Summer Gift

For my son's preschool teacher, I decided to give a "summer bucket".  This was a lot of fun and can be used for anyone- birthdays, thank yous, or just for fun!

I used an empty laffy taffy box and poked holes in the side to tie ribbon through.  Then I used my Dotty For You paper pack from CTMH to make a border around the bucket.  I used several layers of paper and cloth flowers with a jeweled brad for the center. 

Then for the most important part- the gifts!  I added flip-flops, sunscreen chapstick, bubbles in the shape of a Popsicle, paddle ball game, nail polish, kool-aid packets, chalk, and cazoos.  She has kids so I thought this would be fun for everyone.  And then I edited this lady's fish saying to say, "Congratulations!  It's o"fish"ally summer!" and stapled it to a sweedish fish bag and added that to the bucket.

Hopefully she has a great summer! 

Thanks Teacher!

It is now the last week of school and time to show your teachers just how grateful you are to them for all they do!  Here's a gift I came up with after realizing Monday that school is ending Friday- yikes!

I used Florentine paper pack to make a cute border around this little paint can I picked up from Lowes.  I cut out a square to put in the middle since the paper doesn't go completely around the can- there is a gap between the ends.  Then I used the Thanks stamp set for the middle.  I used the color ready seam binding ribbon to make a pleated ribbon all the way around the can.  [Do you know how to pleat ribbon?  Hmmm.. how to explain.  You glue dot the end of the ribbon down, then you add another glue dot about 1" away and glue the ribbon down there.  Put a glue dot ON TOP of the ribbon in the same spot you just glued the ribbon down then fold the excess ribbon down onto the glue dot making a pleat.  Add a glue dot 1" away and glue down the ribbon then put the glue dot ON TOP of the ribbon and fold over- repeat as many times as you need.  Needs pictures huh?  If I find a good tutorial online I'll post a link.]

For the lid of the can I cut a 3" circle of the Florentine paper then added a bow using the seam binding ribbon.  I added a really cute charm and then filled the can with some chocolately goodness.

After I was done I realized the can was too shiny for the paper so I sponged some brown staz on ink to the can to distress (if I were you I would do it before hand).  You have to use the staz on because the can is metal and normal stamp pads ink will only work on paper.

I hope she likes this tin!  I am so thankful for the teachers in my kids life because without them I'd have to learn a lot more patience ;) No really they're great!

Sweet and Simple

So for our end-of-the-year gift for my oldest's teacher we made cute lollipop bouquets.  Super easy!!!  All we did is punch holes in die cut paper flowers and put them on the lollipop sticks.  Then I taped those to empty fake flower stems and bunched them together, wrapped it with tissue paper and cellophane, and walla! you have a sweet (literally) gift for teacher.

If you don't want the lollipop wrapper to show you can just cover them with some tissue paper.

I found that taping the end of the wrapper to the stick helped make it easier for my son to put the paper flowers on the stick.  And of course you can always make the flowers and lollipops coordinate better than I did.

So there you have it!  And I also will accept these for mother's day (hint hint kids)