Meagan's How To: 12 Days of Christmas (for a teacher)

Hello all of you out in Digi Land!

The months have flown by and while I have 'thought' of updating my blog, it just honestly got away from me. So, here I am months later with a post about the holidays.
I will just right to it. ;)

First, for those of you that digitally scrapbook (or even if you don't), have you been checking out the Scrap Orchard's Advent Calendar freebie. Each day, they "open" a new door to a coordinated freebie and the designer that designed it is 50% for that 24 hours. If you download each free mini, you end up with a HUGE, gorgeous Christmas kit. The best part is that you can start now (on day 8) and have a great kit. You have to get it while it's there, because it is too cool to pass up and if you forget, you miss that day's download. The best way is to sign up for their newsletter and they send you an e-mail each night at 9 pm (pacific) with the download link. It is so cool, that I have already been using it - twice!

What have I done with it? Well, the first thing, is that I am creating my annual Christmas Newsletter with it, but more importantly, I am creating a gift for my daughter's teachers with it. I found the cutest little idea on, what else, Pinterest. Here is my link to my board, it is an idea for a 12 Days of Christmas for your teacher over at How Does She. I pinned it a long time ago, but knew that I wanted to do it sometime. I love that it is small little gifts for the teacher, but things that they can really use.

So, for the next couple of weeks, I will show you each of the days and how you can do this gift, too.
The first thing that you need to do, is to hit your local office/stationary store. Some of these items could be found at a discount/Dollar store as well. I also added some items from a my craft store (JoAnn's). I really wish that I had planned ahead and got these items back in September, when most of these items were on sale! I had 2 teachers to do this for, so some of my items, I bought a bigger package and got a better deal.
Here is your shopping list:

1 Clipboard - $2.29/each generic Staples brand, but then I embellished it (see Day 1 later)
2 Red pens (the original post had 2 red Sharpies, but I thought that regular pens would be of more use) -$4.79/7, enough for both teachers to get 2, plus 3 left over for me
3 Binder Clips -$3.99/15 pack of cute red ones. I split these between the 2 teachers and am keeping the rest
4 Dry-Erase marker set - $5.29/4pack
5 pkgs. Popcorn $4.99/10 at grocery store
6 pkgs Hot Cocoa & marshmallows $2.29/package 10 packets cocoa + $1.99 marshamallow at grocery store
7 (times 10 = 70) Paperclips - $1.99/100 red plastic coated ones. Generic ones would have been cheaper if cost is an issue. Have your kiddos help count out the 70 that are needed and maybe not tell them that it would be easier to subtract 30, then to add 70 ;)
8 Chewing Gum (the original had this as #7, but I couldn't find a package of 7 pieces of gum) $1 at dollar store for a double pack of 8
9 Candy Canes - $2.24/ box of 40 minis at JoAnn's, you could give big/regular ones instead.
10 Magnets - I chose a ten pack of white board magnets -$3.99
11 Pencils - $5.29/24 Ticonderoga (the good ones, you could get the Dollar Store ones, but many times they are more trouble than they are worth, this was enough for both teachers)
12 Apple Thank You cards (the original post has 12 apples, I really couldn't see my kids dropping a dozen apples on the teachers desk, so I thought they could find more use out of some hand-made thank you cards.)

optional:

white card stock (to print your labels on) - I bought a big package since I use it a lot. $13.99 at Staples. You could use whatever you have.
ribbon and/or clear bags- to wrap your gifts
Package blank cards and and envelopes to stamp/embellish for thank you cards - $6.99/48 cream colored at JoAnn's
Teacher paper pack - I used to embellish the clipboard and I will use it to make the cards. I got this one DCWV Grade School at JoAnn's for $9.99.
Mod Podge - to seal an embellished clipboard. I already had this
Die-Cut letters - for clipboard. I used my Sizzix and cut them out with red paper that I had
Adhesive, hole-punch, scissors, etc.