Super Cute and Easy Teacher Gift!
Anyone with a child at school, particularly preschool or daycare will know that it can very quickly become quite expensive to give each child's teacher or teachers a gift. Even if it is only a small one, costs add up very quickly.
I often find myself torn between the desire to give everyone who has a hand in taking care of, teaching and nurturing my little humans a gift and the reality that my funds at this time of year are quite minimal.
This year I decided I was going to draw on all my creative abilities and take the homemade approach for gifting others. This way I will be able to give beautiful and meaningful gifts that won't break the bank.
As hard as it is to believe my last little boy is heading off to big school next and whilst it is a very exciting time we are also a little sad with the realisation that we will no longer being seeing all his amazing preschool teachers every other day anymore. This made it even more important for us to create a special heartfelt gift that emphasised just how wonderful they are and how much we appreciated their hard work over the years.
Like most preschoolers, my son has several teachers in his class. So I opted to make the same gift for each of them. I spent many hours scanning Pinterest, Etsy and Google for inspiration and finally came up with these adorable, easy and cheap Reindeer Mason Jars.
These are so flipping cute and simple to make that even the most novice crafter will have no trouble in creating them!
WHAT YOU NEED:
* Mini Mason Jars - Mine are from Kmart and cost $0.75 each (bargain!)
* Jelly Beans
* Brown Pipe Cleaners
* Red Pom Poms
* Googly Eyes
* Hot Glue Gun
Even though maths is not by strong point, it doesn't take a mathematician to work out this is a really inexpensive gift option.
In fact, they end up costing a total of around $2.00 each, how good is that?
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Take your mason jar and remove the plastic straw, you wont be needing it so put it aside and use it for the kids or perhaps another project down the track.
2. Fold a pipe cleaner in half and push through the hole in the jar lid. Make sure the two prongs are poking outwards as these will be your antlers.
Twist the base of the pipe cleaners so they don't slip through the hole and then use your glue gun to hold them in place. I used the glue to not only secure the pipe cleaner but to also seal the hole completely.
Set to the side and allow the glue to dry, it wont take long.
3. While the lid dries, grab the jar and use your glue gun to attach your pom pom "rudolph" nose and googly eyes.
After stupidly gluing my fingers together I quickly established it was far easier to just put a drop of glue on the jar and press the pom pom and eyes on to it rather than putting the glue on the pom pom directly. My 5 year found the burnt finger dance highly entertaining.... me not so much!
4. Now it's time to finish the lids, all you need to do is cut a few brown pipe cleaners into thirds and simply twist one of the trimmed pipe cleaners around each of the jar pipe cleaners to create an antler effect.
5. Fill the jar with your jelly beans or chosen lolly /candy.... you might even need to do a taste test.... for quality control purposes of course!
6. Now you have made your adorable jars all you need to do is download, print and attach this special poem which explains just how much these "ah-mason" educators mean to you and your child.
This was my very first tutorial Blog post so I apologise if the directions aren't clear enough or I have missed something. Please be patient with me while I learn to navigate my way around this new and fun way to share my love for all things crafty with you all.
If you have any questions please contact me via the get in touch link and if you do make these yourself I would love to hear how you went!
My next post will be about the gifts I am making for the big boys classroom teachers, so be sure to subscribe so you will updated as soon as it is uploaded.
