DIY Teacher Gift Basket

My cousin recently graduated college with her early childhood education degree.  I wanted to do something really special for her that would excite her to have a classroom and students of her own.  I did a little research on teacher gifts and came up with the idea of putting a basket together for her.  These baskets would be great gifts for new teachers, teacher appreciation, Christmas, and the end of the school year!

Included in the basket I made:

·         Bulletin board boarders

·         Highlighters

·         Colored grading pens

·         “Hello my name is” neon nametags

·         “Creative Solution” pad of awards

·         Post it note holder

·         Extra post it notes

·         Starbucks gift card

·         Framed quote

·         Stickers

·         Hand Sanitizer

·         Hot Dots & Pen

·         Changing Faces Clock

·         DIY Clipboard

·         DIY Initial tumbler

Don’t forget to buy shreds for the bottom and some type of ribbon to weave through the holes!  You could also use a tote bag or a lunchbox instead of a basket.

This basket was stuffed full, but other/more ideas are:

·         Supplies such as tape, glue, scissors, stapler, paperclips, etc.

·         Student prizes like pencils and erasers

·         Sheet protectors

·         Sentence strips

·         Permanent markers

·         Dry erase markers

·         Books

·         Book marks

·         Gift cards to teaching supply stores or book stores

·         Notebook

·         Planner

·         Wipes

I hope sharing my ideas help with gift ideas for that special teacher in your life!

DIY Monogram Clipboard

I made this pretty teacher’s DIY monogrammed clipboard for my cousin to include in this basket I put together for her as a graduation gift.

Clipboard Supplies:

·         Clipboard – the metal part must be the kind you pinch with the hole in the middle

·         2 different colored sheets of scrapbook paper

·         Matching ribbon

·         Contact paper

·         Monogram cut into a circular shape

·         Double sided tape

·         Scissors for cutting the circular monogram, ribbon, and corners

·         Exacto knife & cutting mat for cutting everything else

·         Flower with a clip on the back

·         Optional class attendance sheet

NOTES:

*Most of these supplies can be found at Hobby Lobby.  The clipboard is from Office Max and the class attendance sheet was made by yours truly using Microsoft Publisher.  You’ll be DIYing the monogram.

*DO NOT use Mod Podge.  I tried using it at first and ended up having to buy more scrapbook paper and 
start all over! It warped the paper and you could see brushstrokes.  Not pretty!  Contact paper is the way to go for this project.

* You don’t have to use the same colors as me, but it will be easier for you to understand if I explain by saying the “purple color” for the top & bottom color and the “cream color” for the middle color scrapbook paper.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Make your monogram following these directions and using this website. 

I did an extra step here and used Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher to move the monogram side by side with a picture I took of the purple scrapbook paper to make the monogram’s purple background match the purple scrapbook paper exactly.

Step 2: Print out your monogram. If you need to resize it, you can use an 8.5x11 template in Microsoft Publisher.

Step 3:  Use something circular to trace around your monogram & cut it out.

Step 4: Measure out where you want your two scrapbook colors to go & cut them.  Make sure the cream color is big enough to fit the monogram.

Step 5: Use double sided tape to stick the monogram to the cream color scrapbook paper, then the cream to the top purple color, & last that to the bottom purple color.

Step 6:  Before peeling your contact paper apart from the backing, place the taped monogram & scrapbook paper on your contact paper backing.  Measure about an inch or half inch around the paper so it looks like it will have a contact paper boarder & draw a line – this just gives it a little “mess up room” while placing the scrapbook paper onto the contact paper.

Step 7: Peel the backing off the contact paper & place your scrapbook paper on it.

Step 8: Cut the rest of the contact paper off from that inch/half inch boarder.

Step 9: Place double sided tape as close as possible to all 4 edges on the bottom side of the scrapbook paper avoiding the corners & a few more lines of the tape in the middle of the paper.

Step 10: Line that up to the clipboard & place it down.

Step 11: Trace around the clipboard’s rounded corners & cut along those lines.

Step 12: Measure the ribbon to place over the 2 scrapbook paper seams & use double sided tape along the ribbon to stick it down.

Step 13: Tie a bow out of more ribbon & use double sided tape to stick it down.

Step 14: Clip & center your flower through the metal hole.

Step 15: (Optional) Clip a class attendance sheet to the board.

It seems like a ton of steps, but I was just being thorough explaining!  Trust me; it will be worth it in the end!

DIY Personalized To-Go Tumbler

My friend’s birthday is today.  For me to say that she loves coffee is a total understatement.  She works at Caribou Coffee and if she doesn’t make a drink from home to bring, she’ll pick up Starbucks on her way to class.  I came across the cutest personalized to-go tumblers here and knew this would be a perfect gift for her.  So, I made one to give her and wanted to share! (I can’t wait to make another one for myself!)

Supplies:

Double-walled to-go tumbler (This one is Copco from Walmart)
Vinyl Sticker Letter (Hobby Lobby) *You can also use a Cricut if you have one
Assorted rhinestones & plastic shapes (Hobby Lobby)
Ribbon (Hobby Lobby)
Glue – I changed to Mod Podge (Hobby Lobby) glue at the last minute **I didn’t use the glue gun Styrofoam plate to put glue on
Tweezers to grab, glue, & place embellishments

Directions:

Happy Birthday Amanda! xoxo
I hope you like your new iced caramel macchiato to-go tumbler :)

Winter Glitter Nails

The flash from my camera seriously takes away all the shine from the glitter...  It's way more sparkly in person!

I used only one thick coat of Pure Ice "Super Star" nail polish as my base and painted my nails one at a time, sprinkling on the glitter after each one so it wouldn't dry.  I sprinkled it on more towards my cuticles and finished with a clear top coat to keep the glitter from falling off. Simple & fast!

(This is the same glitter I used for my Glitterized Cell Phone Case post.  It's "Lt. Blue" from Hobby Lobby.)

SoCo Vanilla Spice Egg Nog

My Favorite Holiday Drink

This one is super easy because it only has 2 ingredients!  Southern Comfort & Southern Comfort Vanilla Spice Egg Nog. Enough Said.

Stocking Stuffers

Since I started this blog, I’ve had to keep it a secret from my boyfriend because I knew I wanted to do this post and didn’t want to give his stocking away!  I made this for him a couple years ago and he had it visibly hanging in his closet… I hope he didn’t notice I snuck it away so I could stuff it!

Everything cost me about a total of $50.  Most of the ideas for this stocking I came up with on my own, but I found some really helpful stocking stuffer lists on Pinterest. 

Organizing Home Life

Jenna’s Journey

Here’s what I put in my boyfriend's:
Chipotle gift card
Fast 5 DVD
Beef jerky
Sharpie pens
Batman Boxers
Lotto tickets
Land O’ Lakes flavored hot chocolate
Lots of candy!

I ended up switching out the Batman boxers for this tie from Kohl’s.  (Croft & Borrow)  My boyfriend is a business major and he has to dress up for class often.  We’re also going to the city after New Year’s and I thought he could wear this tie to class it up a bit!

My stocking stuffer secret weapon:

An orange!  Put it in first for a full/round toe!

These LED flashlights are another great idea.  They have 5 or 6 small super bright bulbs on the inside and are only $1 from Dollar tree!  (The batteries are only $1 too.)  I’ve seen the exact same ones at other stores for way more money, but I have one from the dollar store and can say they actually work!  They work better than a bigger, more expensive flashlight I bought from Wal-Mart.

You can kind of see how super bright white the bulbs are in this picture.

Glitterized Cell Phone Case

Being creative and doing arts and crafts has always been a big part of my life.  From making friendship bracelets in day camp when I was younger, to taking creative writing classes and receiving an art minor in college, I’ve always found an outlet for my creativeness.  I also love finding new and exciting ways to spruce up old/used things whether it’s spray painting my nightstand silver or glitter-izing my cell phone case.

December Fave xo.2
Staying in, out of the cold, and finding fun crafts to do!

I don’t have a fancy cell phone.  I have the LG Chocolate Touch without the internet on it. Gasp!  Whenever I’m feeling a little envious of everyone around me with iPhones, I know mine just needs a little sparkle… pun intended.  I’ve had 2 different rhinestone cases in the past, but the rhinestones fall off so quickly.  I wanted to try something different and came up with the idea to make a glitterized phone case!

HERE'S HOW

Supplies:

·         Any hard plastic phone case that fits your phone – you don’t want it to be rubberized or silicone because the glue won’t stick!  If there is an area on your case that you do not want glitterized, you’re also going to need tape or sticky tack to block it off.  If your case snaps closed like mine, make sure you tape/sticky tack those areas.

·         2 Paper or Styrofoam plates

·         Mod Podge – I used Gloss, but I don’t think the type really matters.

·         1 inch sponge brush

·         GLiTTER – It’s a 2oz bottle, but I didn’t even use ¼ of it.

Tap the excess glitter off the case.  The last thing you’ll want to do is paint a layer of your glitter and glue mixture over the entire glittery area.  This will keep the glitter from coming off.  Let it dry over night and it will be ready for use in the morning!

*bONUS TiP: Instead of paying to download backgrounds, Google Image search what you’re looking for, take a picture of it, and set it as your background!  I got mine by searching “pink leopard print” and zoomed in probably 150% on my computer.

WARNING: BGS CELLS ( blingcover.com )IS A SCAM
I would NOT recommend ordering ANYTHING from BGS Cells.  I ordered an all pink rhinestone case through them and they sent me a multi-colored circular case.  They said I could keep the wrong one and they would send me the correct one within 2 weeks when they would get it back in stock.  We’ve been emailing back and forth ever since.  Four months later, this problem is still not resolved and I have realized that the case I ordered was never “in stock.”  They sent me the wrong case on purpose to get rid of their Chocolate Touch phone case stock since this model is an older one.  Since they said I could keep the case for free and they would send me the right one, I didn’t ask for a refund… who would?  If that doesn’t sound like a scam, I don’t know what does!