End of the Year Gifts

Tomorrow is Erin's last day of kindergarten....wait what?!?! How did this year go so fast? How am I going to have a first grader in the fall?! Time sure does fly when your having fun and learning new things. *Sigh* Anyway, enough weeping, onto the fun part!

The other room moms and myself decided to have a fun little craft for the kids to do this week that would result in a sweet keepsake. I met another mom at A.C. Moore and we purchased little canvas tote bags, iron on transfer paper and red fabric paint. Erin's teacher sent home a cute piece of paper that the whole class signed. I added the teacher's name and the year to the middle of the paper then cropped it, flipped it and printed it on to transfer paper. I ironed a copy of the signature paper to each of the tote bags. Then on Monday, we went in with the totes and the fabric paint and each child put their hand print on the plain side of the tote bag. When they were done, we had the teacher put her hand print on the bag as well. They came out so cute! And the kids really loved them!

 

 

We even had a larger tote bag for the teacher that all the kids put their hand prints on and had the same iron on transfer as the kids' bags. The tote bags really make such a cute and functional keepsake!The class also chipped in to get the teacher a gift certificate to a local spa - she could use a spa day after teaching 24 kindergartners all year!

 

 

I really love Erin's teacher! She is such a kind, caring, warm person who really loves the kids. Erin has enjoyed being in her class this year and she really helped to make Erin's first year in elementary school special. So, I wanted to give her something special that was just from Erin. And since I sew, what better gift that something hand made form the heart! Some of you may have seen some sneak peeks of the gift on my Instagram or Facebook page. I got the idea for the gift from this post I saw on the Ann Kelle blog a couple years ago and thought it would be the perfect thing! Instead of making notebook slip covers like in the post, I used a pattern that I created back here for the gift. I liked the idea of the teacher's name embroidered on the front so I had Erin write her teacher's name in disappearing fabric ink and I embroidered over it in red embroidery thread. I also like the apple applique so I added one to the front as well. I used linen from Joann Fabric for the cover and the apple fabric and yellow striped fabric were part of a bundle I purchased from Fabricworm over a year ago. I don't remember the name and I don't see it on their site anymore - anyone know what it is?

I put in a 5x8 notepad, a pen, and a small date book - all purchased at Target plus I added a picture of Erin and her teacher at their class picnic. I sent Erin off to school with it today. I hope she likes it!

 

Last but not least, I purchased some cute striped towels from Target and some sunblock to give to Erin's bus drivers. She has a morning driver and an afternoon driver so I got two of each, wrapped them in clear gift bags with a ribbon and will hand them out tomorrow. I thought that was a cute idea and something that they could use over and over again!

Well that is a wrap on the end of the year gifts. Did you give handmade/DIY gifts out this year? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Thanks for stopping by!
Meghan