When my kids were in preschool, you should have seen the treat bags I did for holiday parties at school or for birthday parties here at home. It is a shame that I never took a picture or even saved one of my creations to show here. I guess you'll just have to trust me when I say that I really missed my calling as a SWAG BAG GODDESS.
This year's recipients of the ultimate swag from the Hein's are the teachers at the kids' school. Since we are jumping ship and heading towards public education in the fall, I wanted to give something fun and special to the women who spend seven hours a day dedicated to making my kids smarter, more productive, better citizens.
As a teacher myself, I love summer vacation and I'm an expert chilling out. I love a good book, an occassional ice cream cone, a big glass of iced tea, and a funky tote of HUGE proportions to carry everything I need to take off on an adventure at a moment's notice. So that was the inspiration for these cute little generic tote bags I DIY'd and filled with summer stuff.
First, I have good IDEAS, but I am not CRAFTY. That usually handicaps me when I have these projects in mind, but it also gets my mind working for ways around sewing, drawing, and other such skills I don't possess.
If I was Oprah, I would have bought really cool Lands End totes with names embroidered on them, but I am not Oprah so my budget limited me to Michael's. The bags were $4.99 and the iron-on decal was $3.99. I chose GREEN messages for the totes which meant the ink was soy ink (as oppossed to what? I have no idea other than the fact that the ink must be chemical). I had a terrible time getting the decal onto the bag. I used the iron at the wool setting as advised AND I used the cotton press cloth, as advised. It took about 20 minutes to finally get the image on the tote. That was difficult, but in the end, cute, cute, cute!!
Inside the bag, I added these items:
A travel-sized sun screen and bug spray along with a to-go tumbler (bpa free, dishwasher safe, and no sweat exterior!) and a box of individual servings of lemonade. I included a book (depending on the teacher) and a $10 gift certificate to Dairy Queen.
The Happy Book is a worth a look if you are not familiar with it. It is a great gift for almost any occassion. I like to give it for 40th birthdays (there are ton of those going on around here) wrapped up in a box with a boat-load of Smarties candies or a jar full of gummy bears. That will make anyone feel special and young at heart.
But if The Happy Book isn't appropriate for your teachers (and it certainly didn't fit everyone on my list), I also did Puzzle books like this one:
And even one of random acts of kindness like this one:
If I were Oprah, my teacher swag bag would also include a monogrammed beach towel, a cool pair of Marc Jacobs sunglasses, and a gift certificate for a pedicure. But again... I'm not Oprah. And lucky for me, these teachers are not me. Unlike me, they don't care about Marc Jacobs sunglasses. They are grateful and humble and awesome human beings who will definitely appreciate the bug spray when the total bug-o-rama begins in the heat of July.
And I'm sure these teachers that spent the school year assigning DIY state reports and book reports will LOVE and appreciate the "summer booklet" I made in Microsoft Publisher which includes directions on how to play Flashlight tag, words to two jump rope songs, and a recipe for barbeque chicken and homemade ice cream (post photo here).
Gift giving makes me so happy and I am super excited to end Teacher Appreciation Week on Friday with these gifts for the teachers and staff at my kids' school.
No comments:
Post a Comment