Holiday Gifts for Teachers

For years, my go-to gift for teachers has been an L.L. Bean tote bag, monogrammed with their last name ~ we have dozens of them in the Felt So Cute house and use them for everything.  However, for the first time, I’m faced with the double-whammy of one teacher with a hyphenated name and another that exceeds the monogramming allowance!

So I’m stepping outside the box and getting a little more creative this year {and if by some chance our terrific teachers have found their way to my Blog, please act extra surprised as The Cuties are very excited about your presents!}.

As a former teacher and administrator, I’ve always tried hard to stay away from apple tchotchkes and #1 teacher ornaments, so we settled on a gift for each teacher and a gift for them to use in their classroom.

First, each girl has chosen a specific color satin and I’ve made them flower pins from my Etsy shop.  Listening to them debate and discuss the color choices has been most entertaining, and thank goodness we have a stash of about 25 different colors!

For Little Cutie’s 1st grade teacher, I came up with a new project that has all sorts of ideas stirring in my head and is SO easy you won’t believe it.

As always, start with your supplies:

a basic picture frame {try to find one without any beveling and with a wide edge ~ I bought this one at Michael’s from the 40% off section}

several boxes of new crayons {I always buy up a ton at Walmart during Back-to-School sales when the 24-count boxes are $0.25 each, so I can use them for projects or goody bags throughout the year}

hot glue gun

small saw

fine grit sandpaper

Pick a corner and start gluing your crayons, stacked tightly together to the edge of the frame {don’t worry about those little tendrils of glue ~ you can pick those off later once they cool down}.

At some point whole crayons will no longer fit.  Make a pencil mark on your crayon where it needs to be cut, and then take a small hand saw for a clean{ish} cut.

You may get a slightly rough edge, but you can very easily smooth this down with a few swipes of some fine grit sandpaper.  Continue gluing and cutting and gluing until you fill the entire frame edge.

Box it up, and tie with a big bow!

And just because it’s been such a cool find, I want to share what we’re getting Big Cutie’s 3rd grade teacher.  I stumbled upon this new game at Whole Foods the other day and brought it home for us to try out as a family.  We’ve had so much fun that I bought it for her teacher, who I know will love it, as math games are her “thing.”  Even though the recommended age is 9+, both Cuties have been doing AWESOME with it, and Cute Husband and I really enjoy playing it with them.  It will be an easy toy to slip in my purse for a restaurant or airplane, too!

I’d love to hear what you’re planning on doing for teachers this year, so leave me a comment and tell me your clever ideas!

And while I still need to figure out gifts for our fabulous Principal, office staff and specials teachers, I have to share the little silly I found for our hilarious librarian.  She was also a child of the 80s, so I know she’ll appreciate this 🙂

Cracks me up every time I look at it.

 

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