Budget-Friendly {DIY} End of the Year Teacher's Gift

I can't believe that there is less than one week left until the last day of school!  This school year has been a bear, to say the least.  My poor kids had to deal with a HUGE move, new schools, new teachers, living at and commuting from their grandmother's house for 6 months, and another big move just before the end of the school year. For the first time ever, we battled tears during morning drop-off, nervous tummies, anxiety over finals, and like my son put it this morning "way too much pressure for an elective" (referring to the final exam for his band class).

Thankfully, there are only a few more days until my kids can turn in their schoolbooks, empty their backpacks and R-E-L-A-X.  (I did have to convince my son that he was NOT going to sell his trumpet on Craigslist over the summer.)

The end of the school year is a time when we show our children's teachers how much we appreciate them. But it's also a time filled with expenses...donations for class parties, yearbooks, summer camp registration... In our case we just moved and had to pay all of the deposits required to set up services and utilities on top of the bills that are already beginning to trickle in.

As much as I would like to be that mom that brings everyone from the PE coach to the lunch room monitor a fabulous gift on the last day of school, it's simply not in our budget. My middle-schooler, alone, has 6 different instructors he sees daily.

Last year I came up with a cute and inexpensive End of the Year Teacher's Gift.  I featured this project here and pinned it to my Pinterest account.  Just in the last couple of weeks it's been repinned over 200 times! I was going to recreate it this year, but then I saw these adorable mid-size Ball mason jars and decided to try something new.

I filled the jars with Herhey's Kisses and designed labels that I tied on with twine.  Now their teachers can enjoy some yummy treats and have a cute container with endless uses---and I didn't have to break the bank.

I love mason jars! I use them for everything from holding hubby's sugar and creamer to storing tacks, paperclips, nails and more.  I have several friends who use mason jars as drinking glasses (Google: "redneck wine glass")

The jars come in a set of 4, and together with the chocolate, each individual gift comes out to about $4. Not too bad, especially when your kids are older and have several teachers!


Happy end-of-the-school-year! xo