Teacher Appreciation & Altered Binder Clips

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and to celebrate, a few of the moms from my son’s daycare organized a different activity or event each day to show our appreciation to the teachers and staff.

Monday: Flower Day

• Each child brought a flower (or several) from their yard or the store and filled a vase for each of their teachers and the office staff.  The variety of flowers made for some colorful and fun arrangements.

Tuesday: Hawaiian Luau

• All of the teachers, staff, and students wore Hawaiian attire.  We decorated the teachers’ lounge with luau decorations and brought in snacks for them and popsicles for the kids.

Wednesday: Scrapbook Pages

• We asked each child to decorate an 8-1/2 x 11” page for each of their teachers.  We had a “canned”, xeroxed page for everyone but told them they could create their own as well.

Thursday: Classroom Supply Day

• Our daycare is changing locations at the end of the month and we thought it would be fun to provide new supplies for their new classrooms.  We had each class give us a list of small, desired classroom items (like books, puzzles, etc.) so that parents could purchase them.  Some classes asked for gift cards so that they could make the purchases after the  move when they were better situated.

Friday: Hand-made Card Day

• We asked each child to create a handmade card for each of their teachers. 

Anyway, back to the purpose of this post.  I was given the task of creating front & back covers for the scrapbook pages.  I printed out existing designer layouts on heavy computer cardstock using My Digital Studio, after personalizing the front cover with each teacher’s name & the daycare information. Since kids were bringing in pages at various times throughout the day, I needed a way to hold the scrapbook together, yet allow for the insertion of additional pages.  I decided on using a binder clip.  But plain binder clips are boring, so I altered mine to match the cover pages.  Read below for a mini tutorial on altering your own clips.  Besides used on a papercraft project, a set of altered binder clips would make a great gift for a teacher or co-worker.  Put them in a decorated cello bag or tin and gift away!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Altered Binder Clips

1) Start with a binder clip & designer paper.  Cut your designer paper so that it is the width of the clip.  Now wrap it around the black portion of the clip from lip to lip to determine how long your designer paper needs to be.  Cut your strips to this measurement.

2)  Apply adhesive (I used Tombow Mono Adhesive, but Sticky Strip would work well and ensure long-term hold) to all of the edges of your designer paper.  Attach one end of your designer paper flush with the lip of the clip.   

3) Continue wrapping the designer paper around your clip until the entire piece is covered, tucking the tail end under the lip if needed. 4) Tie knotted ribbon around the prongs.

Cardstock: white computer cardstock (non-Stampin’ Up!), regal rose patterns DSP (retired); Embellishments: tempting turquoise & tangerine (retired) 1/4” grosgrain ribbon; Tools: my digital studio; Other: binder clips (non-Stampin’ Up!)

For more FREE tutorials, check out the links in my left sidebar!  Be sure to bookmark my site or subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss any future tutorials!