Thanks-a-Latte

The end of the school-year is upon us....and with it comes appreciation of the teachers, bus drivers, Sunday School workers, cafeteria aids and others who build into our kids lives.  Thanks to Pinterest, I had a plethera of teacher-gifts at my disposal. I just had to come up with something that fit my personality well. I wanted something hand-made and expressive of the appreciation that I have for the countless hours that have been spent teaching and being a friend to my two oldest children.

I decided on two gifts (because I basically could not decide on one!) Since they turned out so well, I thought I would blog about them for you.

What I decided upon was THIS apple dip set (because an apple for a teacher....so appropriate), and THIS coffee cozie. I changed this one up a bit to make it more "mine" and the end result was very precious. These two were definitely gifts that I would have loved recieving from anyone!

The apple dip was great and made a beautiful presentation. You start with caramel dip that you can find at any store in the fruit section. You mix some cream cheese with it (no measuring.....pretty much any dip with cream cheese tastes so YUMMY). I bought half-sized mason jars at my favorite store for $1.50 each (Hobby Lobby tip: If you go to Hobbylobby.com you can print out a 40% off coupon EVERY DAY on a non-sale item. I save money every time I go!). Fill it half-way with the caramel/cream cheese dip. The other half you layer with the regular caramel dip. Then you crush up some candies to add to the top. The original recipe called for Heath bars but I could not find those so i used Grand Bars. Screw the top on and put an apple on top. Then put it in a clear bag (which I also got for cheap at H. L. and tie with a nice ribbon and yarn combined. I am telling you.....adorable presentation. So sorry but I do not have pictures of this. Bad blogger that I am!

The second project is a scrap-buster, which I am all about. It takes about 10 minutes of sewing time and is ADORABLE.

1. First, you must buy yourself a drink from Starbucks. I know. This part is difficult :) But, you need the drink to get the template of the cardboard coffee sleeve. Take the sleeve apart and trace it onto fabric of your choice, and reinforcement of your choice. Trace it about 1/2 inch larger all the way around, and cut it out.

2. Pin the layers together like this: Reinforcer, then both materials, right sides together. Between the right sides you will lay a piece of elastic (I used a hair tie) facing inward with just about 1/2 inch sandwiched out. Sew all the way around, except for one of the short sides.

3. Clip the corners as well as along the curve so it will lay nicely, then turn it right-side-out, taking car with the corners. Iron down and then fold in the raw, open side about half an inch. Iron down. Do a nice top stich all the way around (for a tutorial on top-stitching, check out this blog entry).

4. You can be done at this point or you can do some quilting all over the top of it. I chose to do my favorite technique, freestyle quilting. (Check out my entry of this technique HERE).

5. Place it over your Starbucks cup to figure out where to sew on the button. Sew a cute coordinating button in place and that is it!

For cut presentation I went to S.B. and bought a gift card and also picked up 2 empty cups (without lids). I put the cozy on the outside and the gift card on the inside along with a card that said "Thanks a Latte." Ellie then wrote in each card. Adorable.

What teacher gifts have you done? Hope you enjoy these two ideas as much as I did!!!