Teacher's Christmas Gifts - Sharpie Mugs

We've been decking the halls with boughs of holly! So sorry I have been away for a bit. My regular blogging schedule will resume in January 2015. 

But I'm popping in today to share the teacher gifts my 4th grader created. My daughter is very much into art. I thought it would interest her to put her skills to work - and it really did!

Sharpie mugs are all over Pinterest. I have a board dedicated to teacher gift ideas. Please check it out and follow me to stay abreast of these great ideas. 

To get started all you need are plain white mugs from dollar tree, an oil-based Sharpie set, alcohol pads, alpha-stickers (vinyl or cardstock) and your oven. The mugs are HARD to find (but you can order online) I visited several in the area and struck out most of the time.

1. Clean your mug surface with the alcohol pad, let dry
2. Draw your design, sign the bottom of the cup
3. Place mugs on a baking sheet and bake for 40 mins at 425 degrees
4. let cool and instruct the teachers to hand wash (no dishwasher)

5. You can include a tasty treat inside. We used gourmet hot chocolate bought in bulk from Sams Club

My daughter really got into it after a while and created something special for each teacher.

For this mug we used a cardstock die cut from basic grey applied with Xyron. Once all the dots are on, remove the letter and follow the directions above to bake. This one was for a male gym teacher.

Here's how we packaged these lovely creations. I am thinking about get cellophane and a bow to complete to look. What have you gifted to the teachers?

La-Vie

Crazy for Craft Fantastic

What to give the teachers, bus driver, etc for Christmas?? It's always a big guessing game. I have made homemade greeting cards, given wine, etc. But I wanted to do something different this year. Then I remembered I had a hoard of Craft Fantastic jewelry supplies!!

Score! My daughter (who's in 3rd grade) was able to make her own teacher's gifts and I made my son's day care teacher gifts. Here's what we came up with using some of the images Craft Fantastic had at their booth and others were from Tim Holtz vintage Christmas cardstock and DCWV cardstock.

There's a variety of styles of pendants, chains, bracelets, etc. If you see this company at a craft fair, check 'em out! It's definitely worth an online order if you cannot go see them in person. They have kits and carry the right glue and jewelers dots adhesive to make your custom jewelry in a snap!

Zora made her music teacher a large oval pendant with the sheet music to Joy to the World in it. That tickled her teacher to no end. She even pulled out a magnifying glass to make sure all the words were in there! LOL

I decided to stick to botanical images and such for the daycare workers so they could wear their creations all year long. We figured that the teachers would only be able to were theirs during the Christmas holiday. I love the long rectangle pendants!

Once I ran out of chains, I started making adjustable rings. I made extra for the daycare because it's my son's last Christmas in daycare and I wanted to thank all they people who had a hand in his care over the past 4 years. They were blown away by my gratitude and generosity. Giving from the heart is the BEST!

Well, I hope you too will go crazy for craft fantastic! In the meantime, tell me... what have you given to teachers for Christmas?

La-Vie

Teacher Christmas Gifts - Homemade Christmas Three

Here are a few more of the Teacher gifts. I used the Cricut Cartridge wild card and the cricut expression die cutting maching from Provocraft. It can be difficult to decide how to create the cards and envelopes at the right size. I used an online guide to help me create everything at the correct size. Most envelopes are cut using the fit-to-page function. Write down the size that flashes across the screen just before the cutting begins. Set the size of the card based on the size that the envelope cut at and it will fit the envelope.

I like to add ribbon to my cards to give it an extra special look. Double - sided card stock gives the cards and envelopes a more coordinated and finished look. One of the brands used is called coordinations. It has a dark color on one side and a light color on the other. When distressed or embossed, ripped etc. the light color shows on the dark side for a great effect as well.

I've started playing with colors and patterns in a new way (for me). I have been traditional in the past and more afraid of mixing too much color or too many patterns. I'm trying to be more courageous with color and pattern selections. Tomorrow I will post my favorite card of the bunch!

La-Vie

Teacher Christmas Gifts - Homemade Christmas Too

Today, I wanted to share more of the cards I made for the teachers. No 2 packs were the same. I'm so pleased with this work. But now I have to top it next time.

I used the Cricut Cartridge wild card and card stock from the following brands: Die Cuts With a View, Bazzill, Coordinations and other interesting papers. I used stickles glitter glue in crystal to give the "o happy day" card a little bling and I added various sizes of bling to the flower card envelope. The opaque white pen I used for the doodling on the flower card is from inkssentials. More tomorrow....

La-Vie

Teacher Christmas Gifts - Homemade Christmas

And then there were 8! I'm so glad to have more followers today than yesterday! Ok so on to the crafting!

I have a bit of an obsession with collecting Cricut cartidges. I have so many that I have not really dug into what each has to offer. As a challenge to myself, I set out to make every card on the Cricut wild card cart (one of my favs!)

What started out as a cool idea to learn about a cart and to create a card stash became gifts for my children's teachers. I decided to create 5 to 7 unique blank cards to give to each teacher for their personal use throughout 2011. Sounds reasonable right?

Although this labor of love was time consuming, I was really feeling good about it. Then I got worried... I was trying to thank the teachers by giving them a gift that they would not untimately keep. What kind of gift is that??? I was pleasantly surprised that everyone went nuts over the cards. I discovered it's the kind of gift that keeps on giving. Our family gives to theirs and they can share it with those they love and receive love back. priceless and not the run of the mill gift.

While I didn't take a picture of all of the cards, I did snap a few of my favorites. How do you like them? I packaged the cards in a cello bag and topped it with a card I made using another favorite Cricut cartridge -create a critter. The sentiment "Joy" is cut from Cricut Cartridge joys of the season.

La-Vie