End of the Year Gift

The school year is coming to an end which means CrAzY, cRaZy, CrAzY!  Summer officially begins in one week, which is hard to believe considering today we had rain, hail and SNOW (that actually stuck to the ground for a while)!  What a day!! 
I created an end of the year teacher gift for my daughter's teacher.  If you have never tried out WORDLE, you totally should!   I had my daughter list all the things she could think of pertaining to this school year.

I really like the wordle puzzles where the words are going both horizontal and vertical, but this was my daughter's project and she created it the way she wanted. 

So...where to begin?  Here is a step by step of what to do:

1.  Go to WORDLE

2.  Click on create.

3.  Type in a list of words you want into the box.  One word or phrase per line.  When you are done click on GO and your project will appear.

4.  From here you can edit your wordle puzzle...the direction of the words, font, colors, etc.

5.  Print your wordle and trim your paper down to 8 x 10.  (If you want your wordle in a 5x7 frame, reduce your wordle on a copy machine first.  Get a frame and you are done!

For FAQ click on the link, otherwise these were some tips I found very helpful...

*All words will be the same size of font, unless you type the same word multiple times.  For example, if I were typing up words that described my family, but wanted my last name to really stand out, I would type my last name 2 or 3 times so that it would appear 2-3 times larger than the other words.

*If you want 2 or more words side by side in your wordle, add a ~ between each word. (Mr. Smith would look like Mr.~Smith)

*I saved my word list on Microsoft Word so that I could edit anything I didn't like or change it up.  Just a suggestion because it's better be to safe than sorry right!?!

Hope this idea helps out.  This would also make for a great Mother's Day/Father's Day gift!



Creative Ways to Give Money as a Gift

Since my last post, I have discovered a few other creative ideas for ways to give money found on Faith, Trust and a Little Pixie Dust.
A money lei is the perfect way to congratulate the grad in your life!  Michelle has a tutorial to show you how to make one.

She also has a tutorial for how to make a money tie and an ATM machine.  I have been to several bridal showers where an ATM machine was given as a gift.  I love the idea of both!!

One more great idea for the graduate in your life that comes from the same blog, is to make a personalized pillowcase.  Write down any advice, thoughts, quotes, memories, etc. in permanent marker so your new college student can always remember memories from home or what they should do without you there to tell them! :)

Graduation {Balloon} Gift

Recently my daughter was invited to a birthday party which I wasn't prepared for with a present so we had to do some quick thinking.  Everyone loves to get money right?  Well that's the approach we took, only we wanted to make it a little more exciting than just money in a card.  I took 5 - $1 bills and rolled them up one at a time.  I stuck $1 inside of each balloon and then had them blown up with helium.  (You can see a dollar in the green balloon.)  We decided to fill a gift bag with candy and tie the balloons to the bag. 

Since graduation is right around the corner and money seems to be a popular thing to give, wouldn't this be a perfect idea?!?  Maybe more than just $5 for a graduate though! :)  Another idea is to fill balloons with gift certificates.  Whatever you decide to fill your gift balloons with, make sure your balloon doesn't get away from you!

Graduation Ideas

Right now I am playing catch up on this blog and on things I have found recently. HERE are some simple Graduation invitations, announcements and card ideas.
HERE are some more great ideas that could be used for graduates. I think this card is very cute and a clever way to give the grad some money.

And HERE are some more...

I love these cute and yummy looking graduation caps. Aren't they adorable!?!