Valentine's for the Classroom

I was back at crafting this weekend. I spent all day Thursday & Friday making Save the Date's for Leigh Anne's wedding. I also used my Silhouette Cameo all weekend and then I spent Sunday making Valentine's for TJ to take to school yesterday. I prefer a cute homemade Valentine over the traditional cards that are perforated with images of cartoon characters and the red suckers with the white writing. I don't think TJ really cares too much about what he takes to school so I just make whatever I want to. You can see the Match Books I made for him last year HERE.

This year I knew I would be busy hand crafting each Save the Date for Leigh Anne so I wouldn't have much time to invest in the Valentines. So I decided to just personalize some candy wrappers and package them up with a nice bow. Wal-Mart had mini KitKat bars on sale for $1 a package {each contained 6 bars} so I bought 9 packages with the intention of putting 2 KitKat's in each bag. Somewhere between when I bought them on my lunch break Wednesday and when I put them together on Sunday, I ended up with only 8 packages. Hmmmm, I think my hips found them??? Well at least they were the mini's.... There are 23 kids in TJ's class, plus the teacher so 8 was all I needed anyway.

I designed the labels, printed & cut and then wrapped each one around the candy bar, securing with double sided tape. Then I stuffed them into a pretzel bag and secured with a bow. I already had the pretzel bags & the ribbon so I only paid $8 for the candy.

Then I made TJ's teacher a crayon wreath like the ones I've seen all over pinterest lately. All of my supplies came from the dollar tree or my craft closet.

• Foam floral wreath
• 2 large boxes of crayons (54 count)
• Grosgrain ribbon
• Embellishments

I wrapped some tulle all the way around the foam wreath and secured with a pin and hot glue. Then I began to secure the crayons to the wreath with a little dab of hot glue. I did sort of a N, E, S, W compass look to begin with and then filled in the gaps. I was worried that if I started at the top and just went around it would be uneven at the end. I added 2 layers of crayons. Then I used some of the ribbon on the inside of the wreath to cover any unevenness or gaps with the crayons and to secure a loop for hanging. Then I added letters and a butterfly just for looks.

When I got to work this morning I had this email waiting for me...hopefully you can read that.

And while I was putting it together, Deuce decided that I needed to do it barefoot. Because if his shoes are off then mine need to be too.

And then he proceeded to play with his reflection in the stove.

Here is my front door decor for winter. I added some hearts for Valentine's.

And Deuce loved his frog Valentine so he took it with him in the car. I hope you all had a great day! I know I did, listening to my new Adele CD from honey. :)

DIY Teacher Appreciation Part II

REPOSTED BY BLOGGER AFTER THEY DELETED THE ORIGINAL POST:

Along with the pencil bouquet I made for TJ's teacher last week, I made her a personalized Post-It Note holder.  This is one of the easiest & cheapest things you will ever make.  Wanna Try?

Supplies:

Plastic picture frame (4x6)

Scrapbook Paper
Post It pad

Glue Dots or any other adhesive

Embellishments

Remove the paper picture that came in the frame.  Use this as your template for measuring your scrapbook paper.  Cut as many pieces as you wish and layer however you want to create the template size.  Embellish with stickers or anything that will slide in the frame.  Turn the frame upside down so the stand part is at the top and the frame slants downwards.  Slide your paper in.  Using your glue dots or adhesive, secure your post it pad to the frame.  You probably don't want to use an adhesive that is super secure (like a super glue) because once the pad is gone, you want them to be able to attach another one.  Bag it up and your done!

Seriously, it doesn't get much easier.  I think I spent like $2 on this.

DIY Teacher Appreciation

Did you guys know that last week was Teacher Appreciation Week?  Yeah, I didn't really either until the week was already underway.  I was so focused on crafting mother's day gifts that I didn't have much time to prepare anything daily for TJ's teachers.  Anyway, I found an idea over at Ameroonie Designs that is quick, easy and most importantly CHEAP!  I made TJ's teacher a pencil bouquet.  You can find the instructions HERE. 

sorry, i took these pictures at about 11pm so there was NO natural light...
only my dark living room/craft space on a tv tray...

Teachers are always needing pencils because kids "borrow" them all the time.  I started this project at about 10pm on Thursday and it only took me a few minutes.  I bought the bucket on clearance at Michael's along with the foam block and got a pack of pencils and thumbtacks from Target.  I already had tons of scrapbook paper so I just used my 2" and 1.5" circle & flower punches to cut the paper.  I also added some leftover lollipops from Deuce's 1st birthday party and a pinwheel I made.  I tied some tulle aroud the bucket and attached a tag.  Super cute!

The pencil pack came with some cute erasers.  You know the kind that have holes in them so you can put them over your pencil?  They were cute shapes so I added them by putting toothpicks in the foam block and sticking the erasers on top all around the front of the bucket.  This came to me the next morning as TJ was walking out the door so I didn't have time to take a picture of that. boo.

TJ was the only kid to bring his teacher a gift ALL WEEK so that made him really happy.  TJ was excited to report back to me that Miss Wall said he had "one creative stepmom."  See other things I have made for her class HERE and HERE.