End of the School Year Gifts

Happy Tuesday Stampers!
Last Friday was the last day of the regular school year for the children that are in the Pre-K program that I work at. It was a very fun but also very sad day because a lot of our children will not be returning for the summer program nor in September. :o( So I took lots of pictures of my kiddies and fought back the tears...

One of the other teachers and I decided to give the children (all 24 of them!) a little gift for the end of the year. So I went on Splitcoast Stampers and found this very easy tutorial to make a double-pocket bag. They came together rather quickly, in fact the other teacher (Brenda ;o) ) ended up making the rest of the bags on her own and I just filled them up with the goodies at home! Thanks Brenda! :o)


So here are the bags. I didn't take a picture of all of them because there was not enough space on the desk in our school office. So I placed a few of them by the window to get more natural light coming in and also used my small portable natural light as well, to take the pictures. I really love the way the bags came out!

As you can see, I ended up using lots of retired Designer Series Paper. So unfortunately, none of the papers used to make the bags is available to order. Sorry guys! I really have a tendency to hoard my DSP, and once it's retired it really does me no good to use at workshops so I have to start using it more for personal projects. Oh, all the ribbons used for the handles are also retired. The papers used are from the 2008-2009 Idea Book and Catalog and they are: Bali Breeze, Berry Bliss, Cutie Pie and East Coast Prep. The ribbons are also from the same catalog and they are: Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi 3/8" Double-Stitched Ribbon.

Here's a side view of the bags so you can see the 2 pockets.

Here is what was included inside each bag. The children inside were very big into Perler Beads or Fuse Beads. If you've never heard of them you can find them here. They are so much fun and the children had a blast coming up with creations on their own or by following a pattern and then we would iron them and the beads would fuse together and they could keep their project for ever! Or at least until it got lost or accidentally broken. These beads were awesome for working on their fine motor skills, sharing, helping one another, math, etc. So I found these individual mini Perler Bead packs in the Dollar bins at Michaels' and had to snatch them up to give to the children! They also either received a post note with the intial of their first name or a wooden keychain that they could color themselves.

All Supplies Stampin' Up! (unless otherwise indicated)

Stamps: None

Ink: None

Paper: Bali Breeze, Berry Bliss, Cutie Pie and East Coast Prep Designer Series Paper (retired)

Accessories: Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi 3/8" Double-Stitched Ribbon, 1/8" Circle Punch, Sticky Strip, (Perler Bead Packs, Wooden Key Chains, Alphabet Sticky Notes-from Michael's)

I hope you enjoyed looking at these bags as much as the children enjoyed receiving them!

Happy Stampin'!