I love doing crafts. I wish I had more time to do them but I make time when it comes to a gift. I urge you to make your own gifts this season for some special people in your life. I’ve been hinting to my husband for years now that I’d love for him to make a craft with the kids for my birthday or Mother’s Day because the homemade gifts truly come from the heart.
The end of the school year rolled around in the Spring last year so I decided to make these plates for all of the teachers. It was super easy and cheap! I had eight teachers to make plates for. Yes eight! It also happened to be Mother’s Day that month so I bought three additional plates for the special Mom’s in our lives. I found the plates at the dollar store for a buck a piece! Score. I did my research and I found that Sharpie permanent markers did the trick! Just make sure they are oil based. Decorate your plates as you see fit. I put #1 teacher along one side of the plate and along the opposite side I wrote the teachers name. I also let my oldest draw in the center of the plate, I can not even tell you how much fun we had doing this together. If you make a mistake no worries, just dampen a cloth and wipe it away ASAP.
Place them in the oven (cold), heat oven to 400 Degrees and bake for 30 minutes. Shut the oven off and let the plates cool. Don’t forget to sign the back of the plate with the year and and the instructions: Please Hand Wash. I topped them with cookies (store bought!), wrapped them and attached a tag that said “Thank you for all that you do.”
You can make these for your loved ones for Christmas, birthdays, special occasions or even if you want to make your very own “Santa’s Cookie” plate or holiday plates.
I loved doing this so much I got creative when I saw a cookie jar at Target one day. It was ceramic so I traced my daughters hand on one side and wrote her name and the year. I traced my sons hand and the year on the reverse side. At the top I added “Daddy’s Hands Only.” That left one side open for my daughter to draw whatever she wanted. My husband has a sweet tooth so I filled it with his favorite candy. You could fill it with cookies or whatever is special to the person receiving the gift.
