Valentine's Day Teacher Gifts

 

My kid's teachers are getting these for Valentine's Day. Can you guess what it is?

 

 

It is a velvet heart shaped scarf hanger! I love it. Who doesn't need a place to hang scarves? I think they are the perfect teacher gift for Valentine's Day.

And what doesn't look cuter with a ribbon and tag on it?

I found these at Tuesday Morning.

 

Repurposed Organizer

 I was in a craft store awhile back and saw some organizer with feet thingys and thought they were super cute. And then I saw the price tag. 

Seventy-five dollars!!!

It didn't take long to figure out that it was basically a utensil organizer on steroids. For $75. Not gonna happen. 

So I kept my eyes open for one that I could repurpose myself. Because I need more DIY action around here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found one at my sister's garage sale. I painted it light Aqua with leftover paint and added knobs for feet that I already had from my daughter's old curtains and some dresser hardware I found in Canton. Total for this refinish? $1.25!!!!

Not including all of my Valentine's goodies, of course. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linked up at www.mabeyshemadeit.com and www.carissamiss.com

 

Christmas Teacher Gifts

 

 

Teachers are getting these cuties for Christmas this year.

 

 

 

I found these clips and thought they would be perfect to hold a cute card.

 

 

 

I used Crate Paper Sleigh Ride Collection paper and chipboard embellishments to decorate library pockets.

 

 

Then, made a card with a gift card attached to slip inside.

 

I think they turned out pretty cute. I wish I could keep one for myself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Teacher Gift Basket

I have to post conversations with my kid because sometimes I wonder if everyone has these sort of talks with their children. Please tell me this is normal.

Her: Mom, would you eat a fried ant for $10?

Me: No.

Her: Would you eat a fried ant for $100?

Me: Ummmm depends on the day. 

Her: I would do it for five. 

Me: Nice.

Anyways. My parents have a Satsuma tree and we all hate to see them go to waste. It makes more than all of us can possibly eat.

So I thought it would be nice to make a gift a basket with some of the satsumas and some pecans for the faculty at my daughter's school. My daughter eats one for lunch everyday. They are not too sour and really yummy. Plus, they are really easy to peel. 

The plastic glittery snowflake that I already had was perfect to use as a backdrop for the tag. I used a chipboard ornament and paper from the Sleigh Ride Collection by Crate Paper with some other chipboard. I found the plastic crate in the dollar bins at Target. I hope the faculty like this gift basket!

More teacher gift ideas coming soon!

Linked up at www.littleredwindow.com and www.thehankfulhouse.com. 

Give Thanks Banner

This Give Thanks banner has circle tags for family and friends to write what they are thankful for. I added feathers cut with my Slice machine. I think it would be cute with photos added to it as well.

This one is available to buy in my Etsy store.

Wire Mesh Frame and Fall Memory Banner

Finally, I decided how I wanted to repurpose this frame that I found at Goodwill a year ago. It had no glass, so I either wanted it to hang in my craft room as a pegboard to hold tools or use it with wire mesh to hold photos or bows in my daughter's room.

Turns out, I hung it in my craft room to display memory banners. Like this one.  This one says "fall in love" so it can be used to decorate for Thanksgiving or for the entire fall season. It is for sale in my etsy store.

If you find a big frame with no glass, snap it up! You can do so much with these! To make this one, you can follow the steps below.

To get started you will need:

frame

wire mesh

wire snips

staple gun

staples

paint

work gloves

First, use the wire snips to cut the mesh to fit your frame. Make sure you wear gloves. This stuff is sharp and needlelike.

                              

See? Doesn't look like much, but it was deep. I had to get a Tetanus shot. Trust me. Wear gloves and be careful.

Once you have it cut to fit, use the staple gun to staple the wire mesh to the back of the frame. Paint your frame and you are done! I used a sample of paint from Lowe's. I had several coupons for free samples from my magazine subscriptions. The samples are only 2 or 3 dollars, but have more than enough paint for a project like this. And they will mix any color for you. 

           

My sister made this one to hang her daughter's clippy bows. I like how she attached little metal buckets along the bottom to contain all of the tiny little barrettes and elastics so they are all in one place.

          

I am so glad I finally finished this project! I love it!

           

Read more at http://www.uncommondesignsonline.com/11-last-minute-halloween-ideas-monday-funday/#5OoAQevhAKqsZwT2.99

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Chore Chart

Around here it is pretty hard to get little people (or big people, for that matter) to do chores. Especially without complaining. 

              

After searching through heaps of chore chart ideas, I finally decided to go with the "work for hire" idea. There are some chores that just need to be done because you live here and you are part of this family. Like putting clothes in the hamper, not on the floor and walking the dog and picking up toys. I don't want to raise a child who grows up to be a dissatisfied adult because life doesn't hand her everything she wants. Also, this way I don't have to nag. Visible cash is a pretty good motivator.

                                                                

Myloveforwords.com had a good list of chores and prices that I got some ideas from. I used a receipt holder to clip chore tags and cash. The chore tags were decorated with a Cosmo Cricket scrapbooking kit that had tons of little letters. I also use my mini alpha stamps again.

Help enforcing chores:

• Don't expect perfection. This one is hard for me. I believe if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right correctly. See what I mean?? I have a hard time not correcting people.
• Give praise for good work. 
• Be consistent. Even if you are tired. I promise it is less work in the long run to make sure your child follows through.

Maybe now my house will stay clean so that when someone stops by and wants to see my craft room I can say yes, of course, and not have to cringe at every dirty sock and ding dong wrapper on the floor.

Linked up at chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com.

Halloween Teacher Gift

The teachers are getting small tokens of appreciation for Halloween. I was a teacher, so I know how unexpected gifts made my whole day and frankly, helped me survive. Anyone who talks smack about teachers should have to sub. That's all I'm saying. 

               

***OH. MY. GOODNESS. I just drove by a sign that says we are getting Hobby Lobby five minutes from my house!!! No, I am not blogging and driving. I am waiting on my daughter to get out of gymnastics class.****

Guest towels are a gift I would have liked. There are so many cute ones out there and I love letting my guests use paper towels instead of sharing a hand towel. Why, oh why didn't I buy myself a package of these?? I might have to go back and get some from Marshall's.

                 

I made the tags with leftover cardboard packaging. (No, I am not a hoarder. If it doesn't fit in the one drawer, I don't keep it. It's amazing how often I use this stuff. The thin cardboard is perfect for tags and embellishments.)

                 

I stamped the back instead of writing with pen, because the stripes were embossed and shiny, so ink would run.

                

Staz-on ink is perfect for surfaces where ink would run. It goes on dark and stays on. 

 I purchased this ink pad myself. I am recommending it because I truly do like it, but if you click the link and buy some, I do get paid a small amount.

                

The tiny alphabet stamps can be found in dollar bins at Michael's. Love these!!

If you give a Halloween gift to your teacher, she will love it. I promise!

Linked up at http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/ and dolendiaries.com.

Christmas Teacher Gifts

This year the teachers are getting survival kits. 

 Cute chevron embroidered survival kits. 

With tags my nine year old made herself.

Filled with all sorts of things you might need in your classroom or your car like vitamins, gum, band-aids, stylish kleenex, drink powder, lint roller, wisp brushes, and of course, a shammy. Everyone needs a shammy.

Monster Mash

Disclaimer: None of this was my work, but it is still cute.

Monster cake.  I love how the cake stand looks like little legs. I wonder if they planned that?  Of course, they did. (They being my mom and sisters.)

That colorful tabletop is nothing more than crepe paper streamers run in a crisscross pattern.

Monster cupcakes. Because who could resist red chevron cupcake holders?? And candy eyeballs?

Treat Station. With baby snacks. This party was for a one-year-old, so these are age appropriate snacks, like Trix and animal crackers (which are not crackers but cookies in case you have never had one, in which case you should have more variety in your foods. Or not. They don't taste that great.)

Treat bags. Say "Thank you for coming" with handmade felt monster bags. And handmade tags. With all sorts of monster goodness inside. 

Treats. Like monster band-aids. And a monster cup. That red thing? Obviously it is used to make homemade popsicles. And a handmade reusable zipper bag WHICH was filled up at the treat station with whatever you like. So if you don't like animal not-crackers then don't put any of those in your own personal baggie. But please wash and reuse as often as you like.

not pictured: unicorn suckers which look monsterish somehow

A Banner For a Baby

This banner was much cuter in person, but you can only do so much with a cell phone camera. This actually turned out to be one of my favorite banners ever. I used a Tim Holtz mask on tags to distress the letters of the baby's name. The set of alphabet masks came with different fonts which I like.

Above the table, I hung some grapevine and Chinese lanterns. These are easy to make. I have a tool, but I remember making these in elementary school. If you could look closely at the paper design, there are some crowns on some. Since we did not really have a certain theme, I used my Slice machine (am I the only one that has one of these?) to cut some large crowns in the same paper to put sort of like confetti on the tables. No pictures of those, sorry.

(This is the teacher's lounge at school, not my house. It was decorated nicely by some of the staff, but the ceiling sure is ugly.) 

Twelve Days of Christmas Tags

Christmas.  The season of giving.  I saw an advent calendar at www.janethopkins.com that inspired me to make tags for the twelve days of Christmas to attach to gifts for my little girl's teacher.

Every day until we get off of school for the holidays, she will receive a small gift and a handmade tag.  I found gifts for under $5 each like a can of Altoids or poinsettia mini kleenex.

I love how they look all together on my crib spring.  (Should've made myself a set.  But that is a lot of glittering, folks. I highly recommend doing all of the glittering at one time.  But I never think of these things ahead of time.  No, I cut out all but two of the figures with my Slice machine.  Then, glittered those.  Then, made those tags.  THEN decided to cut the rest and glitter and now my studio is officially full of bling.)

I think the number 11 tag is my favorite. I used old dictionary paper glued to the tag and ripped off the edges after it dried.  I like how it worked out that the church is in the background.  The edges of most tags were distressed with Tim Holtz green or tea inks. This one was spritzed with olive glimmer mist. For those of you that can't read blurry stamping, the red says "Pipers Piping".  I think I am definitely going to invest in a better red stamp pad.  This one was not dark enough and blurred on the paper.  Not cool.

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