Teacher Appreciation Week

Our school celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week this week. I am so grateful for our teachers! Our school district has faced severe budget cuts over the last few years that have resulted in huge class sizes with almost all teacher's aides being laid off. I think our teachers do a fabulous job even though they are asked to do more and more with less and less.

I am VP of our Parent Teacher Organization. This week we planned a breakfast for the teachers on Monday and a lunch on Wednesday. We had a Cinco de Mayo theme and served breakfast burritos and taco salads for lunch.  We asked the kids to bring a flower for their teachers on Monday, a sweet on Tuesday and a kind note on Wednesday.

Every morning this week, I placed candies with cute little sayings in the teacher's lounge.

This one says Thank you for a "bliss"-ful year and has Hershey's Bliss candies in the bowl.

"You were "mint" to teach."  This one had York peppermint patties.  I also had one that read "Stuck on You" with packs of gum.

I purchased some inexpensive geraniums.  To dress up the plastic pots, I used Mod Podge to attach some zebra crepe paper I had on hand.

Here are the sayings that I made.  I just glued them to a popsicle stick and popped them in the candy bowls.  Feel free to use them if you like!

There are so many cute teacher appreciation ideas out there.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Source: go.tipjunkie.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

A color-coordinated teacher survival kit.

Source: nf1andpre-kwhisper.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Make a vase out of pencils.

Source: familyfun.go.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

This is a great way to use up some of those broken crayons!

Source: skiptomylou.org via Sole on Pinterest

What a cute saying.

Source: tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com via Cheryl on Pinterest

More DIY Art

I'm redoing Mary's room on a budget, meaning I need to find thrifty ways to still make it cute.  The blog Sprik Space has tons of free printables, including lots of plain patterns.

I uploaded some of the plain patterns to Picnik (so sad Picnik will be going away) and played around with adding text.  I was surprised how easy it was to make some cute, personalized prints.

I quickly created a few things and I might play around some more to see what else I come up with.  Once I've finalized the designs, I'll send them to a photo printer to be printed.  If I had a color printer, I could just print them myself.  How simple is that?!?!

 I think a collection of these would look so cute.

I'm thinking about making my sister something like this for her orange and gray nursery once her baby is born...in only a few more weeks!

Have you made prints like this?  If so, I would love to see them!  You could put a link in your comment.

Be sure to stop by Sprik Space to check out the other free printables and to say "hi" to Aimee.

Free Printable Art Round-Up

Thanks to all of you who weighed in on my hallway painting project.  I think I am going to go with some muted stripes on the bottom of the wall and keep the top a solid color.

Back to the bathroom.  I need some new art to fill the walls, but I really don't want to spend any more money in that room.  I already have this print on one wall that I won in a giveaway from Nutmegaroo.  I put it in an Ikea frame I had and spray painted the mat coral.

Here's a bare wall that needs something:

I really like this flamingo print and it would coordinate with the coral mat on the other print.  It's from an Etsy seller called Eastwitching.

While the print is very reasonable, I thought I would look around online and see what I could find for FREE.  There's a wide-range of free printables out there.  Here are some that I found...not all for the bathroom, obviously!

Source: aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: printable.tipjunkie.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: sprik.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: sprik.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: sprik.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: thirtyhandmadedays.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: sprik.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: sprik.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: howjoyful.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: inspiredbycharm.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: liveandenliven.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: makingitlovely.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: itsacraftylife.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: itsacraftylife.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

I chose lots of inspirational quotes since I might put a few of these in the girls' bathroom or their rooms.  Girls can use all of the self-confidence they can get.

Have you ever used a free printable?  I assume I just print it out on a color printer?  Should I use special paper...photo paper?