Christmas Hersheys Candy Bar Wrappers

I consider myself a pretty thoughtful person but usually I feel overwhelmed during the holidays so my thoughtfulness doesn't always end up matching my actions... well at least not without a lot of sleep deprivation and stress.  I'm sure many people can relate.

So this year I decided that I would get on top of the teacher gifts earlier than in years past.  That means not staying up late the night before the last day of school to get them all put together.  

My kids switch classes so that means I have 18 teacher gifts to make.  Plus my cute hubby decided he wanted me to make them for his coworkers so that added another dozen or so.

I have compassion on those who are in the same boat as I am so I decided to share my super easy gift with others to spread the Christmas joy and ease some stress.  The bars listed above have my personalized wrappers but I created a generic one for others to use (after receiving requests from several of my friends around the country).

Here's how to do it.

Baptism Party Decorations

My sweet nephew was baptized today and his parents hosted a luncheon afterwards.  My sister-in-law has such a cute style and decorated to the max.

While this party was to celebrate a baptism, most of her ideas could be used for other occasions.  I'm thinking birthday parties, mission farewells, showers, Teacher Appreciation, and so on.

I have to say that all the children loved the "Sweet Treats" section the most.  Well, I did see a lot of adults sneaking candy too.

 I like how she used shredded paper to add height and use less candy in the containers.

Of course her table settings were darling too.  She used colored duct tape to wrap around the water bottles.

Check out this incredible cake.  She had a friend do the fondant decorating.  Only bad part is that the cake was so cute that we weren't allowed to eat it (seriously)!

They served a delicious lunch and used these little chalkboards to write which foods were being served.  My mom-in-law is an artist so she did the writing.  They served pulled pork sandwiches, beans, watermelon, veggies, potato salad, pasta salad, chips, etc.  Something for everyone.

 Feel free to copy any of these cute ideas. I think I'll invite her to do my next party...

Teacher Appreciation Subway Sign

Don't you hate it when you see something cute pinned on Pinterest and you click on the link and it doesn't have a source page?  So frustrating!  Well that happened to me with a Teacher Appreciation subway sign so I recreated my own version of it.  Justice restored! :)

Feel free to use it.

Teacher Appreciation - Donuts, Popcorn, Dips (Printables)

For Teacher Appreciation, we put out treats and snacks for the teachers and staff several times during the week.

One of the days we are putting out a bunch of DIPS.  Veggies & hummus, crackers & artichoke dip, chips & salsa, etc.  We have several teachers who don't like to eat sugar and junk-food so I am trying to offer some healthier snacks that are still yummy.  I'll put this graphic up on an easel.  I printed it at Costco as an 8x10 picture and it looks awesome!

We have a great connection for delicious donuts at an extremely discounted price so we'll have donuts one of the mornings.  This is the 8x10 picture that I'll display with the donuts.  Of course most of my stuff involves cheesy puns.

I know the teachers will absolutely love popcorn day tomorrow.  At Costco, they sell different types of popcorn in bags.  I think they just started selling these in the past few months and they are super popular.  One of the popcorn bags is "Sweet and Salty" (kettle corn) and is addictive!  They also offer a "Nearly Naked" popcorn that is just popcorn, healthy coconut oil, and sea salt.  Yummy and fairly healthy.  The third kind of popcorn is not remotely healthy but is incredibly delicious.  It is "Chicago Style" which is a mix of cheese popcorn and caramel popcorn.  I am not a huge fan of the cheesy popcorn but it is delicious as a mix.  I first had this when we visited Chicago several years back.  Here's the picture/poster I am displaying with the popcorn.

Whatever we do, the teachers are just thrilled.  They love to feel appreciated and valued.  And I love that they put up with all my puns and themed treats and goodies. :)

I used Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio along with some generic graphics from Microsoft to make these signs.

PS Here are some additional signs that I made for my sister-in-law's school.  I changed the popcorn one to included different flavors.  She got a local bakery to donate cookies for all the teachers.  I think she put out some candy with the last poster.

Teacher Appreciation Quotes for IKEA Frames

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up and I am in charge of doing cute, fun stuff for the 70+ teachers at our elementary school.

Well, I LOVE LOVE LOVE these IKEA frames for $0.99.

I've used them myself a ton for parties, showers, wedding receptions, etc. and I knew the teachers would find good uses for them too.  And for $0.99, that is just a screaming deal.  IKEA rocks that way.

So I designed some cute pictures to go in the frame.  The frame fits a 4x6 inch picture and I develop my pictures at Costco for $0.13 plus tax.

I made one picture that says "Please Sign-in Here" and did it in our school's color theme with the school mascot on it (not pictured due to privacy concerns).  The teachers can use those signs for Back to School Night, Open House, Parent Teacher Conferences, etc.  Practical, yet cute and the total cost of frame and 2 pictures is less than $1.50 per teacher.

Then I made a bunch of quotes so that the teachers could display them on their desk for everyday use.  I did a variety of color themes and will let the teachers pick one each (first come, first served).  They could also put family pictures or something else and it is double sided so you can display two pics at once.

I used Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio graphics to design them.  They have a cool program you can use to design cards, invitations, etc.  I highly recommend it and no, I don't sell Stampin' Up and I do not get paid to say that LOL.  I designed my pics on PowerPoint (which I'm addicted to) and just inserted graphics from the Stampin' Up package I purchased.

I know the teachers are going to love these.  You can also use this same concept, with different quotes obviously, for Mother's Day, Young Women, birthdays, baptisms, etc.  Have fun with it!

See THIS POST for how I used these IKEA frames for a wedding reception.

Pretzel Day

I love being in charge of Teacher Appreciation at my local elementary school.  Next week I am doing a "Pretzel Bar" for the teachers.  We'll have a variety of pretzel mixes for the teachers to munch on and a playful poem to tie it all together.

Here's the poem I wrote to go with the pretzel theme:

Here are the recipes I am using: 

Spicy Pretzels

5 oz (4 cups) mini pretzels

2 tsp melted butter

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp garlic powder w/parsley

1 tsp salt (I will leave it out – too much salt for me)

350 degrees.  Toss pretzels with butter and spread in pan.  Bake for 5 minutes.  Add rest of ingredients and toss.   Bake for 2 more minutes.  Let cool before storing in airtight container.

Cinnamon Super Pretzels

2/3 c. canola oil

½ c. sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 lb pretzels

300 degrees.  30 minutes.  Stir twice.  Let cool before storing in airtight container.

Teacher Appreciation Ideas

Teacher Appreciation Week will be May 6-10, 2013.  I'm in charge of making cute little handouts to go in the teacher mailboxes each day that week.  I thought I'd share my ideas in case anyone wants to use them.

You may wonder why there are two handouts stuck together.  Well, I designed them so that I could send them to Costco (or whatever photo place) and print them as 4x6 pics and then just cut them in half and attach them to the candy.  It seemed a lot easier and more affordable than printing them on my printer at home.

This handout goes with "Caramel Apple Sugar Babies" candies.  They are surprisingly yummy but probably terrible for your teeth!

I bought some mini "Three Musketeers" bars right after Valentine's Day that were strawberry flavored with dark chocolate around them.  Quite tasty!  You could also use this handout with chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry licorice, or any strawberry flavored item.

I also bought some individual size "Reese's Pieces" candies and will attach this saying to it.  Another cute idea would be buying the pieces in bulk and putting them in a cute little container or bag.  I think Reese's Pieces are an under-appreciated candy.  If they were good enough for ET, they are good enough for the teachers, right?  (NOTE:  When I went to Costco to get these printed, the first graphic below wasn't very bright orange so I designed a second one that is brighter and matches the Reese's Pieces packaging.  Feel free to use either one).

Here's a handout I made to go with a little baggy of Hershey's kisses.

I will do a few more fun things but I thought I'd share what I designed already.  I'll post more ideas

Teacher Appreciation - Test Survival Pills

I designed these fun, fake prescription labels to put on real pharmacy bottles that I collected from a friend and then sanitized.  We will fill them with MnM candies and give them to the teachers right before the big standardized testing begins.  I think they'll love them!

Note: Our school nurse was not happy when we passed these out.  She wants to make sure kids don't think pills are candy.  Some of our aides were passing the candy out to the kids on the playground which was totally inappropriate.   So if you pass these out, have the teachers keep them away from the kids to avoid confusion and by all means don't pass them out to kids.  Someone was having a brainless moment when they did that.

Thanksgiving Candy Turkeys

For Teacher Appreciation in November, we will highlight several teachers a day.  We'll call them our "Turkeys of the Day" and then say their name, grade level, and one interesting fact about them.  They will receive one of these turkeys on their special day.


I designed these little turkeys for this event.  I bought 4 oz little containers with lids at Smart & Final.  Then I cut out feathers from cardstock and made a cute turkey head.  I used a circle punch for the head, a small circle punch for the whites of the eyes and a hole punch for the black part of the eyes.  I used a small square punch for the yellow beak and then cut it in half to make a triangle.  I used a flower punch for the gobbler thing and cut it in half.  On the back, I used tape to hold on the feathers.  I used a "puffy dot" for scrapbooking to attach the head to the plastic.  I filled the containers with butterscotch candies since they matched and were cheap.

Teacher Appreciation - Clothespin Magnets

We made these cute little magnets for our teachers at school.  We put washi tape on the front of the clothespin.  Then we put a magnet strip on the back.  Lastly we added the quote to the top.  I printed the quote out from my printer and then used a cute scalloped punch to cut it out.  I used a sponge to brush a coordinating ink around the edges.  Hopefully the washi tape will stay on their long term. 

Note: Clothespins are really cheap at Walmart.  I ordered the washi tape online.