Better late than never? Pre-school teacher gifts done!

The end of the school year came crashing down on me this year like a freight train. Steve was just getting back on his feet, baseball was in high gear and I just really dropped the ball in terms of thank-you to Ellie and Sam's three Friday pre-school teachers. I knew that we would be seeing all three of them this summer, at least for the first week of summer pre-school- so I put it off a bit.

These first two weeks of summer vacation have flown by and all of the sudden yesterday I realized that today would be the day to give the teachers a little something at the end of week one of camp. So with my feet to the fire so to speak . . . I finally got busy.

Love this gathered clutch pattern from Noodleheads, you can purchase it here and it is full of great information! I cut the fabric, found some zippers and set on the clutch making path. I think aside from the cutting, it didn't take much more time to do three than it took me to make one. So with an assembly line in place, I churned out these.

Cosmo Cricket Early Bird

another Cosmo Cricket Early Bird clutch

Nicey Jane with my all time favorite stripe!

One of the teacher's daughters in hanging out all four weeks with her mom and doing it for free . . . so she had to have a cute little something with her own Target gift card. Anyone who will look after my two little people deserves a rest and a big THANK-YOU!

I love clutches, they are quick to make and lots of fun. We always try and give teachers a gift card to a place we know they love and all three of these ladies we have run into at Target . . . so when they actually peek into their clutch, they will find a little red bullseye goodness ready and waiting . . .

Few notes to myself or anyone making the gathered clutch. You really need to cut the zipper at least a half inch - I like an inch- shorter than the pouch, so when you turn it, the sides look neat. I used zippers I had and didn't trim them down since they were very close to the size I needed. I thought it would be okay and it is . . . but I would have liked the look a lot more, if I had stayed true to how I made them in the past. I also think I like the strap now, but am going to try adding a D ring and making it a little fancier!

Thanks again Penny for starting the Gathered Clutch Swap and Anna of Noodlehead for being so generous with your talents. All your tutorials are wonderful!

Teacher's End of Year Gift

We started out to make some fun fabric covered button magnets for Max's first grade teacher, but before the night was over we added his music teacher, art teacher, librarian, and the nurse.  I asked him why the additions to our list and he told me he was in the craft zone.  That was all he needed to say, we could have been making magnets all night!  I guess it makes it easy that we sell all the supplies on our ETSY supply site to make these and had plenty on hand.  Sorry the pictures don't do them justice, but Max wanted to show Grandma via this blog - so look Grandma what Max made!

This really is a wonderful little project that uses all of your small scraps.  We used size 30 cover buttons, with flat backs.  After covering the buttons with Tonga Batik in fun and vibrant colors, we used E-6000 craft glue to adhere STRONG rare earth magnets.  Max loved this part, before he had a system down, the magnets were flying off the backs of magnets and jumping back together.  We solved the problem by placing them far apart on a divided tray to dry.

It is hard to see in this picture, but the little window tins make this the fun gift it is. It keeps the magnets from bunching up since they are magnatized to the container.  It also just makes for a sweet little presentation.  He will tie a piece of fabric around it and hang a little card off of it.  He also likes to tell the receipient that he has tested the magnets and they will hold up to 10 sheets of paper.  I will be making a lot more of these in all kinds of fabrics to have at our booth at the ZONTA/LARAC show in June in Glens Falls, NY.  They have been really good sellers for us in the past.

We have our Scrabble Tiles made and almost ready for the show and now we are starting to work on our hand stamped sterling items and pearl jewelry.  We will make some various accessories with fabric if time permits.  Hair ponytails, bobby pins and key fobs tend to sell well for us.  I started a batch of key fobs and got them sewn and ready for hardware.  I don't think my love of all things pink, brown and hot pink will fade anytime soon.

We will try at this show some funkier prints on the fobs.  We lots of fun Japanese fabrics and thought it would be fun to see if they are a hit.  In addition lots of preppy stuff that seems to be making a comeback.  It will be a wide range of items at this show, so we can get feedback for the Saratoga Springs summer shows.