Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Unbelievably, the end of the school year is soon upon us.  So it's nearing the time of year that we thank those who put up with our children day after day so that we can keep our sanity.  Oh yeah, and so that they can get an amazing education too.

Last year, the day before the end of Teacher Appreciation Week I finally came up with this idea.  So I'm sharing it a bit early this year in hopes that I can save someone else from a last-minute scramble.

My original idea was just for the vases filled with yellow candies to go with the bee tags, but then I thought the bees would like some flowers to buzz around too.

I filled the vases with all of the gold and yellow wrapped candies I could find: Rolos, Wherther's caramels, butterscotch candies, Lindt truffles, mini Butterfinger candy bars, and Hershey's nuggets.  (I wanted Bit-O-Honey candies but couldn't find them anywhere!)

Then I made some flowers out of my digital scrapbook supplies in Photoshop, cut them out, stuck them through a wooden skewer, and then stuck a Lindt truffle on the top.  I added one bee on a wire buzzing in the air around the flowers and some more with pop-dots on the tags and flowers.  Then a black ribbon to finish it off.

This worked for two teachers, but Noah had a man teacher, so the flower idea didn't fit.  So this is what I came up with for him.

I also made a different variation for an inexpensive and easy gift for a friend's birthday using a clay pot with a Styrofoam ball in the middle to support the wooden skewers.

I covered the white ball with brown crinkly paper filler and strawberry candies. It would have been even cuter to cover the skewers with green floral tape and add leaves.  Or you could use big silk flowers with the truffles in the center of those.  To make a nicer gift you could also fan-fold money to use for the leaves and hook them on with mini-rubber bands.

I LOVE Lindt truffles.  If you do to, make sure you buy extras to taste-test before you give them out, because I'm sure you could use a little appreciation also.