This Year's Teacher Gifts

Hi Everyone,
School's out for summer! And boy, did it end with a heat wave! Even at a 1/2 day session I don't know how the Teachers or the kids got through.  I made a few gifts for Rory to bring for her Teachers and her bus driver.  I didn't get good pictures but I thought I would post them anyway.  We are big, big Starbucks fans in this house.  Well we are just coffee addicts, It does not have to be Starbucks.  So we did coffee gifts for the end of the year.  Each person got a permanent to-go cup with a domed and a flat lid. Along with that a gift card to Starbucks so that they could fill'um up.  I saw this great creative packaging idea on Pinterest and had to use it. I love how they came out.  I just could not stop talking about them at work.(Yes, I was annoying) I did this very last minute due to other things that were going on. As you can see this makes a great last minute gift as well as a well thought out one.  Here is a pic of the gift bag:

 The Teachers got apple tags and a cute school bus for our favorite bus driver.(both cricut files, shhhhh, I cut them with my ZING) more time would have allowed for a more elaborate tag.
Here is a cell phone pic of the cups:

The bottom is kraft crinkle basket filler and the dome lid is stuffed with white tissue.  The gift card is inside of the cup.  The recipient can choose to use the dome lid or the flat lid.  What you can't see is on the cups for the Teachers there is a second tag that says:
"Thanks for quenching my thirst for knowledge" (no I did not make that up, saw it on Pinterest)
Also you can't see that the gift card is Teacher specific. Really nice that Starbucks has a Teacher card. I just love these.  I would love to get this as a gift.  I have it in my mind that even if the person is not a coffee drinker, this cup can be used for any soft drink as well. I will keep this in mind for the holidays as well. Thanks for stopping by. And a big shout out to all the Teachers and school bus drivers out there. Thanks for all you have done this year!!!!!
Lysa

Kristen's Shower Favors! Done!!

Hi Everyone,
Wow, I haven't posted in weeks!  I have been busy, busy, busy! Work (busy), Household (busy), and my favorite of all CRAFTY BUSY!!  Yet, I am still behind on everything. So the shower favors for Kristen are done and that completes my contribution to this wedding.  I am honored that I was able to help a friend and be part of a young couple's wedding. I showed you all the buttons and the shower invitations, here are the favors that will be given out at the shower. First let me tell you the theme is Mickey's kitchen and cookies.  The couple both work for Disney at the Orlando resort.  They love their MOUSE. and cookies are a large part of this family.  My friend Donna is a baker extraordinaire.  Donna always has that yum, yum recipe that you need in a pinch. So this shower theme makes perfect sense if you know the family. The centerpieces are cookie jars of Mickey.  The table linen is all red, white and black.  I am sure the room will look awesome.  The favor box will hold 3 cookies that are made with the included recipe. The cookies are cut with a Mickey logo cookie cutter, one of which is tied to the top of the box.  They look fantastic! Here are some pics I took along the way.  I of course have to tell you some crafty info as well.  Here is a picture of the box blanks.  I cut them with my ZING. I made the file in my KnK studio software (still a fav of mine) and easily copied and pasted the file in to my MTC software for cutting.  Donna bought me awesome cardstock from LCI paper in Massachusetts.  It is the same paper used for the invitations. Here is the first picture:

 That is 40 boxes ready to go.  This cardstock was so thick. Cut beautifully, but scoring was a bit hard on the hand. No worry, it got done.
 Here is a picture with the added belly band.  I used my DSA2 to create the printed strip.  Just like I did with the invitations.  The key here for me is to create a bounding box that is 1/4 inch larger on the four sides. I line that line up with the 1/4 inch mark on the right side of the blade, that is the line I use to cut with my fiskars trimmer.  Makes easy work of cutting all those strips

 This picture shows the tag parts along with the clear plastic box tops.  My best tip here is if you need clear plastic for windows, boxes or box tops - go to staples and buy clear report covers.  They work great. They cut and score like butter.

I just had to throw in this picture of the tag fronts coming off of the xyron.  I mostly use tombow or sctoch glue but I ran out and wanted to finish the front of the tags. My tip here is if you are using your xyron anything make sure you give a good rub down to avoid the pesky glue balls (keep a glue eraser hand too)!

and here at last is the finished favor. I love the bakery string which I must tell you was donated by our favorite local bakery. The red tissue is food safe Wilton brand tissue. The finished box is 41/4 inch square. See the cookie cutter?  How cute are they?

Donna's friend KG will be baking up a storm to fill these boxes with her wonderful cookies just prior to the shower.  Everyone will be joining together the evening before to fill and tie the boxes.  A family celebrating a wedding is a blessing and I feel better than good that I was able to contribute.  I wish Adam and Kristen a long happy, love filled journey. I have been married for 28 years and to be honest another 28 wouldn't be enough! That is what I wish for this young couple. Love you Donna! Many blessings to your family!!!
A shout out of thanks to Donna, Kristen, Adam(for allowing me to share in your joy), KG (for your delicious cookie sample) my ZING, DS2, Tombow, Fiskars, Xyron, my HP Printer, Vodka (anyone who knows me, understands)(inside joke), my MICKEY martini glasses(a gift from Adam & Kristen) and the Hubs (for my awesome craftspace)
Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa