From One Teacher to Three Others....

As the school year draws to a close, I am always challenged with what to buy the kids' teachers as a thank-you gift.  We have been lucky again this year - A and B have ADORED their teachers, so of course I want my year-end gift to reflect that.  

As a teacher myself, I'll admit, I have been given some real dud presents at the end of year - including used lipstick and a pack of maxi pads.  Really!  But there have been other, fabulous, well thought out gifts from many a child and parent, too.  Cost is never a factor - something simple and free can turn out to be the best gift of all!

I know I am counting the minutes til our summer vacation starts (2 days!!!) and I am sure so are my kids' teachers. So to celebrate their upcoming period of relaxation I have put together a gift that will allow the teachers to sit and chill out, and not worry about lesson plans, yard duties and parental phone calls. 

Instead - iced tea for on the deck or porch, a magazine with nothing but useless information, some newly downloaded tunes and a pretty polish to decorate summer toes.  

Once these items had been purchased I thought long and hard about how I wanted to wrap them.  Something pretty, but artsy and cute, too.

My daughter helped me stamp 3 large pieces of kraft paper with different images.  Cute bird, eh?

Then I folded the kraft paper into a large envelope shape, securing the edges with some 2-sided tape. 

To help the paper hold its envelope shape, I zipped around the edges with a straight stitch on my sewing machine.  it adds a little texture, too.

In goes the gift-- fastened together with a little clear tape.  

For the final detail, I added a little bow on the flap of each of the envelopes.  

Red bow, blue butterflies:

Purple bow, pink birds:

There we go.  Done and done.  I really think the teachers will love these gifts (and the wrapping, too!)  

Truthfully, I'd love to receive these from anyone of MY students!!