Gifts for the Teacher

This is my daughter's last week of school for the year.  She does have pre-school over the summer too, but it changes up a bit.  So now was the time to brainstorm a good gift for her teacher.  We made her a stamped apple bag and a framed subway art print!

Let it be said that I really have enjoyed my daughter's teacher this year.  Ms. Angie was marvelous.  I am sad that the Clever Girl won't be in her class anymore, to be honest.  Ms. Angie became a friend!  So, she needed a special gift from the Clever Girl and I.


I got the idea for the stamped apple bag from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.  I checked out this book from the library and will probably purchase it now.  The projects in the book are pretty simple fun ideas.

Items you need for a Stamped Apple Bag:

• A bag or some object for stamping.  I got a nice canvas tote bag from Hobby Lobby.
• A good looking apple
• Red and/or green fabric paint OR acrylic paint + fabric medium
• Black paint if you want to mix colors
• A brown fabric pen
• A green fabric pen
• An iron
• Paintbrush
• Disappearing ink fabric pen (optional)
• Ruler

The first thing you have to do is get an apple that will look great when cut in half.  I specifically looked for one that was fat around the middle but came to a bit of a narrow bottom.  I bought a big red delicious for this purpose.

To prep the bag, I created a grid on the pockets as a general outline for where to place the apple stamps.  You can faintly see the purple lines on the bag.

Slice your apple in half and paint it with whatever color paint you want!  The Clever Girl thought it was great fun to paint an apple!  Then press it onto the bag!  We did a couple of apples in the original red color, then mixed in a drop of black and did a few darker ones too. 

Repeat the process with the green paint!

When the apples were dry, I drew in the stems and leaves with the fabric pens.   Then I ironed the entire thing to set the paint.  This is especially important if you are painting on anything that might be washed some day!

Ta-da!!  Now only does it look great, it is a fun craft project for little kids!  The Clever Girl had a blast and was very proud to help make Ms. Angie's gift. 

For the framed print, I found the graphic as a free printable here.  I wanted a red frame, which was harder to find than I thought it might be.  So I bought a black frame and painted it red with some Valspar Gloss Interior/Exterior spray paint.  I already had the paint from a different project, but I bought it at either Home Depot or Lowes. 

And there you have a great teacher gift!  I stuck the print in the bag with a card telling Ms. Angie how much we appreciated her being Clever Girl's teacher this year, and brought it to school.  

I love how it all turned out!