End of the year teacher gifts!

I can't believe that I never blogged about my end of the year teacher gifts before now!  I was really excited about them, and the teachers seemed to enjoy them, too!  I got the idea of a summer relaxation tote from The Lovely Cupboard via Craft, Interrupted.  I sewed my tote bags, of course. :)  These are two layers of Symphony Broadcloth from JAF - I figured that would be lightweight but sturdy and easy to wash, so perfect for the pool, beach, wherever.  The pink tote is for Thing 1's classroom teacher - I knew her favorite color, so that was an easy pick.  I didn't know favorites for the other two, so I used the Things' favorite colors.  Thing 1's gifted teacher got green (with blue, because it just looked great that way!).  I had choices other than lime, but I thought that would be very summery.  Thing 2's teacher got orange, and since I'm an Illini, it had to be a blue contrast!

I adapted the suggestions from the blog posting and put in a beach towel (from WM, chosen to match the tote colors), plastic tumbler (WM), a pair of flip-flops (K-Mart), spray sunscreen (WM), jar of strawberry lemonade mix, and Barnes & Noble gift card.  And I had the Things make thank-you cards for their teachers, with Summer Subway Art on the front of the card.  I was super excited to see that I could print colorways that went with the tote bags.  In the end, these went over really well, and I even made another for a friend who needed a cheery package in the mail. :)