A Crafty Christmas

Okay, so I have been meaning to, wanting to, trying to do this post for the last two Christmasses! I waited so late last year to show some of the cute Christmas crafts I did in 2011, that I decided I would just share them at Christmas 2012. Because surely by then I'd have a better handle on a regular blogging schedule & be more disciplined & regimented about it...right, right. But darn if I didn't let another Christmas happen & not have the time to blog about it. Well, no more excuses, you may see me posting Christmas crafts or our Christmas celebrations in June, but so be it, c'est la vie!

Ahem. So I actually do really enjoy being crafty, especially around holidays. I love making gifts & decorations, but apparently I have yet to figure out a way to balance time spent doing with time spent blogging (which is important to me simply as a means of scrapbooking & remembering. I know no one in blog-land is going to suffer because I didn't post a craft ;-)

Here's a little look at some of the decorations & gifts I have made the last couple of years. I especially love when decorations & gifts intermingle...in other words, I love making cute ornaments & what-not for teachers & classmates.

Last year Jack's class did an ornament exchange for Christmas. The girls & I had just been to a sweet Christmas tea where they made adorable "I Spy" ornaments, so we decided to do the same thing for Jack's exchange. We filled a clear glass ball (the clear acrylic ones work great for younger kids who may drop them!) with a couple different kinds of fake snow, one iridescent  one not. (You can also add in a little white rice for weight, if needed, but we didn't do that on this one.) Then we searched around for some tiny objects to put inside to "spy"...we came up with a LEGO, a googly eye, a cap eraser, a bead, a paperclip & an aqua shell (which actually was a sequin shaped like a shell, a little tricky!) We topped it off with a ribbon & tied on a little tag listing the items to search for. We then wrapped the ball in red tissue & put that in a cello bag on a cushion of fat marshmallows, just for fun! An ornament & an activity all in one!

Last year I was in charge of helping with Drew's 2 year old preschool class Christmas party. I wanted to do a little non-candy gift for each of the children, so I decided to make each child a personalized ornament. I found these cute smooshed round ornaments at Michaels (I say "smooshed" because they are not balls, but are a little flattened.) They are also unbreakable plastic, which is perfect for the preschool set. I wanted a simple, non-messy filling, so I decided to use yarn! I bought red & green yarn of various shades & textures & just stuffed several long strands down into the ornaments. I then used a paint pen to write each child's name on one side of the ornament & the year on the back. Once again, I tied each one up with a cute ribbon & packaged them in clear cello bags on a little cloud of mini-marshmallows. I had also found some cute felt cut-out Christmas tree ornaments on clearance at Target, so I tied one of those to each of the bags using a little left-over yarn. Very simple, but tres cute! 

Here are a few of the teacher gifts that I made last year...I purchased the clear hand soap from Trader Joes (because I like the shape of the bottles & the labels peel off fairly easily!) After removing the labels, I printed out a monogram for each of the teachers onto transparency sheets using a laser printer (ink jet printers won't work for this because the ink will run.) Then you just cut out the monogram, roll it up, & stick it down inside of the bottle of soap. Use the stem of the pump to kind of push the monogram up against the wall & position it nicely & voila! Pretty monogram hand soap that can be refilled & used over & over again! (I have been using mine for dish soap at my kitchen sink for over 2 years now!) Oh, I just found the original tutorial I used to make these monogram hand soaps here! It includes the downloadable monogram circle template that I used. (You add in whatever letters you would like in your own word processing program.)
For some of the teacher gifts (With 4 kids in school/preschool we have a lot of teachers to cover, but they are ALL worth it!) I purchased cute little white serving bowls (you can find great ones at Homegoods) & added the hand soap, a rolled up red hand towel & a gift card to a fun local jewelry shop. 

This Christmas found me making more ornaments, this time for Darcy's class. Once again I used the acrylic, non-breaking ornaments, but this year I found a cool new square shape at Michaels. For the filler I used fake snow (this was a little messy filling 18 ornaments!) & red & white large glitter...it was kind of like big glitter or small confetti. (I found it one year at Hobby Lobby near the Christmas glitter.) This year I used my Cricut to cut each child's initial out of sticky vinyl. I used a cheerful Christmas green color & used two different fonts...a curly one for the girls & a straighter one for the boys. I then topped them off with, you guessed it, ribbon! And a little tag so I could write each child's name on the back. I thought they turned out really well!

I was responsible for helping to plan Darcy's class Christmas party this year. The parents wanted to all contribute towards a class gift for the teachers. One mom knew that the teachers had mentioned wanting to get iPads, so we collected enough to gift each teacher the base cost for a new iPad-mini! (What an awesome & generous class we have!!) To go along with the cash, I made "Apple" trees for each of the teachers. I took a lovely potted rosemary plant & decorated it with lots of cute "apples"...an ornament made from a photo of each child in the class. I backed the photos with cute scrapbook paper & glittered the edges. Using the cute little IKEA standing picture frames (I love these frames, they have SO many uses!) I made a little sign for each "apple" tree. The trees made lovely centerpieces on the food tables at the Christmas party. During the party I presented the gifts to the teachers by reading a little poem I had written about them...I talked about how they are the "apples" of our "i"...and ended by saying we hoped they would use the money to get their own iPad-minis. It was very sweet & I think the teachers were very touched! 

Darcy's class also attends 5 enrichment classes each week, like science, fitness, art, drama and so on. I think the teachers of those special classes are often overlooked around the holidays since parents have little-to-no interaction with them. We thought it would be nice to remember each "specials" teacher with a card & very small gift card to Target. For the cards, I used my Cricut to cut out skinny Christmas tree shapes. I glued 3 trees onto each card. I took the cards to school at lunch one day & as the children finished eating, they each stamped a thumbprint "ornament" onto the trees. I wrote each child's name at the top of their print (sort of like an ornament hook.) Inside the cards I wrote a simple, yet personal note to each teacher giving thanks for all they do to teach our kids each week. I gave the cards to the classroom teachers to pass along to the "specials" & then they took it even a step further. The whole class went around hand-delivering the cards to each teacher, presenting the gifts while serenading them with a Christmas song. I think all of the enrichment teachers were very touched by this simple little gesture! I love spreading Christmas cheer!

For the elementary kids' teachers, I tried to think a little bit practical this year. We generally give a gift-card along with a little something personal to go with it. I had seen on Pinterest the idea of giving paper plates as a cute gift with the expression, "Let us do the dishes tonight!" I love it! So I picked up some festive plates, napkins & cutlery (I actually bought a value pack of red plastic cutlery & divided it up into cello bags...about 8-10 place settings per bag.) I wrote this little poem (& put it in my favorite IKEA frames again!)

The holidays are so busy,

time is always tight!

We would love to take

something off of your plate,

so please let us

do the dishes one night!

I tucked the gift card & plastic cutlery into these cute white tins from IKEA & monogrammed them with vinyl letters cut out on the Cricut. I love gift wrapping that is pretty & also useful, so I was thrilled to find these "beauty-full" burlap bags at Homegoods. I packaged everything up inside of the bags & as a bonus, they were super easy to carry! 

Last, just a bit of randomness...
Last year Darcy's preschool teacher gave her the photos (top left) spelling out her name in found objects...so cool! (Especially considering that we started that project 2 summers ago, but never finished finding letters to photograph!)
Top right::A cute hand towel that Darcy made last year in her preschool class. 
Bottom left "Santa Hat" fruit kebabs that I made for Darcy's class party this year. Actually, my mom did all the work assembling the kebabs for me, thanks mom! I think they turned out super cute with the strawberry & marshmallow "Santa hat"...and you know if you put anything on a stick, kids will eat it, so they were a hit! 

Whew, well I think that wraps up my Christmas craftiness for a good two years! Hope that you have enjoyed it & perhaps have been inspired for some craftiness of your own! 

A Bit Crafty!

Do you find yourself during the school year always meaning to get projects done, but the between homework & the sports practices & the church commitments & the parties & on & on...your projects get pushed further down the priority list? Do you find yourself saying, I'll do that next week, next month, after the holidays, when school  is out!!

I enjoy being creative. It is part of the reason that I blog because it gives me a little creative outlet. I also enjoy making & doing & having a final product to touch. But I also realize that life is intensive with little ones & God is reminding me each day that it isn't about my to-do list. I am learning each day a bit more about sacrificing self & putting others first, just like I'm always trying to teach my kids!

Okay, I know this is supposed to be a crafty post...SO while God is constantly refining my heart & teaching me joy in putting others ahead of myself...He also has given me a desire to create & a joy in working on a task & making something pretty.

So, finally this summer I have had an odd hour here & there to be a little crafty! And at this stage in life, I will take a little project when I can get it!

Right after school let out, Sophie & Darcy each were invited to a little friend's birthday party. We needed to get presents one day & I didn't make it to Target, but I was near Michael's so I took the kids in...I actually was there to find some cute flowers to make into hair bows for my girls. On our way into the store we couldn't miss the huge bin of flip-flops right on the sidewalk & inspiration struck! I have seen people make those cute flip-flops decorated with ribbon & flowers. Well, I love any excuse to buy more ribbon...so we grabbed a couple pairs of flip flops & picked out several spools  (okay, more like 17) of coordinating ribbon from the clearance bin. Did I mention that the first party started in about 2 hours...

So after finishing my shopping, we sped home & I whipped-up (or rather knotted) these cute flip-flops!

I hot-glued flowers to hair clips & clipped those onto the shoes...she can take the flowers off to use for a hair-bow if desired!

I also had some cute tattoo type stickers & Sophie picked out a cute butterfly for the heel. 

We had another little present for the friend, so I used the flip-flops as sort of a "bow" on the wrapped package. 

Then I raced off to take Sophie to the party & left the kitchen looking a little like this...

Not your run-of-the-mill kitchen mess & Jeff figured out right away that I didn't have dinner ready when he walked in the door!

A few days later, Darcy helped me choose the ribbons to use for her friend's birthday present.

She also chose the cute pink heart jewels for the center of the flowers.

Here are the flip-flops tucked into the side pocket of a lap desk

For Darcy's little friend, we got her a cute lap desk & filled it with all sort of summer craft goodies...chenille pipe cleaners, googly eyes, foam stickies, jewels & more...hopefully hours of summer fun!

If you couldn't tell from the shoes, I've gotten a little into making flower hair-bows this summer! This isn't the best angle, but here is Darcy sporting a cute purple flower bow.

Here's another flower bow clipped onto a headband for Lucy.

Over the past few weeks, we have also been able to tackle a few home decor projects that have been sitting in the garage mocking us for months!

 I had a two nice canvases that I no longer liked the prints on them. I purchased this square one on clearance at Target several years ago.

 This was another sale purchase somewhere. Both of these used to hang in the girls' room, but I really didn't love them.

I fell in love with this blue spray paint color & used it way back in April to paint a lamp for Lucy's room.

I love this shade of blue with the green of the nursery, so I decided to also paint the two canvases the same blue. After two coats on the square canvas, I realized it wasn't covering the original images, so the projects were put on hold until we could buy some spray primer. And as often happens when you start a project & have to put it on hold for one reason or another...life got in the way, and so the canvases sat in the garage half painted for 2 months...until, we planned Lucy's baby dedication & luncheon! 

Jeff & I joke that I host parties just so that we will get stuff done around the house! (But it isn't really a joke.) There is nothing like people coming to your house to provide some much needed project completion motivation!

So the week before the dedication, despite temps near 100 degrees, we (where we=Jeff) spent several evenings spray painting this & that...I kept finding more things to add to the "to be painted" pile!

But I gotta say, I {love} the end result! A sweet art work wall for Lucy's room! 

Jeff sprayed the canvases blue.  I free-hand painted Lucy's name onto the big canvas & then I decoupaged an "L" that I cut out of scrapbook paper onto the smaller one. I had originally planed to paint a cute little bird & birdcage along with Lucy's name, but ran out of time...and now I kind of like the simplicity of just the name...but if I get bored I can always go back & paint more later. 

I found the fancy little shelf thing hiding unused in my office & we painted it white, as well as a clearance frame from Michael's that I bought to frame the Kandinsky circles painting that Sophie did at school this year. The cute little vase originally had an ugly mottled green finish & I had actually put it in our donate pile when I realized a little two-tone spray paint job would give it new life! And now, I told Jeff that just walking by the room & seeing this grouping up on the walls makes me smile! Yay, for completed projects!

But wait, there's more...

My dad is great for finding treasures, especially of the old furniture variety. A while back I asked him to be on the look-out for some interesting chairs that I could re-do. He came through with this chair in desperate need of some TLC.

Jeff really wanted to fix the feet of the chair to make them even, but I liked them as-is (not to mention I'm impatient & wanted just to paint & be done!) Nevertheless, the chair sat & sat in our garage for at least 6-8 months...I found some cute brown & white zebra fabric way back before Lucy was born. Then we finally bought some very light blue spray paint...

 And voila! Finished up just in time for Lucy's baby dedication luncheon!

I love the way it turned out & am thinking of looking for some dark brown furry fabric to use on the seat in the fall & winter months...just to change it up a bit!

Now I'm hoping we can carry this momentum into the fall to keep the sanding dust flying & the spray paint flowing! We still have quite a few more "projects" hanging out in our garage waiting for their turn to shine...a chest of drawers to be spruced up for the girls, a desk for Jack's room, a low dresser/console that I hope to use for storage in our office, and all shapes & sizes of shelves. For now though, I am content & thankful & will savor that great "job finished" feeling as long as I can!

Movie Night Teacher Gifts

In addition to all the end-of-year festivities, last week we also celebrated Teacher Appreciation week for Darcy's class. We have truly been blessed that all of our children have had wonderful teachers this year (and actually every year thus far, praise God!) It is so fun to bless the teachers for loving & teaching our children all year! Another mom & I had the privilege of doing a little something fun for Darcy's teachers last Friday. She brought them a yummy lunch to enjoy after class & with it being a Friday night, I had the idea to put together little "home movie night" kits for them. 

I thought they turned out pretty cute! I picked up the cute popcorn containers from the dollar spot at Tar-jay! I added in a couple of packages of microwave popcorn, a box of candy and a cute envelope with $5 inside...I had wanted to give each teacher a $5 Red Box gift card, but turns out Red Box doesn't do gift cards, or if they do, I couldn't find them. Then I used clip art to create a little tag, wrapped it all up in cello paper & tied it with a cute bow. Ta-da! For a more substantial gift, you could always tuck in a little gift card for pizza, too. 

Other than gift cards, here are a few other cute & simple ideas for showing teacher appreciation:

A scented candle with a card thanking them for "letting their light shine" (Matthew 5:16)

Personalized hand soap or hand sanitizer

Ask the teachers for a classroom "wish list", place a basket in the room (or outside the door) & let parents bring in items to stock the room.

Books for the class library

A monogrammed tote basket filled with little presents for the summer (books, magazines, flip flops, nail polish, jewelry, etc.)

Having each child in class bring in a flower for the teacher to create a lovely bouquet..."Thanks for helping our kids bloom!"

A potted plant that they can enjoy in the classroom or plant at home

A heartfelt handwritten note of thanks to the teacher 

Personalized stationery/note pads/calling cards (Vistaprint.com is a great source for these...hundreds of options & great prices!)

I know I'm a little late to the dance for this year, but I love stocking up on good ideas for the future...
So what other fun things have you done for teacher appreciation??