Marking pages and hearts...Teacher Thank You gift #3

Good Tuesday morning to you all! I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend. I, for one, had an absolutely amazing weekend spending time with out of state friends and destressing. It was just what this tired mom and wife needed. Now to tackle SUMMER! Today is the last day of school here (all 4 1/2 hours of it). So that also means that it's the last day (this school year) to express my gratitude to Evan's phenomenal teacher. I was up late last night making another craft for her which I gave her this morning. I'm still going to do one more thing for her (I think a note/card, possibly something else) for this afternoon but I haven't gotten quite that far yet. I figured I would post for you my creation from last night.
I went searching online (I didn't even get to my blog list, I hit Google 1st and was presented with a wealth of wonderful ideas!) for teacher/thank you gifts and ideas. Holy Cow! There are some really terrific ideas out there! Wow! Talk about hitting the jackpot! I found so many great things I had a hard time deciding. In my search, I found a great idea that I tweaked a bit.
A no sew (I don't) ribbon bookmark. I had everything on hand (the only prerequisite) so away I went. :)

Supplies are pretty much up to you! Whatever tickles your fancy. I used 5/8" printed grosgrain ribbon, 5/8" organza ribbon, and 1/8" ribbon all cut to same length. I didn't measure it out, I just eyeballed a good length to fit most books...
For embellishments, I used a large button, a flower brad, a cloth flower and two small buttons.
(along with hot glue)

I pushed the flower brad through the cloth flower then through 2 of the button holes. After lining up (and sealing with a lighter) the edges of the ribbon and gluing them together, I carefully pushed the brad through the ribbon and folded over the ends. I used the table to help push them as tight and flat as possible. I applied more hot glue to the folded ends of the brad and applied the white heart shaped button.
I then dabbed very small dots of glue at 2 intervels along the ribbons to adhere them. I heat sealed and glued the bottom ribbon edges together and added the red heart button on top.
Done.



The fixins' for my card. I cut the base square 5x5, the red square 4.5x4.5 and the white 4x4. I chose 2 safety pins and 2 eyelets to fasten and accent. (I also used double sided tape between each layer)




Once assembled, I used a very light pencil to draw lines to guide my writing. After the message was in place, I erased the lines quite easily. I slipped the book mark behind the base and middle squares and it was ready to go.

 This project is nothing spectacular but it's heartfelt, that's for sure! I will most definitely make more of these in the future for various people/gifts.
I hope you enjoy my little creation and you try it soon! :)

Mo

For Teachers; heartfelt feelings and quick craft of Thanks

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to you!! Whether you have plans or not this long (for most) weekend, I hope that you have a great one! :)

Ok, weekend well wishes accomplished, now on to business! ;)

I want to say thank you to all of you that took the time to leave a comment, either here or on facebook, with your thoughts and ideas for Thank You gifts for Evan's teacher. I appreciate them immensely. Especially the feedback from you teachers. And while we're at it, I'm just going to thank all of you teachers out there.

I'm sure everyone has had their share of teachers that weren't as active/influential/helpful/caring as we wanted or needed but let us not let them taint the absolutely amazing work that the rest of the wonderful people that enter in to the profession for all the right reasons and make an immeasurable difference in the lives of students (and parents). Thank You to all of you!!! Your endless efforts, infinite compassion, determination, dedication, passion, and that true essence of you that you imparted on all of your students through the years is vastly appreciated and will be forever cherished.

Ok, the couple tears that fell while I typed are wiped away and now I can tell you about the 2nd craft I did for our hero. ;)
I got this idea from a dear friend from high school Shatzi (who happens to own a great company called WedAnnouncements ). When I posted my request for help she came back with 3 links of some really really great ideas. I checked out the pages and one of the pics sparked an idea. I never even bothered to click the link for the how-to but continued on with my thoughts. Actually, come to think of it, I probably should just to see what it was (how close or far from it I was). LOL  Oh well, there's time later... ;) The picture showed a little "chinese food take-out box" with a pretty label on the front and it reminded me of our thank you's from our wedding. (For our wedding I made paper fortune cookies with personal "fortunes" inside them for each of our guests)
So-that's what I did. I made a quick run to Hobby Lobby with my fabulously fun friend and crafting partner to pick up a take-out box and maybe a couple printed papers. Home I came with some great stuff and we went to work. And to your (I'm sure) great surprise, I took pictures!!!!! So-I'll share pics and a brief how-to. :)



Supplies; papers of your choice (cardstock does not work well), whatever tools you use to cut circles, double sided tape, vellum (or paper of your choice) for 'fortunes', chinese food style take-out box





I used the 4 1/2 inch circle-it's almost the same size as a real fortune cookie and it's easy to work with.



Roll the circle so that the edges cover each other but do not extend past eachother.

With finger in center, gently fold (gently as you may have to reposition if you're not centered) in half so that the overlapped edge is in the back.



Place fortune in cookie (with ends sticking out so they can just pull it out instead of opening the cookie) and use small piece of double sided tape between two "ends" to keep together.



I made 6 cookies (2 in each print). I also made a little note to fit inside the box on top of the cookies with a message to the teacher. On the back side of the note I wrote " Just pull fortune" because I had noticed at the wedding, several people opened up the cookies to get the fortune out and then the tape wouldn't hold well enough to reseal them but I hope this will help so that the cookies can be kept in tact (should she choose to keep them).

I hope you enjoy this project. My fabulous fun crafting partner is excited to use this one for the family next Valentine's Day but this one is fun and versatile enough for any occasion (or no occasion at all!).

Thanks again for all of your ideas and comments!

Mo

Found! A craft for some Teacher Appreciation

Oh Thank Goodness for dear friends! And teacher friends from high school and awesomely appreciated fb, blog, and twitter followers!! I can't express how thankful I am for your wonderful ideas!! And I'm going to use several of them. I'm all about multiple Thank You's for the woman that came to our rescue this year.
Yesterday, when I posted the request for help, I also text a great friend whose son goes to the same school as Evan. She's incredibly crafty and has great supplies! She came over today with a project that is easy and beautiful. I (quite shockingly I know) totally spaced taking pictures during the project but I did remember to take a few afterwards. So here, along with a basic supply list and a simple how-to is the 1st of a couple of projects I'm doing to express my gratitude to Evan's amazing 2nd grade teacher.

Basic supply list:

• Foam square-we used 4x4x4 but you could use whatever size/shape you like
• Popsicle sticks to go all the way around (I used 41 sticks)
• Crafting Moss (we used 2 kinds, a drier brown and a fuzzier green) [technical terms right there huh?!]
• Hot glue
• Ribbon of your choice
• 5 (or however many you choose) flower lollipops
• Embellishments of your choice

How-to:

• affix popsicle sticks to outside edge of your foam with hot glue in 'fence like' manner
• drizzle hot glue over top of foam and apply brown moss
• affix greener moss over top of brown (so that some brown is visible) in above manner
• cut lollipop sticks to desired length (less than the size of your foam) and push into foam in desired pattern
• cut ribbon to desired length (I used 1 piece to wrap around, then a 2nd piece for the bow which I glued on top)
• dab a spot of hot glue onto the center of the back side and wrap ribbon around to front. (my friend wrapped hers around and tied it into a cute knot)
• apply desired embellishments, if any

We also included with ours the message pictured (inserted into ribbon on side). You could, of course, use a different message or none at all.

Let your imagination run wild. My friend said that last time she made this project she also made paper flowers that she glued to the cut pieces of lollipop sticks to mix with the lollipops for a more full and varied look.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful and easy craft-I certainly did and I can't wait to give it to our beloved teacher!

Mo

Need help with a Teacher's gift....

We have 4 days of school left (not counting today). Teacher appreciation week came and went (last month) and I didn't do anything for my son's 2nd grade teacher. I feel truly horrible about it especially considering she has been my son's biggest supporter this year. She has worked endlessly at trying to figure Evan out and trying to figure out how best to help him. My not-so-kidding-"joke" these past couple of months has been that I'm trying to finalize the blue prints for the pedestal I'm building her. I've also been trying to figure out which of my organs will bring the most on the black market so that I can have the maximum amount with which to 'persuade' her to teach 3rd grade next year and be his teacher again. And really, only maybe half (or less) of me is kidding. About both of those things.
She has been our hero this year. The poor woman has had innumerable struggles with my hard-to-figure-out son and she's managed to find a way through them and help us guarantee, as best we can, that he has a successful school career. She and I have a 'mini-conference' EVERY day after school. It's an average of 2-5 minutes everyday discussing his day, his behavior, his work, his mood, and brainstorming ways to work with him. She has called me several times, from her home, inquiring about Evan. She's just an absolute Angel on Earth, for lack of a better description.
She is the main reason I took him to his doctor's to be evaluated for ADHD (of which he displayed almost every single behavior for). It's because of her concern for his academic well being that we were able to start him on medications that have made an absolute world of difference!! She has been immeasurably helpful and active in the medical management side of his issues as well as lending herself to monitoring his future academic well being.
I am having an insanely difficult time expressing my undying gratitude. Thus my dilemma. I have no idea how to show my appreciation to her. My main obstacle is my lack of funds. I have no extra money to be able to purchase anything for her. I am an amateur card maker but I have slim pickins in regard to available supplies.
I'm looking for ideas. If ANY of you have any brilliant ideas as to what I could do for her before the last day of school (05/31) I would be in your debt (although not literally please as I'm workin on what I've already got....;)  ).
Please help me show my appreciation to a woman that has given us more than she can ever know....

Mo