teacher gifts

School is officially out for summer!!! It's been a crazy week with soccer, dance and gymnastics all ending along with the last week of school. We also had my son's pre-K graduation last night which was *so* cute. I managed to make it through the night without crying (I started to tear up a little but I made it stop!)

Before I share some of the school pics, I thought I'd share the teacher gifts that I made this year. Maybe some of you who still have kids in school can find some inspiration from them :)

Here's what each of the teachers and parapro's got from the kids:

The buckets I found at Target in the dollar section (don't you LOVE that they added that section to the store???) Added some red grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up).

Here's what's inside:

Post-it note books made with 4x4 square coasters that I picked up here (but you could easily use chipboard). Paper is Summer Picnic (retired) from SU!. Stamp set is Tart & Tangy (perfect for teacher gifts and summer projects!!) And it's held together using my Bind-it-all.

I adhered the paper with Elmer's craft bond glue stick. I use a glue stick with projects like this to make sure the paper's not going to come off. Hobby Lobby sells it for $1.99 and it really works. When it was dry I sanded the edges (away from the paper) to give a nice finish and to keep the paper from lifting up.

Small decorated legal pads, these ones are 5x8 (12 for $6 at Staples). Unfortunately they didn't fit in the buckets. I was looking for smaller ones but couldn't find them. I got the idea for decorating them on Becky Higgins' blog recently (5/12 post). And who can't use an extra notebook?

Altered jumbo paperclips (6 for $1 at Walmart):

(they're decorated front and back)

Gift card holders:

These ones are similar to the ones in this post. I didn't have time to do stitching on each one so instead I used a staple on each side to hold the ribbon on and it helped hold the gift card closed as well (and it looks cute!).

And a little card that my kids filled out for each of their teachers:

I found some inexpensive gift bags at Walmart and put each bucket and notebook inside the gift bag. That way it was easier to transport them to school.

I also made up a few extra notebooks and post-it note books to give to the principal, asst principal & nurse (because my child visits the nurse a lot!). What was great about all of these projects is that I was able to use up all of my scraps I had leftover from this paper pack! And most of the supplies I had on hand.

That's it for now :)