The weeks leading up to the last day of school were absolutely crazy for me. Knitting and crocheting deadlines, helping Rebecca's teacher take down the stuff on the walls and pack up books and everything to switch classrooms, inventory for the school library, community club meetings, another Book Fair, doing final Box Tops and Campbell's Labels mailings, and getting rewards out to the students and faculty. I was there by 8 in the morning and left well after 3, sometimes later than most of the staff. I'd resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to be able to make any gifts for anyone except Rebecca's amazing teacher, and though I felt a little bit bad about it, I knew it was the smart, sane thing to do.
I used the Note Taker pattern from Kathy, and made the small size with these great school-themed fabrics I've been collecting. I left out the stabilizer and just reinforced with double layers of fusible interfacing (frankly, because that's all I had!), so now it's washable if necessary. The girls drew their own cards, and I wrote a heartfelt note to a truly remarkable woman.
I finished all the sewing by Monday night (last day of school was Thursday) and when I went to the closet to pull out a notepad, dang! Not one was to be found. So I grudgingly went to Staples, armed with my Rewards Coupon, and went to get a 5" x 8" notepad.
As I was trying to decide between yellow, white, unbleached, recycled, wide-, narrow- or college-ruled, I found these Mini Writing Tablets, in pink, green, yellow, and purple. They came five to a pack, and were marked at 99 cents. The wheels started turning, and suddenly I knew I could do something inexpensive, fast and easy for Rebecca's classmates, too. And even better, when I got to the checkout counter, the packs of tablets rang up at 50 cents each! And with my $9 rewards check, I didn't end up paying a dime for anything. Whoo hoo!
I had a stack of black construction paper left over after taking down one of the teacher's bulletin boards, and I thought I could make covers for the pads so that they looked like faux chalkboards. Of course, I first had to check with Rebecca to make sure the kids still knew what a chalkboard was, but she assured me she did. She'd seen one in a movie before, she said. Ha! Anyway, I cut the paper down to size (3.5" x 5"), plus about an inch extra in length so I had enough to wrap around the top to the back of the pad. I used double stick tape, easy peasy. Then Rebecca drew on them with chalk, we printed "Happy Summer" labels with her name and email address on them and stuck them on the inside front cover, and that was that. I didn't even have to stay up late!
Score Mom!
Posted by: lizandrsn | Wednesday, June 09, 2010 at 07:10 PM
These are great end-of-year gifts and they'll be very much appreciated by your recipients. You are so thoughtful and creative.
Posted by: Junie Moon | Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 07:06 AM
YOu are amazing! Rebecca looks so happy to give such great gifts. Ethan could care less anymore. At least I have Isaak to get all excited about stuff like this.
Posted by: regina | Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 08:30 PM