2011 April | Skip To My Lou

Archive for April, 2011

Apple Gift Sack {teacher appreciation}

posted by cindylouh on April 21st, 2011 | teacher appreciation, teacher appreciation gifts, teacher appreciation ideas, teacher appreciation sayings |

hi everyone! i'm kelly from according to kelly. if we haven't met already, i'm a cherry coke drinking abstaining, crushed ice loving, world-traveling, bike riding, apron wearing, snowboarding, fabric obsessed, marathon training, sparkle skirt wearing, surprisingly shy triathlete, REAL orange county housewife & mama of 3, with ADD crafting tendencies & an MBA degree.

saying "thank you" can be quick, easy, creative & (best of all) cheap. this year we are thanking our teachers for being the "apple of my eye" with supplies from around our home. & the best part? the kids can help make this fun project!

step one:

gather your supplies... a paper bag, red paint, green paper (or even green fabric), raffia (ribbon or even string), & something yummy to fill your "apple" with.

step two:

paint your bag red. i happen to be a spray paint junkie (it's quick, easy, & dries super quick), but you can use any red paint. you just want to remember to leave the top two inches of the bag au natural (or rather brown) for the "stem."

step three:

cut out two leaves from your green paper or fabric, then tape or glue the leaves together at a cute angle to give it a little more "flair." & finally punch a hole through your leaves for "stringing purposes."

step four:

fill your "apple" with something yummy. fresh baked cookies, snack sized candies, or my favorite filling... homemade candy coated, almond crunching multi-chocolate drizzled popcorn. can you say yum-o?!

step five:

string your leaves on your chosen raffia, ribbon or string, cinch the paper bag, & tie a bow near (or as close as possible) to the bottom of the "steam."

step six:

& finally, if you're feeling really fancy... print out THIS free "you've been the apple of my eye" printable & attach.

Don't miss all these wonderful teacher appreciation ideas.

Updating...

6 Comments

How to make cupcakes in a jar {teacher appreciation}

posted by cindylouh on April 20th, 2011 | teacher appreciation, teacher appreciation gifts, teacher appreciation ideas, teacher appreciation sayings |

Hey Skip to My Lou fans! It's Cheryl, aka TidyMom and I'm so excited to be here today........I mean, Cindy IS kind of "a big deal" ya know, and I'm just flattered to be here to share my take on a teacher appreciation gift! Baked goods are what I usually use to ~~bribe~~ show my love and appreciation to others, so it only seemed fitting to work with cupcakes today.......

Cindy & Cheryl

I just had to share this picture of me and Cindy ........you see we talk ALL the time, but had never met, even though we live just 4 hours apart. So last month Cindy and her sweet family came to St. Louis for spring break and we got to meet up for lunch! It was like meeting an old friend, no small talk, you just jump right in like you had just seen each other yesterday.........Cindy is every bit as sweet in person as she is online!

Ok.......back to business!

Nothing says appreciation like a cupcake!!.......no wait, maybe that's my hips! lol Well, they appreciate cupcakes, and I'm pretty sure teachers do to- it's usually in the handbook, right next to apples. So I though, why not apple cupcakes!!

These cupcakes in a jar are super easy and are sure to be all the envy in the teacher's lounge.

For the cupcakes and frosting

Duncan Hines Apple Caramel Cake mix, follow directions right on the box for making cupcakes. (You can either spray your pans and bake with out liners, or remove liners later .)
Cinnamon Butter Cream (recipe below)

Cinnamon Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 Tablespoons whipping cream (you can you milk, I just like whipping cream)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste (you can use vanilla extract, I just like fleck of vanilla in my frosting)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

In a large bowl, beat butter, milk and vanilla on medium low until smooth and combined (about 1-2 min), scrapping sides of bowl as necessary.
Add cinnamon, then slowly add powdered sugar one cup at a time on low until combined, scrape sides of bowl.
Increase speed to medium, and beat for 1 min.
Add corn syrup and beat on med high for about 30 seconds, then increase speed to medium high and beat for about 1 minute.

How to Make Cupcakes in a Jar

What you need:

1 pint jar
3 Apple Caramel cupcakes (only 2 shown in picture, but you will need 3)
Cinnamon Buttercream
16" disposable icing bag and large french tip
7/8" grosgrain ribbon
curly ribbon
plastic fork
4.5" square of fabric
hot glue
foam adhesive dots
2" scalloped punch
FREE Thank You Teacher Appreciation Gift Tag Printable (thank you Cindy!)

Lets get started:

start with dropping one cupcake inside the jar, then using your icing bag and tip, squeeze buttercream on top of cupcake.........repeat until you have 3 layers. * I sprinkled a little cinnamon and sugar on the last layer of buttercream.

Now your ready to make it all look pretty!

add the fabric to the lid
wrap grosgrain ribbon around jar, and glue with hot glue
punch out Free Printable Thank You Tag, and attach to ribbon with foam adhesive dots.
tie fork on with curly ribbon

That's it ! You're all set!

Don't Forget to Thank a Teacher for all that they do!

TidyMom blog, on Twitter and on Facebook

20 Comments

How to make a money tree {teacher appreciation}

posted by cindylouh on April 19th, 2011 | teacher appreciation gifts, teacher appreciation ideas |

Hi, I am so excited to be guest posting for Cindy at Skip To My Lou! How lucky am I that I even just got to meet Cindy, at Creative Estates!

For Skip To My Lou readers that do not know me my name is Rebecca and I blog at Roots And Wings Co. I thoroughly believe that as parents our job is to give our children Roots and Wings! I grew up with traditions, craftiness and stories. I hope that my little corner on the web will help you to establish roots for your family to grow from, and wings so that you can soar with ideas you get from me.

Cindy asked for a post about a Teacher Appreciation gift. I truly believe it takes a village to raise our children and so I am very grateful to the teachers in my children’s lives! I really try to think of giving something that teachers will actually want and not just be appreciative of the thought! So, I came up with the idea for a Money Tree!

Collect money from the class to use to decorate this cute tree with. Send a request home in students’ backpacks. At my school you can put a sealed envelope with the parent’s name (or even “Jeremy’s Parent” if you don’t know names) on the envelope, so that the teacher does not know what you are doing. Depending on how much money you get will tell you how to break up your denominations. You want the tree to be full so even use one dollar bills if you need to. The above tree has 1’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 20’s.
You could do this quicker and easier by just rolling up money and tying it to the tree. However, I really wanted my money tree to be super cute! There are a million different origami flowers that you can use for this. I went with the one that I thought was the prettiest flower! This is a little time consuming but is so worth it! I found the tutorial for the flower at Origami Money Flower Blog! This blog has a video tutorial as well as pdf instructions!

Teacher Appreciation Money Tree Gift Tutorial

Supplies:
Tree form
Dollar bills (all denominations, my tree used 33 bills)
Chalkboard Paint
Glue Dots

1. Get a tree form. I wanted something the teacher might use again once they remove the money. I found this tree at the Dollar Store (so even if she throws it away after she takes the money off, it was only a dollar!).

2. Paint rectangle of chalkboard paint onto pot. I used this rectangle to write the teachers name on it for the finished gift. Then, the teacher can just erase that and write their own phrases to go with how they decorate the tree. They could write “Happy Easter” and hang small easter eggs, or whatever the season!

3. Iron your money flat. I went to the bank and got dollar bills in every denomination up to 20’s. Then, I used my flat iron to make them all nice and crisp!

4. Make all of your origami flowers. My flowers took three dollar bills for each flower. This is the origami flower instructions that I used, but you can use any that you want!

5. Attach flowers to the tree. I attached mine using glue dots. This works really well at holding the flowers in place, but the glue dots will not ruin the money!

6. Don’t forget to write the teacher’s name onto the pot.

In the end, the teacher can easily take the flowers off the tree, unfold them, and use them! Now they can get exactly what they want (or need), they received a beautiful gift, and there was thought and time put into the gift! Seems like a win, win, win to me!

Thank you Cindy, for letting me take part in this fun teacher appreciation roundup!! Don't forget to check out all the rest of the fun Teacher Appreciation ideas!

Rebecca of Roots And Wings Co

18 Comments

Paper Medallions {Teacher Appreciation}

posted by cindylouh on April 18th, 2011 | teacher appreciation gifts, teacher appreciation ideas, teacher appreciation sayings |

Hi Skip to my Lou readers! I'm Kami from NoBiggie. I was thrilled when Cindy invited me to be a part of this fun series full of great ideas for teachers. I love Cindy! One of these days, I would love to visit her in her shop: Sweet Baking Supply, and see her in her element, I would LOVE that!

I love flowers, especially flowers that you can plant outside. Here is a fun way to spice up a pretty potted flower. I love making these paper medallions or as I like to call "lollies" because they look like a big lollipop. You could keep this gift as simple as this, or add in a few gardening supplies and a gift card, if you'd like.

Along with this printable reading "Thank you for helping me "GROW" up great!", you can top the flower with this lollie.

Here is what you'll need:

- a circle cutter of some sort (I used my epic - a die cutting tool)
- a paper lollie that you have made out of a heavy card stock (Here's the How-To)
- the printable for the center
- a glue stick
- a wooden skewer
- the potted flower
- a roll of crepe paper streamers (I used white and yellow...one for each side of the lollie.)
- a hot glue gun to adhere the lollie to the wooden skewer

Once the printable is cut out, adhere it to a heavier card stock circle of the same size.

To make a lollie this size, start with a 4 inch wide x 12 inch long strip of cardstock. I shared the full Paper Lollie How-To right here.

Now turn the printable over and roll a glue stick over the outside rim and adhere the paper streamer all around the edge pinching it as you go making pleats.

Now you can hot glue the center onto the skewer and the lollie.

And... you are done!

If you'd like, you can do this to both sides of the lollie...or, you could add a message on the backside to your teacher. Stick it in the potted flower, and you are done!

Please link up only your own projects, and link to the specific post, not your blog home page. No Etsy shops or giveaways, please.
- If you would like to participate you will need to paste the code below at the top or bottom of your post to show you are participating in Made By You Mondays!

Simply copy the code below in the box and paste where you can edit the html in your blog post.

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