Lisa Storms

new teacher gift printable

Back by popular demand, I am sharing a new set of straw flag printables for last minute teacher gifts to accompany my original set from last year.  Fill a reusable cup with thank you notes and individual instant tea packets and top with a cute flag topper.

Between finding the new summer Copco cups with polka dotted straws (add white polka dots to anything and I'm sold) and the new Lipton tea packets, a new set of flags begged to be created.

One flag is specifically for a teacher, and the other is appropriate for any staff member at the end of the year.  The pdf for these can be found here: Download Straw Flag. Hit refresh if it doesn't load.

Here is a link to the original flags shown above.

And here is a link to all of my teacher gift posts.

owl gift box

It's time again to think about end-of-the-school-year gift ideas, and I have the sweetest candidate here...

I'm excited to join the altered arts design team over at BasicGrey, and this adorable fella is my first project to share.  He's easy to make using something you likely have in your pantry right now!  

You can find step-by-step directions and photos right here.  

holiday teacher gifts

I love finding creative (and cute) ways to say thank you to the teachers and staff at the kids' school.  From finding fun ways to dress up (literally) practical gifts...

... to adorable ways to house a gift ...

.... to making super simple, yummy treats!

Lots of teacher gift and card ideas in my new article over at Fiskars here.

end of school treat for classmates (with printable)

My youngest son has already finished up the school year (kindergarten ends early) and I wanted to bring in a little treat for him to hand out to his classmates at the end-of-school party.  Really I think they are from *me* as I'm more traumatized about school ending than him.  I helped out in the classroom once a week so I have become quite attached to these sweet kids.

I figured I'd share the printable in case anyone would like to make some, too.  They are made to fit around Hershey Miniatures Chocolate Bars.  Just cut out, fold at each vertical line, and adhere around bar on the adhesive tab.  I recommend "signing" them before cutting.

Print onto white cardstock and *be sure* to set the Page Scaling to None when printing or they won't be the right size.  The PDF is here: Download Owlmissyou

I also kept with the owl theme for "wrapping" the teacher gift.  I simply cut angles from the top corners of a small treat bag and folded down, stapling once filled with goodies to secure.  I added eyes made up of circle punches and a rounded chest freehand cut with scissors.

At first I thought he looked too mad, but now I just can't get enough of him.  Lots of personality :P

teacher appreciation week (part 3)

This is one of those projects that didn't turn out how I envisioned.  You know those lollipop Valentines that were popular this year with the photo of a child with a fist?  And you cut slits above and below the fist to insert the lollipop?  I tried that concept with these straws.  But the straws are so much bigger than a lollipop stick that it just didn't look right.  But, I figure you can't go wrong with cute flag toppers!

And if you want some flags for yourself, here is a printable download in pdf form: Download Straw flags.  One is for a teacher and one for a teaching aide.

I liked the cup idea for many reasons.  Not only are they practical, but also a good way to present a thank you note from your child.  My son drew sheets for his teacher and aide, and we rolled them up to place inside.  I added the lemonade packets so I could do an "ade" flag =).

More of my teacher gifts can be found here.

My end-of-school party ideas can be found here.

teacher appreciation treat with printable tags

Teacher Appreciation Week is finally here!  Today we sent in a little treat to start off the week.  We made "candy apples" by covering Ferrero Rochers with red tissue paper.

I stuck a couple into a little treat bag and simply topped with a paper doily and tag.  I figured someone else might be able to make use of the tags, so I am going to try to attach them here as a pdf for download.  Let's see if I can figure this out lol!

pdf download: Download Class_act_tag

I punched the tags out with my 2" Fiskars circle punch.  They can be used on any teacher gift you give this week.

So here's how to make the apples:

1. Cut out a 6" circle of red tissue paper (I traced a Fiskars Super Sized Circles template).  Since tissue is so thin, you can cut a bunch out at once if you are making multiple.
2. Place a mini glue dot at the bottom of a Ferroro Rocher and stick down in the center of one circle.
3. Wrap the sides up around candy and twist at top.
4. Twist a small piece of masking tape colored brown with a Sharpie marker around the twisted top to secure and serve as a stem.  Trim off excess.  You may want to color in top of stem with your Sharpie if the red shows through after trimming.
5. Punch a small circle of green cardstock and feed back into punch partially to create leaf; attach with mini glue dot.

I'm busy planning the next "thank you" and will post when I'm done!  In the meantime, don't miss the teacher cards I posted last week here.

teacher appreciation week

The past few weeks have been insane around here, but I wanted to pop by to share a few card ideas for Teacher Appreciation Week since it's coming up next week.  I should have some gift ideas to share Monday, too, as I plan on having time this weekend to do a few more things I have rattling around in my head.

You can find all of the directions with full photos here at the Fiskars site.  From adding a super simple leaf to an apple for creative presentation ...

... to crafting up an award ribbon that doubles as a card ...

... or getting extra creative with an apple core card.

rudolph cake pops

I've been wanting to try Bakerella's cake pops that I am seeing everywhere and thought adding some to teacher gifts would be a good excuse!  I did them kind of "upside-down" as I envisioned adding little tags and plopping them down individually onto desks (like in the front office) to stand up on their own.

I used red M&M's for the noses and little pearl sprinkles with food marker for eyes.  I have to admit these are kind of addictive to make ... and eat.  What a fun way to eat a bite of cake without a mess.

I wrapped them in lollipop bags and cinched close with a brown chenille stem.  I formed a kind of "heart" at each end and them flattened them and twisted to secure to form simple antlers.  I twisted one onto each of the gift bags for the teachers using the antlers without realizing this would make the bag fall right over.  So I just added another pop inside to balance it out.  Twice as yummy I guess!