12 Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas

Some of you have already started summer vacation. My preschooler had her last day yesterday, but my grade school chicks still have a week left. That means we still have time to put together more teacher appreciation gifts. I thought I'd share some of my favorite gift ideas for the teachers in your life.

The ladies over at Brown Paper Packages are so creative! They have a few ideas that I'd love to replicate.

A Sweet Gift of hot fudge, you can put an end of the year touch by saying something like "I hope you have a 'sweet' summer!"

A simple Thank You jar filled with the teachers favorite treat is super easy!

I love this 4x4 block for pencils & pens.

Eighteen25 shares a cute way to give those coffee cards.

{BTW I've talked to a teacher or two & I hear these are a favorite!}

Ucreate has another back to school gift that can easily be turned to an end of the year gift.

Write "Hope you have a smooth summer!" on the tag.

Lisa Storms had a cute & thirst quenching idea with these lemonade cups.

Here's s'more ideas from Domesticated Lady

This Crayon Initial by Frugal Life Project is super cute!

And here are the teacher appreciation gifts my little chicks and I have put together in the past.

A Gift for Tea-cher

Caramel Corn Jars easily turned into "For a POP-ular Teacher" jars.

Clipboards for Teacher

And my most recent gift for the chick's teachers, a little thank you for helping them grow.

I hope you've found some inspiration on how to show your kiddos teacher's they are appreciated.

Blessings.

Thanks for Helping Me Grow

It's that time of year again. School is almost over so it's time for Mommy to get creative with a teacher appreciation gift. My little chicks have been SO blessed this year with teachers. In the past we've had some... well... uh... not so great teachers. But this year, oh my goodness! Each of these ladies have been absolutely wonderful to my chicks. I would love to go all out and give coffee cards, movie tickets, gift cards for yummy restaurants but when you multiply all that by 3 it equals one broke North West Nest.

I wanted to do something different than last year. You may remember our Clipboards for Teacher. We've also made note pads and signs. The jars of caramel corn and pots of goldwere holiday-ish {seen the "we're gonna be sisters" episode of Hannah Montana?} but you could probably put an end of the year twist on them.

We decided to go with a live plant and a cute little saying. Over the weekend the chicks and I ran to Lowe's {my fave home improvement store} looking for houseplants, pots and potting soil. We saw some cute cactus but I decided they wouldn't be so "cute" to transplant. Then we saw a table of Bromeliads already in a weathered looking terra cotta pot for about $7 a piece.

We thought these would be a great pick because they are a pretty hardy plant that's not going to flower once and die. Bromeliads are also considered an "O2 for you" plant. This means they generate oxygen and will add humidity to a room during dry conditions. So they're low maintenance, requiring only an hour or two of indirect sunlight per day and they purify the air! I think that sounds ideal for a classroom setting!

I used a small foam craft brush to apply a couple thin coats of Valspar's chalkboard paint in a rectangle on one side of the pot. Then used my chalk ink marker to write "Thanks for helping me grow!"

Ta Da! Done!

These will be easy for teachers to keep home during the summer months and bring back for a little color in the fall and winter months. When the Bromeliads grow they'll look like these.

I think they're very pretty and my little chicks are excited to share them with their teachers on the last day of school.

Blessings.

Linking to: House of Hepworths

A Gift for Tea-cher

I realize tomorrow is the last day of teacher appreciation week but better late than never, right? Ugh. I know, I know, I stink at this. I get these great ideas in my mind but don't bring them to life until it's too late for anyone else to take a stab at them. So I apologize.

This is a pretty quick and easy gift you may be able to pull together for tomorrow though.

I went to Ross and picked up a four pack of coffee cups for about $3 and that's it. That's all I had to buy for this gift. I brought the cups home, gave them a good washing and waited for them to air dry. While they were drying I ran up to my office and used the Cricut and From My Kitchen cartridge to cut out the word tea and the Wall Decor and More cartridge to cut out a cute little teacup.

Then I went through our collection of tea's. We have quite a few different varieties, all Stash. I really like Stash tea. It's individually wrapped so you don't have to worry about it getting stale and it fits perfectly in my little tea tray. I picked out a variety of teas and tucked them inside the tea cups. One for each of my three chicks teachers. Next I wrapped the cup in clear wrap and tied the tag on with some white ribbon. The tag says "To A Great Tea-cher".

There ya go, a pretty quick teacher appreciation gift for all those procrastinators out there.

Blessings.

Linking to: House of Hepworths

Peep Kabobs

These were super quick and easy to make. My little chicks put them together for their teachers. I picked up a few boxes of Marshmallow Peep chicks and bunnies for about $1 a box. We had kabob skewers at home so I just set everything out on the dining room table and let the girls go to town.

These are terrible pictures. We were in such a hurry to get these put together early because we're leaving town for Easter.

I didn't get any pictures of the final product but you get the idea. I wrapped them in clear wrap and tied spring colored curling ribbon around the bottom. Done.

Quick, easy and cheep... I mean cheap.

Blessings.

Pots of Gold

Last week I showed you a few of my favorite finds in blog land. Remember the little pots of gold byThe Crafting Chicks? I told you not to be surprised if you saw them again. However, I did decide to put my own twist on my little pots of gold.

I started at the Dollar Tree, that's where many great crafts start. Unfortunately this one did not start there. I couldn't find the three pack of little white buckets so I continued searching elsewhere. I go to Michael's almost every Monday morning. I don't always buy something, it's a treat just to walk through the store with no interruptions. At Michael's I found little terra cotta pots (I believe they're the 3 inch size.) I decided with a coat of black paint, these would be perfect for what I had in mind.

I bought three of the pots, one for each of my little chicks teachers. I didn't put a water sealer on the pots because they're going to hold "gold" not plants, I just used a small foam brush and applied black acrylic paint.

Next was the hard part. Not like physically hard, like "Oh my gosh that's a lot of yummy chocolate and I can't eat it!" hard.
You've probably seen a lot of St. Patty's treats using Rolo's. I wanted to add a little more so I picked up a bag of Hershey's Nuggets. These are SO good. The perfect combination of chocolate, almonds and toffee. YUM!
I poured all the candy out, mixed it up and filled the pots.
I was going to use the simple clear treat bags to put the pots in but wasn't sure I'd get the right size. I didn't want to buy a pack of bags, get them home and have them not fit. That kind of thing is really frustrating to me. I decided to buy a roll or Transparent Packaging Wrap. It cost less than a pack of 25 treat bags and I used my 40% off coupon, so it was just about $2. Now I have enough wrap to get me by for quite a while.

If you've ever used a roll of this wrap you know it's not so fun to cut. I tried cutting it with plain old scissors and it kept ripping, so I used a pair of craft scissors with the jagged edge (like pinking shears.) This worked so much better. I tried to cut squares, placed a pot in the center and gathered the wrap at the top. Did that make sense? You'll get it when you see the picture. Next I took a little green and white polka dot ribbon and tied a bow.

Here is my finished product. Three pots of gold with Crafting Chicks downloadable label, "I'm LUCKY to have YOU as my teacher."
And a close up.

Here they are from the back, you can see all the yummy gold.

I am SO happy with the way these turned out. I can't wait for the little chicks to take them to school next week!

Blessings.

Linking to: The Stories of A to Z, This Blessed Nest, Young and Crafty, I Heart Naptime, Craft-O-Maniac

Caramel Popcorn Jars

Seeing that all three of my little chicks are in school this year I wanted to help out as much as possible in their classrooms. Unfortunately it hasn't worked out like I planned. Apparently in fourth grade the students are independent enough that the teacher doesn't require parent volunteers. Because of the anxiety issues we're having with my first grader I have been advised to stay out of the classroom. Then there's my littlest chick, turns out there's more than enough volunteers for preschool. So I'm not spending as much time in the classroom as I would have liked.

I still want our teachers to know just how much our family appreciates them. For the autumn season I decided to make caramel popcorn jars for the teachers. This gift was so easy to put together, I think cutting the fabric took the most time. Either that or picking up the popcorn kernels that spilled over.

I took some medium size canning jars and filled them half way with a mix of white and yellow popcorn. Then filled the rest of the jar with caramel cubes. I picked up a cute autumn print fabric at Hancock on clearance. I think it cost me $1.19. Not bad. I used pinking shears to cut squares for the jar tops.

I can't remember the site I printed the labels from (I'm sorry.) I think I just googled "free autumn printables," clicked on images and picked the ones I liked best. I used raffia and jute to tie the We Love Fall, Give Thanks and owl character tags onto the jar. I did write instructions on how to melt the caramel on the back of the tags, about 8 cubes and a couple tablespoons of milk in the microwave.

I think they turned out pretty cute. I'm wishing I would have picked a different fabric because my fabric, popcorn, caramel, jute and raffia are all pretty... well... yellow. Oh well, now I know.

You could make these for friends, relatives, teachers, pastors, neighbors, etc.. I made a few extra for the other families in our dinner co-op.

Harvest blessings.

Linking to: All Thingz Related

Sign For Teacher

Earlier this week we attended a "meet your teacher" kind of thing at my littlest chick's future preschool. She starts next week. I have a big mix of emotions about the whole thing. I am definitely excited about her teacher, so we had to show her a little love with a sign.

In my head I had pictured a neutral tone sign with a little elegance. Then I asked my four year old which paper she liked. Oops. She picked the pink paper with pink hearts and little swirlies. So that's what we went with, it is supposed to be from her after all.

Tall Man cut a piece of particle board to 7x9 inches, then I drilled holes in the top for the wire to come through. I cut my pretty paper to size and applied it with Mod Podge. I used my Cricut to cut the letters, using the Zoobaloo cartridge. Again, I used Mod Podge to put the letters on. Twisted some wire and tied on a pink ribbon. There ya go!

It is pretty girlie and the boy students may not like it much but I know my little chick likes it and was super proud to give it to her teacher.

Blessings.

Linking to: Punkin Seed Productions

Teacher Appreciation Note Pad

I borrowed this idea from How Does She? and I think it turned out great. My girls and I made these for their AWANA leaders as a thank you for their time and dedication.

Here's a list of what you'll need:
Ream of printer paper (About $4 at Staples, probably much less at Wal-Mart.)
Pens (Dollar Tree)
Markers (already had)
Curling Ribbon (already had)
Candy (a couple bags, around $5)

A local Kinko's or Office Supply store to "pad" the paper. (Cutting and padding cost about $6.00)
Total: $15.00 to make 3 gifts!!!


I picked up my paper at Staples and asked about having them cut and pad it but they were going to have to send it away and it would take about a week. I tend to procrastinate and didn't have a week. So plan B was Kinko's. They were able to cut the paper and pad it in the store, it was ready for me in less than 24 hours and only about $6.00. (For those of you who may not know, "padding" is the soft glue stuff on the one side of note pad.) We brought the note pads home and my girls went to town with some markers. They colored rainbows, crosses, thank you's and Jesus loves you's on the sides. They wrote a personal thank you on the top sheet and we tied ribbon around it with a pretty pen clipped on top.

These look great, but doesn't this look a little better?

Put a note pad and some candy in a gift bag and voila, a personalized thank you for that special leader or teacher.

Blessings.

Linking to: House of Hepworths

Clipboards for Teacher

Back to school was very interesting for my family this year. My oldest daughter went off to the third grade with out a problem. This was her first time going to the same school two years in a row, finally she wasn't the new girl! It was fantastic!

Here are my older girls ready for the first day of school.

Our middle daughter was excited to start kindergarten on day one, day two was a completely different story. As was day three through thirty. On the second day of school she decided she didn't like it, she said she missed me more than I missed her. (Awwww.) Two weeks into the year we switched teachers and things got a little easier but we still had crying fits and had to be escorted to class by either the principal or a teacher. It was six weeks to the day since the first day of school when my little girl decided she was big and skipped to class with a smile on her face. We have not had a rough drop off since. =o)
I'm not sure what caused the change, if it was something my husband and I did or maybe her new "Grammy-like" teacher. I don't know and honestly I don't need to. All I know is my daughter loves school and we appreciate her teacher SO much. Which brings me to "Clipboards for Teacher." This was an easy and inexpensive gift for the teachers in our lives.All you need is a clipboard (got them at the Dollar Tree), scrapbook paper (had it), Mod Podge (had it), polycrylic and a cheap-o foam brush.

Can you see the little Pomeranian head peeking over the couch? Meet MoJo.

I took a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper and traced the clipboard on the back, cut that out and cut out the clip area. Next I put a thin layer of Mod Podge on the clipboard with a foam brush and lined the paper up just right. I smooth the bumps out with a Pampered Chef scraper thingy (technical, I know.) After a minute or two we applied another thin layer of Mod Podge and lined up the bottom solid colored paper. While that was drying we picked out another color paper and used the Cricut to spell out the teachers names. A little more Mod Podge and the letters were set. I let that dry for most of the day before I did two thin coats of polycrylic to be sure the letters didn't catch on something and come up. Here's the finished product.

Blessings.

Linking to: House of Hepworths, Nikki's Nifty Knacks