12 Days of Christmas (the set-up)

By now, you should have gotten all of your items.  Most of these gifts take little to no work.  So today's post will be longer since it is all about the set up.
The biggest thing that I wanted to get ready was all the tags with their sayings.  First, I wanted to change some of the original sayings to be more personal and some I had to change because I didn't find what they had.  This is one big reason to shop for your items all at once.  For instance, I found gum in an 8-pack and they had it listed as #7 (meaning you would give the teacher 7 pieces of gum).  So, I needed to swap the gift for #8 (which was paperclips on the original blog).  Another change was #12, I really didn't want give the teacher 12 apples.  I have heard that teachers get sooo many apple things, that they get a little tired of it and 12 apples seems like a lot for any one person.  So, I decided to do hand-made thank you cards with an apple/teacher theme. Day 2, listed Sharpies as what a teacher would correct papers with and most teachers don't correct with Sharpies (plus they are more expensive), so I switched it to regular red pens.  One last change was the wording on #3, the binder clips.  I didn't like the image of a teacher wanting to binder clip my child's lips, so I re-worded it.
Here are the poems for each day:

There are many ways that you can create these tags.
I created each tag to be about 3"w x 2"t.  I used my SBC+ software to "cut" out the green paper into a tag shape and then again with the cream paper slightly smaller.  Both digital papers are from the digital free downloads from Scrap Orchard's Advent.  I added a text box to the center and typed in the phrase.  Then, I added holly and berries to each corner from the same kit.  I printed these phrases on white card stock and hand cut them out.  Then, printed the backs with the countdown numbers and attached them to the front with scrapbooking adhesive.
With something like a Cricut, you could cut them out a little easier.
Another method would be to use traditional supplies with a tag punch or hand cut them out.  Print the phrases onto cream paper and then cut out and attach. You could even hand write them if you want or have your child do it.
The method that you use is not nearly as important as the thought and that you are letting them know each day's poem

At first, I was only going to do the poem on one side and nothing on the back, but I got a little carried away and did a cute back with the number.
While the front was the same with each poem, the back, I made unique.  The Advent freebie was perfect for this, since it came with a mixture of fonts.  Here is day 1:

It was so easy to do with the kit that I have gathered so far.  It had all of these digital elements, papers and alpha.
After I attached the front to the back, I punched a hole in the top and attached them with ribbon.

My next post will talk about Day 1 and how I took the plain brown clipboard from generic to special.