Mother's Day Gifts: Gettin' Scrappy!

It's always such a good feeling to have a big project done and sent home! Today we put the finishing touches on our Mother's Day crafts! The kiddos absolutely loved making their lunch bag scrapbooks and I have to say it all went VERY well! Every class in our second grade did this project but each teacher picked out different papers and scrappy doodads. All of them are ADORABLE! Come take a peek and see how they turned out!

 It's not likely that you can whip this up in a day, but if you are on the lookout for a NEW Mother's Day gift idea for next year, you may want to save this post or Pin some images to your boards! This post may also be helpful to my friends who have purchased this item as you start your scrappin' too!

The first step was to get the bags folded ahead of time. This year, I took a shortcut and stapled the books instead of tying the spine with ribbon. Then, I photocopied the patterns onto the12 x 12 paper (trimmed to letter size). I saved the extra scraps for inside recess projects!

I let the students select all of their papers. We did this one at a time while the rest of the class was working on writing. I set the papers up in piles according to color scheme so they would not be completely mismatched and clashy. 

I did not cut out a single pattern this year. The kiddos did it all themselves. They did a great job staying on the lines.

We did this project in baby steps throughout the week so I could keep teaching. It was a nice pace and did not disrupt our day much at all.

As each piece was cut, we just slipped it into a baggie. The baggies stayed on the students' desks all week until assembly day. 

Once everything was cut out, we started with designing the cover. I really like the way some students used rainbow lettering. It balanced out any creatively crazy color choices they made along the way!

Then we had a mini-lesson! 

Just a dot, not a lot! 

We started gluing down our background frames and all of the white papers from the baggie onto the frames. It worked out great to do this whole class with step by step directions.

I had put together an example of my own at the same time so I could show the students what each piece should look like. 

The next day, we worked on the four pull out pocket pages. The kiddos wrote the sweetest things about their mom and drew some really cute pictures of special times together. She is going to LOVE these pages. I'm so glad I added them this year! 

My sweet retired friend offered to help in the classroom! She helped supervise the students' selection of decorating items so they didn't get carried away and add too much. I kept teaching and the students kept working until it was their turn. We picked sticks to be fair!

I am just thrilled with how stinkin' cute they turned out! The kids were just beaming with pride!

In keeping with the lunch bag theme, we added flower cut-outs to the front of a larger brown bag to use as a gift bag.

There is a poem and directions sheet for mom so she knows how to finish the scrapbook at home. That went in the bag too. 

I just folded over the top and stapled it. 

Piece of cake!

 Whenever I do a project like this I always try to make a note to self to make it even better...The one thing I might have changed was my choice in papers. They were a little BUSY for my taste. Next year, I will try solid brights or chevron. Fewer choices might make paper selection faster and simpler too.

If you like, you can find the scrapbook project and all of the patterns to make one {here}.

 I hope you enjoyed this little photo tutorial of our project in the making!

 It was a big hit in the classroom.

 I think it will be on Mother's Day too!

:)