Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Teacher Appreciation Day

As some of you may know I am a teacher. I am also the president of my school's PTA. So in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day I came up with some crafty stuff to honor our staff. It was technically from our PTA. Our teachers work so hard and I wanted to make sure they were feeling appreciated and loved.
I began by baking some yummy chocolate cupcakes. I found some really cute kraft liners at my local grocery store. I frosted them with homemade butter cream icing and sprinkled them with white nonpareils.I was out junk shopping and I found these tiny little test tubes. I have no idea where you might find some for yourself. Those tiny tubes set me off in the path of a card holding a live flower. My little cards are 4 x4.5. I stamped them with PTI's Turning a New Leaf. I used spring moss ink on Spring Rain, Sweet Blush, and Lemon Tart cardstock. I stamped the little flower in coordinating ink. The flower is from the With Sympathy set. The sentiment is from the new Anniversary Set, Round and Round. In the first close up you see a yellow daisy but when I actually filled them I used tiny roses. They came out so pretty. I wish I had gotten better pictures.
Here you can see the rose. Isn't it pretty? I tied each card with a bit of ribbon and attached the tag using rustic twine. I inserted the little test tube by cutting four slits in the cardstock. You have to put in the little tubes before you fill them. I filled them with water using a pipette. An eyedropper would also work.
Each teacher had their name attached using some tags I cut out of rustic white paper. I used a cuttlebug tag die. I stamped on it using Turning a New Leaf and the With Sympathy flower. Then I hand wrote each name. The inside was stamped in dark chocolate using my Just Rite stamper to make a personalized greeting from our PTA.
And here they are all lined up together with the extra flowers in the background. Apparently I can't count because I had twice as many flowers as needed!

31 comments:

Lorraine said...

Oh my god, this is awesome. I bet the teachers will be thrilled and stunned at the same time. Loving those card designs/colors and with a real flower to boot. Ooh, and i need a cupcake...yum.

Tammy said...

What a great use of those little test tubes! I know the teachers are going to appreciate such a thoughtful gesture.

anya said...

What a fantastic idea! These are *gorgeous* and the cupcakes look delish!! What a thoughtful, heartfelt gesture - I am sure they will be appreciated!!

Lee said...

What a lovely token of appreciation. This certainly will make the teachers feel special.

Ted said...

Holy cow, Michele! This is phenomenal! I'd be floored to see such a presentation in my staff room. Beautiful! :)

Rhonda said...

Oh my goodness! You have been busy. Love the test tube card. I'd be asking the teachers to return the test tube so I could use them again. Wow!

Dana said...

Genius. Those test tube flowers are incredible. And the BG you stamped is so sweet and looks like PP!
Your cuppies look delish too! You are an a roll with a side of slaw girl!

pattylt said...

Wowser! I sure hope they all appreciate that YOU work there as well. This is just such a sweet, outstanding and beautiful presentation. A flower AND a cupcake! Genius. And the cards are fantastic even if they didn't have a real flower in them! Let us know what everyone thought of them!

Rose said...

Michelle these are genius !! How clever and what a thoughtful thank you....im sure the teachers really appreciated them!

Val said...

Those are awesome Michele. The teachers will love them.

Elizabeth S. said...

These are wonderful!! What a great idea! I am sure the teachers really loved them.

AmyP said...

This came out just BEAUTIFUL! I'll have to tuck this idea away for our PTA next year ;) Love it!!

B said...

Fabulous idea with the flowers in the test tubes! These turned out lovely!

Terri said...

Great idea! I bet everyone loves them!

Jackie Pedro said...

Wow! These are gorgeous!!!

Kara said...

Awesome gifts. Such a lot of work went into all of this and I am sure they appreciated it! Beautiful!
Kara

Geny said...

These are all so great Michelle!!! What a lucky group at your school...I must find a way to thank my son's teacher this week!

Lori said...

Michele!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG you did such a nice job on all of this. I'm sure the teachers loved it all. In my opinion, teachers dont get nearly enough pay, recognition and pats on the back. I hope this showed them all that!

Jennifer K said...

Wow, Michele! You did an incredible job. I bet those teachers felt every bit of gratitude you put into these. So clever and yummy!

Jen Carter said...

The cards are lovely! Those cupcakes look soooo good too! :) Great job!

Mara Campbell said...

this is amazing, I just love how clever those flowers are in the cards! I bet the teachers loved them!!!! GREAT project!

Jill said...

Michelle, I am literally blown away! The picture with all the cards & cupcakes laid out . . . what an impression that must have made on all the teachers! And us papercrafters too--we know how much work went into this gift! Amazing!

Teresa said...

Oh how pretty! What a cool idea to use those little test tubes on a card.

Diane Jaquay said...

Wow, those cards are FABULOUS! And I wanted to jump through the screen and grab a yummy cupcake lol!

Taheerah said...

Wow, you certainly were busy Michele! What a wonderful spread, and wonderful cards to boot! I'm sure they will all definitely feel appreciated now!

dette said...

The cards are absolutely beautiful, but what I'm most impressed with is that you are the president of the PTA. I'm involved with our PTA, and it was so difficult to fill all the positions for next year, especially President. I don't think any of the teachers have ever held a position (wasn't sure it was allowed, but it should since it is the Parent Teacher Association).

Melissa said...

LOVE the card with the real flower--what a super idea! I bet they were well loved by all! And the cupcakes look so yummy!

Unknown said...

Beautiful!!! what an appreciation gift!!..amazin job..I am sure they will love it, and lets not talk about the cupcakes..yummy!!

Antje said...

What a wonderful idea! Love the real flower-card combination! GREAT!

Moments by Marla said...

Your cards are amazing. Any recipient would just love them. Thank you for the great idea.

Melissa said...

Michele--do you mind if I copy this idea to do for our staff?

I loved this so much last year, and I think it's such a nice personal touch.

Have you seen test tubes like this anywhere else since last year? We have a big staff (just under 100) so I need to get to work!