Teacher Gifts - Free printable quotes and personalized bookplate stickers

I know a post about teacher gifts is a few weeks late for all of you, but some of my children's teachers visit my blog, so I could not post their gifts until after they are given out on the last day of school. I hope some of you will remember these ideas (when in doubt ... Pin it) and use them next year when you are struggling, like I always do, for an idea for a teacher.

My children are both in French Immersion, so I have 4 teachers to purchase gifts for - two French and two English.  To make my gift giving even more difficult, my son is two years younger than my daughter and he always gets the same teachers she had. Therefore, I can't reuse previous ideas because all his teachers have received them in the past.

This year I wanted to make something practical that the teachers will use and thought I would make them personalized bookplates. You know, stickers the teachers can put in their books to identify it belongs to them.

I purchase two sizes of Avery Labels (one with 6 stickers per sheet #5264 and the other with 30 stickers per sheet #5160) and downloaded free templates from the Avery site.

Source Avery - Linked to template downloads

Source Avery - Linked to template downloads

After I downloaded a few different templates, I merged (just by copying and pasting) the designs my kids liked onto one page so I could print a few different designs at once. I also used some free JPEG images and other designs (i.e. digital scrapbook paper) to make my own creations.

My kids wanted some of the bookplates to say "This book belongs to" and others to say "From the library of". We translated the phrases (hopefully correctly) into French for those two teachers.


Tip: I had to print a few test pages before I managed to get this to print properly. The oddest thing happened every time I printed the sheets, the ink would smudge. I was stumped. How can a laser print smudge? Then I realized there is an option in your printer setup for paper type of LABELS. This somehow prints differently and they came out perfectly! So look for the paper type option and see if label is in there before you waste a few sheets of labels.

I printed 6 sheets per teacher of 6 stickers per page design.

 

I selected my two favorite designs for the smaller stickers. I printed 3 sheets per teacher of the 30 stickers per page.

I removed the outer border of the sticker pages and cut the sheets into smaller sizes so they looked like individual stickers.

Using my a cheap food saver I purchased at the local thrift store for $6 (for another craft) I made a custom sheet holder for the stickers so the teachers can put them in their supplies binders.  I sealed two seams (one across the middle horizontally and one about a third from the edge vertically) in a plastic sheet protector and opened up the bottom half with small sharp scissors.

If you decide to try this, be sure to try it out with extra plastic sheet protectors. I melted some completely through, so remember only to hold it down for a second or two. Also don't try it with your good food saver/sealer. I do not want to be responsible for you destroying it!

I had intended to include a book store gift card along with this gift but I didn't want to drive across town and spend another $80 ($20 per teacher). I had hoped to only spend $10 more per teacher...but that didn't seem like enough on a gift card to buy much.

So, I thought I would make the teachers a small frame with a quote that reminded us of them that they can hang in their classrooms.

I designed each of these 5x7 quotes with free digital scrapbook paper you can find online. I searched for teachers quotes and selected four that seemed to best fit the teachers. Here they are:

 

In case you are interested in using these, I have included the images below that you can save and use for yourself. I would love some feedback in the comments if you download these. Let me know which you prefer and if you would like them in different colors. I can always change them and post the revised images.

Note: I have not put my logo or the teacher's names on these examples so you should be able to right click on the image and open in a new window(to open it in full size) and then right click on it again to save it. These were uploaded in a resolution large enough to print as 5x7s. As with everything I create and offer to you for free, I just ask that you please do not sell these...but feel free to use them for your own personal use! Remember I love your feedback so leave me a comment :)

Each teachers gift cost me around $12.  Here is the breakdown of pricing:

• I spent around $40 on the label stickers to make the teacher's personalized bookplate stickers, but I have enough left over to do another year or two worth of gifts or I might just make some for my kids or for friend's birthdays.
• The framed quotes cost me approximately $7 each.

I hope this helps some of you with your teacher gift struggles next year!

How are your summers going? Anyone have suggestions on entertaining two busy kids while you try to work from home?

Stephanie

Decorating for a Party on a Dime - Personalized Name Crosses -DIY

When I was planning our daughter's first communion party, I knew I wanted some photos and art on the table as decorations. So, I frames some of her baptism photos from when she was a baby and made this beautiful cross out of her name. I found the idea on Pinterest and knew it would take no time to make. If you are not interested in making it yourself, you can buy these from many different Etsy shops. But if you are like me and want to save the $15 plus shipping they are sold for, here is how I did it.

I started with a blank 8x10 Publisher file. Insert a text box and type the first name, middle name and phrase.  When I was making this I used 'In God We Trust' but changed it to 'God's Precious Gift' right before I printed it. So you will see both phrases alternating on this tutorial. 

Select the font and size you like.

 Then save the text box as an image. To do this select File, Save As

 Enter a file name and then change the "Save as Type" to JPEG File.

 Click on the 'Change' box and select 'High Quality Printing'

 Back to your Publisher file, delete the original text box and insert the picture of the text box. This way you can mirror, flip and manipulate the text without Publisher doing funny formatting things.

You will need to insert the image three times and then crop each of the three so that you have each row of text by itself.

 Once you have all three lines, you need to rotate the first name and the phrase. You can do this by clicking on the little green circle on the box surrounding the text and dragging it around.

 

 If you would like to have the middle name mirrored, select the middle name image and copy and paste it. Then select 'Rotate' and 'Flip Horizontally'. Line everything up.

Save the image again as a JPEG using the same method as earlier.

 Insert the new jpeg and Flip it vertically.

You will notice the new half is smaller than the original, so what I do to get them perfectly matched is insert the image twice and delete the original.

Save the image as a new JPEG and test print it. I printed mine on canvas paper I purchased at the Dollar Store so it had texture. I used a cheap frame also from the Dollar Store and I think it looked amazing. You could also print it on scrapbook paper for a patterned background. Really this could be made for almost any occasion, so the possibilities are really unlimited.

My daughter loved this and has requested we have hang it in her bedroom.

The total for this decoration, if I had to go out and buy the materials right now, would be $4. $2 for the frame and $2 for the canvas paper (really only $0.25 because there were 4 sheets in the package).
That fit into my very frugal budget for the First Communion.

What do you think? Can you use this idea for gifts or for decoration in your own home?

Stephanie

Decorating for a Party on a Dime (First Communion celebration for my family) - Part 1

I am sorry for being absent from my blog for quite a while; a lot has been going on around my house lately. It started with my daughter's First Communion, then in a moment of insanity I decided to partake in my first 5km race, mix in two kids with strep throat, add a dash of a crazy work schedule and squash all that with major outdoor renovation project and you have one woman who feels like she is going to explode!

Well I am happy to say that life seems to be slowing down, so I hope to share some of the projects we have been working on.

For starters, I am going to show you how I managed to prepare for my daughter's first communion celebration on a serious decorating budget. I know, I do everything on a budget, but since we have hired a landscaping company to redo our entire front(I mean rip almost everything from our front yard out and start from scratch), we are now on a really tight budget. I hate paying people to do any work but this was a huge project. I will show you pictures of the front once it is finally done. Our landscaper's 2 1/2 week project plan has been going non-stop since April 23rd. So two months and counting.

Back to my party decorating on a dime! So when we started to prepare for our daughter's First Communion, she picked the colors she wanted to use - light and dark pink and purple. It really reminded me of Easter but it was her choice. I refused to buy any pre-made, over-priced, First Communion decorations, so I ventured over to my favorite inspiration sites...Etsy, Pinterest to see what people were selling. Of course, much of what you can buy for a ridiculous price you can make for next to nothing! So that is what we did.

So I set out to make the following decorations, with a very limited budget:

• Paper garlands (my cost $0)
• Tissue pom poms (my cost $5)
• Fancier plastic table cloths (my cost $1)
• Cross name art (my cost $1) (Separate post - Decorating for a Party on a Dime - Part 2)
• Gifts for our guests (my cost $2.50 each) (Separate post - Decorating for a Party on a Dime - Part 3)

Tissue pom poms (in various sizes and colors) - $5 for over 30 pom poms

These tissue pom poms sell on Etsy for various prices, but average at about $4 per large pom pom. I am honestly shocked anyone would buy these on Etsy, not only because of the price but they come closed! Opening these things up is the majority of the work involved in making them!

But I am happy to say, if you know how to make them, you can create large colored pom poms for around $0.25 each and you can make white ones for around $0.20 each! (My Dollar store sells larger packaged of white tissue for $1.)  When you but them in half to make smaller ones, you get double the pom poms - so 2 colored for $0.25.

Materials needed:

• Tissue paper (various colors)
• Floral wire or pipe cleaner

These are not new in the crafting world and I have been making them for every party since my daughter was a baby. But for those of you who have not made them before, you will be shocked at how easy they are.

 

I don't know who the original creator of these is, but you can find full instructions on Martha Stewart's site here.  I make them a little differently then how Martha does it. I use 5 or 6 sheets for the big (full length tissue paper) size and use 4 or 5 sheets for the small (half width/full length tissue paper) size. Tip: be sure to have extra wire/pipe cleaner when you secure the middle so you can hang the pom poms with it. 

My daughter and I made over 30 tissue pom poms in various sizes and colors and hung them all over the main floor of the house. We did some with rounded tips, pointed tips, full length/width of tissue and some half width/full length. You can hang them in clusters or by themselves.

Grand total for all of them was $5 (since I had floral wire on hand).

 I have made them with multiple colors of tissue paper within the same pom pom I.e. I use 1 sheet of green tissue on the outside, then 3 sheets of orange(or pink, purple etc) and two yellows on the inside. Once opened up it looks like a flower. Or you can alternate colors and they look adorable. They are cheap, so play around with them.

Circle and cross garlands - $0 (I had the everything on hand)

These circle garlands sell for $1 per foot on Etsy! I used some cheap paper I had from Michael's, in colors me daughter liked, to make these for nothing. I added some crosses so it was First Communion related, but you can make them with flowers, circles, ovals, or any shape you want.

Materials needed:

• Paper - cut into desired shape
• Sewing machine with matching thread

I cut out circles and crosses in various sizes on various colors/patterns using my Cricut. If you don't have a Cricut or Silhouette, you can use some punches or a pair of scissors and make your own shapes.

Once you have a big pile of cut shapes, pull out your sewing machine. Load a thread and bobbin in matching colors, set your stitch to a straight stitch and start sewing. You literally just run your needle right through the middle of the paper and then keep going to make about an inch of thread in between each piece of paper.

You can't mess this craft up! Even if you can't sew a straight line, you don't have to worry about this. To be honest with you, I did not sew a single strand of these...my daughter did them all herself. It took us one evening of cutting and sewing, in front of the TV, and we had more than enough to decorate the house.

We probably made 40 or 50 feet of this garland, so I guess I saved $50 plus shipping.

Lacy edge plastic table cover-$1 each

I got this idea from Cupcakes and Cutlery here. She took a plastic table cover, cut it into strips and stretch the edges to make it look lacy. The result was an amazing ruffle garland. She then did the same thing to the edge of a plastic table cover. So cute and so cheap!


Materials needed:
Plastic table cover from the Dollar Store
Two hands :)

Method
I won't recreate what Cupcakes and Cutlery had to say so here it is:

" Basically you will want to put the plastic in one hand between your thumb and pointer finger and hold the plastic the same way in the other hand right next to the first hand.  And pull your thumbs away from each other.  Give it a test so you can figure out how much and how far you should stretch it.  The good thing about these is that they are never going to come out exactly the same as the last stretch so variety is fine.  Also, you will tear the plastic once in a while.  As long as you haven't torn it clear through to the other side, it is also fine. The tear sort of ruffles as well and blends in."

 It really is adorable and for $1 I could not be happier.

I will have a couple more Decorating for a Party on a Dime posts to share; here is a sneak peak at the next two decorations I made.

Cross Name Art - $1

 Celtic knot etched jars filled with gourmet jelly beans (gifts as the guest)  - $2.50 per guest

Do you have any frugal party decorations you like to use? Do you tend to decorate more or less as your kids get older?

Have a great day!
Stephanie