Students often give small gifts to their teachers during the holiday season or at the end of the school year. Creative homemade gifts are easy when you use scrapbooking, stamping and paper crafting techniques. This article will provide some unique ideas for gifts that the teachers in your life will use, remember and treasure.
Clipboards
An altered clipboard is a gift that a teacher will love to receive because it is as practical as it is beautiful. Basic clipboards, available at your local office supply store in a variety of sizes, can be painted, decoupaged, stamped, or embellished with ribbons, chipboard and jewels. Be sure to minimize the bulk on the clip side so that any papers that the teacher puts into the clipboard lay flat. The back of the clipboard, however, can be embellished with a multitude of products without worrying about maintaining a flat surface. Tie ribbons or adhere flowers to the metal clip to finish off your gift.
Mini-albums
A mini-album is a great teacher gift for the end of the year. A mini-album can include student and class photos and photos from activities throughout the year. Teachers will love to look back at this album to remember all of the fun the class had together that year. Mini-albums can be traditional albums with page protectors, or you can get creative with round or square coaster albums, or even chipboard albums in fun shapes like flowers.
Gift Card Holders
Teachers love gift cards, but add a creative touch with a hand-crafted gift card envelope. Create a small envelope that the card can slide into, and embellish the envelope with stamps, beads, ribbons and other products. Use creative shapes for your envelopes, like a coffee mug shape for a coffee shop gift card, or an envelope decorated to look like a book for a bookstore gift card. A tutorial on creating a custom gift card envelope can be found in the article Custom Envelopes for Gift Cards.
Stationary Sets
A simple set of elegant note cards make a great gift and are easy to create. Make some basic cards using a neutral color cardstock, and add a simple stamp or embellishment or decorate. Wrap the stack of cards and envelopes in a strand of rich ribbon and tie a silver bell or other embellishment into the bow of the ribbon.
Other Ideas
There is really no limit to the gifts you can create using paper crafting, stamping and scrapbooking techniques. Here are a few other gift ideas that are easy to make:
- Small paint cans altered and used for pens and pencils
- Calendars (wall or pocket sized)
- Magnets
- Post-it Note holders
- Paper weights
- Small altered boxes for treats
Teachers will love the handmade touches that these gifts will provide, and many of these items will be far less expensive than other gift options. Handmade gifts will be the gifts that teachers remember and love.
