Do you appreciate a teacher that has a sweet tooth?

If so, this might be the teacher appreciation gift for you! Back when I was in Junior High and High School, I made the super popular candy bar notes. You know what I'm talking about, right? You'd take a piece of poster board and write out a note, inserting candy bars for certain words. Like "you make me "Snicker" and "Rolo"ver with laughter when you tell me a joke." Yes, I was (am) that lame!

Here's a new (less lame) twist on it!


We did this for Turtle's teacher last year. Looking at the photos, I realize that I didn't really decorate the paint can. I'm surprised at myself - I usually never miss an opportunity to embellish. Oh, well. This year!

I got the clear paint can at Michael's. Love them! It's a cute way to package up a gift. Inside were the following candies:
Jolly Ranchers
Smarties (I found a jumbo Smarties at Joann's)
Almond Joy
Pop Rocks
Skor
Mounds
Snickers
Nerds
Andes Mints
Reeses Pieces



It's easy to whip one of these up for Teacher Appreciation Day. Print out the cute poem (that I found on the web, so I can't take credit for it), embellish it a bit and glue it on the can. You can put tissue paper or paper shreds inside the can for color before adding all the candy goodness.

If you have a Cricut, it'd be cute to cut out vinyl polka dots and put them on the can. Ribbon or fabric scraps look adorable tied to the handle.

What a fun and yummy way to tell a teacher thanks!

The Note:

I SKORed big when I got you for a teacher. Don't SNICKER, but I think you're great! You are MOUNDS of fun and you have brought me so much JOY! I think you ROCK! Thank you for always being so JOLLY and for helping me become a SMARTIE. Teachers like you are worth a MINT. I'd be a NERD if I didn't thank you for helping me put the PIECES of the knowledge puzzle together. Thanks for a great year!

Valentine Lollipop Bouquet!

Isn't it the cutest?! Forget roses that die. I want my flowers made out of sugary sweetness!


Want to make your own bouquet for your Valentine? Here's what you need:

Lollipops (you can get boxes of Tootsie Pops or Blow Pops at Wal-Mart in the Valentine section)

Floral foam (mine came in a pack of 4 from Dollar Tree. These were the perfect size)

Cupcake liners (mine came from Hobby Lobby)

Flower Pot (from the garden section at Wal-Mart)

Paper shreds (Dollar Tree)

Green Duck Tape (Hobby Lobby)

Wire (I used 24 gage beading wire from Wal-Mart)

Hole punch

You need 1 lollipop and 6 cupcake liners per flower. First, take your cupcake liners and fold them all in half.

On two cupcake liners, you're going to use your hole punch and punch a hole on the fold.

On the remaining 4 liners, punch a hole slightly above the fold (approx. 1/4 inch):

Keeping these 4 cupcake liners folded in half, insert the lollipop stick into the hole. Offset each liner from the one before to create a circle around the candy portion of the lollipop.

Open the 2 remaining cupcake liners and insert them onto the lollipop stick. I like to put the wrong (non-printed) sides together. If you do this then you see the pretty printed side on the top and the bottom.

Now, we're ready for the leaves. Take a length of the duct tape (approx. 6-8") and lay it sticky side up on the table. Place a length of wire on top of the duct tape.

With another piece of tape, place the sticky sides together, sandwiching the wire between the two pieces of tape. Using scissors, cut the tape into an hourglass shape with pointed ends.

Once the leaf is cut out, you can wrap it around the lollipop stick and give it a twist to hold it tight.

Once I had a pile of 5 flowers, I was ready to move on to the flower pot.

I took some of my craft paint and painted the rim of my flowerpot. In hindsight, I should have painted the whole pot. Once I put the flowers in, you couldn't really see the rim.
Once the paint dried, I used a black Sharpie to write "Be Mine" and draw some hearts.

My floral foam bricks were pretty small, so I stuck some crumpled newspaper in the bottom of my pot first to take up some space.

Then I put in my floral foam. My brick was exactly the right size, except that it was square instead of round. No worries - the edges got shaved off as I shoved the brick in. I just brushed off the floral foam dust and was ready to continue!

To cover the ugly green floral foam I used a handful of paper shreds. I put a couple of spots of hot glue on the foam first to hold the paper shreds in place. Next came the flowers. The first one I put smack in the center. The next two went to the left and the right; the final two went in front and back.

I love the way it turned out! I'm going to have to make a couple more. Wouldn't this be a cute teacher gift?!