Monogrammed Trays

It is Teacher Appreciation Week.  The teachers love their posters I made from the class!  You can see those "super" posters here.

I also wanted to make a practical, cute and not too expensive gift for the teachers.  We are bringing them little things each day of the week.

I saw perfect, summer melamine trays at Bed, Bath and Beyond for 14.99.  I snatched 2 of them up and monogrammed them with a big, 'ol summery white letter (I used vinyl cut on my Silhouette machine).

Here is the tray before . . .

Here is the tray after . . .

My little kindgergartener melted my heart this morning by saying he wanted to buy his OWN gift for his teachers.  He gets a dollar a week for his allowance, so he came in grasping $3.00 from his piggy bank.  He decided to get them a "fancy coffee" from Starbucks, but I told him they are each more expensive than 1.50 (he has two teachers because they share a contract in his class).  He wouldn't hear of me chipping in to add to his 1.50 for the coffee (a tall caramel machiatto to be exact).  Each cost 3.55, so he paid for it all.  That made this mommy's day!  I'm so proud of his generous little heart.

If you need an easy gift for a sister or friend for Mother's Day, try monogramming a tray!  I want one too!

Classmate Gifts: Aloha Preschool!

So, I'm in denial this week, but my oldest is done with preschool in 4 days.  Kindergarten here we come!
His sweet teacher is buying each of her 12 students a beach bag and putting in gifts from each child to the other children in the class.  The gifts are supposed to be affordable and summer specific.
I found a great, CHEAP gift idea from two sources--both which I listed on my Friday Favorites lately.

Fakin It gave us a great way to package up Kool Aid packets and straws so classmates could have a "kool" summer.  The week after, Crystal and Company shared some great homemade snow cone syrup recipes.  I loved the one she gave us from Skip to My Lou, because it used Kool aid packets!  Genius!  I combined the two ideas and packaged the gift up in a coordinating tumbler.

First, I found Kool Aid packets for 15 cents each at Target.  Then, I found red, yellow and orange straws at Target.  I couldn't find the cute swirly straws I wanted, but I'll be on the hunt for next year!  I also found four red tumblers for 1 dollar at Target--gotta love the dollar bin.  Then I grabbed some scrapbook paper at Michael's and made a cute class gift.

I didn't have the pattern for the scrapbook paper wrap (mentioned in Fakin It), so I just measured around the Kool Aid packet and cut a window in the paper to see the Kool Aid through.  Then I taped some straws to the inner flap and glued it shut.

On the reverse, I glued the snow cone recipe and a little message for each child in my son's class.  I stuffed each packet into a tumbler and gave them to the teacher to put in each beach bag.  Voila!  Each gift cost me a little over a dollar, and it turned out very cute!

Have a "kool" summer!