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.

Hershey's Nugget Boxes

I start browsing on one blog and link to another, then another, and so on until I forget where I started. There is so much creativity out there it just amazes me and I get lost in it - usually much too late at night. So I'm not sure what blog I heard about Nugget boxes on, but after seeing how cute they were Stauney and I decided to make them for teachers for Valentine's Day.

We found the patterns on a Split Coast Stampers thread. This lady has made all sizes of them from 3 up to, I think 24. If you look through the gallery on this site you can see pictures of tons of them in various sizes and styles. If you want to watch a video of how to assemble a 1/3 box you can go to this blog Chic n' Scratch. This is a WONDERFUL blog full of so many cute things!

The patterns do not print out full-size. So be aware that you are using them just to read the measurements off of. We did the Short 6 pieces box.

I decided to use my digital scrapbook stuff to make it easier, quicker, and cuter. This is how I printed off the wrappers to wrap around the Nuggets. You make each wrapper 1"x3" and print them on a regular paper, not cardsotck. Then I used the same papers and printed them on full sheets of cardstock to make the boxes and the sleeves to go around them. You could get 3 boxes this size from one 8 1/2"x11" piece of paper, and another for the 3 sleeves.
Stauney and I had a lot of fun designing these and I think they turned out a lot cuter than if we would have just wrapped plain pattern paper around them. I get almost all of my digi-scrap stuff free. There are many sites out there for free downloads. I have been signed up on Scrap Girls daily newsletter for years and they give you a freebie daily (two a day during Dec.), so that's probably where I got these papers and embellishments. I usually use Photoshop with my digital stuff, but for something simple like this I just used Microsoft Publisher to design the wrappers.

This photo shows them all finished. The gold wrapper Nuggets have almonds in them, the silver are plain, and the top middle one is the back of one of the pink boxes. Noah's teacher is a man, so he gets the red/black ones. You can also fit 1 small Kit Kat in the place of 3 nuggets. I also saw some really cute longer boxes, like a 1x6 with a full-sized candy bar in them.

I finished them off by adding a contrasting band of paper around the middle to keep it from opening in transportation and then hooking the tag on top of the band. They were pretty quick and simple to make once I got the hang of it. We are now planning boxes for other seasons. Be sure to check out the blogs I mentioned above for tons of more ideas for dressing up candy.

Now the only problem is they are too cute to eat! Noah's teacher probably won't have a problem with that though. He is a man after all.

I'm not afraid to admit it...

...I am a bargain shopper. I get a rush when find a great deal, and I found some that I have to share. Not all are done yet, so I'll post them later.

Last week I was reading my new favorite blog, Just A Girl, and found some very inspirational ideas. So after a trip to D.I. and one of my other favorites, Hobby Lobby, (oh, and Robert's too) I came home with the stuff I needed to copy two of her ideas:

Here's the link to her BE MINE? project where I got this idea.

My D.I. is just overflowing with old wooden cutouts from everyone's past projects. Here are the ones I found. I paid $1.00 for the little one and $2.00 for the big one. Seems a little steep for a bargain hunter like me, but if I waited to cut them out myself I would never get it done, so it was worth it.
I stripped the stuff off them, sanded them with my handy-dandy sander (that I love too) and re-applied new paint to the little heart (kind of a peachy-pink that I mixed). I liked the color I got after I sanded the big heart, so I left it.
Next, I traced some scrapbook paper a little bigger than the hearts and glued it on with Aleen's Tacky Glue. Then after it was good and dry I sanded the edges again with my sander to antique them. Then I applied 3 coats of Mod Podge over the paper, re-attached the wires when they were dry and - tada!

Aren't they cute? I only bought 2 pieces of paper for them. The stripes are the reverse side of the bigger flower paper. I tried putting a tag on the bigger heart, but I couldn't stand to cover up any of the paper that I love, so I just added the little bow.

The second idea I copied was from the I Found Something! idea.
So while I was at Hobby Lobby I was browsing the clearance section and found these candle stands for 60% off. I got both of them for $13.00. I was so excited because I needed something taller to put next to the clock on the basement fireplace mantle. I then looked at the prices of candles and wasn't happy (even with them 50% off). I was going to check Tai Pan later for candles, but then went to D.I. and found these candles for $2.00 each! I just wanted red ones and wasn't really picky about the smell or look of them because I knew I was going to wrap most of them with paper. But they were in perfect shape, still wrapped in plastic and even a smell I liked.

I couldn't find any black/white toile scrapbook paper to match my curtains, but I liked this pattern that I had in my digi-scrapbook files, so I printed it out. The ribbon is little b/w checks. I should have taken a close-up, sorry. The greatest part about this idea is that I can change the paper and ribbons anytime I want to.

You'll have to check out Just a Girl for more great ideas. I already have been inspired to do more, and check back later to see what else I found on this productive shopping trip (don't you love those!). As soon as the weather warms up a bit I will be back to work in my garage with my sander!