Back to School Teacher Gift {First Attempt at Mod Podge}

Here's a Back-to-School Gift I made for my son's teacher. It started out as a bit of a joke when we bought several packs of red pens.

Two years ago, my son got a demerit in class for not having a red pen. When he told me, I thought he was joking. I didn't think any teacher would give a demerit for not having a pen. Demerits in this school are used for excessive talking, disrespect, and other behaviour issues. I couldn't imagine not having a pen would fall into this category. Of course, I am one of those moms who will always jump to the defense of my sons. Usually without thinking. And he's not the perfect angel I sometimes think he is. *cough*

Demerits are not unknown to my son...he has collected more than his fair share over the years. And I'm not kidding when I say more than his fair share. But two years ago he fnally figured out he could behave and he was actually tryng not to get any demerits for the year. I knew he was (finally) making a true effort to not get any demerits. So the red pen demerit grated a bit.

To be fair, the teacher had a right. She had been forever reminding the kids to bring their red or green pens for grading each day and finally told the kids that if they didn't remember, she would be handing out demerits. And she followed through on her word. And to her credit, she told me that if that was the only demerit he got for the whole year, she would take it back. Which he did. And she did. I was thrilled my boy who had received 30 demirits in three months in the 7th grade was able to get zero (ok, actually one, but she did take it back) in the 9th grade.

So after that loooooong story, when I found the $1/1 Target Bic Coupon last month, I bought four packs of red pens for her. I also had picked up a ton of pencils either super cheap or free and figured I'd give some to her also.

So....how to present them?

I remembered this container I had saved from a Vocalpoint sample:



If you haven't registered at Vocalpoint, stop what you are doing and go do it right now! Then send you the coolest samples and super great coupons.

Anyhow, when I received this container from Vocalpoint, it had some Crystal Lite samples and coupons in it. I love how they find such cute ways to deliver their samples. And when I saw how cute this way, I couldn't throw it away. I knew it would come in handy sometime. Here's a pic showing the top and bottom separately.



I had some scrapbooking paper laying around and found this cute Fallish (yes that is now a word!) paper with apples. How appropriate! I grabbed a solid coordinating paper for the inside and cut them to size.



I had bought some Mod Podge last time I was at Michaels after seeing all the cute projects people have made with it. I decided this was the time to try it out. Holding my breath, I jumped right in. Remember, I had no idea what I was doing. But it really wasn't all that hard.





I slathered a layer of Mod Podge on first, smoothed the paper in, and ‘painted’ on another layer of Mod Podge. My brush was way too big and made it harder than it should have been, but it was all I had.

And here is the final result.



Yes, it’s not perfect. But I am working hard to reign my obsessive need for perfection. Usually I try to make things better and end up making them worse. I thought it came out kinda’ cute and now the kids won’t have to fret about remembering their red pens!