Teacher Gift

So you all know that we are getting ready to move back to the States from Germany. We'll be leaving on April 4th...wow, it's coming so fast!! I have LOVED the teachers my kids have had at school. The wonderful teachers we've had have made our experience so wonderful!! I really start to tear up if I think about how much they have influenced my sweet little ones! We love them, and I've been trying to think of a nice little gift to give them...and I found it today!!

I was looking at Dawn Easton's blog today and got so excited when I saw her teacher gift set! The set includes a card(that tells about the jar/journal), a journal and a jar full of questions about your teacher's career, etc. I think it is so fun! I marched right to my desk and made the first of 4 sets I'll be making this week! Isn't it a great idea!? She gave a link to Nichole Heady's Blog as reference for her inspiration and for a pdf file of questions for the journal jar! Here is the link to Nichole's Blog for some great teacher questions!
I used some Dill Blossom paper from SEI. Aren't these colors delicious!? I made some funky hand cut flowers, added some buttons and ribbon...and some More Mustard cardstock!

For covering composition books this is my method:

1. cut a 12x12 paper in half. I use half for the front and then half for the back

2. line the edges of your front cover with scor-tape or sticky strip

3. lay your paper on the cover so you have a little overlaping, open the cover flat and cut off excess paper with a hobby blade

4. turn the notebook over and do the same to the back cover

5. for the spine, I like to cut about a 4" strip and gently fold it in half-then after placing my scor tape along the spine, I gently fold the paper I've prepared and attach to cover the spine.

For the "teacher" title on this book, I used some American Crafts Rub-ons. The teacher sentiment is from LAD School Days stamp set. I mounted my very vanilla paper on some more mustard, and then gave it a little scallop with my scallop edge punch. 5/8" chocoalte chip ribbon made a great little bow and band for the title plate!
This card was made from left overs after trimming the paper off the cover. I just slipped the strip of Dill Blossom paper on top of a chocoalte chip scalloped edge. The sentiment is stamped in chocolate chip ink. 1/4" chocolate chip grosgrain come next. Then came my flowers. You've seen all sorts of hand cut flowers lately, haven't you!? I've noticed them all over and decided to try my hand at them...yes, they are a bit more "shabby" than I usually am comfortable with, but I think with this great paper..they are great! Just cut a circle and the wad it up so you've got great wrinkles! I layered a couple pieces of paper and then attached a button and attached them with diminsionals.

I found these jars at Ikea. I've used them for many things, but this one was empty today...but no longer! I wrapped a two pieces of coordinating paper from the Dill Blossom set, around it, and then attache my teacher bit again. I made these flowers a bit differently. After I got the great "shabby" wadding done, I started to kind of gather the center of the flower-from the back. It was almost as if I were going to tie it off...there is a little "tuft" of paper behind that I just smooshed flat and then attached the flowers with glue dots. I decided that I really love these flowers...more to come I'm sure!! The buttons, one is from SU, the other is just from some extra button set I'm sure!:)

Oh, for the papers inside, I printed the questions from Nichole's Blog, then cut them out and followed the advice she gave and "curled" each of the questions with the back of my scissors-just like you curl ribbon. Didn't they turn out cute!?

I'm excited to have one of these sets finished. I've got 4 more to make...so I'll be busy! Thanks for stopping by!! Have a great day!!