Teacher's Day 2017

For the second time, I'm not volunteering in the school. If I'm not wrong, the first time I didn't volunteer was in 2012? The year that KZ, my ex-domestic helper, left and I have no one to pick and take care of lil' one who would end her kindy at 11.30am.

This year I chose not to help as well. Firstly I realised that the "free" timing given to the teachers are getting shorter and shorter. For 2 years, the talented kids get to perform for their teachers which we can watch the broadcast in the Hub. I don't think I want to use my time to volunteer for only 1-2 hours and then I get stuck somewhere coz I can't go home (makes no sense to make the journey to and fro) as dismissal is early. I can use the time to tidy the house. Secondly, too many things have happened for the past two months and I was so mentally and physically drained. I need the time to rest or rather knowing me I'll be cleaning the house. Well, better than piling work up and then work like shit the next day right?

The gifts

I'm glad that I'm not a procrastinator, I tend to plan things ahead. So I got the Teachers Day gifts done in early August. When hubby wasn't around in Singapore, I was able to mess up the whole dining table without clearing anything up until it was done in 2 days.  And I'm so glad I did, coz of the demise of my mother-in-law the wake and nitty gritty stuff took up a whole week. Although that was like 2 weeks before Teachers Day. I don't think I would like to rush through especially when it comes to crafts. But then again, my hands and legs are fast. If I'm able to put a birthday party favors prep within 1 week, this Teachers Day project is easy peasy, should take me lesser time. 

It's personalised coaster this year. Some time in July, wrecked my small brain to think of what to gift the teachers. It has to be something useful and light because my girls tend to give more than 4 gifts. They don't just give their teacher for that respective year, which I know many kids do. And something that they can help a little, to show that they DID make a gift themselves. 

I did the wordings and the pictures, printed them on photo paper. Love the quality. 

I did a sample to see how the outcome would be like and I love it. Doesn't look too commercial but still not so amateur-ish work.

The actual work : - I asked the girls to help with the mod podge. It's really fun. And what's more fun is the thrill of peeling the glue away from my skin after that. I don't know if you do this but I'll deliberately put more glue on my palm and wait for it to dry and start peeling it off. Haha! Aricia is too girly, didn't like the idea of crafts and stickiness. Che-che was just like me, smiling sheepishly and peeling glue off.  

     

The next step has to be done by me coz the smell is really pungent. After 3 layers of mod podge, I lay them on newspaper in the yard and start spraying them with acrylic sealer. This will make the coaster waterproof. I left it to dry overnight. And the next day, after housework, started packing them up in a cellophane bag and baged it in the paperbag. 

Project 2 : Only 4 to prepare. These are for the teachers who would be receiving gifts from both girls. Mainly their piano teacher and 3 school teachers who taught the both of them. Must be something useful, so it's personalised bottle. I was suppose to design and use the Silhouette to cut but I didn't have the time to figure out how to use it. I used Martha Stewart's silkscreen adhesive to paint monogrammed fonts on the plastic bottle, hoping that it'll work on plastic. 

I managed to get hard paper (240g) from Art Friend and made 4 plain boxes. Thank goodness, I kept my scoring board, (I gave away some scrapbooking stuffs when I made the move so this is one of the items that I kept) thus I was able to score the lines beautifully without having any creases on the hard paper.     

Last minute project. So, this is the reason why I say it's good that I start preparing gifts was before hand. I realised that I had missed out 2 tuition teachers. *slap head* To think that I was making the count some time in July. Simple design and paste onto chocolate. Cheap and easy. I baged them in cellophane bag.  

That's it for this year. Will start wrecking my brain again next year. Time to rest, Ms Small Brain.