Teacher Appreciation: Jazzing Up A Ho-Hum Plant

Teacher Appreciation: Jazzing Up A Ho-Hum Plant

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crafts, DIY, flowers, Holidays, sewing, teaching, tutorial

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Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

"You're a pretty good teacher. Thanks.So tell me again the purpose of writing a spelling word 5x?"

"Holy mackerel!  You are seriously the most creative and effectivel teacher ever. Thank you so much for all you do for our sweet children. We can't thank you enough. You really deserve a day at the spa or an African violet."

So we're in the throes of Teacher Appreciation Week. All over the 'net are all sorts of amazing, crafty, heartfelt gift ideas. Pinterest is bursting at the seams with them. But, you all know how I feel about teacher gifts. Being a teacher, I love feeling appreciated since I work hard but fancy gifts make me uncomfortable.   It is my job so you can appreciate me but let's not forget I do get a salary. 

Plus not getting too many annoying "my perfect child should have scored a 100% on his test despite leaving half of it blank" emails is a huge help. I totally appreciate that. You know what sometimes happens?  People yell at you for not answering their 12 voice mails. The ones they leave in July. When I'm not there to get them. Or return them. But I digress.

Teacher gifts. Here's my low down.

I believe in four types of teacher gifts: 

1. consumable (food, wine, gift cards to buy more food or wine)

2. usable (not a candle. not a mug. not a tote bag)

3. child created

4. books for the classroom since creating a classroom library is a huge expense.

This year, we are giving the teachers in Molly's class some cakes (consumable), coffee (consumable), and plants (usable).  The two assistants are receiving African violets and her teacher is going to receive an herb garden. 

So I had these two violets and they seemed so blah. What could I do...what could I do...ah ha!  I spied some wrapping paper I bought at Target in the dollar bins.

I laid two pieces on top of each other. I placed the plastic wrapper from the violets onto the paper and traced it to make a pattern. I cut them out. (The bunny is purely for paper weight purposes. I swear I did not eat it. But I'm guessing this project won't work if you don't use a chocolate bunny as a paper weight. not really. but maybe.)

 

 

Wrong sides together, I sewed around the sides and bottom.

Then I stuck the plant inside the paper wrapper and folded the top down so you can see the flowers peeping out. I tied a purple ribbon around it and omg the cuteness is hurting my eyes.



I think for the other one I'm going to cut the top using fancy scissors rather than fold. But no matter which way, it's a pretty gift and not one crayon was melted with a hair dryer in the process.

Cheers!

Jenny