Bus Driver Appreciation

The other day I shared my kids' teacher gifts, and I'm back to share the cute little card we made for our bus driver.  Our bus driver meets my kids with a smile each morning and afternoon.  She has gone out of her way to make sure the kids are safe and the best part is that she picks them up and drops them off right in front of our house.  That is great for the many cold and snowy NY winter mornings.  

To show our appreciation, we made these cute bus cards.

It started with this printable I found HERE.

I took it one step further and made a card out of it with some Extra gum inside.  I love the play on words and it's so appropriate for our bus driver.

Using yellow card stock, I made a pocket to put the gum in.  I taped it in as well so it wouldn't fall out.

I taped the printable onto the front of the yellow card, cutting the bottom of the yellow card so it followed the bus shape.

My daughter wrote a cute note inside and we handed it to the bus driver the other morning.  I could see the smile on her face as she drove away.

Teacher Gifts: Thank you for helping me grow

This school year flew by.  I don't know if that's because everything was new, or because for the first time ever all of my kids were in school.  Even though school here in NY ends later than it did in PA, my kids haven't complained about still being in school the last week of June.  It might help that it's still spring like weather and not the hot and humid 80-90 degree weather we were used to at this time of year in PA.  

As usual, I like to give a little gift of my appreciation to the kids' teachers.  

This year I got my inspiration from THIS post I shared earlier on Facebook.

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I was going to get some terra cotta pots and paint them, but I found an easier alternative.  These plants were already in some cute pots and only $4 at Walmart so I snagged a few to use as is.

Just needed to add the cute saying.  I printed it out and glued it to some colorful cardstock. 

Then I taped a BBQ skewer onto the back,

And just stuck it right into the pot.

Super cute and super easy.

  

I love how they turned out.

And the saying couldn't be more true.  Especially for my pre-K guy.  He has gone from being a shy guy to such a friendly fella.  I'm so thankful for such good teachers who genuinely care about my kids and not only help them academically but socially as well.  My kids entered an unfamiliar school with zero friends, in a new neighborhood in a new state, and they have just flourished.

 Thank you teachers everywhere!

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Personalized Teacher Pencil

The end of the school year also means giving out teacher gifts.  I stop giving teacher gifts once the kids get into middle school and have a different teacher for each subject.  So just as one kid left elementary school last year, another one started, and the way my kids are spaced out, I'll be doing this for another 9 years.  Good thing there are lots of ideas on Pinterest.  Because I like to put some thought into what I get the teachers rather than just buy them a gift card to Target, that "thought" usually requires me to make something and this year is no exception.  With a little help from Pinterest, here's what my kindergartner is giving her teacher this year:

As luck would have it, I just so happened to have a piece of wood laying around.  It was roughly 9 inches long by 3.5 inches wide and an inch thick. 

The next step was to mark how I wanted it cut, cut it and then sand the rough edges.

I painted the middle section yellow.  I also did the sides and back.

Then I added some pink for the eraser and light brown for the sharpened pencil end.

Black paint was used for the tip and silver duct tape was used for the metal eraser holding part.

Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut some vinyl and applied the teacher's name to the wooden pencil.

It turned out so cute and really didn't take me that long to make.  This was one project that I was able to complete in a day.

In case you are wondering, my inspiration came from the JM Designs Etsy shop.

These pencils are cute and if you don't feel like making your own, you could always buy one.

You can check out previous years teacher gifts below if you are looking for more ideas:

Influence of a Teacher Chalkboard

Orange You Glad It's Summer

Big Cookie plus a bunch more ideas

And if you're looking for ideas on how to celebrate the last day of school, check out MY PREVIOUS POST.

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The Influence of a Good Teacher can Never be Erased

My daughter finished school on Tuesday so that means Monday night I was making her teacher's gift.  I like to have my act together and plan and prepare for things, but lately it seems like I'm barely getting by.  I've known school was ending for months and 9pm the night before I started making this.   Luckily I can always count on Pinterest to help me out.   I saw THIS cute idea and thought it would be perfect.   Here's my version below:

It was easy to put together.

Step 1:  Get a small blank chalkboard.  Mine was about 7" by 10".

Step 2:  Using my Silhouette Cameo machine, I cut out "the influence of a good teacher can never be erased" on white vinyl.

Step 3:  I used contact paper to transfer the words from the vinyl to the chalkboard. 

Step 4:  Admire your work!

My daughter has been blessed to have good teachers throughout her school years.  Each teacher has helped her learn and grow in numerous ways.  They are positive role models for her and it's no wonder when asked what she wants to be, "teacher" is the answer.  

To see other teacher gifts from past years, be sure to check out THIS post and THIS post.

You can also follow my Teacher Gifts board on Pinterest HERE.

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Manicure In A Jar

Last month was my sister's baby shower.  I already wrote about some of the cute favors (click HERE to check out that post) so today I'm finally getting around to sharing the cute prizes I made up.   I decided to use mason jars to create a "manicure in a jar".   This isn't an original idea.  I got my inspiration from Pinterest and just tweaked it to make it for a baby shower.

Since my sister is having a girl, I tried to find things that were pink or in pink wrapping to place in the jar.  I added a manicure set, tissues, hand sanitizer, gum and nail polish.  

The invitations were cut out like a baby onsie so I used that idea to create a tag to place on the mason jar.

I also spray painted the tops of the mason jars pink to pretty them up.

I also added some cotton balls at the bottom to keep things in place.  

You could easily change out the color scheme and put blue items inside for a boy baby shower.  Maybe not blue nail polish, but clear nail polish and blue gum, blue tissues, a blue lid and tag.  That would be cute too.  And let's not stop at baby shower gifts, because you could use this as a Mother's Day gift or a Teacher gift too.

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Orange You Glad It's Summer

I forgot to blog about this cute teacher gift the we gave to my son's fifth grade teacher at the end of the school year.  As with a lot of my ideas, they come from Pinterest.  This was no exception.  The original idea can be found HERE over at eighteen25.

Instead of using candies, I put some oranges inside the bag.  There are all kinds of cutesy teacher gifts, but since the Spencinator had a male teacher this year, I wanted to do something more practical.   

You can check out what the kids gave to their teachers last year in THIS post and THIS post.

Another cute idea would be to make these "Orange You Glad It's Summer" bags for the kids to celebrate the last day of school.  You could fill them with various orange colored items like gum, bubbles, chapstick, nail polish, sunglasses, a pool toy and some other fun summer stuff.

I can't believe summer vacation is half over.  We don't have any grand vacation plans so we're just having fun around the house.  This week the two older kids have been at Horse Camp and loved it.  Sweetie Pie who is now out of the princess phase and is loving horses is in heaven at this camp.  She has realized that just because we can't have a horse in our yard doesn't mean we can't have a horse, we can board it at the place where they have camp.  As for the Spencinator, animals seem to have a calming effect on him, so he loves it and would love to just pet and brush and feed the horses all day.

 

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Teacher Appreciation treat - Magnifiy your calling

This cute treat was handed out to the primary teachers at our church.  I thought it was such a cute idea, I just had to share it with you.  

What a great reminder of the potential within each one of use.
This cute treat is not only great for teachers/workers at church, but could also be given to school teachers, day care workers, camp counselors.....

Here are a few other teacher appreciation gift ideas:

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Thanks for stopping by,

Christa

One Smart Cookie Teacher Gift

The last day of school is quickly approaching.  Time to hand out our teacher gifts.

Here's the treat we made to give Sweetie Pie's teacher:

You can read about why we decided on this treat and get some other teacher gift ideas from THIS post.