Pursuit of Craftyness: Teacher Appreciation & More!

It's that time...time for the kids to start wrapping up the end of school with tests, cleaning out their lockers and desks, bringing home endless papers, art work, supplies and more.

Before everything is done...I think it's a perfect time to take a minute to thank those special teachers. All those classroom teachers, special education teachers, reading teachers, librarians, office assistants, dance teachers and I'm sure you can all help me name many more!

We're excited to kick off our Teacher Appreciation post to let you know that all this week...Imaginisce has so generously sponsored us with their adorable Teacher's Pet new line! The line has something in it for everyone. Cute paper with ruler designs, hopscotch papers, glossy chipboard stickers, rubons that are tops in my book and the sweetest matching brads and stamps!

We'll be showcasing Imaginisce's new line all this week with ideas for gifts, cards, layouts and more! And I might just have some goodies to offer up...so don't a miss a post!

Notebook & Pen Set

By: Stacey Stamitoles

Teacher's Pet Collection:
PP = Wipe That Up Stickers = I Love School Glossy Chipboard
Flowers = Grade A Mix
Brads = A+ Epoxy Brads

Other:
Notebook, Pen

Back to School Card
By: Melanie Douthit

Teacher's Pet Collection:
PP = (No) Passing Notes
Stickers = I Love School Glossy Chipboard stickers
Ribbon = Recess Ribbons

Best Teacher Book
by Jessica Witty

Teacher's Pet Collection:
PP = When's Recess?, (No) Passing Notes
Stamps = Snag 'em Stamps (Best Teacher, Crayons)
Ribbon = Recess Ribbons

Other:
Cardstock = Vanilla (Stampin' Up)
Ink = Dark Brown Chalk Ink (Clearsnap)
Marker = Real Red (Stampin' Up)
Baker's Twine = Martha Stewart
Buttons, Hole punch, Slit punch, Corner Rounder punch

This little gift book came about as I was trying to wrap Eli's teacher gifts (a set of bracelets). I measured the pp to make the spine wide enough to hold the bracelet set plus a folded piece of cardstock to serve as the pages. I attached the pages by setting the cardstock in the spine, punching a tiny hole on each end, then threading some twine through and tying it inside the pages. This worked really well as I was able to do all the writing and Eli was able to decorate his pages before we put the pages in the book. For the pages, I had Eli tell me something special about his teacher on the front page, he drew them a picture on the middle pages, and I wrote a thank you note on the last page. The best part was Eli saying that his favorite thing about Ms.Danielle is that she calls him "sweetie pie!"

To hold the bracelets, I cut a layer of cardstock to fit the back cover, punched two slit holes near the top, and threaded a piece of ribbon through the holes to tie around the bracelets. The ribbon that ties the book closed is adhered between the layers of pp on the front of the book and the layer of cardstock on the back of the book. We made three gifts, so to tell them apart I punched some pp circles, wrote the names on them, then ran them through my tiny Xyron to make "stickers" out of them. Stuck those on the backs of the bag and Eli was able to give the right one to each teacher!

Teacher Clipboard & Smartie Jar
By: Julia Sandvoss

Teacher's Pet Collection:
PP = Welcome to Room 10, My New Pencil Box, Number Cruncher Rubons= Chalkboarders
Stamps = Snag 'em Stamps (Best Teacher)
Ribbon = Recess Ribbons
Rubons = Chalkboarders

Other:
Ink = Dark Brown Chalk Ink (Clearsnap)
Basic Grey Alpha Sticker, Marvy Uchida Mega Scallop Circle Punch, Giga Circle Punch

Clipboard
Bo Bunny Ribbon
Candy Jar (anything will work really!)
Plaid Mod Podge
Buttons

Trace shape of clipboard "clip" onto paper...trim out to fit around. Add a light coat of Mod Podge to clipboard and paper...adhere together smoothing out paper. Cut out additional papers to decorate board. Personalize with alphabet stickers for name. Stamp onto paper. Add rubons to bottom of clipboard. To ensure a long life for the clipboard..I also recommend one to two light coats of Mod Podge. Apply the second coat only after the first has dried completely. This is a teacher favorite!

For the candy jar cut papers to fit. Ink edges and adhere. Type out (or print) message in Microsoft Word. Some suggested ideas:

-Thanks to you I'm not a Dum Dum (fill with Dum dum suckers)
-Because of you I'm a real Smartie (fill with Smarties candies)
-Thanks to you...I'm not an Airhead! (fill with Airhead candies)

and for really any occasion

-You're a real Lifesaver (yep...you guessed it..Life Saver candies!)

Last..adhere to papers and adhere to lid.