It's kind of my rule of thumb. For some of you, it's "don't pay full price." For me, it's, "When you don't have any money, make it special." I'm Jake's room mom. I love, love, love our teacher, but I have had a terrible time getting group support from our parents. For our teacher appreciation week, I asked 16 parents to send in $3 for a group gift. Four (4) responded. That includes me. Sigh. There just isn't a lot of "wow" out there for only $12. Time to be creative.
My first order of business is to cruise my blog collection and see what ideas are out there that have really "wowed" me. There are a ton, but I also always wait until the last minute, and needed supplies mostly on hand. I decided that flowers/plants are always good, so I would start there. I painted a small pot red on the bottom and the top and then tried to stamp on it. Disaster. I painted it again and used ribbon. Pretty cute, right? Love this so far.
God bless Nicole Heady — bring out the PTI Teacher set and make a cute tag to pop out of the top of the plant. Perfection.
Now, onto the candle, which I scored buy one, get one free at Hallmark (two sons + two teachers = great deal). I jazzed it up to match. I think it's visually top heavy, but I love the pom poms, so I decide this is good enough.
Most precious part. I don't know where I got this idea from… dare I say, it's mine?! While I was covering the teacher luncheon, I asked each child to hold up a blank sheet of paper and let me take their picture. When I got home, I used Photoshop to type letters over the blank papers so that it appeared that they were spelling out a word. This is a great idea for "happy birthday" or "good luck" or whatever — if you can get your kids to do the same thing. You can pull together great last minute photos that look like the entire family was involved.
We're almost to the end of the school year.. what did you make? Still looking for ideas? Check out what I've found around the Blogosphere…
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I absolutely love these gifts! As a teacher, I give it an A+! Also, I have to say that something like the photo means much more to a teacher than any monetary gifts. I’m sure she’ll love it all!
Oh, Susanna, been there, done that! I was homeroom Mom for my youngest son’s kindergarten class and know what you mean! The package you pulled together is just awesome!
Wow! These are all fabulous and I *love* that photo/card idea. What a phenomenal gift for the teacher!
Oh my gosh – all of this is wonderful, but the pictures with the kids, completely BRILLIANT!!!! Having the idea to have them hold a BLANK paper rather than trying to coordinate the saying at the time, soooo smart. I am in awe!
This is gorgeous Susanna! Great job making that $12 stretch!
what sweet gifts though!!! Fantastic job!!!
Susanna, It’s a shame that so many of the parents don’t care, but the teacher is so very lucky that she has one of your sons in her class! You have definitely made this very special. My favorite part is the photo!
SUSANNA!!!!! OMG – seriously YOU totally ROCK!!! I mean HOLY WOW!!!! What a great idea! You totally packed all kinds of WOW into $12! LOVE that idea with the blank paper – see that is true genius…!! I would have been there trying to have them hold up letters and coordinate it all!! You are SO genius girlie!!! I am sure that the teacher just LOVED it!!!
you are an inspiration!!! lots of love,
Sankari
Your projects are fantastic. You are so creative. I love the pompom ribbon around the lid of the candle too. Your son’s teacher is going to be so thrilled to receive those gifts. Well done!
xoxo, Christine
Oh my goodness, this is such an awesome idea. I especially love the children’s picture holding up the papers. How sweet and thoughtful.
These are AWESOME!! You should include yourself in the Best of… this week!