FAB Teacher Gift Idea

I know, I know! It's still summer & YOUR kids are OUT of school!!

But my little one has gone year-round at a little pre-school down the street 

& today is her last day there before she enters Pre-K at the public elementary school! 

WHOA! They grow up so fast!

So, I spent the last 2.5 hours pounding out these great teacher gifts for all the teachers & staff!

It only took me about 3 hours to do 16 candles! (Funny how that worked out, me being a product of the 80's & all!!) 

I had seen these adorable cards in the dollar bin at Michaels & just knew that I wanted to use them for a teacher gift project!  Then I remembered these beautifully decorated candles I saw on the Martha Stewart site, (that & incidentally, my best gal-pal Shirley made similar one's for my 40th b-day party decor!) & bingo! I had a quick & easy idea ready to roll!!

Here's my list of supplies:

1. 16 candles from Walmart. You will find these with all the other candles, but in the aisle with the religious candles. They were only $1.30 each!
2. 2 sheets 12x12 white textured cardstock, such as Bazzill
3. 2 sheets from a child's writing tablet found at the Dollar Tree (you could also use other school themed papers or even ledger paper!)
4. Glimmer Mist in assorted, coord. colors. (I used 1 on the white paper & a combo on the tablet paper)
5. 8 Cards from Michaels with Apples on them or simply use a stamp & 
6. some craft colored cardstock!
7. Good, strong adhesive - I am addicted to my ATG gun, but I did have to use a smaller tape runner on the little apple squares
8. A ruler, paper tearing tool, trimmer & Distress Ink.

The first thing I did was Glimmer Mist all the papers & let them dry. (You can speed up the process w/a heat gun, by kitchen was already 80 degrees today!!)

Because I wanted a soft yellow & didn't have any, I used a pretty "Sunflower" yellow to change the white paper; the ledger got a combo of "Tattered Leather & Mustard Seed." 

While the papers were drying, I cut the apples from the cards...

Because I wanted to re-purpose the other parts of the cards (the odd looking craft colored pc on the top left is the leftovers!), I trimmed as close to the apple cutouts & prints as possible. I then adhered them together (a large Xyron would have been great for this part!); I also had to trim up the edges a little inking them with walnut stain (a staple around here!). I set those aside for later.

Once the papers were dry, I measured the cirumfrance of the candle - approx. 7.25 & cut my papers to that length.  I then decided to tear the edges of the yellow background paper, but I needed to figure out the width first - easy peesy - use the finished apple squares that were approx. 2.25 inches & decide what you want the band to be like! I decided that I wanted mine to be a tad smaller than the apples, but with the tearing, they turned out about the same!! LOL! And I'm fine with that!

Next, I trimmed the tablet papers to 1" strips.

(You can't really tell here, but the table paper has this nice green/gold tint to it from the "Mustard Seed" mist! Looks great w/the yellow & the reds in the apples & the candle!!)

After that, it was just a matter of putting it all together! I ran my adhesive gun down lengthwise on the torn edges of the yellow first, applied it to the candle as straight around as possible - didn't need to worry about overlap too much since the apple square would go over the seams. Then, I did the same with the tablet paper strips.  (I did try to adhere the strips together first & then to the candle, but I got some buckling.) I continued doing all of the yellow & tablet strips on the candles first since the squares took a little more glue & placement.

Once all of those were done, I applied tons of my tape to the apple squares (so the edges that curved around the candle don't lift too badly) & placed them over the seams. Viola! All done & ready to take to school this afternoon!!

You'll notice that some of them are centered lengthwise & some not - the silly manufacturer put the price label ON THE SIDE on some of the candles!!! So, in the interest of time (& frustration!) I decided not to remove them before hand & simple just staggered the placement on the each one a little. This would have really driven me bonkers if all the candles were in the same room at the same time, but since everyone was only getting one candle each, I didn't think it mattered as much!!

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial - it's the first one I've ever done! So, let me know what you thought ok?? Maybe I'll do more!!

TTFN!!