Last Teacher Gifts of the Year

This was tricky.  As a former teacher, I know there are only so many knick-knacks you need (especially if you, like I did, tend to move and pack and re-pack your classroom, or if you're a preschool teacher with not-a-ton of space), and home-baked foods always creeped me out. (I know, I know.  But think about it:  you have no idea whether someone thought it would be funny to bake some pot in those brownies, or if the cat walks all over the counter while they're cooking, or ... well, you get the idea.  If you let your mind wander, you'll never eat another homemade gift item again!)

So that leaves gift cards, and yes, I always LOVED gift cards (and books, and other thoughtful gifts, especially if the books were inscribed).  But between CAM and WHM, we had six teachers this year, and that's just an awful lot of gift cards!  Yikes!  And I didn't want to give a low-amount gift card just to be able to say I gave something; I'd feel silly and cheap (I know, it's the thought that counts, and I am always insanely grateful to receive any gift, but I think it's different when I am the giver.  I like to be generous.)

I thought I'd already exhausted the Pinterest ideas for teacher gifts, so I was freaking out worried this weekend about what on earth I could do for the wonderful and amazing preschool teachers.  Not to fear:  one last Lord-please-help-me effort found me these super-cute ideas.  I really hope the teachers enjoy them.  They took some time, and lots of patience, so despite not having the idea weeks ago, they did require some planning and weren't just thrown together.  Lots of love went into them, and while they were not necessarily expensive (if I got each teacher a gift card for the amount of money these each cost, it would be on the low end of what I'd be comfortable with), they are, I hope, thoughtful. 

Side note: I also hope they are neither tacky nor cheap, because I spent a good part of last night being catty and snarky with a dear friend of mine over a wedding gift we saw online that we both agreed was, and there's no other way to say it, awful.  It's one thing to not spend a lot of money; it's another to give a tacky gift ... and yes, I just said that, and yes, I understand the point of a wedding is not the gifts, and yes, I understand not everyone can give lavish gifts -- myself included, these days -- but there is, nonetheless, a line ... there is most definitely a line, people!  I sincerely hope that these gifts from CAM and WHM are useful and safely on the proper side of the line, but I understand if anyone feels otherwise, and I also understand that I probably have a penance due for my snarkiness last night.

Okay, enough. Here they are: 

8x10 corkboards that can rest on a desk or shelf, or hung inside a cabinet door for grocery lists, etc.  I bought 8x10 frames, took out the glass, and also bought a roll of cork (as thick as I could find) and cut it to size and put it muscled it into the frames.  Then I glued the backs of the frames down with Gorilla Glue to help keep them from bowing out. 

I bought a chipboard box, painted the bottom gold and mod-podged coordinating paper to the top and side of the lid.  In the box are seven more of the glass tacks -- each backed with the same scrapbook papers.

I took the poem from Pinterest, made some modest changes, and added a stanza of my own.

If I had really been on the ball I would have made them different for each teacher, maybe to reflect their favorite colors or something ... but instead, I focused on making them all the same -- not because it made any difference in how long it took to make or anything like that, but because I didn't want it to look as though we favored one teacher over another.  Hmm.  Now that I have typed that out, maybe I am too used to dealing things out between CAM and WHM and negotiating treaties?  (Ya think?!)

Anyway ... these are our last teacher gifts for this school year.  They are photo-frame corkboards, and although they are on the easel stands, they could also fold up (or heck, just rip the easel off) and mount inside a kitchen cabinet or on a classroom wall.  The little boxes I also made (no, that's a lie.  I painted and mod-podged them) and filled with the decorative thumbtacks (that I made).  What do you think?  Are they okay, or will they be relegated to the "thanks, but no thanks" pile? 

--Jen

p.s.  if you want the original inspiration from Pinterest, it's here.  I made some modest changes to the steps and my supplies and prices were different, but this is the gist.

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