#EasyGifts for Your Favorite Teacher {Popcorn, Hot Chocolate, and more}!

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Most of you know that this is Little Crafter’s first year of school!  He’s been doing absolutely awesome, and is just loving it…and a big part of that is due to the fact that he has an amazing teacher!

It’s actually extra special because LC’s teacher just happens to be a very good friend of mine from high school {we were in showchoir together}!  She has made his transition to Kindergarten so smooth and has helped him in more ways than I can count.  LC absolutely loves her; in fact, just today he told me she is one of his favorite people and that he wants to invite her to his birthday party this year.  So, of course we wanted to do something special for her as a Christmas gift.  We know a few important things about Mrs. W., including that she loves snow, chocolate, winter, and a certain cartoon mouse.  We decided to create a gift bag for her full of some of those favorite things, and to personalize the bag too using LC’s hand and foot prints so that every time she uses it, she’ll think of him!

Before we even started on the bag itself, we needed to buy some goodies to put inside of it that we knew Mrs. W. would enjoy.  I already needed to pick up some other Christmas gifts at Target, so it was really convenient to grab everything we needed there.  Since we know Mrs. W. loves chocolate and snow days, we thought Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate {with marshmallows, of course} would be a perfect choice…and for $1.09, you can’t beat the price!!

We picked up some Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn for her to enjoy with her girls while snuggling up with a movie next time it snows too!  I also grabbed a giant twin pack of Slim Jim she can share with her hubby, a bag of her favorite chocolate candy, some mints, and a notebook.  Once all the goodies were purchased, it was time to create that festive bag.  Here’s how we made it:

Materials:

– white canvas bag
– fabric paints: brown, black, red, white, and preferred skin tone
– four google eyes
– pom-poms: two red, one white
– glitter
– paintbrushes
– newspaper
– hot glue gun and glue sticks

*Before you begin, place newspaper or other scrap paper inside the bag to prevent the fabric paint from bleeding through to the other side.*

STEP 1: Paint child’s foot with brown fabric paint and press onto canvas bag.  We put his right foot on the far right of the bag and his left foot on the far left.

Theoretically, at this point you should have two lovely brown footprints ready to become reindeer faces.  Instead, this is what we got.  I’m not sure if it was because of the paint, the way I put it on his foot, or what, but, well….fail.  Just keepin’ it real.  Even the Artsy Mama has giant craft flops now and again.  But don’t worry, all isn’t lost.

Step 2: If necessary, fix your footprints.  I could see enough from our rather sad attempts to know where the basic outline of each foot was, so I went back and filled everything in with brown paint.  Meanwhile, hubby was kind enough to take LC upstairs and clean off his cute little feet.

Step 3: Add details.  I used black paint to freehand antlers on each reindeer.  Then, LC helped me glue on eyes and noses.

Step 4: Lightly trace child’s hand in the center of the bag with fingers together and pointing down.

Step 5: Using paintbrush, add details to turn handprint into a Santa face.  We used red paint to give him a hat, a skin tone for his eye and mouth area, and lots of white paint for his hair and the fur on his hat.  LC glued a white pom pom onto what would be his thumb, or the end of Santa’s hat.  I finished by adding eyes and a nose with black paint, then we sprinkled glitter on the still-wet white paint.

Once the bag itself was finished, it was time to fill it with goodies for Mrs. W.  I used “Cammie,” my trusty Silhouette Cameo, to help me cut tags out of red and green cardstock, then wrote little sayings on them to go along with each gift.  For example, for the popcorn, I used, “Popping by with a Christmas ‘hi’;” for the Hot Cocoa, “Warm wishes for a sweet holiday.”

Once the bag was completely dry, it was time to fill it with the yummy gifts!

Little Crafter can’t wait to take the gift into school and give it to Mrs. W.!   He loves it because he got to help make it and he knows it’s full of things she’ll like.  I love it because it was so easy and affordable to put together!  I’m all about things that are simple to do during the holidays, so this is my kind of gift idea.

If you’re thinking of creating #EasyGifts for some of the people on your list, I want to share a few coupons with you really quick!  If you’re purchasing some of the same things I did, you can save at Target.  Just click on the deals below to go to the coupons.

Save $3 when you buy 4 Orville Redenbacher 6-packs.
Save $1 on 5 Slim Jim Giant Twin Packs.
Save $1 on 4 Swiss Miss packs {8 ct or larger}.

I just love easy gifts!  What are your favorite quick and easy holiday gift ideas?

Hugs & Glitter,