DIY: Teacher Appreciation Week Gift Idea

For many of us, teacher appreciation week is coming up this week and it can be difficult to find the right gift. Of course you can always get flowers, gift card, stationary items, etc but here is a unique gift I decided to create this year for my daughter's teachers. 

Here is the project from my favorite couponing blog, Hip2Save, that inspired this gift. 

This is a vase with pencils wrapped around it, completed with flowers and an adorable ribbon. I really love it! I knew I wanted to do something similar but a little more practical that the teacher's could actually use. 
So, here is what I came up with....

What I used:

• Baskets
• Colorful craft sticks/Popsicle sticks
• Snacks/candy
• Hot glue gun (not pictured). 

Everything pictured above was purchased from my local Dollar Tree store. I just love the Dollar Tree near my house, it has basically everything you could think of at the great price of $1! And these cute little baskets I found came in a 2 pk, so only $0.50 each. 

The bottom of the baskets were not that sturdy so I cut a piece of cardboard from an old box we had to give it more support. 

Then I pulled out my craft sticks and hot glue gun and started attaching them to the basket. 

This part does not have to perfect so don't worry if the sticks aren't completely straight. Mine weren't. This is suppose to be fun, don't make it stressful :). 

The next two things are completely optional, I just thought they added a nice touch. First, I had some yellow flowers that I never used while decorating my vanity months ago, so I thought I would attach a pen to a flower stem and create a "flower pen". I simply attached the pen to the stem using hot glue and wrapped yarn around the entire length of the stem. You can even make a few of these to put in the vase using different colored pens along with some decorative rocks if you would like this instead of the snacks.  It would be great decoration for their desk and gives them easy access to pens that their students can't "borrow" and never return lol!

Next, I realized that I wanted the items in the basket to "sit up" more so I needed some type of filling for the bottom. I thought I had leftover Easter grass from an Easter basket but I didn't. So I thought about it and just decided to use my shredder to shred some colored paper and used that instead. 

This worked perfectly and was a quick and easy solution. 

Ready for the finished product?!?!?

I had a box of mini bags of popcorn at home and two new packs of gum, so I added one to each basket along with the other items. To finish them off, I will attach a little tag to the pen with Amaya's name on it so they will remember who it was from. This project came out just as I imagined and I really hope they like it and best of all I completed both gifts for under $10! As I always say, great gifts, don't have to be expensive gifts. 

Let me know if you give this a try. You can always use a taller glass vase with pencils, colored pencils or markers. While at the Dollar Tree I also saw a 2 pack of the old school movie theater style popcorn bag (you know, the red and white ones) but made out of plastic.  I even thought about using these with pencils attached and filling it with goodies. You can also even get a shorter vase or basket and use crayons around it if you would like. This options are endless, so have fun and be creative!