Teacher Appreciation

Last week was Nate's last week of school. Jen and I decided it would be fun to send a teacher appreciation gift every day for the last week. (I know, teacher appreciation was back in April, but going along with my "wait until the last minute" nature, I waited until the last week of school!).

We crafted EVERY night. Kind of reminded me of boutique season. It is always fun to get together and craft. Every time I do it, I remember how much I miss it.

So here's Monday's gift. A stack of 10 cards that say "A Note from Mrs. Brighton" in a cute little matching box:

Tuesday's gift was this little gift box. Inside is a box of Theater candy. I think Reeses Pieces. And attached is a little post it note key ring. Nate wrote on the inside of the post it note.. "OWL always remember Mrs. Brighton"

I've seen several versions of this on the internet and various blogs. They are so cute!! I was going to do a 6 pack, but at Walmart, there was only ONE six pack left in the whole store. So, we thought that one bottle looked just as cute.

And these are giant clothespin photo frames. I actually had a picture of Nate on the first day of school standing next to Mrs. Brighton's door-- pointing to the poster of all the kids names on it. It was perfect! I matted it and stuck it in the clothespin. We also wrapped a SKOR candy bar with a tag that said "Mrs. Brighton helped me to achieve high Skors"

And finally Friday. Since it was July 1st, and the last day of school, we gave this to her on Friday. It is three rolo sticks wrapped to look like dynamite. They turned out so cute!!! Package two of them up in a painted box and there you have it.

Nate loved giving his teacher gifts throughout the year, and I know Mrs. Brighton loved them also. She always took the time to send home notes of thanks. Actually, Friday, after the week was over, the thank you card she sent home was the ones that we gave her on Monday. I smiled as I opened it. I'm glad that she will put them to use.

Next year is kind of sad. It will be the last year I make things for Nate's teachers. And I'll be doing it solo... as Tyler will be going to Jr. High.... It's a sad day for Nate as he rode his bike to school for the last time with Ty. But one more year, and I will be the mom of a Jr. High boy myself.... Yikes!!!

Boss' Day 2010

I have always been the one to organize "Boss' Day" for the team at our work. Well, after moving to supervisor last month, I assumed I wouldn't really be doing any more for boss' day.

Don't know why I didn't think about it sooner, but I DO still have a boss! lol... So, once again, I'm here making boss' day gifts.

This year is just like the boxes that I did last year. But, since we are a team of 5 supervisors, there wasn't a lot of need for space... We just had our retreat last month where we went on the tour of the capitol building, went to Goodwood for lunch, and then went to Boondocks. So this was the perfect opportunity to use those pictures.

Here's the final result.. Marianne's "Scrapbook in a Box"


These aren't colors that I normally work with.. in fact, I had to borrow the paper from Jen because I don't even buy these colors. But they just went perfectly with the pictures to make them stand out. They colors are Orange, turquoise, brown and yellow.

As the box opens, there's 5 flaps. One flap for each of us. Each of the flaps is a "pocket" where a card pulls out. This is where we all signed it. The rest was ALL pictures. There are 24 total pictures in the box. These things are VERY hard to photograph, but hopefully you can get the idea as to how this folds/unfolds.

I also made a matching "gift card" holder where we put a $50 bill for her to pamper herself with.

Charley's Birthday Card...

Charley and I kind of have a "fortune cookie" motif going on in our relationship. When we were first dating, I think he was a little more ready for a "relationship" than I was. The first time I went to Idaho with him, we at at a chinese buffet. My fortune cookie said something about "grabbing a hold of the relationship given to me" we just kind of laughed about it.

So when Charley propsed, he had fortune cookies made, and the fortune read "Sarah will you marry me". I still have the fortune!

So this was mine & Nate's little project... Charley's birthday card!

We made this little chinese box and filled it with paper "fortune cookies". Gotta admit, it was pretty fun to make... and Charley loved it!

I will definately make more of these! So quick and easy, and so cute!

Boutique Stragglers...

Now that the boutiques have wound down.. I feel like I can breathe! I've forgotten how much fun they are, but how much work they are behind the scenes! All said and done, it was definately worth it! We never would have made it financially the last few months without them. Although a small part of me wishes this could be a year round thing... the better part of me appreciates that it's not!

Here are a few things that I made post-boutique for special orders. These little Santas & Elves wore out my scallop punch. It was so hard to punch at the end that I recruited Charley to punch them all for me. I officially have permission to buy a new scallop punch!

These boxes turned out so cute! They were actually custom made for pretzel rods. A friend at work ordered 30 of them and they turned out so cute. Afterwards she decided they were also super cute to fill them with other candies. I'll have to keep that in mind for next year... I think they'd be really cute in square also!

And the biggest hit of the season were these little candy bars. I think I bought over 200 symphony bars from Winco. That's definately my new favorite store for craft candy! The cashier over there knows me. (Or should I say they know Charley.. *wink*).

Boss' Day Boxes

It is that time of year again! Only this year we now have three supervisors instead of two! So, with all the regrouping and reorganization of team, we decided to do Boss' day as a whole group. That's a lot!! 50+ people.

So, in coming up with a project for them, I decided we needed to have a card big enough for EVERYONE to sign. This is what I came up with, they are called explosion boxes. These are also referred to as scrapbooks in a box. They are intended to hold LOTS of pictures. When you take the lid off, the sides collapse and you can look at all the flaps. So, rather than adding pictures to each flap, I just left them blank, or added mats for people to write on. I also added pockets and pull tabs. They turned out really cute, and for those that know me and my fetish with boxes, (haha) I see these becoming a new addition.

We also collected from everyone and got each of the supervisors a gift card to their favorite places. Yes, starbucks thought I was nuts when I came in and got a $50 gift card. That's a LOT of frappacinos!! But since we gave them gift cards, I made matching gift card holders that fit inside the boxes. They turned out super cute, I think I will make some for the Christmas boutiques.

Here are some close ups of each box. I tried to match the colors to each of their personalities.

Teresa's Box:


Tricia's Box:


Aurelia's Box:



After I had made these and taken them to work, I was asked to make another box for the deparment manager. I think I like the colors on this one the best.

Kim's Box: