Muggle Teacher gifts

This is a picture heavy post, so bear with me!  It's that time of year again and I am trying to brainstorm teacher gifts when low and behold, Mandee at Designs by Miss Mandee posted a free Harry Potter Howler card.  So I was off and running! 

The card was made on my Cricut Explore with just cherry and white cardstock.  You can get two cards from a 12x12 sheet.  I used my finger to curl the tongue (and managed to give myself a nasty paper cut!) and placed it with a piece of double stick tape. 
We don't buy Talenti gelato often, mainly because it is expensive, but the jars are just too good to toss so I have been hoarding them.  How did I get the print off, you ask?  Acetone nail polish remover, cotton balls, elbow grease, and a well ventilated area are all it takes.  Make sure you wash the jars well once you are done cleaning them off. 

I will admit I have no idea where I got the image on the jar.  It was all one color, so I decided to highlight the I Teach Muggles in gold, leaving the rest in black.  Ok, I am going to give you an honest crafter-fail moment here.  Those pros out there make this look so fabulous, but this sucker is a pain to weed, because the finished design is only 2 1/2 inches tall.  I worked out a trick of reverse weeding.  TIP: weed the insides of all the letters and work the outside around the bigger words, then put your transfer tape over your image, burnish well, then remove backing paper.  Now weed the outer part of your image SLOWLY and your letters should stay stuck to the transfer tape.

For the top of the jar, I created the image on Cricut Design Space.  It is 3.25" and fits in the lid with a little room to spare.  I used the Cut and Print feature, then added the Hogwarts wax seal using burgundy hot glue sticks.  Yep, hot glue!  The best way I have found to do this is take some cooking spray and put a generous amount on a folded paper towel.  Tap your seal in the cooking spray, then make a puddle of hot glue on a silicone mat or on the sticker.  Wait a few seconds for the glue to slightly set but still soft.  Push the seal into the glue and wait a few minutes for it to set.  Gently rock the seal and remove.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove from the mat.  I store extras in a baggie.  Thanks for looking!  April

Personalized Starbucks cup

Once again, another school year is coming to an end and it is time for teacher gifts.  My son's special ed teacher has been nothing short of amazing.  He is a huge fan of Milwaukee Brewers baseball and keeps a keurig machine right on his desk, so I thought it would be fun to combine the two. 
I purchased the cup on Amazon and found a pre-made file that I tweaked for the custom part.  I used Oracal 651 in Brewers Blue and cut it on the Cricut Explore.
Inside the cup, is a little filler, two k-cups, a gift card and a handful of Hershey's kisses.  For a 16 oz cup, it holds a lot!
I like to save money, so I use clear contact paper from Dollar Tree as my transfer tape.  I will be honest, it was a pain to get the backing off the tiny inside parts of the letters and hope it will not effect their long term adhesion to the cup.  I often have better luck with Cricut brand vinyls and will probably stick to that in the future.  Thanks for looking!  April

Goodbye Hugs

Last month, we moved from Ohio to Wisconsin.  The hardest part was taking the kids from the people and schools they have grown to love over the last five years.  My youngest has special needs and we are particularly close with his teachers and assistants so I wanted a special goodbye for them.  I kinda feel like I was shorting them, but most of my craft supplies were packed and I was single-parenting for the better part of six weeks, so I was not at my most creative. 

I found these adorable hugging hearts on clearance at Ikea and grabbed some Hershey's Hugs, treat bags, chalkboard tags, and some baker's twine to make these.  I used a chalk marker to write "A Hug from Matt" and tied it all together.  The teachers were in tears and tried so hard to make it a great day for him.  We miss them so much and they have been great with helping his new teachers acclimate him to his new school routine.  Thanks for looking!  April

Christmas Ornament

I made a couple of generic ornaments for the Principal and secretaries at school.  I did different colors for each but only took photos of one.  The colors I used were Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, and Marina Mist.  The stamp is from Stampin Up Tags Til Christmas and punched with the ornament punch six times.  Fold each ornament in half and glue together.  I used nylon sewing thread to hang them inside the ball.

The packaging was found at Hobby Lobby and I stamped with Holly Jolly in Marina Mist. 
Thanks for looking!
April

Storybook ornaments

I had a couple of challenging requests for the ornaments. 

Pete the cat is well...ugly.  I had no idea what to do for this one and spent a good two hours searching images.  Silly me for not asking my youngest who knows Pete and said "His snow book, mom!"  I found the image from Pete the Cat: Snow Day and printed it multiple times, and with mirror image printing.  I cut Pete shoveling snow and then cut the shovel and his head out of another print, using dimensionals to make a multi-layered image.  I did this to both sides so it didn't matter which way the ornament turned.  I added some glitter to the snow and shovel then used hot glue to get Pete to stand inside the plastic ball.  Last, I added glitter snow and mini pom-poms for snowballs. 

Next was Curious George.  I ended up finding this great image of a craft where he is hanging from balloons.  The balloons were a separate element and easy to leave out.  I shrunk the image, and printed it as I did with Pete.  I only used dimensionals on his head to make it stand out.  I used clear nylon sewing thread to make him hang from the top of the ball so he will look like he is hanging off a tree branch.  Then I added glitter snow and pom pom snow balls to the bottom, before sealing the ball with liquid glass and adding the hanging ribbon. 

Last, is Harry the Dirty Dog.  I could not find any really good images of Harry, so I used the book cover and printed it like the other ornaments.  I cut the dogs separately and added them with dimensionals, then glued the book into the ball and sealed it.  I also made a Amelia Bedelia book the same way.
I somehow missed pictures of the Giving Tree (I made an actual book with tiny pages).
Thanks for looking!
April

Cheeky Teachers

I made similar frames for teachers a few years ago.  They were such a hit, I decided to do these for my youngest child's teachers.  (Sorry for the reflection and slightly blurry pics.  They didn't look bad on the camera screen.)  The image is TGF's Cheeky Geeky, colored in copic and paper pieced.  The coordinating papers are from Bo Bunny's Shabby Princess Pep Rally line.  The chalkboard is made from kraft and basic black.  To make the woodgrain, I used my wood embossing folder, inked it then closed and rubbed firmly.  It's light, but leaves a nice grain.  I forgot to rub the "board" with my white ink, but the writing is done with a chalk writer.  The banner is made from SU Banner Blast in Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Grey and Daffodil Delight.  I punched them with the coordinating punch and mounted them on a string of baker's twine, attaching them to the frame with micro glue dots.  Thanks for looking!  April

Wish Big gift set

This is a a gift set I put together as a teacher gift from the My Paper Pumpkin July set.  I like using the kits to put together gift packet for use at the end of the school year.  I used Pool Party, Smoky Slate, and Whisper White papers along with Blackberry Bliss and Pool Party inks.  The topper is cut from the Top Note die.  The bonus, I have tons of left over stars, even after I make a little tag gift set.  Thanks for looking!  April

Teacher gifts part 4

This is the last of the teacher gifts for this year.  My son's teacher loves movies so we did a little investigating and learned a bit more about his favorites.  He really likes Redbox rentals and Reece's cups, so we put together a little movie kit.  Inside is two packs of microwave popcorn, a big bag of mini Reece's cups, and a gift certificate for Redbox rentals.  (They do not have plastic gift cards, but you can order a certificate by email and print the certificate.)  I used SN@P paper to make a holder for the gift certificate and the belly band around it.  I used the decorative label punch and the Tags til Christmas stamps on the band.  I also used a leftover piece of silver glitter (from the inside of the angel ornament's halo) to add a bit more sparkle. 
The topper of the gift is made with the ornamental die from Tim Holtz.  This also uses the SN@P papers, SU scalloped border punch, decorative label punch and SU's Endless Wishes photopolymer stamps.  Thanks for looking!  April

Teacher gifts part 3

This is theanother teacher gift for this year.  I made this at the monthly stamp club I attend.  The snowflake ornament is from SU's Festive Flurries snowflake kit.  It was very quick and easy to put together, only taking as long as the hot glue took to set up. 

We also put together the brown treat boxes with a little stamping and heat embossing.  I figured out the snowflake ornaments just barely fit inside the box and one of the ladies in my group mentioned that the left over tissue from our monthly paper pumpkin kits matched perfectly, so we added some of that as a bed for the ornament to rest on. 
I added a bit of baker's twine and a tag to finish it off.  Thanks for looking!  April

Teacher Gifts, part 2

This is for my youngest child's student teacher.  I wanted to give her a little something and I got this little box of chocolates at Hallmark when I picked up the kids' ornaments.  I used kraft and left over patterned paper from DCWV's Christmas stack.  The image is from TGF's Tea-rific photopolymer set.  (I am entering this into the TGF Farm Fresh Friday sparkle challenge.)  The image is colored in copic markers and I added accents in Sukura Stardust clear gel pen to make it sparkle.  It is around the rims, stripes, blooms, swirls and plate.  I can't get a good angle to make it pop, but you can see a bit of it in the photo below.  I cut it out using Nestabilities circle and layered it on a Nestabilities scalloped circle cut from Cherry Cobbler.  Both layers are mounted with dimensionals.  I left two sides of the base open to slide a tag in with a coffee gift card attached.  I used a little jute twine and left over ribbon to make a pull tab for the card.  Thanks for looking!  April

close up of sparkle

 

2013 Teacher gifts part 1

So my youngest has two teachers, a student teacher, and close to a dozen support staff.  Yea, that's a lot of gifts.  I decided to get his two crafty teachers the Stampin Up Stamp a Tag kit.  The box is so cute on its own that I decided to just dress it up a little.  I made paper bows from 1" strips of kraft cardstock, running it through the Paper Studio snowflakes embossing folder.  I used sticky strip to put all the pieces together and a square punch to notch the tails.  I punched the tag with the SU large tag punch and the sentiment is from Petite Pairs on Very Vanilla and stamped in Early Espresso ink.  I did one in red and one in green (not shown).  Thanks for looking!  April

Teacher mini-treat

So my youngest had extended school year to help him with his delays.  His teacher is fabulous and took the kids on several outings because they were lucky to be a very small group.  I wanted to give her and the helpers a little treat so I found these really cute treat totes on Becky's Inking Idaho blog.  She has a link to Dawn's DO stamping blog where there is a fantastic video with directions. 

I made these from Island Indigo and Calypso Coral.  The totes are inked the same colors with an Artful Inkables swirl stamp that is part of the Fictionally Yours set.  I didn't have the small oval so I used the word window punch for the handle.  I then used some spare kraft to stamp the chocolate (from SU's retired Eat Chocolate) in Crumb Cake then punched with the decorative label punch.  I also stamped the Thank You from the 25th Anniversary Favorite Sentiments set in the matching ink, then punching with the word window punch and adding it to the label.  I used the smallest punch from the crop-a-dile and used jute twine to wrap around the handles and tie off with the label.  Each tote holds four squares of chocolate. 

Be sure to visit Becky and Dawn's blogs to see what they did with the totes and thanks for looking!  April

Snowman notepads

 My daughter is in middle school and wanted something small to give each of her teacher, so here it is....a notepad with snowmen on a chalkboard.  Simple but still a nice thank you for her teachers. 
The base is Old Olive with patterned papers from DCWV.  The chalkboards are kraft and basic black and cut from a Tim Holtz die and the image is SU's Frosty Friends, stamped in Versamark and embossed in white powder.  I used a stardust gel pen to add some details.  Last is some tiny jingle bells and a small tag tied to a button with Cherry Cobbler baker's twine. 

#1 Teacher frame

This is one of the Christmas gifts I have been working on for the kids teachers.  I am also entering it into the TGF FFF Holiday Memories challenge.  I always looked forward to the class holiday party and my teachers always had something fun planned.  I love making gifts for my kids teachers even now.
I found these frames at Ikea for $1.99 each and they come in black, white or red.  The papers are Bo Bunny's Shabby Princess and Pep Rally.  The chalkboard is made with the Tim Holtz die and the "blackboard" was cut to fit inside then distressed with Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress ink before using a chalk ink writer for the board.  The image is TGF's Cheeky Geeky and is colored with copic markers using the no-line technique and paper piecing.  She also has faux pearl earrings.  Thanks for looking!  April

lip balm holders

So I am finally getting to working on teacher's gifts.  My kids have lots of helpers in their classes, so I decided to make these lip balm holders for some really cute holiday-themed lip balms I found at Big Lots (just $2 for three!).  I found the pattern on Splitcoast.
The inside is Very Vanilla and the outside is Always Artichoke or Bravo Burgundy, with layers of christmas paper from DCWV.  The ribbon is satin ribbon from Michaels, and the stamp is a retired SU set called So Many Scallops.  It is stamped in Dove Grey Staz-On and the snowflakes are stamped in Versamark and embossed with white powder.  It is punched out with the scalloped circle and mounted with dimensionals on a decorative label.  Thanks for looking!  April

Smarticle Particles

This is for TGF's Farm Fresh Friday Back to School challenge.  I decided to make a note holder to use as a teacher gift.  The dimensions are 4x6.5". 
I used a base of Very Vanilla with layers of Bo Bunny Shabby Princess Pep Rally papers and Recollections midnight blue.  The border punch is from EK Success.  The chalk board is made from the Tim Holtz movers and shapers die in kraft and basic black.  I used a craft knife to make scores and swirls in the kraft paper, then inked to give it a slight wood grain texture, inking the edges in Tim Holtz Tea Dye and Vintage Photo distress inks.  The writing on the "chalkboard" is a white chalk ink pen.  The gem apple is from Swarovski self adhesive crystals images I found on clearance at Michaels.  The image is TGF's Cheeky Geeky, colored in copic and paper pieced with coordinating Bo Bunny.  I used Clear Stardust gel pen on her glasses, then used liquid glass on the lenses.  The last touch is pearl earrings before mounting her with dimensionals. 
Inside, is coordinating Bo Bunny paper and a sticker from Bo Bunny's Back to School cardstock sticker set and a 3x3 pad of post-it notes.  Thanks for looking!  April

closed for giving

Valentine's notes

These are the treats I made for my preschooler's teachers.  They are 3x3 post-it note holders.  The paper is Calypso Coral that is run through the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  Dimensions are 3 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches.  The scallop circle is Whisper White and stamped with Jet Black Staz-On using the CTMH Little Treasures set.  I used Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Purely Pomegrante, and Wisteria Wonder inks and a blender pen to color the conversation hearts.  I punched a hole on each side of the jar, using an embroidery needle to thread the Cherry Cobbler baker's twine through.  I stamped each post-it with the conversation hearts, then used double stick tape to mount the notes in the wrap.  I folded the wraps so they would have an easel to display the image. 
Fast and simple.  Thanks for looking!  April

Space Camp!

My daughter has applied for a scholarship for NASA's Space Camp program for three years and each time has been denied.  Well, we got a surprise email earlier this week, inviting her to come to Space Academy for age 12-14 year olds.  She is beyond thrilled and as a bonus, she is missing the first week of school!  She wanted to give a card to the people who have written her recommendations over the years and here is what I came up with...

The base is retired SU Brilliant Blue and stamped with the stars from retired Way to Go in versamark.  The Real Red layer is punched using the spiral notebook border punch.  Next is a scalloped circle from nestabilities in Whisper White and a layer of Real Red that has been embossed with the dots cuttlebug folder and mounted with dimensionals.  The final layer is a NASA patch we had left over from a Girl Scout activity.  The sentiment is stamped from the retired set Rivited in Jet Black Staz On with a circle of Azure Blue, then punched with a 1 1/4" circle punch, and mounted with a dimensional.  Inside is Whisper White with coordinating spiral punch and Thank You stamped in Azure.  Thanks for looking!  April

Lion Pride

My son is finishing summer school, so I wanted to give his teachers a little treat.  I found these little brag books on clearance for just $1.50 at Michael's and decided to alter them.

The print was already on the edge with the spiral binding, so I just added the layers of black and red paper.  I used the paw print border punch from EK Success on the red layer.  The image is the cheerleading pixie from PDS and is colored in watercolor pencils and sharpie markers.  I used the oval nestabilities to cut the image.  The title is printed on stickers from Studio g and come 4 on a sheet.  I used Ravvi font and then stamped the pawprint with Blazing Red Staz-On.  Thanks for looking!  April

Teacher Thank You Cans

So, I finally got around to finishing the teacher's gifts. You simply take the fruit cans with the pop tops and flip them over and open with a can opener. I put the gift cards I posted in a previous post in, along with a little bag of yummy chocolate. Next, use some liquid glass (diamond glaze, etc.) and run a bead around the rim of the can lid. Place lid in place and weigh down so the can reseals properly. When dry, decorate can as desired.

I used Poppy Parade and Whisper White. These cans were approximately 4 1/8x9 3/4. I then ran it through the polka dot embossing folder. I then stamped the cup from Pun Fun, minus the sentiment, in Poppy Parade ink. I attached them to the can using tacky tape. Then added some white grosgrain ribbon. Next, I punched curly labels from left over paper and mounted it behind the cup stamped in Jet Black Staz-On. I colored in with Poppy Parade ink using a blender pen, then added a couple of mini pearls to the labels.

For the top of the can, I opted not to decorate the entire lid. I simply punched the scalloped circle and layered with Poppy Parade and the sentiment from the Sale-a-bration catalog. I poked little holes in each scallop for a little extra contrast. Thanks for looking! April