Teacher gifts

So when my girls were little we frequently made the teacher gifts- one because well we were short on money, two because I was really into various paper crafts, and three I liked having the kids involved in their gift for the teacher rather than me just buying a gift card or such.  It made it more personal to my kids versus mom just picking something up.  We have made big sets of homemade cards, journals, etc. . .  Well as I have gotten older and busier with starting a business and with having all the kids in school (more teachers and thus more gifts)  I got lazy.  We have been doing gift cards and store bought gifts for a few years (which were appreciated by the teachers mind you- probably more than the homemade gifts but they always seemed so impersonal).  This year my cousin asked on Facebook about ideas for teacher gifts.  Several of her friends posted some great links.  On one of them was these really cool personalized scissors.  (http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/search/label/teacher%20appreciation) So while I was wandering down the isles of the dollar store the other day I saw scissors and immediately though of those.  And then I saw blank wooden clipboards and thought why not make a clipboard to go with the scissors.  And then I saw rulers. . .  and there it went. Now mind you I did not follow the awesome directions on the blog- if you do yours will turn out better than mine did. Because I was doing this on a whim and I did not want to go back to the store I just bought Mod Podge and kind of did my own thing.  The boys picked out the paper, the font for the names, and where they wanted the paper.  They then cut the paper out and did the Mod Podge themselves (with some help from mom- but honestly they did most of it).  It is something personalized, made by my boys, and hopefully at least somewhat useful.  And the boys were so excited to make them.  They thought very carefully about what paper to pick that they thought their teacher would like and they were neater and more careful than normal. They are so excited to give them to the teachers tomorrow.  (last day to morrow- yeah!!!!) It was so fun to see them so excited! I was so proud of them and the thought and effort they put into them.  They may be handfuls sometimes but they are great boys!!!!

 Final product all put together- we have gift bags for them.  The one on the left is for Bear's teacher and the one on the right is for Wild Child's.

 Here are the rulers.  Simple and easy- we cut the paper to size, several coats of Mod Podge and then I used my eyelet punch to punch out the holes. 

 I just used regular Mod Podge on these.  The hardest part was tracing the blades (I did that for the boys).  I think the ones from the blog with the dimensional Mod Podge look better but I did not have time to go to another store and these are still cute! The boys even managed to glue the paper on fairly straight!

 Wild Child's.  His mantra for the project (that he kept repeating over and over to his brother and his sister who was trying to help him pick out paper - this was not her first choice) was "It isn't about what we like or don't like- it is about what I think MY TEACHER will like"  with much emphasis on the words my teacher.  So cute. . . .

Bear's.  He was just as adamant about what he thought she would like.

I think I went into it thinking  I would be able to say he lets do this paper and they would be "sure mom sounds great"  Delusional I know. . . I think they made great choices though and they look so adorable. Not perfect but adorable nonetheless and made with love.   And I used up some of my piles of paper from back when I did paper crafts all the time!!!  Lets hope the teachers like it. . . . .