A great teacher gift {A SIMPLE INFINITY SCARF} for an infinite amount of thank yous!

Let me just start out by making a disclaimer.... I am a teacher.  I have been teacher for 10 years now {oh yes, I am to that point where adults run up to me in public yelling, "You were my 6th grade teacher!!"}.  Any-who, with that said, now that I have my own littlens with teachers of their own, I like to try to make teachers' gifts usable, special, and a little unique.  This year my daughter is in preschool and between all of her "teachers" there are 12 usable, special, and unique gifts to come up with AND since I am a teacher as mentioned before, I am on a budget!

So I saw these adorable, soft, cozy infinity scarfs the other day- price tag, $12.  Not too shabby.  In fact, I thought that was a great price... then math kicked in 12 X 12... I am pretty sure I am suppose to know this math fact and it is way to close to $150, which I don't have just lying on the nightstand.  SO my wheels started turning and I thought- how hard could one of these suckers be to make- simple I am sure!  And- another disclaimer- I sew... when I need to, and I don't necessarily know what I am doing.  AND, it was even pretty simple for me.  In fact, I spent 3 hours one morning {while watching a 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old at the same time} and got all 12 done!  And my total: $27!

Basically you need 1 cut yard of fabric for every 2 scarfs.  Since all of our teachers have different personalities, I just went through the sale bin (with an additional 40% off coupon in hand) cuddling with fabrics and since I need one cut yard, I got 6 different fabrics to try to match the different personalities... and let the CUT COUNTER do the cutting- woo-hoo!  {I hate cutting fabric!}  I snapped pictures once I had the kinks worked out to share with you- I hope they help!!

(Click HERE to see this tutorial in Google Drive- you can zoom in to see each step clearly there :)

 So 12 scarfs for just under $30, not to shabby!

I made up these little tags to go with them and had them printed at Costco.  You can download the tag HERE if you are in need!

And there you have it- cute, cheap, cuddley scarves for the teachers- hope they enjoy!!

OH- and added bonus... I got the best Photo bomb ever while trying to get my hubby to snap a few pictures of the scarves... isn't she a cutie!?!  Love this picture :)

A Great DIY Teacher Gift... Heart-shaped Hand Warmers

So this is my daughter's first year of Pre-School.  Being a teacher myself, I knew I wanted to get her teachers something special and unique that didn't break the bank (especially since she has a zillion random teachers!).  I saw this super cute idea for hand warmers made from fleece and rice on Pinterest and after some image searching I finally found the original post from The Inbetween Girls for DIY Hand warmers. Since I know how chilly recess can be, I was sold.  I changed it up a bit, so here is what we (big sis got to help!) did...

From JoAnn's, I picked up a roll of fleece from the remnants bin (there are a ton of super cute fleece prints and solids this time of year), embrodery thread found by the needlepoint section, some needles that could handle the thick embroidery thred, and some cute white favor bags from the wedding section to carry them in.  In all my bill was about $10.  I also used white rice and a funnel from our pantry, a heart cookie cutter for the shape, and a fabric pen for tracing.

I laid out the fleece and traced my hearts on, four hearts for each gift.  I traced 32 hearts for the 8 teacher gifts I needed to make.

Next I cut them all out and one by one began stitching two together at a time.  I decided to use a simple hand stitch instead of the sewing machine for a few reasons... 1. I like the way the chunky thread gives an antiquey feel (plus you can tie the two ends to make cute bows this way!) 2. It seems easier to fill with rice and continue to make those last few stitches 3. It really doesn't take much longer by hand anyway.

When sewing around the edges leave about an inch to use the funnel and fill with rice.  I found I needed less than 2' of thread for each one and between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of rice.

Big sis was great help filling the hearts with rice... that was her part.  Little sis tried to help too... by chewing on the funnel!

Once they were filled with rice, I finished stitching, tied it off with a knot, then tied a cute bow with the two thread ends.

And since I am addicted to chalkboard word creations (just check out my Printables page, lol!) I made a cute little poem and gift tag to tie onto the wedding favor bags.  They are 4X6 and can just be printed onto index cards.  I printed mine on the front and back, cutting them apart to get two tags per index card.  Click below to get the free printable file!

She is taking in her little gifts tomorrow... I hope her teachers enjoy them!

 

What is your favorite handmade gift?  I'd love to hear and see about your creations this year! 

Linking up...

Santa Gift Tags... for those Special Gifts from the North Pole

I am just having too much fun creating Christmas printables... the latest???  Special tags from Santa himself!  Just take a look... they come directly from the North Pole!  And of course, they are only for good boys and girls!

These are 4X6 prints designed to be printed directly onto 4X6 postcards.  Click on the "boy" or "girl" tag above to download for free!  Enjoy :)

Christmas Gift Tags... Peach, Magenta, & Teal, Oh my!

I have been playing around with those oh so fun Christmas gift tags again.  I love these colors together, how about you!?  To download the free PDF, just click on the picture above!  Enjoy :)