Teacher Appreciation Gifts

As an instructional math coach I work with over 40 high school math teachers. I wanted to share with each of them how much they are appreciated so I made crafty gifts. I am extremely thankful for Pinterest as I found almost all of my ideas there.

Gift #1: Marvelous & Magnificent Teacher
I found the glass cruets at Joanns in the wedding section. I used Inkscape to create the label which I have shared here and imported it into Silhouette Designer software to complete a print and cut.

Gift #2: Thank You Pillow Box
The pillow box is from Lettering Delights and was the perfect size for a 100 Grand. I used Make the Cut to cut them all and tied baker's twine around the flap. The little buttons are from Tuesday Morning where I purchased them at a going out of business sale.

Gift #3: Thanks for the 'Extra' work
These were made specifically for the Math Leadership Team. We meet once a month and the teachers are always taking on extra responsibilities. They are a wonderful team to work with and our teachers in the county benefit greatly from their leadership.

Gift #4: Thank you with Sharpies
I have been saving Crystal Light plastic canisters without any idea what I would do with them. Then I found this site where there was the idea and a free printable tag. I simply printed the tag and cut it out using scissors. Yep, no fancy cutting machine for this one. Just simple scissors and my xyron machine. This was the gift specifically for my son's teacher.

Gift #5 Lemonade
These were simple to make. I cut the strips at 2.5" wide and 10" long and scored it at 3" and 7.5". I used a Martha Stewart punch to cut the circle and an EK Success punch for the border.

Gift #6 M&M packs
After making gift #1 I had an entire bag of m&ms left. I made these treat bags and adorned the tag with washi tape and a small button.

I really enjoyed handing out the treats each day and letting the teachers know they are appreciated. Hope this has inspired you to send a little treat. Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year. Yeah.... I know {sigh}... I haven't posted anything since my October Halloween treats. I wonder if I even have anyone who looks at my crafty ramblings anymore. I promise have made some treats since then. There were candy bar treat boxes for Thanksgiving and Fisher and I made some turkeys out of trail mix and pipe cleaners. For Christmas I made a variety of treats. I have over 40 teachers that I work with and I had each of them a little crafty gift. I even have pictures of some of the creations. But now that the holidays are over I'm not sure sharing them at this point would be proper blog etiquette. Maybe I'll write them and schedule them for next year {can you schedule posts that far away????} or maybe I'll just pin them on Pinterest.

Anyway, I welcome anyone who takes a glimpse at what I've worked on tonight. It's been relaxing and a much needed activity. {Today has brought me very sad news and crafting is real therapy for me.} I saw these "ready to bake" sugar cookies at the grocery store on sell for $0.99 for 2 dozen. I snatched up three boxes with this New Year's treat in mind.

I created a simple print and cut using the Silhouette Designer Software (but you could easily do it without designer.) Thanks to a quick Google search I found an easy tutorial here on how to get my words to wrap.

 I even have enough cookies left over to send to Fisher's class tomorrow. Isn't the snowman cute?

I really enjoy making treats for others. It is great to surprise someone with a "thinking of you" gift. Well, I suppose that is enough for tonight. Have a blessed day!

Classroom Halloween Treats

October has been a very busy month and last week was the busiest. I started with staff development for all of the high school math teachers in my county on Monday. A PLC session for Course 1 teachers on Tuesday. Then I traveled to the state Math Leadership Conference on Wednesday, followed by the state math conference on Thursday & Friday (of which I had a part in planning). I also presented two sessions. Saturday I coordinated the Fall Festival at the church consisting of a Trunk or Treat, hot dog supper, hayride and bonfire. On top of all that I started getting sick. Spent the entire day in bed on Sunday and went to the doctor today.

Feeling much better, I finished the classroom treats for my son's classroom. I found this idea on Pinterest and my son thought it was hilarious. Using a large container of cheese puffs, we filled small snack bags. (We also discovered that our little dog loves cheese puffs.)

I used Frank's Friends Alpha from Lettering Delights for the pumpkin and designed the entire card in Inkscape. I imported into Silhouette Studio, enclosed with a rectangle, filled the page, and did a print and cut.

I couldn't resist the second project. (Again, I pinned it on Pinterest.) I purchased mandarin oranges in individual containers and used a Sharpie to draw faces.

That's all the projects I have for today. I have a few planned tomorrow for my colleagues. Thanks for dropping by and have a blessed day!

Dig for a Cure

One of the teachers I work with is a volleyball coach. This Saturday, her team is having a fundraiser called Dig for a Cure. Last week I ordered six pink water bottles for $1.50 each from WOOT.com. I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do with them but I knew I could use them for something. (Oh, this could get very bad if I do this too often.) Fortunately, they aren't sticking around for too long. I used MTCs pixel trace of a ribbon I found by searching Google Images. I cut the ribbon and the words out of vinyl and put them onto the bottles. The plan is to put a t-shirt inside and sell them this weekend as part of the fundraiser. 

I like the way they turned out. Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

End of Year Teacher Treats

I am so proud of Fisher. He got the Excellence in Reading & Math yesterday at the end of the year awards ceremony. He was so excited about finishing Kindergarten and of course starting summer vacation. I am in awe of how well he is reading. I can teach high school students math but am amazed at how elementary teachers teach students how to read.

To show my gratitude I made his teachers and the ladies in the office some end of the year treats. For the ladies in the office I put together this apple from the Fall Harvest Favor Box from SVG Attic and placed two small caramel brownies inside. (Unfortunately I didn't take the best pics so it is difficult to see that they are apples.)

For his teachers, I made these cute flip flop boxes from My Graphico. They were easy to assemble. I placed two caramel brownies in each of these too.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a blessed day!

Altered Giant Clothespin

I have another pictorial for you today. I altered a giant clothespin as a gift for the members of the math leadership team in my county. This year they have worked hard to provide professional development and leadership for our county. Let's get started!

The materials I used are: patterned paper, giant clothespin (found at Michael's for $1), foam brush, x-acto knife, Mod Podge, brayer, bone folder, and nail file (not shown).

Start by cutting a rectangle large enough to cover the face of the clothespin. I placed the clothespin on the paper, traced, and cut it out. Don't worry if it is cut too big. We will trim it later. Using the bone folder, I made a crease in the paper to show where it needed to be cut to divide the paper into the upper and lower portion of the clothespin. (Wow, my bone folder looks dingy.)

I just used a pair of scissors to cut the paper. You can see in the picture below how it divides the paper into the two portions.

Next, paint a thin layer of the Mod Podge to the face of the clothespin using the foam brush.

Place the pieces of paper on the face and then use the brayer to get rid of any bubbles. (Be careful when applying pressure to the clothespin or it may go flying across the room.)

After the Mod Podge has had time to dry trim the excess paper using the x-acto knife. (I realized when editing the pictures that I did not stay consistent with which clothespin I was using as a model. Thus, you now see the green one instead of the blue.)

Use a nail file (or fine sand paper would) to file the edges. This made a big difference in the final project. It created a smoother transition from the paper to the painted wood. (Do you like the file? Another $1 find at Michael's.)

Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the top to seal the paper. This should prevent fading and possible water damage. You can do 2 or 3 layers if you wanted. (Again, I have snapped a picture of a different pattern.)

Here are all of the different patterns and clothespins. I used two paper companies: DCWV Linen Closet Stack & All Dressed Up Stack; My Mind's Eye Ooh La La Stack, Fine and Dandy Stack, and All Boy Stack. There are 14 total clothespins.

When I originally purchased the clothespins I thought they would be great for holding pictures or notes so I made a quick note to include. The apple is from Lettering Delights It Feels Like Autumn. It has a magnet on the back so the teachers can remove it and keep it. The note card was designed in the Silhouette Studio and cut out with the Cameo. I used an EK Success puch for the paper edge and a Studio G stamp for the thanks!

Here are the final products. I really had fun making these and they were pretty easy to do. I'll give them out tomorrow at our monthly meeting.

Thanks for visiting and I hope this inspires you to alter something. I would love to hear about your projects.
Have a blessed day!

Pumpkin Patch

I got this idea from the SplitcoastStamper site. I used Make the Cut to join two circles to create a donut, cut them out with the Cricut, and joined 5 of them together to make the pumpkin. I used the Jolly Rancher Lollipops for the center.

The leaf is from a die using my cuttlebug as is the tag. The orange circles are from the center of the donuts used for the pumpkin. The green ribbon is from my stash.

 I used an embossing tool to put a vein in the leaf.

I plan on giving these to my colleagues at work. Thanks for stopping by and visiting my pumpkin patch.
Have a blessed day!

Fearful Fiends Treat Bags

My boys are away this weekend celebrating my DH birthday at the beach. I couldn't go so I am taking my own retreat by crafting all weekend.

I started last night making the Halloween treat bags for my son's Kindergarten class. I found little boxes of tattoos, tiny activity pads, plastic bracelets, Hershey kisses, gummies, and mini Oreo packs. My plan was to make little treat boxes but there were so many items I found the sandwich baggies were easier.

I created the top header using Fearful Fiends from Lettering Delights with Make the Cut and my Cricut. To make the print and cut work I create a shadow image slightly larger than the image itself and only cut the shadow layer out. I used the Chiller font for the phrase. I also used my new punch that I have been wanting for some time. It's the drippy goo from Martha Stewart.

These are so cute and my son will be excited to hand these out on Halloween. Thanks for dropping by.

Have a blessed day!

Back from Hiatus

The thought was that I would lots of time this summer to craft and share. NOT! No complaints because we had a fabulous summer and I spent some great time with my boys. We enjoyed swim lessons, camping, the beach, an awesome museum with a dinosaur park, and movies. I also trained for my first 5K which was August 13th. It was a very busy few months.

Now school is back in session. Fisher has started Kindergarten. Every one kept asking if I was going to cry. I was too excited for him to cry about it. Friday was his first day so tomorrow will start his first full week. As for me, I am back at work teaching high school math. I love the start of the school year and there are so many things I am looking forward to this year.

Anyway, I have rambled on enough. I guess you have come to visit to see some crafts. In May, a colleague of mine got married and I wanted to make her something special. I etched a glass container, perfect for flowers or a candle, with their names. I also made her a set of monogram cards with the initial of her new last name.

For the card I cut a scalloped circle I found in the gallery using the Make the Cut software. I embossed a piece of white card stock and layered some paper from My Minds Eye on the side. The stamp on the scalloped circle is from a set I found at the Dollar Store. I wasn't too pleased with the bright yellow I chose for the letter C. I brushed it with brown ink using a stimple brush. This toned it down a little. I would have recut the letters but I was running out of time.
I really like etching glass. It makes it easy to create personalized gifts. I can't remember the font I used in MTC for the names. I placed some paper inside the glass but I'm not sure it helps you see the image any better. At least you can get an idea.

My friend liked the gift and ended up using it at her reception. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.