I am back to crafting and cooking - and here's to hoping that its better than ever!!!
I didn't realise how "popular" I'd become during my hiatus. But, many of you (20,000 nearly) have visited my page and some have even left comments in the past two years! I am flattered beyond measure!! I let this page go because I had "life" thrown at me - but now I realise the potential of Good I can provide to the world (while enjoying it wholeheartedly)!
My treat today is huge! Many of you enjoyed the Teacher M&M Holiday gift I posted a while back. Well, if you wanted to take it a step further, here's a huge project that teachers tear up over!!!! This is typically a gift I give at the end of the school year. My only caveat - this project can get rather expensive - but the point is to give teachers supplies that they would normally purchase for students themselves. As a result, this project really becomes a humbling experience when you fully understand the cost of these things and how teachers take on these costs to ensure each child has supplies for optimal learning. Of course, you can have supplies donated or catch the back-to-school sales at the beginning of the year!!!!
One part (optional) does require some investigating. The 1-2 "gifts". These, I usually chose something a bit expensive ($20) that suited their teaching style in some way. This may be a sticker book, stamps with stamp pads, etc. I chose for my son's teacher, for example, some owl stamps that said "Good Job". I noticed that she loved owls. My son's work would also come home doning the same "Good Job" stamp. So, I figured she'd like a few more to choose from.
I also included many other things like pencils, erasers - pretty much anything that would fit into the hat boxes!!
What you'll need:
- A telescoping set of hat boxes
- Here's what I used: Amazon Hat Boxes
- A carrying tray (optional, but helpful)
- Here's what I used: Amazon Tray
- May be able to find one at the dollar store
- 2 boxes Crayola Markers (I usually purchase 4)
- 8-10 boxes of Crayola Crayons (I usually purchase 10)
- 6 Elmer's Glue Bottles (I usually purchase 8-10)
- 8-10 Elmer's Glue Sticks (I usually purchase an extra pack)
- 4-6 To-Go Tissues (I usually grab more than that)
- 3 bottles of paint (colors of your choosing - but know that each box will take most of a small bottle of craft paint)
- Coordinating 2-3" ribbon with coordinating bow. You can choose just one ribbon color or different colors (as long as they coordinate with the painted boxes). You'll need a total of 86" inches of ribbon for all three tiers.
- Hot glue gun with plenty of hot glue sticks
- 1-2 items the teacher would LOVE as gifts.
Instructions:
- Get all parts to the hat boxes (3 lids and 3 bases)
- Paint each coordinating lid and base one color chosen
- Above, I chose a light teal, a pastel orange and sand paints
- You may have to paint multiple coats allowing to dry between coats.
- Does get messy, I suggest having newspapers down on a large table
- Allow to dry overnight to ensure the paint completely dries
- Once dried, put hat boxes together and stack largest on bottom to smallest on top.
- Put a hot glue dot atop the lid of largest box and carefully place middle box. Make sure that the box is placed evenly!!
- Place a hot glue dot atop the lid of the middle box and carefully stack the smallest box on top. Again, make sure that the box is placed evenly!
- Place the three tiered "hat box cake" inside the tray.
- Pull out your school supplies
- Start placing (but do not glue!) the school supplies along the sides of the boxes. Because the size of glue bottles and crayon boxes vary, you'll want to ensure you've got a symmetrical fit.
- I typically alternate the glue bottle, several glue sticks and the tissues along the bottom box.
- The middle box has crayon boxes. If you did multiple types of crayon boxes as I did, you can alternate those.
- The top layer alternates loose markers and tissues.
- Notice that I mentioned I purchase extras? Before you start gluing supplies down, put any school supplies that did not make it to the sides of the "cake" inside the boxes. This includes the little "gift" for them.
- Do not forget that you've glued the boxes down!! The big box's lid will be stuck to the middle box's base! And the same between the middle box's lid and small box's base!!!!
- Now, you can start placing the supplies along the sides. I placed a very small hot glue dot to afix each school supply to the box.
- Once you have finished all three tiers, wrap the large, middle and small boxes with ribbon. I used a small hot glue dot to afix the ribbon just in the back (you'll need to establish which side is the back - sometimes it would be a blemished side :)). Do this for all three tiers.
- Take the last bit of ribbon and make a bow. Michael's will make a bow for you for a small fee. Afix bow to the top of the small box as a "topper".
Once you have it all put together, coordinate a time for you to drop the cake off to the teacher (or teachers). I typically do not tell them why I'm dropping in, I just mention it's a surprise.
This goes over well with teachers! Every teacher I have ever made one for has been brought to tears!!! It is a fun, but labor intensive projects that brings something (albeit small) back to the community!! I hope more people take on these projects (or donate supplies) to local schools to unburden the teacher's wallets. At the end of the day, it's for all of the children to enjoy!
Happy Learning and Crafting!!!
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