Gift Ideas for School

Every year after Christmas, I try to find teacher gifts for the next year.  Last year I purchased several of the snowman magnets and a couple of the picture frame ornaments for about 50 cents or less.  My girls want to give gifts to everyone they come into contact with at school.  I thought ornaments on clearance was a good solution along with some homemade treats.

 

Yesterday Alexia and I spent our entire day decorating 27 bags for her basketball team.  We made a template of a paw print out of freezer paper and then spread Mod Podge and glitter over some of the bags.

 

We used fabric for the zebra bags and Mod Podged it on as well.

 

The polka dots are from scrapbook paper.  We filled the bags with fruit, whales, and a water bottle.  We made a label for the water bottles that said ‘Sink the Pirates’.  I found the template online for free here.  I thought bags like these could also be used to decorate and hand out at school.

I also included a candy cane in the bags with the following poem.  Some of the girls may not know the true meaning of Christmas.  What a way to sneak in some Jesus!!

Candy Cane poem

A significant symbol of Christmas
Is the Simple Candy Cane.
It's shape is the crook of the Shepherd
One of the first who came.
The lively peppermint flavor is
The regal gift of spice.
The White is Jesus' purity.
The Red is sacrifice.
The narrow stripes are friendship.
And the nearness of his love.
Eternal, Sweet Compassion
A gift from God above.
The Candy Cane reminds us all
of how much God cared.
And like His Christmas gift to use
It's meant to be broken and shared.

Last year Ariel handed out little baggies filled with marshmallows and hot chocolate mix with the following poem attached.  Everyone loved it.

Magic Powder and Snowman Seeds

Winter is here.  Outside it is cold.  To keep warm inside read below.

Directions: Place magic powder in a mug.  Add hot water and stir. Drop in snowman seeds, Enjoy!

Ingredients: enough powder and seed for one cozy treat.

Love, Ariel

I hope you can use some of these ideas for your kids at school or church.

Christmas Present Idea under $3.00

I purchased these tote bags for less than $2.50 each at Wal-Mart.  I wanted to make totes for my nieces to take to church.

 

I am totally loving all things monogrammed lately.

I printed out a letter /E/ and letter /S/ in font size 600.

 

I used interfacing for the first bag I made.  Lay your letter backwards onto your fabric.  Cut it out and then sew it onto your bag….if you want to do it the hard way like I did.

I got smart on the second bag and pulled out the BIG GUNS!  This isn’t just HeatnBond.  This is UltraHold!

 

Iron onto your letter and then iron onto the bag.  Seriously, took me less than one minute.

 

Now I have one gift bag for Samantha and one for Emmaly.

I bought little magnet dress up dolls to put in the bags so they can play with them during big church.  Coloring books and crayons would work well also.  You can even give them as gifts empty.

You could easily do this project for less than $10.00 for both bags even if you had to purchase the HeatnBond.  They are versatile also.  I really should make one for my son. 

***By the way….I am loving Windows Live Writer.  If you haven’t checked it out you should.  When I inserted my pictures they were turned the wrong direction and in the wrong order.  With Windows Live, I was able to move pictures around, add more, and rotate without deleting the original pictures and starting over.  I am having a hard time figuring out the font thing, but I will get it figured out and let you know what I think.

I think I am done with my shopping.  One trip on a Saturday, with busy crowds, is enough to call it good!!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

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I wanted to put up our Christmas Tree in July the week before Thanksgiving, but the Hubs wasn’t feeling it so we waited until Sunday afternoon.  I still have totes spread throughout the living room trying to find a place for everything.  I didn’t realize I have quite a snowman collection.  I love it!!

I’ve been busy with school, Thanksgiving, Alexia’s 14th birthday, and my growing list of projects around the house, and that thing they call BLACK FRIDAY!!    Since we stayed here for Thanksgiving and my sister and her family came down to celebrate, we decided to be like the other crazy women and leave the house by 4am to snag some deals.  I found some great gifts for the girls and also bought my first pieces of St. Nicholas Village Collection.  I am going back for one more piece to finish off the look.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  More Christmas pictures to come!

I am posting this in Windows Live Writer!  I think I like it!!  I need to play with it some more and figure out the picture thing.