teacher gifts

These pictures were uploaded December 17th.  I obviously meant to share them a while ago.  Whoops!  This craft is nothing new or inventive, it has definitely made its way around the web, but it is so easy that I had to share it.  Ryann's teachers absolutely loved theirs (well, at least that is what they told me :o)! 

I first saw instructions for this doily canvas bag over on the lovely Ashley Campbell's blog, Under the Sycamore.  (Side note, check out her diy page, there are so many fun project I would love to try!)  Then my bestie made us our own bags as bridesmaids gifts at her wedding.

Always running behind me didn't start the project until like 5pm the night before I wanted to take them to Ryann's school.  So I was trying to make these, make snacks to go in them and take care of my child.  I didn't end up putting the finishing touches on until 11:30pm, but honestly, total time spent on all three bags?  Probably less than three hours.  (Side note, I should not write posts early in the morning, I originally typed less than three HOUSES.  Whatever.)

A few tips... because I was rushing my way through them, I attempted the first doily without the spray adhesive because I couldn't find mine in the two seconds I looked.  Big mistake, it definitely didn't work out for me.  The bag still looked ok, but the ones where I did use the spray adhesive went much much better.  Also, make sure you use a smaller brush.  I was using a smallish (ok maybe medium sized) foam brush, and it was hard to get those little spots on the edges without going over the side of the doily.  To do the letters, I used my silhouette machine to cut the letters out of thicker cardstock, and stuck the paper down with the spray adhesive as a stencil.  Like the paper the letter was cut out of, how come I can't think of the words to describe that part?  Oh well, I'm sure you can figure it out :o).

In the bag I included two mason jars, one filled with chocolate covered pretzels I made, and the other with this s'mores popcorn snack mix.  Mmmm... that stuff was pretty tasty!  We also made some cute little handprint santa cards to write our holiday message in, you can find the instructions here.  I umm, didn't take the time to make the pink cheeks.  It obviously would have been much cuter had I done that, but again, I was a little last minute and a little lazy.

Oh yes, a certain little someone was rather annoyed while I was trying to take these pictures.  She just wanted to touch everything and pick it up, you know, carry it elsewhere.  Especially the santa card.  Oy.  :o)  I was going a bit crazy.  We were already late to 'school', there was barely any light in the house, and it was take pictures then or never!  I'm just sad I forgot to take a picture of all three bags together.

I still have pictures and information to share about our advent calendar.  If I'm lucky I'll get it up in the next few days or so.  You know, before it is like March or something.  It may very well be after Christmas, but you can always save the ideas for next year, right?  And if I don't write down all the activities we did I'll surely forget.

Have a good one!