Sweet and Salty Trail Mix

 Years ago I had this particular mix of 'stuff' in a trial mix at a staff development.  I made it a few times afterwards, and every time I was asked for the recipe.  It's a strange sounding mix, but it really is the perfect mix of salty and sweet!!!  This week I wanted to take a little something to some of the gals I've been teaching with FOREVER to celebrate another first day, so I threw this little vintage mix together...

 Sweet and Salty Trail Mix:  3/4 of a bag of fritoes, 1 bag of gold fish crackers, 1 can of mixed nuts, 1 cup of raisins, 1 c. of coconut flakes, 1 bag of peanut butter m&m's (8 oz), 1 bag of crispy m&ms (8oz).

Back to School Treats

 Last year we had a bunch of new teachers at our school.  This means, we spent a lot of time in advance of the first school day planning lessons and getting classes together, which left me very little time to bake cookies etc, so I decided to make some trail mix.

 I bought these Cheez Its that come with alphabet letters, pretzels, nuts, and M&M's.  My teammate and I did it together, so she was given the task of sorting primary colors.  I don't know why.

I added little tags I found for free on the Internet, and then close them with some letter washi I bought on Etsy.  Easy, and affordable for 9 new teachers.

DIY Personalized Notepads

I'm headed to Good Morning Texas today to share a few Mother's Day gift ideas.  It's also Teacher Appreciation week, so....some of the ideas could overlap for that as well.  I'll post the video later on facebook later.
In the meantime, here is one idea I've been wanting to try out for awhile....homemade notepads.
I actually made this for a friend of mine at work.
I printed off "From the desk of..." onto the four quarters of a piece of paper.

I then had four of her students write her name and draw a picture of what she looked like at the bottom.  You could do this with the whole class if you wanted/or all your own kiddos-have them write mom or dad or grandma...whatever where I had the students write their teacher's name.

I made about 25 copies and then sliced them into even quarters.  I aligned the top edge and the pad of 100 sheets of paper together with some clips.  I bought some book binding glue via Amazon.  I'm sure you can find it other places, but...that was my go to.  It comes in different colors as well.

I brushed some of this glue to the top and let it dry (with the clips on) for a few hours.

When it dries you have a pad of paper that sticks together/can be torn off piece by piece.

Fish Bowl Treat

I made this last fall for one of my teaching friends.  I got some Swedish Fish....gold fish would work as well, and I filled a fish bowl I grabbed at the dollar tree.  Think of all the things you could be 'o 'fish' ially' thanking someone for.  Regardless...cute and easy.

Personalized Clothes Pins

 I've made clothes pins in a plethora of assorted colors and styles...these are by far the easiest, and a great, super quick gift idea.  You can grab a pack of 36 pins at the dollar store, and I've found the small stamps for a dollar, and the ink pads are 2 dollars on sale (you can also color the bottom of stamps with markers).

 I stamped a bunch of fun little sayings onto the pins and pinned them to a card (saw this on pantinawhite).  For 15 cents....a little gift for a teacher or friend in my life.  It definitely fell within my budget and what a fun way to clip together papers/hang papers or even top gift packages.

Books: 3 Little Pigs Party

Another workshop theme  last year at work during workshops, as we discussed where we wanted students to go/where they were at and what 'foundation' to build our teaching on was The Three Little Pigs.  

We had straws...

 Sticks (pretzel sticks).

Pigs in a Blanket (kind of morbid...I guess that makes us the wolves?).  

And then all our papers were on red acme brick with the info for the meeting for building a solid foundation.  Get it?  Huh?  Do ya?  Whatever...it makes planning workshops so much more fun.  You could also serve rice crispie treat squares as bricks....but it didn't really go with the 'theme' b/c we needed something to tie it all together.  

Books: If You Give a Pig a Pancake

 Part of my job includes presenting and/or facilitating meetings within the district, or within our school.  My teammate and I always come up with a theme.  We realize if you feed people they are a little less upset about the extra hours.  Last year we decided each meeting's food would align with a children's book.  These things are important :cough-to nobody but me-cough:.  BUT...wouldn't this be fun on a bigger scale as a teacher appreciate gift, or just for a bunch of kids that love the If you Give A....A..... series.  We decided to go with If you give a pig a pancake (it was a morning meeting) and I brought up a skillet.  We made pancakes..

 Then put out some different toppings (fruit, butter, walnuts, peanut butter, whipped cream, syrup etc).

 All the papers, of course, given out at the meeting had some icons that follow the book (downloaded online) along with the meeting notes.  I really do this more for my own sanity.  Themes make everything way more fun.  ...or at least a little less miserable.

School Days: Candy Filled Apple

 I saw this idea for cutting the bottoms off of 2, or in this case-16 oz bottles around the net for awhile.  It's such an affordable way to make an apple share for fall parties, or teacher gifts.  I've been a fan of apples for awhile now, and even have a board dedicated to the treat and theme on my pinterest here.
I simply cut the bottom off one of the 456 bottles of Diet Coke I had heading out for recycling...

 I bought some red spray paint for about a dollar at the super center, and gave the inside of the base a quick squirt.

I filled a bag with red candy, stuffed it inside in a baggie and added a leaf and bow.  For less than a buck-an edible treat in a seasonal theme.  I've also seen these around where two bases of bottles are bother together to look like the full apple, but I'm digging this.

School Days: Scrappy Clothes Pins

 I love customizing clothes pins and using these to close up gift bags, or hang things in the house.  These are so easy to make, incredibly cheap, and cute!  I bought 36 clothes pins for a dollar.  I used left over paint and scraps of paper from old projects I keep in a bag for projects just like this....

 I picked out 6 paper colors that went well together, and one more to make a tag for delivering this little guys.

 I sprayed the sides and innards of the pins.  This isn't necessary, but...I've been trying to get rid of this neverending can of spray paint for awhile now (also a buck...and it's sort of like Mary Poppins carpet bag...it never quits).

 It's no necessary to spray the tops since I'm covering these up....but there is also no reason to avoid it.  I took a glue stick and ran it along the strips of paper I had cut out to fit the tops of the clips.

 I put some paper on the insides of the top too since these show.

Round up and these cost about 3 cents a piece to make.  Even I can afford this on my teacher salary.  ;o)  In other news...I knew being a hoarder of small scraps of paper would pay off someday!

School Days: Ruffled Book Bag

I made this super simple ruffle strip bag recently.  I love book bags.  I carry them by the dozen.  I also love whipping these sort of things up, they make great gift bags for gifts, or just great gifts.  This is a really simple one.  I had some scraps of fabric left over from other projects.  The middle was about half an inch thinner than the outer strip  I sewed the scraps I had together and made each of them one long strip.  It was almost three times the length of the bag.  I layered the first one in the middle of the larger piece, and pinned both to the top of the bag.

I set the needle at the top, and started squishing and sewing.  The only difficult part is keeping it even down the bag, not that it matters that much to me.  You could sew and ruffle it before you add it to the bag, pin it in place so it's straight and sew it to the bag, or you could go for broke and just run that needle down the bag....I live life on the edge.

I added a flower to the side with more scraps and now I'm ready to gift give.

School Days: Pencil Holder

 I've seen this idea floating around on the net.  This would make a cute teacher gift, maybe with the teachers name, or a fun word like 'create' stickered or painted on and some ribbon.  This is my new pencil cup for my desk....the only thing missing is my 'desk'....but I just love the look.  Quirky is always a good thing....lots of pencils....even better!  Now about that desk....