Sara Jane: Flowers and a Pot

When my hubby and I were first married, I had the crazy, yet super fun, opportunity to teach kindergarten for a year at a preschool while he finished up his undergraduate.  I have a degree in psychology so I never thought nor planned that I would be a teacher.  This job came up and I thought, "Teaching couldn't be that hard"....and I went for it.  

Really?!? 

It was that hard, and time consuming, and frustrating, and (fill in the blank)....but, it was also the most enjoyable and rewarding job I have ever had. So, even though my babies aren't in school yet, I LOVE the idea of Teacher Appreciation Week.  Teachers deserve all the love and appreciation we have to give.

My daughter LOVES any and everything having to do with flowers and/or pink.  When I asked her what she thought her ballet teacher, Miss Emma, might like, she said, "FLOWERS!"  So, flowers it is.

For my craft this week, my daughter and I made pencil flowers.  They are pretty much the easier craft one could make but they are so cute.  

Here is what you will need (Mind you, I bought ALL of this from the Dollar Store.  Not an expensive craft at all!):

• Flowers (You really do not need to buy expensive flowers.  If your Dollar Store doesn't have a nice variety, try Walmart.  They have a great selection of 99 cent bouquets)
• Ribbon or floral tape
• Thumb tacs
• Craft jewels 
• Pencils
• Hot glue gun with glue sticks

How to assemble:

1.  Using your hot glue gun, glue the craft jewel onto the top (the flat area) of the thumb tac.

2.  Take the flower apart.  It is easiest if you pull the back piece off first and then take each layer apart.

3.  Insert your jewel tac through the middle of the flower.

4.  Begin wrapping your pencil with either the ribbon or the floral tape.  To do this, I put a small amount of hot glue at the top to secure the ribbon/tape and then just wrap it all the way to the end.  Maybe leave about an inch of unwrapped pencil at the end so the teacher can actually use the pencil.  For the ribbon, I did do a dot of glue every once in a while to keep it from slidding down the pencil.  The floral tape sticks pretty well to the pencil without a whole lot of glue.

5.  Stick your tac into the eraser of the pencil.  I also add a drop of glue here too since a lot of times the erasers split.

Flower pencil complete!

Sure, the flowers are pretty but that seems like a slightly small gift, if you ask me. Soooo, I decided to paint a pot for the flowers to stand in (yes, you've probably seen these many times in doctor's offices but they're still cute).

 I cannot take full credit for these pots.  I took inspiration from this site.

First, I took my terra cota pot (although any will do) and painted it white (if you were going to do a chalk board bottom, paint it with the chalk board paint now).

Next I painted the rim orange, let it dry and then, using a Sharpie marker (paint would work too if you had a steady hand...I, however, do NOT have a steady hand), drew a ruler.  I am sure there are a million ways you could do this to make it look more real, however, I liked it slightly rough looking.  I think it would also be fun just to let your child paint the pot for the teacher however they like.

Next, I filled the pot with dried pinto beans that I had in my cupboard.

Lastly, I added my flowers.  I don't know if my daughter's ballet teacher will love this but I know my 4 year old thinks it is pretty amazing!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Sara Jane