Monday May 21

We worked on teacher gifts this afternoon.

Elsie's last day is Wednesday.....but that is just a party at the park.

Her therapy helpers won't be there for that day.

So I wanted to get these done so I could get their gift for them tomorrow.

Elsie has 1 main teacher, 2 classroom helpers, and 4 outside helpers (Occupational therapist, two speech therapists and Physical therapist).

I am having a hard time leaving these people.

Three whole years they have been with this little girl.

They have earned her trust.

Got her to do things I couldn't.

Made her laugh.

Made her work.

Made her grow.

I just can't thank these guys enough for what they have added to Elsie's life.

I wanted to do something special for all her seven teachers.

Then I thought about how much Elsie LOVES to paint and draw.

So I thought of a way that I can use that to make a personal gift, but also something that maybe could be useful in a classroom or office.

I found some canvases for 50% off at Craft Warehouse.

Then, this morning my friend, Heather, cut some vinyl quotes for me.

I am excited about how they turned out.

We made 9x12 sizes for the therapy teachers........and she finished all those today.

She had so much fun painting them.

We decided that it would also make a great gift for the big girls to give to their teachers.

They started on the first few steps.....but they will have to finish up tomorrow.

Plus Elsie has three more to do for her classroom teachers, and they are big ones....12x16.

I used the same quotes for the therapy teachers.

I found a quote that I thought was just perfect for them.

But the classroom teachers all have different quotes.

And Elsie personally signed all of them.

Something they all helped her to learn to do :)

How we did it

step 1:
paint the canvas the color you want the words to be

step 2:
put vinyl lettering onto the canvas and paint over it
for the big girls we painted the same color again to prevent the paint from seeping through
once that was dry, they painted another color so that the words would show up for sure in case the whole canvas didn't get covered

step 3:
let Elsie paint away
i did give her one color at a time so i could help her wash it off the brush
we used acrylic paint....and the girl is known for eating paint, so i made sure to keep an eye on that

step 4:
let it dry completely
peel off the vinyl lettering
perfect :)

Thank you so much to Heather for doing the vinyl for me.

You are so great :)