers(no picture sorry). Tuesday was sweet treats, Wednesday is "school supplies. Since I never seem to post until after the holiday I wanted to show what I've made so far...

Monday was a mad dash for my G to go out and cut five red tulips from around "her" tree. A tree we planted just for her, so she was excited to do it. I simply wrapped them in white tissue paper and tied it up with some pretty red satin ribbon. A friend had posted a link to a blog that supplied me with a PDF of tags. Of course she made some fabulous cupcakes you can see here at LivingLocurto.com. But I just printed the page on card stock and cheated by using my Stampin-up scalloped punch for the circular tag and stuck it on top of the ribbon LOL.

The next day was a box from Wrap-it-up cartridge cut at the max, 11.25 inches I believe. It was so easy to just put the red and green behind the apple cut out, and then I decided my project needed a bit more so I added ribbon and some faux stitching. Not so neatly, and after I saw the pic I noticed I missed one side! Opps! So the teacher was thrilled and G was thrilled, since my G did a bit of sleuthing to find out her teachers favorite color was that blue. :)

So Tuesday is "school supplies" day. Originally I wanted to do some very different projects but a sick kiddo necessitated some quick re-planning. It's OK, I had plenty of time to think while I lay awake with a three year old in bed with me. ;)

Just another view to show the sides....

 I did make the schoolhouse box I wanted from Wrap it Up again at fit to page...but I had to make a quick run to the grocery store of all places for some school supplies. I was thinking box mark, fancy paperclips, a clothespin magnet I saw someone else do. Alas, I had shrinky dinks and some odds and ends from the 24 hour grocery store at 5AM. I did find some magnet clips and paperclips and highlighters and post-its. Oh, and staples, which went unembellished.

The box needs very little tape and stand about 4 inches tall.

OK, so the box. It was a bit tricky to figure the layers. I wasn't too thrilled after all my planning to see the top portion had green showing through. :( Well the other layers I was able to fit and figure using design software, but it wasn't too easy.

Not thrill with the end result and I had to use my glue gun!

I like these apples. :)

My apple paper clips in a leftover bag and a topper.

 Before handwritten sentiment.

I was pretty happy with the magnetic clips but it took four tries to get the two of them finished And I had to break out my glue gun. Not my favorite tool. We just don't get along. As for the shrinky dinks, the white opauqe stuff just does not work well in the Imagine, but I found the "rough n ready" style which is roughed up on one side and looks slightly frosted is fabulous!

The apple is printed and cut from Kate's Kitchen on my Imagine. The apples on the white for the magnet clips are 4 inches while the clear ones on the paper clips are 4 and 3. I printed with best quality and both Matte and glossy finish settings and i didn't see too much difference in the finished product. It cut really well with a very sticky mat, on highest blade depth and highest pressure on 2 multicut. Honestly it may have cut through on one pass! The thing that made the biggest difference was creating an offset that was fairly wide to make the stem more secure. Some are cut closer to the apple and some with more of a border.

I also lowered the temp to 315 degrees instead of 325 as the package calls for since I was running back and forth to the Imagine and oven. I placed them on parchment paper and then placed another piece n top to keep curling at a minimum. I got these suggestions from the Cricut Circle blog and I think it really worked better than chasing the shrinky dinks around with the heat gun. :) It's much easier to time it right in the oven too. In the past I've found that overcooking them causes them to lose their shine, but they otherwise come out fine.

The paperclip apples I simply punched with a regular circle hole punch offset on the side, and then used a toothpick to push a small ribbon through after shrinking. It wasn't too difficult to tie a small knot then place them in a little leftover embellishment bag with a topper. I was most happy with this element of the project.

The two clips I got done are simply clipped onto the sides while the bag of apple paper clip/bookmarks are fit inside with the other supplies and tied together with a ribbon. Hope you enjoyed my projects!

Teacher Appreciation Week...Part 1

One of my springtime activities is the Teacher Appreciation crafted gifts from the PTA each year. There's a group of ladies who willingly help and craft about anything I throw at them! Together we assemble three gifts to place in the mailboxes on Mon/Tue/Wed. Then we put together a presentation for a gift card at the end of the year.

This year was a bit hectic but we managed to put together 84 of each gift! There is a set of three cards, a "pencil" made with a Hershey's Kiss, and a wrapped candy bar(not shown)...sorry for the poor pictures but they had to get out the door! :)

Fore the cards I used CTMH Fanfare collection papers and mixed it up with some stamps I've had. The basic blue with the stars is simply a cut from Stand and Salute cartridge and  some ribbon. The Sentiment and the red edges are cut the same size from Lacy Labels and then the red cut and offset. The final card has a CTMH sentiment and some of the leftover strips from the other projects. I was happy to be able to minimize the paper used and use almost every bit!

The pencil was a rectangle of yellow rolled around a mentos and a Hershey's kiss. I had seen some done with Rollos but the committee wanted to use a less expensive candy. It really was necessary to put a strip of tape onto the candy to hold it in, plus another bit to hold onto the kiss. I suggest using Rollos. LOL. Once we had it rolled up I put a strip of double sided scotch tape around it a bit from the end. That way i could place the pink on half of the tape and then the grey fit right under it. Just a bit of my favorite Sookwang tape held the edge of the strips of paper on the ends and along the last side of the yellow. These were probably the most challenging of the crafts.

The gift card holder is a 5 inch circle with the edges folded in. I scored them at 1.25 on three sides then secured it with a bit of tape and some ribbon. There is also a printed sentiment card in it with a stamped "picnic cloth." from a CTMH set. We had five teachers out on leave so they got a little "gift bag."

I think my favorite thing of all was working with some beautiful ribbon. It is from PaperMart  and you would never believe the price. I love to get some basic colors in bulk from them.The double sided satin was really soft and very pretty. I used a red and a white wide ribbon and then the striped for some fun...

Next my personal gifts to the teachers....