Thank You’s

One reason why I occasionally “slack” on posting to the blog is because I helped head up a new MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) program this spring at my church. If you’re unfamiliar with MOPS, and have a child between 0 through kindergarten, you’ve got to check it out!

I joined a MOPS group when I first moved to the area, was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and wasn’t planning on working. How was I going to meet PEOPLE, let alone fellow moms who could help me figure out this whole parenting thing! It was a lifesaver. Many groups will even provide dinners for the first 2 weeks after baby is born to help you and your family out. What a blessing!

Anyhow…back to the blog post at hand! I had a group of about 10 leaders and 15 childcare workers that deserved a HUGE thank you for all the work they did to create a successful MOPS group. I found these adorable little thank you boxes of candy over at Pioneer Party and thought it’d be fun to recreate them.

This is when I came upon a stroke of pure genius! I liked the color of the tags they used and wanted something similar, but without having to actually get out of the house with both kids to buy paper. They kind of looked like paper grocery bags, perhaps I could cut them to 8 1/2x11 and put it through my printer? *dance of joy* It worked! Free, adorable paper! I’m SO using this from now on. =)  

I don’t know about you, but I am more productive when I create a sort of assembly line when I’m making things in a large quantity (which I consider 25 to be – I know, it’s all relative). So, here’s what I did.

Supplies

• Clear bags from Michael’s (I’m pretty sure they were the smallest they carry)
• Cute colored ribbon (I got away with about 2”/bag of candy)
• Paper grocery bags
• Whoppers (or something chocolate – I used 4 boxes from the Dollar Tree)
• Lemonheads (or something lemon – I only need 2-3 boxes of these)
• Peach rings (these are a little more pricey, I purchased 2 lbs. worth at the store, and each person only got 4 rings, sorry guys =( )
• Extra gum (I did 2 packs/person)
• Cute container
• Tissue paper or grass filler

Step 1: Fill the bags with candy.

*You may want to purchase extra candy as some MAY disappear as the bags are being filled. =) Step 2: Print and cut out all the tags and ribbon. Step 3: Fold the ribbon in half and staple between the label and the bag of candy.

*It adds such a cute little touch, without having to buy loads of ribbon. Step 4: Fill the bottom of your container with either grass or tissue paper (I actually found one sheet of wadded up tissue paper to work much better) and load it up! =)

*I used 2 separate containers. I found these cute little sand castle pails at Party City. *And these came in a 2 pack at the Dollar Tree. The recipients thought they were adorable and hopefully felt appreciated…that was the goal. =) Happy crafting! I very much enjoyed my husband’s gigantic eye roll when he saw these cutie thank you gifts. The bigger the eye roll, the cuter the craft, it seems to be. hehe