::NOTECARDS: Perfect Teacher Gifts::

I've heard that most teachers usually head home for the holidays with more chocolates, mugs and smelly candles than they know what to do with. So I try my hardest to come up with something homemade to send off with the kids every year. This year, I put my photography to good use and made notecards.

The best blank notecards I've found so far are these:

They are sold at Walmart and Homesense, and come in lots of different tones. You need to size you photos to 2000 px by 2588 px. Print off your favourite photos. Cut, and paste!

::MEMORY GAME: Getting Around Vintage-style::

A vintage look for this "getting Around" memory game. This one was a St. Nick's gift for a tiny four year-old who really didn't get it. He just wanted a truck.

::Salt Dough Animals::

Salt Dough Animals. I saw a Noah's Ark version in a Martha Stewart magazine years ago, and it stuck. I never did hunt down cookie cutters like hers, but found these instead:

HOW TO: Canadian Critters Salted Dough Ornaments

1. Prepare a batch of Salt Dough.
2. Cut out your animals using cookie cutters and insert small eye-hooks at the of each animal. I found mine at Home Depot, but you can always make hooks using wire.
3. Bake for 4 hours at 200 degrees. Yes, I know it takes forever, but it's worth it.
4. Once cooled, they will be good and hard. Trace your animals onto pretty paper. I used green scrapbook paper. Cut out their outlines, and Mod Podge them onto the backs of the cookies. I did this to hide the brown spots on the side of the cookie that was face-down on the tray. But it also means your ornament looks pretty on the tree even if it gets trued around.
5. Once dry, draw details onto the non-paper side of each animal.
6. It is important to spray varnish the first coat or the ink will bleed. It may still bleed a little. The next coat can be brush-on varnish.
7. Next, I snipped all but 1 cm off the ends of red-tipped sewing needles. Use whatever colour you like, I just found the red to be very festive. These pins can now be pushed into the dough as embellishments. If they don't go in easily, pre-punch a hole using a thumbtack and then apply a dot of crazy glue to the hole before putting in the pin.
8. Last, feed ribbon or twine through the loop and tie.

Six Canadian animals for the tree:

::Road Trip Lantern::

"This lantern is for my best friend... I'd always pick her up and we'd adventure around. To this day we still take this pictures in the car together."

::Saltwater Farm Lantern::

"This lantern is for my cousin. She's one who loves to pile into her minivan and go on adventures. One of my clearest memories of us was of her driving us from winery to winery and crossing them off our list."

::Point o' Woods Lantern::

"This lantern is for my oldest cousin. When I think of her I think of Point o' Woods-- a beach down in CT I drove to almost every weekend to chill."

::Bonfire at the Beach Lantern::

"This lantern is for a friend I've known since middle school. Some of our most happy times have been on a beach in Florida with an umbrella and guitar . . . and a big bonfire. She's very earthy and slightly vintage."