Teacher Gifts

I'm feeling artsy and crafty, and as it's the end of the school year (Kindergarten and preschool) things are getting hectic. So what do I do? Heap more projects on, in the hope that the sheer artfulness will take my mind off of how incredibly busy these next two weeks will be, especially without my DH, who's in Shanghai for the week.

First up? Teacher gifts.

I had great ideas a few weeks ago about what to get my kids' teachers. I started with beautiful Thirty-One Gifts Littles Carry-All Caddy in black Parisian pop, for $12 each. I thought about themes: spa day (foot scrubs mani-pedi gift cards, etc) or summertime fun (sunscreen, gift cards to a book store, etc), but then I saw Pinterest, and there was a cute little reusable coffee cup with the tag that read "thanks a latte." It was adorable. But sadly, I don't know if these teachers drink coffee or tea. So what to do?

My girls love to give flowers, so I saw (also on Pinterest, where else?) a mason jar filled with magnetic letters and a cute bouquet of flowers. I prefer living plants, so I decided to do a potted flower and voila, the play on words came to me: Merci Bouquet!

I got really cute cardboard butterfly shapes at Michaels to use as the card, little chipboard shapes for my daughters to color and paste on as embellishments, and a giant clothespin to clip the butterfly card to the carry all bag. Since my 21/2 year old can't write words yet, I had to write the note for her.

I got African violets at Lowes for about $4 each, and put the pot inside a sandwhich bag, then wrapped the pot in colored tissue paper, wrapped with a ribbon. Then I crinkled up celophane in the bottom of the carry all bag so the plant would come out over the top of the rim. I set the plant inside the bag, clipped the card on the back of the bag, and voila! But of course, I felt like something was missing, so I added a few chocolates to each bag, and voila! Cute little thank you gifts for the teachers, who are very special people. Oh yeah, I added a little scented bottle of hand sanitizer to the back pocket, just for good measure. I can't wait for the girls to walk them into their classrooms next week!