Frugal Teacher Appreciation Ideas with Photos

Check it Out!  Here are some ideas for Teacher Appreciation Week gifts using photos.  If you have access to your child's class, whether you go into the classroom yourself or by enlisting the help of the class aid, you have the perfect opportunity to make a wonderful personalized gift for the teacher made by the kids. 

I have made everything from t-shirts to tissue boxes and the teachers love them.  Just about every teacher has a collection of coffee mugs, so why not do something different and special. 

I love to include class pics in my gifts, so grab the camera and get a cute pic of the kids acting silly or being very serious, something different. 

Spell out THANK YOU, one letter per piece of paper and have kids hold them during the pic.  This makes a great end of the year gift too. 

I did this once with the words "BEST WISHES" for a teachers wedding gift from her class, put it in a beautiful frame bought with the classes money and the teacher loved it!

So you got the pic, now you can make all sorts of gifts with it! 

Craft stores sell wooden unfinished tissue boxes, plates and trays fairly cheap, look for those half off sales or % off coupons and you can paint them to fit your theme or school colors.  Add your pic and add the teacher and school name and then let the kids autograph it with sharpies.  Apply a sealer.  I love decoupage, it's glue and a sealer.

This is one of my favorites- take those thinner baseball card sleeves and a keyring and using scrapbook paper create cards for the sleeves.  Punch holes in the center open ends of the cards and sleeves so they can be placed on the ring.   Have the kids each take one card and on one side write their names, if they are little let them do it in pencil and then trace over it with a black pen to seal it, that way they can erase and all.  Take along a few extras cause there will be some who will mess theirs up and want a new one.  On the other side have the kids list a reason they are thankful to their teacher for.

Creat a front cover and a back cover using the thicker card sleeves and scrapbook paper and stickers, or use a digital scrapbook software (like MyMemories) to create one, like this:

For the back cover, add the class photo, school name, year and grade level or whatever info you want!

Bind them all together with the keyring to create a book and add some ribbons for decoration and color.  I don't have a final one to show because we are homeschooled, but here is the basics of what it will look like assembled:

This idea can be adapted to writing their "Thank You's" on slips of paper or shapes to fit your theme and place them in a jar or box labeled "Thank You For..." on a tag or directly on the box.  Put them on die cut flowers, attach to skewers and stick in a piece of styrofoam in a decorative plant pot to create a bouquet of Thank You's! 

And if you just aren't crafty or don't have time to make it from scratch, head over to Vistaprint or some similar company and take advantage of their tote bag, mouse pads or note pad offers where you just pay shipping!  You still will have to do a little designing, but it will be worth it!