Homemade Christmas Gifts for Teachers...

With 3 kids in school, buying teacher gifts every year can get expensive so this year we decided to make gifts.  I LOVE receiving homemade gifts.  The kids got involved and we decided what we would do and than we hit up the dollar store and here is what we came up with...

 We used blue totes from from the dollar store for Jake and Gracie's teachers and Jake's Gifted/Talented teacher.  We used a cricut to cut out yellow vinyl (school colors) and put each teachers name on them.  Anna Claire picked red and black for her preschool teacher.  I figure they can use them to store stuff in like books or papers after the holiday!

The kids helped me come up with the wording for the antibacterial soap.  We bought a big bottle of soap and peeled off the front label. I had some left over transparencies from a project Jake did a couple of years ago.  We typed it up on the computer and printed it out, rolled it up and put it down in the bottle.  We personalized each one for the teachers.  Teachers always need antibacterial soap and I figure they can refill it when it runs out.  The ribbon was left over from another project.

 This was fun and easy!  The board is from the Dollar store, the kids sanded it down, spray painted it white and I printed off vinyl using the cricut and personalized for each teacher.  We drilled holes in the top, used some left over ribbon and hot glued it to the back.  Each kid wrote a message on the back for their teacher and wrote the date on it with a sharpie. It's small enough they can hang it on their tree or on their door knob in the classroom!

 This was Anna Claire's job - she filled each dollar store jar with soft peppermint candies and ate a few along the way :)

All wrapped and ready to go and since school was cancelled the last two days they will have to wait to get them after the new year! Except, Anna Claire's teacher was lucky enough to get hers already!

Oh, and we made these goody bags for the Preschool helpers and other favorite teachers of Anna Claire's.  We made Cracker Candie and filled 'em up... have you ever had Cracker Candie?  Holly Cow, it is delish, and I saw someone refer to it as Crack Candie 'cause it's that delish...Try it for yourself....

Preheat the oven at 350. Line a cookie tray with aluminum foil, spray with Pam, line the entire pan with saltine crackers, melt 1 cup of sugar and 2 sticks of butter, pour over the crackers and put in the oven for 7 minutes.  When the timer goes off, turn the oven OFF.  Sprinkle an entire bag of chocolate chips on the top and return to the turned off oven for 7 minutes.  When it is done, use a spoon to spread the melted chocolate all over, put in fridge to harden.

Don't say I didn't warn you....

So all in all we spent about $15 for a total of 9 gifts...